“The processional went on forever! It was like one of those never-ending trains that stops you at an intersection when you’re running late. And THEN came the speeches! All monotone!” Commentary from a recent client.
It’s commencement season.
First you sit through mind-numbing monotonal speeches from the school’s president, founder and valedictorian.
Then you sit for several hours watching 300+ graduates walking across the stage.
You can’t avoid the processional and diploma dispersal (that’s why you’re there!) but you can at least enjoy the speeches… IF they’re well done.
Let’s focus on one aspect: having vocal energy vs being monotonal.
Are you an offender? Is your voice dynamic or boring?
7 ways to improve your vocal energy
Read a book to a child. During the dialog become the wolf. Really ham it up. Vary your pitch, rate and volume. Read and repeat.
Aim for the back row, unless you’re using a mic. Weak projection detracts.
Have good posture – promotes better breath and vocal volume.
Don’t use antihistamines before a speech. Can create a dry mouth.
Drink room temp (not hot or cold) water – hydrates your vocal cords.
Karen emcees a National Speakers Association – North TX Chapter event
You are asked to emcee your corporate annual event. OR – you’re tapped to “run” the business holiday dinner. OR – you are chairing a Board of Directors retreat.
Here are 7 tips to emcee, “run”, or chair an event/retreat/holiday dinner/meeting/convention.
1. START STRONG & ON TIME
Begin by having someone introduce you. Not a long intro. It could even be the “Voice of God” – an omniscient voice that booms, “Here’s Karen Cortell Reisman, your emcee for our ‘Annual Grow Your Business Expo’!”. You should NOT have to get up on stage and say, “Shush….” or “Can I have your attention now?”
Begin when you say you will begin.
Introduce yourself. You might be well known in this room. However, you might have guests, significant others, new members of the team who do not have a clue as to why you’re at the lectern. Tell your audience who you are and what your connection is with this event.
2. ACKNOWLEDGE OTHERS
You are one spoke of the wheel. Thank the meeting organizers – the unsung heroes, the production crew (if there is one), and your audience – without them you would not have this great opportunity.
3. KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE & EVENT BACKGROUND
Stealth bomb of all types of communication – NOT knowing your audience. It’s no different when emceeing an event. Do your homework and find out the pulse of your event and what the meeting organizers want as an outcome.
4. HAVE A SCRIPT
Scripts make you a bit stilted, but having a script in this role is OK.
Can you skip the script? Yes – IF you have speaking experience, and the group’s culture leans to informal. Otherwise, the script will be your best friend.
Do you read verbatim from this script? NO. Practice and make it conversational. It’s a crutch, not your life jacket. You may also use a teleprompter.
5. SHARE THE AGENDA
No matter how much the group likes you, your audience wants to know how long they have to sit there, when the breaks are, and what the expectations are for all.
5 1/2: CREATE A “RUN OF SHOW”
This is a behind-the-scenes minute by minute layout of the entire event that you create in tandem with your meeting organizers.
6. MAKE YOUR AUDIENCE FEEL SPECIAL
Don’t say, “I’m nervous. But this is just a routine meeting so we’ll just start with our clip from our CEO.”
AAGH! First – don’t share your nervousness status. We don’t care and if we do care, then we are now distracted by your emotional state. Second – “routine meeting” – NO! You want your audience to feel like this is an ecstatic use of their time. Do say, “Today you are in for a treat. We have a cutting edge program starting with a special and customized video from CEO Jordan Brooks.”
7. END ON TIME
While hard to control, your credibility and the event’s credibility are enhanced when the timing flows well. The other evening I was at an awards dinner (yawn, long winded, I’m already tired… you know the drill). The emcee said we’d be done at 8pm. My “shoulder skeptic” inner voice thought, “These events never end that early or on time.” It did! I was impressed.
The last impression becomes the lasting impression.
BONUS TIP
While not on your Emcee To Do List, you can suggest to the meeting organizer to have a stellar valet service, if attendees are transporting themselves to and from the hotel/convention venue. Once over, it’s over and people want to move on.
Source: Andy Saks, President of Spark Presentations – sparkpresentations.com
Karen’s after-lunch 1/2 day speaker training workshop
The group enters the seminar room to participate in my afternoon 4-hour (!) speaker training workshop after dining on a buffet lunch of salad, fried chicken fingers nestled on waffles with syrup, barbeque/honey meat loaf, mac ‘n cheese + brownies.
Did I mention it’s Friday afternoon and they’ve been at this association’s seminar for several days?
You might think, “THIS is NOT perfect timing!” And, you’d be correct.
Your speech timing options (if you get to make that call) include: beginning of the day, mid-morning, during lunch, after lunch, late in the day, or after dinner.
Each time slot has pros/cons.
You might get most to attend at the start of the day, but they will straggle in or be distracted by their flood of morning emails.
You’ll never compete with chocolate. (It will always win!) So speaking during a meal has its challenges.
You fight with post-food and/or happy hour fatigue if you speak after lunch or dinner.
Why the timing of your speech matters?
➜ You can anticipate your crowd’s energy level and plan accordingly.
Why the timing of your speech does NOT matter?
➜ You need to be “ON” no matter when you grab the mic.
➜ You may not have a choice of when you speak.
If you want to know more about how to strategize your presentation with regard to your audience’s energy/fatigue level, or how to be “ON” as a speaker – you can find out more in my two books on communication skills.
⏰ So, when is the best time of day/evening to give a presentation?
➜ Mid-morning. Your listeners’ caffeine injections have kicked in and there are no food distractions.
Speaking of food, in spite of the waffles/chicken fingers, meatloaf, mac ‘n cheese and brownies digested by my workshop attendees – I had them standing up and doing lots of activities. All good.
Hard to recall your second kiss, your third car, or your fourth trip.
But you DO remember your first … kiss, car, fill in the blank.
That’s because it happened first!
To give a compelling presentation – have a killer opening.
Do NOT begin with, “Good morning. My name is Karen Cortell Reisman and I’m pleased to be here.”
Why? It’s boring. It’s predictable. It’s an invitation to your listeners to continue tapping on their phones.
Killer opening ideas: Tell a story, ask a question, share a memorable quote, provide a stunning statistic or get the audience involved in an ice breaker activity.
Begin your presentation this way:
Walk to the lectern with confidence, energy, good posture, and a smile on your face.
Stand at the lectern for 2-3 seconds without talking. While doing this you ➜
Look at your listeners – varying your eye contact around the room.
Start speaking without looking at your notes.
Say something catchy like, “Do you remember your second kiss?”
What happens first gets remembered.
PS: Full disclosure regarding this pic: Our first kiss happened before our wedding!
“Credibility Sprinkles” ➜ When you sprinkle your past experiences into your narrative to increase buy-in from your audience. Ex from Scott Galloway’s recent blog – “I got my start building companies, telling stories. Later I became a professor at NYU. Now I tell stories on a stage in front of 150 to 15,000 people who pay between 100k to 250k…”
“Gen Zs” ➜ The generation born between 1995 – 2012, ranging now from age 11 to 28. Main qualifiers of this group: Tech dependent, gender neutral and cause driven.
Context.
During a speaker training workshop I said, “Add in some Credibility Sprinkles while sharing stories. This will increase your believability with your listeners.” A millennial dentist then commented, “Gen Z’s don’t like that. Adding in your track record, no matter how subtle your approach, will alienate them.” I replied, “Know the age ranges in your audience.”
To this workshop attendee’s point, this generational shift is happening and here are the reasons why Gen Z’s don’t want to hear about your stellar track record.
Gen Z convictions.
According to TrendsActive.com, Gen Z’s resentment stems from “older generations thinking they know better than younger generations – with age comes wisdom and all that. Considering the state of the environment, the housing market and various societal inequalities at the hands of older generations, Generation Z is forced to question whether older really does mean wiser.”
Gen Z is DONE with older generations deciding what is best. Their collective exhaustion derives from feeling misrepresented with a dash of condescension.
How can you engage with this Gen Z mindset?
TrendsActive provides these wise suggestions:
Understand that Generation Z are progressive, realistic and responsible.
Treat them as adults.
Be open and honest and hear what they have to say.
“The processional went on forever! It was like one of those never-ending trains that stops you at an intersection when you’re running late. And THEN came the speeches! All monotone!” Commentary from a recent client.
“The processional went on forever! It was like one of those never-ending trains that stops you at an intersection when you’re running late. And THEN came the speeches! All monotone!” Commentary from a recent client.
7 ways to improve your vocal energy
3. KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE & EVENT BACKGROUND
“Credibility Sprinkles” ➜ When you sprinkle your past experiences into your narrative to increase buy-in from your audience. Ex from Scott Galloway’s recent blog – “I got my start building companies, telling stories. Later I became a professor at NYU. Now I tell stories on a stage in front of 150 to 15,000 people who pay between 100k to 250k…”
