4 Key Guidelines For You

Teyana Taylor delivered the most compelling Golden Globes’ (GG) acceptance speech for her supporting actress role in “One Battle After Another.”

From her speech and other past stand-outs, use these 4 tactics for your next presentation, whether you’re accepting an award or giving sales data.

Thank you to Dr. Chip Fagadau, for sending me Kyle Buchanan’s NYT’s source material for this post.

🎤   Don’t overstuff

Paul Thomas Anderson has been nominated for 11 Oscars and never won. You might think that when he finally did win two major GG awards for “One Battle After Another” he’d gush on and on.

He did not.

✅ Same for you ➡ Embrace your inner editor at all times, even if you’ve had to wait 11 years to share your thoughts.

🎤   Be meaningful

An endless list of people to thank deflates an acceptance speech.

✅ Same for you ➡  Any list of accolades gets stale if you don’t attach meaning to the acknowledgement.

Praise your team (great to do) and tell us why.

🎤   Add emotion

When Demi Moore won a GG a year ago she “distilled her life story so effectively that she could probably offer pointers to presidential candidates.”

✅ Same for you ➡  Find and articulate the emotional arc of your business. Tell us how your company got to this point and your audience will want to share the moment with you.

🎤   Plan your exit

Adrien Brody set the undesired record last year as the longest Oscar acceptance speech for his role in “The Brutalist”.

The speech was brutal.

He needed to know when and how to stop.

✅ Same for you ➡  Know when to shut up! If you have to wing it, please read your audience and wrap it up before you get wrapped in a blanket of apathetic stares.

🎤   All in all

I’m an Oscar Awards fanatic and love all the awards shows. Even if this is not your thing – you can learn so much from the best and worst moments of these events.

As I accept the Award For Writing Speak For Yourself® Posts – Thank you for reading!

✅ Same for you ➡  Be brief. Be good. Be gone.

PS: 🥶 We are about to thaw out in the Dallas area. It’s been cold, snowy and icy.  For all of you: stay safe and stay warm.