Renewed

Walking slowly along the road of life

With my battered spirit tagging along,

All of my strength had gone like wisps of smoke

As I struggled with life’s blows and troubles

Without any doubt I had lost all hope.

Suddenly I heard a voice call to me

Let me have your broken spirit for keeps

Your battered and old self for a new one

And your wretched heart for one made brand new.

I turned to him who called and saw his face.

With the exchange complete and finalised

I stand refreshed, revamped and revitalised

With all the strength I can muster and call,

I shout at the top of my voice like mad.

I am energised and have been renewed.

Using Vocal Variety Effectively in Speech Making

Have you ever had to sit through some public presentation in which the speaker spoke in a monotone from beginning to the end? I doubt if you made it to the end of the presentation without nodding off to sleep. That is the misery you will put your listeners to when you speak in a monotone devoid of any emotion. That you are reading this tells me you surely do not want to put your audience through all of that as it might end up being their worst nightmare yet.

Apart from the content of your presentation, another major part of essential communication is the vocal component. Studies have shown that the vocal component accounts for about 38% of your speech. If this were true as is generally accepted to be; then you most likely would want to pay attention to it.

First off, the most important voice elements a public speaker must understand are voice quality and animation in addition to mastering the concept of inflection. For vocal quality, your voice must be pleasant to the ear, natural in quality, audible to the ears and just forceful enough to command attention. Inflection is simply the rising and falling of your voice at intervals during speech and is the exact opposite of speaking in a monotone. For animation, there must just be enough energy and enthusiasm.

Several characteristics are inherent in vocal variety, which essentially means how you vary your voice in public speaking.

Pace - This refers to how fast or slow your voice is. In your presentation, there are times when you may need to speak very fast or very slow in a bid to vary your voice pace. Remember it is all about not speaking in a monotone.

Pitch - This is a reference to how high or low your voice sounds. In the same way that musical notes can be high or low, the variation of your voice pitch for effect is an integral part of vocal variety.

Volume - This is an indicator of the level of sound produced with your voice i.e. how loud or quiet it is. It would be a disaster for your audience to tell you to speak up because they cannot hear you. Some people even with the aid of mikes still end up being inaudible.

Tone - This tells your listeners how flat or enthusiastic your voice sounds to them. I am sure you do not want to speak to your audience in a tone that tells them you are not convinced of what you are saying to them.

Worthy of note is the saying, "They may forget what you said, but they will never forget how you made them feel" credited to Carl W. Buechner. One sure and easy way to make them feel nothing is to use a monotone to deliver your speech from beginning to the end. 

Three Techniques for making Great Speeches

Have you ever stopped to ask what the secrets of some famous and well-renowned speakers are? Just in case you have spent considerable time, wondering what they have that you do not seem to have this might be helpful. The truth of the matter is that it all boils down to the techniques that they employ in their presentations. Three very important ones are treated below and if well used might just be what you need to have everyone wowed at the end of your presentation.

Rhetorical Questions - Sometimes when you ask questions solely for effect it stimulates your audience mentally and keeps their interest level in your presentation on the high side. It is best to use this when you have made some very interesting point and it works best when the aim of your speech is to be persuasive. For example if you are interested in getting lawmakers to pass a legislation on bearing firearms, you can paint a picture showing a possible consequence and then ask a question to make the effect felt to a greater degree.

Power of 3 - Repetition is the essence of using this highly effective technique and it is meant to be a way to stress a particular point in your presentation. This is a means of either saying the same thing in three different ways or of saying three different statements that seem to have the same meaning e.g. Terrorism is immoral, Terrorism is illegal, and Terrorism is condemnable. By doing this you will have succeeded in saying the same thing three times and in three different ways. The good part is that if anyone in the audience missed the first part they would not miss the others else, they would not be in the audience anyway! On the other hand, a reinforcement of your message is what took place, as your audience will know why you had to say it three different times.

Use of Pause - There is no train in the world that runs non-stop is there. That just means it is good to pause from time to time if not to catch your breath - breath control is another subject matter entirely anyway - then to let your message sink. When you pause for effect in your presentation it drives home the point more than a thousand words can ever possibly can. Many speakers take pauses that are too long such that people in the audience begin to wonder if those speakers have run out of ideas. This is not the reference in this piece; remember it is all about pausing for effect in a bid to add value to the message and not to detract from it. Mark Twain's words are instructive, "The right word may be effective, but no word was ever as effective as a rightly timed pause".

The more practice you get at using these techniques the better your proficiency level will be.

Reasons Vocal Crutches will ruin your speech

Have you ever been at an event and someone was invited to speak and the first thing that came out from their mouth was ‘Hmm’, ‘You know’, ‘Hah’ or something like that? Permit me to ask, what was the first thing that came to your mind when you heard those words? Did you think of that person as intelligent or confused? Was it a turn-off or an attractive quality? Did it cause you to lose interest in what they had to say or were you engrossed right from the start?

There are some things you do not want to do when giving your speech and using filler words or vocal crutches is one of them. Without mincing words, filler words certainly make you look less intelligent than you really are and I am sure you do not want people to think you are less intelligent than you really are. When you get to speak for an hour and a large chunk of your time is spent on filler words you can be sure your performance will be anything but five-star and everyone sure wants a five star performance every now and then. Everyone wants to be articulate when they speak but one sure way not to be articulate is to fill your presentation with vocal crutches.

So why do people use filler words in their speeches? Is it that they do not know what they want to say or that perhaps they know what to say but have no idea how to say it? Whatever the answer is filler words will always detract from the beauty of your speech any time so your best bet would be to avoid them as you run the risk of disconnecting from your audience depending on the kind of people they are.

The undeniable fact remains that your speech is better when you do not use vocal crutches. What can help is for you to know your material adequately and practise saying the same thing in different ways such that if you are stuck saying something you can easily switch to another form. Your audience will not begrudge you your right to make a mistake or two but if it becomes a recurring decimal then you just might be shooting yourself in the foot. To quote Cato the Elder, “Grasp the subject the words will follow”.

Another way out is to make a conscious effort not to use vocal crutches during your presentation and to mentally steer your energies in that direction. This mindset shift might just be all you need to eradicate vocal crutches from your presentation. If you can visualise your speech proceeding without vocal crutches then you are well on your way to doing without them.

Vocal crutches are one of the best ways to ruin your speech and disconnect from your audience. In the words of Dorothy Sarnoff, “Make sure you have finished speaking before your audience has finished listening”. 

5 Effective Ways to start your speech

According to J.F Kennedy, “Public speaking is the art of diluting a two-minute idea with a two-hour vocabulary”. Inasmuch as public speaking is an art there are ways and methods to it that can spell the difference between a great performer and an average one. When it comes to making a presentation, the truth of the matter is that your audience does not necessary have to wait till the beginning of your speech before they decide whether or not to listen to you. Anyway there are some time-tested methods that you can employ to make your audience captivated right from the beginning of your presentation and some of them are highlighted below.

Question - You can start your speech with a question. This is one method that never seems to fail and you are sure of grabbing their attention with a question especially if is related to the subject matter of the presentation. Starting your speech with a question helps to engage your audience mentally as they will seek to find answers to the question you asked even if you do not specifically request a response from them.

Quotation - A quotation from a famous personality or authority on a subject matter is a good way to start your speech especially if the quotation is related to the contents of your speech. For example when giving a speech on leadership you may consider an apt quote from a famed leadership expert.

Witty Saying -A witty saying at the beginning of your presentation might be the way to go if you need to do some ice breaking. Sometimes some humorous remark might just be all you need to get your audience to connect with you and listen attentively to what you have to say. The kind of atmosphere in the hall might determine to a large extent if this is what you need to start your presentation.

Statistics - This kind of approach is most beneficial if you are supposed to give an informational speech. This could also apply for a persuasive speech depending on what the objective of the speech is but in all, using statistics is an unbeatable way to start a speech especially if they could be used to elicit an emotional response from your audience.

Personal Experience - Sometimes it is best to reveal the human angle to your presentations as your audience might just need this to bond with you. Personal stories are a winner every day as someone in the audience might just be able to identify with your experiences.

Remember you are not responsible for the state in which you meet your audience but you are solely responsible for the way in which you leave them. If you can grab the attention of your audience right from the start and keep them glued to your presentation literally then you are well on your way to receiving your best feedback yet.

4 Flavourings for Great Speeches

Just as a soup needs some condiments and spices to make it tasty and sweet to the taste, a speech also needs some flavouring to make it more appealing to the audience. Here are a few time-tested speech additives that may just hold the key to the wow factor you desire in your presentations. Using any of these might just be the difference between a dry and boring presentation on the one hand and a very interesting and exciting one on the other one.

Metaphor - This is used to depict the relationship between two things in a most unusual or exciting manner. It is one literary vehicle that great speakers have a tendency to use especially since it is considered to be a graphic use of language in the most explicit sense. If you need to add some spice to your speech then you might consider using some metaphorical expressions in your speech and your audience will be sure to love you for it. There are no secrets to using metaphors in your speech as you just have to identify the unique relationship you want to exploit and then think of the most appropriate expression that will pass across your message the best way possible.

Personal Story - People love to know that they are listening to someone just like them who goes through the same things they go through. Telling a personal story might just be a good way to connect with some members of your audience as they just might be going through the same situation or may have gone through it in the past. When you share some of your experiences in your speech so long as there is some correlation with the subject matter you identify with people and they also identify with you. Everyone wants to be able to say they can identify with what you are saying and that you are not far removed from their realities whether real or imagined.

Humour - A little humour might just be the salve you need to apply to your presentation for it to be more appealing to your audience. Your best bet is to see humour in everything and to seize the moment if you are the spontaneous type. If not you just might need to have some jokes and witty sayings prepared in advance and for specific times during the course of your presentation. No matter how interesting a subject matter is anything can cause your audience to be distracted and some humour might just be what you need to fire up their interest again.

Analogy - This is very useful when you need to create a pictorial representation of the message you are trying to pass across in the minds of your audience. For the most part it is very important to engage your audience right from the start so there is a need to engage them mentally when listening to your presentation and one of the best ways to do this is to give them an analogy to figure out so long as it will help your message to be clearer to the audience.

Try these and you will be sure to see the difference in your ratings.

Tips to being the competent Master of Ceremonies

A viable stream of income from public speaking entails providing master of ceremonies services to clients and other interested parties. If you have a public speaking career and want to veer into this aspect which could prove lucrative if you know how to market your brand properly then you have come to the right place.

Whether it is a wedding, a birthday party, a seminar, a dinner or some other function or event; your job as the master of ceremonies could be a lot easier and better if you would apply the following tips:

The first thing you need to understand is that being a master of ceremonies is actually public speaking but with a few other intrinsic details added to the mix so this piece will take for granted that the reader already knows one or two things about the art of public speaking.

Language - The effectiveness of good communication can only be judged to be on the high side when the intended reaction from the audience or recipients has been obtained. Simply put you should have the ability to communicate your message using the simplest language possible.

Knowledge - Increasing your knowledge base is a fundamental requirement if you really want to be a world class master of ceremonies. Your audiences will most likely comprise people from all walks of life and with different experiences and backgrounds. Take for instance when you need to be the host at a seminar for lawyers would you not acquaint yourself with the legal profession assuming you have a different academic background? There is no crime in knowing something about everything.

Charisma and Confidence - These are innate qualities that you need to take time to nurture and develop to the utmost. I have never seen a master of ceremonies who was not both confident and charismatic at the same time. The best way to increase your confidence and charisma is to know your personal style and identify what works best for you.

Use of Humour - There can never be too much of humour in this case and depending on the kind of event it might just be the tool you need to carry the audience along. All you need to do is know and develop your own style of humour and use it to effect. It costs nothing to practise it on friends for the purpose of getting honest feedback.

Be the link - For every event there is always a chain of activities otherwise called an agenda. The competent master of ceremonies is the one who can create a link from one activity to the next so as to give a seamless presentation. There should be no vacuum as this link will enable for a smooth transition from the beginning to the end. This is where personal creativity with words plays a vital role.

Connection with audience - There are certain questions you need to have answers to for example, ‘What are their likes and possible dislikes?’ ‘Are there any common interests?’ ‘What languages do they speak?’ What are their educational backgrounds? A business dinner in the financial services sector will most likely attract a different audience from one in the entertainment industry for instance. 

Who says you cannot be the most-sought-after and in-great-demand master of ceremonies you want to be?