Public Speaking – Pastors, CEOs, Politicians: The Trifecta of Evil

No quick fix sticks. Nothing good comes quick.

If you are in the game of influence, pushing for action, persuasion, this is for you.

Keynote Speakers, Preachers, Pastors, Ministers and Politicians

A good performer, never mind great, just a good one is meant to draw an audience into your world. ALL performance is an act and that act takes purposeful action with skills. It takes time to be an overnight success, but it’s a lot faster if you know what to work on.

Preachers, politicians, teachers, keynote speakers, anyone interested in influencing groups of people by talking, should look at rhythm’s effect on an audience. Marcus Tullius Cicero (106–43BCE) the scholar philosopher who managed to outlive Julius Caesar [FOOTNOTE: They really knew how to cancel people in Classical Antiquity], was a passionate advocate for ‘prose rhythm’ in public speaking. [Footnote: Aristotle is the better read, but the way Cicero described ‘his process’ is uncannily like a 90s comic. Recommend, 5 Stars.] So, let’s stop pretending rhythm is a new thing, put aside sophistry and get a grip. Your ability to wield rhythm will absolutely determine the responses you get. And frankly, without employing rhythm, the rest of stagecraft becomes moot.

Applying stage craft on top of rhythm will take your speeches, sermons and rallies from appreciation to inspiration.

Rhythm is the great equaliser. It’s part physics and part biology. It’s one of the few learnable techniques where you don’t have to factor in variables like gender, race, size, attractiveness, frankly, it doesn’t even care if you’re human. You can have zero presence and hack material but if you apply basic rhythm, you’ll still do unbelievably well which is outrageous but sadly true. You don’t even need to use fancy polyrhythms; you just need to apply rhythm in the most basic way.

CEO’s

Presentationing for Corporate Talkers

If you don’t do a lot of public speaking, this will do in a pinch.

Just a word: You don’t need confidence. Most confidence is delusion and testosterone. Confidence is a look. And it looks like it feels good. But confidence is really about what you do. Think about all the things you know how to do. Do you actually feel confidence? Or do you just know how to do it? You don’t need confidence if you know what you’re doing.

If you don’t do something often, of course you’re going to feel nervous, it’s only natural. There are a lot of natural things that are unhelpful.

Here’s the shortcut, you’ll need to practice for 15 minutes a day for at least three months.

It starts in preparation.

  1. Bullet point what you want to say.
  2. Underline the key words. There should be no more than one keyword per sentence.
  3. Record yourself saying it.
  4. Listen back to it and… (you can do it) watch yoursel
  5. Record yourself saying it again and see if you can say it closer to how you want to say it.
  6. Practice it; practice how you want to say it.

*Reminder: speeches are not about you, it’s about communicating, talking to people. People. Humans.

How to practice…

Part 1: Pre-practice

  1. Play some music at a moderate beat.
  2. Breathe in time to the music – breathe in for four beats breathe out for four beats. Do that until your heart rate and breathing match
  3. Now move your body in time to the music while breathing.Your shoulders, neck, everything all the way down to your legs. 

Part 2

  1. Take a quick breath in through your mouth
  2. Use the air while speaking.  [When people are nervous, they often hold their breath while they’re speaking which makes it harder for people to hear what you are saying and more likely for you to speed through your words.]
  3. Take plenty of pauses.

5 mins before showtime:
If you’re not used to having adrenaline flood your system, it can feel overwhelming. It can feel an awful lot like fear. Which means, on the day, your job is to control how adrenaline is used.

Remember this? Do it now. 

  1. Play some music at a moderate beat.
  2. Breathe in time to the music – breathe in for four beats breathe out for four beats. Do that until your heart rate and breathing match
  3. Now move your body in time to the music while breathing. Your shoulders, neck, everything all the way down to your legs. 

What you’re doing is controlling your body and reminding yourself that this isn’t about how you feel or about your fears and get you into your practice.

*Remember to Record

Presentation…
Root yourself.
Look at everyone.
Let how you practice work for you.
Speak to the pace of the music. 

How did you do? Did you get across WHAT you wanted to communicate?

That’s all basic public speaking is, it’s speaking as if it’s one to one, but a lot more efficiently. 

Sidebar: Obviously, if you’re speaking to a large group of people on a regular basis – – you need to do more. 

Every time you present ‘something’, this process will get faster and faster.

*Key Words – these are the overall meaning of what you’re communicating. Action words, say them with relish, but they are not your Key Words.