Archive for May, 2009

Your Presentation Voice: Is That Really Me?

Tuesday, May 26th, 2009
When Speakers Hear Their Own Voice, They Need To Make A Decision...

When Speakers Hear Their Own Voice, They Need To Make A Decision...

We’ve all had that moment of disbelief – you know the one, when someone recorded you saying something and then played it back to you. You listened to the voice coming out of the speaker and you did what we all do – you winced and said “No way that’s me!” However, yes it was you – as you sound to everyone but yourself. Ouch!

From that moment on, you were forever changed. Just like in that move “The Matrix“, you had taken the red pill and now you couldn’t ever turn back – you now know how your voice sounds to others.

Nancy Meyer is a national speaker and author who has spent a lot of time looking into why we sound different to ourselves than we do to others. I think that she’s solved this mystery.

Nancy says that the reason that we sound so different to ourselves has three reasons: your inner ear, your outer ear, and where your voice comes from. Of course, that’s not quite enough info for you to do anything about it. So lets dive in just a bit deeper and find out what all of this means.

  • Your Inner Ear: Your speaking voice originates in the middle of your neck. You expel air which then passes through your vocal cords, gets magnified in your voice box, resonates in the cavities in your head and then the sound exits out your nose and / or  mouth. Your inner ear (the part that actually “hears” sounds) is located quite close to all of this so only you get to hear your voice as it starts out.
  • Your Outer Ear: So here’s something that you may not have thought of – you don’t actually hear the sounds coming out of your mouth. If you think about this, your ears are in the wrong place to hear what’s coming out of your mouth. Instead, what happens is that the sounds that come out of your mouth shoot out, bounce off of something, and then get picked up by your ears. This means that what you are actually hearing is really the sound of your voice plus a lot of extra noises.
  • Where Your Voice Comes From: Since you are creating the sounds that you speak in your throat, these vibrations end up rattling your entire head. This means that the parts of your ear that pick up sound are getting bounced around just by the very fact that you are speaking. This changes what you hear.

So this all leads to the big question: what if you don’t like the voice that others are hearing coming out of your mouth? In all honesty, there’s not a lot that you can do.

The key recommendation is that you don’t change your voice drastically – small changes are the best. You can practice with a tape recorder making changes and then playing them back. If you still don’t like what you are hearing then it may be time to go out an invest in a vocal coach. You should hear what you’ve been missing!

Have you ever hear a recording of your voice? How did it sound to you? Do you wish that you sounded different? Have you ever tried to change how your voice sounds to other? Did it work? Leave me a comment and let me know what you are thinking.

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(Almost) Free Training For Presenters In LA: PresentationCampLA

Tuesday, May 19th, 2009
Speaker Training Will Happen At PresentationCampLA

Speaker Training Will Happen At PresentationCampLA

I was quietly minding my own business the other day when Lisa Braithwaite from the blog Speak Schmeak reached out to me via email and asked me if I’d be willing to help her to get the word out about some upcoming (almost) free public speaking training that’s going to be held up in Los Angles, California on June 20th, 2009.

I’m always a sucker for (almost) free training, so I asked her for more information.

The History Of Presentation Camp

So if you’ve ever been to a conference or some sort of training in the past, this event is nothing like those events. To understand how this all got started, you need to go back to BarCamp.

BarCamp is an international network of user generated conferences — open, participatory workshop-events, whose content is provided by participants. The first one of these was held on August 19-21, 2005 – so you can see that its not really been around for all that long.

PresentationCamp is a specific type of BarCamp – this type of conference focuses on Public Speaking topics.

How Does All Of This Work?

This might seem just a bit chaotic when I describe it to you, but folks who have attended these things swear that it works. If you’ve ever been to a big formal conference, then you know that you are handed a pre-printed agenda at the door and you know exactly what’s going to be discussed where and when. PresentationCamp works just a bit differently.

The first difference is that everyone who attends PresentationCamp is asked to participate either by presenting or facilitating a session – no dozing in the back of the room here. Additionally, the conference doesn’t start with a pre-planned agenda.

Instead, the sessions are proposed and scheduled each day by attendees. You start to get a feel for how dynamic this is. If you’ll trust me that this actually works, you can see that hot topics and issues of great concern to all bubble up to the top. Likewise, there really are no boring sessions – they get voted away.

What’s Going To Happen At PresentationCampLA?

First off, the reason for going would be to learn about and discuss the most current topics facing people who speak in public today. This is going to be (hey, it’s in LA – what do you expect?) an intense ad hoc gathering of speaking folks to share, present, network, learn, laugh, and discuss.

As we’ve discussed, there is no agenda. Instead, everyone who is interested in leading a session provides a brief (that’s about a minute) pitch in the morning before things start.  Attendees then vote and those sessions receiving the highest votes are put on the schedule and groups form for intense learning. This will ensure that the participants get the most out of their experience.

The organizers will be keeping a close eye on who shows up. Depending on the mix of folks who are there and the participants’ skill level and interest, they may set up separate tracks for: Fundamentals, Advanced Skills, Professional Speakers, Coaches.

What’s interesting to me is that this is not the first time that this has been done. PresentationCamp has been successfully hosted in San Francisco , Seattle and Palo Alto.

I’m Interested, Now What Do I Do?

The best things in life are not free – to attend this event is going to cost you $10.  If you are going to be in CA, SoCal or the LA area on June 20th (or if you can get there), then here are the details that you need to know:

PresentationCampLA
Saturday, June 20, 2009 | 10am-6pm
BlankSpaces | 5405 Wilshire Blvd. |  Los Angeles, CA  90036

If you’re going to go, then they need to know that you’re coming so go ahead and register. You can get all of the details on this event by visiting their web site at:
http://http://barcamp.org/PresentationCampLA

Final Thoughts

Hey – it’s only $10, just how much thinking does this take? If you are even half way considering going – DO IT. The info that you get will be great, but the contacts that you can make will be even better.

Have a great time!

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Hey Speaker – It’s Tool Time!

Tuesday, May 12th, 2009
A Speaker's Voice Contains Many Tools Than Can Be Used During A Speech

A Speaker's Voice Contains Many Tools Than Can Be Used During A Speech

When you find yourself giving a speech, you quickly realize that what you are missing is any sort of tools with which to give the speech. If you were a painter, you’d have a canvas, brushes, paints, thinners, etc. with which to make your creation. However, when you are giving a speech it’s just you and your audience. Make you feel sorta naked, doesn’t it?

It turns out that you actually do have a toolbox with which to create your speech – the words that you’ll be using. It turns out that not only the words that you choose to use, but the way in which you speak these words can cause a powerful reaction in your audience. Debra Johanyak is a professor of English at the University of Akron and she has come up with a list of different ways that we can use our voice to make our point during a speech.

Let’s take a look at the different verbal delivery “tools” that Dr. Johanyak has come up with:

  • Words That You Accent: It turns out that not all words are created equal – you have the ability to emphasize certain words. As an example, consider the sentence “After cutting the green wire, a sudden silence descended over the entire bomb squad.” Simply by pronouncing the word “green” differently, you can draw your audience’s attention to it.
  • Slow Pitch Speaking: The pitch of your voice controls how high and how low your voice goes. This is a powerful way to communicate emotion during your speech: “Once I saw that the cage was empty, I knew that the 6′ snake could be anywhere in the house.” The word “anywhere” can be said in a higher pitch than the other words in order to draw attention to it.
  • Just Be Quiet: The most powerful speaking tool is also the simplest – just be quiet. When we add periods of silence to our speeches, it adds emphasis to the words that came before and sets the stage for the words that are to come next.

There you have it – now your speaking toolbox is actually looking rather full!

When you give a speech do you use your voice to its fullest? Have you ever ever accented words or varied your pitch to make a point? Are you able to remember to use quiet pauses to make a point? Leave me a comment and let me know what you are thinking.

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Just How Do Those Politicians Do It?

Tuesday, May 5th, 2009
Politicians Use Stories To Win Their Audiences Over

Politicians Use Stories To Win Their Audiences Over

Love ‘em or hate ‘em, politicians are by and large fantastic communicators. If you take a look at their technique they may be lacking; however, they sure seem to be very good at getting their point across and wining audiences over. Wouldn’t it be great if we could figure out how they do that?

There are a number of speaking techniques that politicians use, but the one that packs the biggest punch is our old friend the story. Caren Neile has done some research into just how politicians use stories and she’s discovered some things that we can use to make our presentations even better.

Ronald Reagan was known as the great communicator due in a large part to the numerous stories that he would tell. He wasn’t just telling stories to fill space in his speeches, rather he was trying to make points and emphasis parts of his speech.

For politicians, there are four main story-lines that they use over and over:

  1. We take care of our own.
  2. We must protect ourselves from our enemies.
  3. We can’t trust the people who are running government and business.
  4. Anyone can succeed.

The reason that these four story-lines are used is because they are time tested – politicians know that they work, audiences respond to them every time.

For us speakers, we can take advantage of the years of research that politicians have done for us and start to use more stories. We can use the four story-lines that have served our leaders so well for so long and create our own stories that flow in these well-worn ruts. By doing this we almost assure ourselves of being successful with our audiences.

Do you use stories when you give a speech? Have you ever told a story that fit one of these story-lines? How was it received? Do you have stories that you could make fit these story-lines? Leave me a comment and let me know what you are thinking.

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