"This is an unusual blog; the art of public speaking is crucial to politics and yet there's not much devoted to it specifically. This blog does, with posts combining accounts of the writer's recent engagements with some handy hints. Given some of the turgid speeches we're forced to suffer in the Commons, more MPs could do with reading it". politics.co.uk
"Nick spoke at our joint meeting with Kingston 41 Club. It was a brilliant evening. Nick is an engaging speaker, witty, topical and very interesting. He spoke for three quarters of an hour without notes, a most knowledgeable man. I cannot recommend Nick enough and can assure you that engaging him is a worthwhile endeavour. I wish you a great evening like ours". Manny Martins Vice Chairman of Hamble Valley Stick Club and 41 Club Regional Councillor, Region 24.
"Your speech to our 9 Rotary Clubs in North Surrey was much appreciated by me and I have received lots of feedback which was very positive about you. It was so refreshing to hear someone who has the wit to make us laugh throughout the evening without resort to 'blue' material and swearing. I do hope many others will get the chance to experience your talents". Howard Smith, Assistant Governor Area 1 Rotary District 1140.
My February speaking engagements finished with four talks in seven days.
On 15 February, I spoke at the annual dinner of the North Baddesley Women's Institute. This is, in effect, their Christmas dinner but it works out better for them to hold it at this time of year!
When I was sent the menu so I could confirm my choices last month, I discovered that we were having a starter, soup, main course (turkey, cranberry sauce, etc!), a dessert, cheeseboard and coffee and mince pies! I therefore suggested that it might be be an idea to cut the length of the talk from the proposed 40 minutes to 30! The dinner was actually starting at 6.30 so there was little chance of it running late but audiences do not generally want to sit through a long speech after a large meal.
Public Speaking Tip #150: If you are speaking after a dinner consisting of several courses, your speech should not be too long. This is not just because the dinner itself may take a long time but also because audiences may have a limited concentration span after a heavy meal.
Many of the top after dinner speakers actually limit their performances to just 20 minutes - despite the enormous fees they are paid!
Long anecdotes are also best avoided for after dinner speeches unless they are funny all the way through and you are confident of their success.
Sometimes speakers break their own sensible rules - with disastrous consequences. One of mine is to be careful what I eat on the night before a speaking engagement but the previous evening, I succumbed to an item heavily reduced by the supermarket due to it being right on its use-by date. The result was that I spent a great deal of Friday afternoon in the bathroom and set off much later than I wanted to. The couple who were meant to be picking me up at Southampton Parkway station did not have a mobile phone and had, quite understandably, left by the time I arrived so I had to get a taxi to the venue (after paying a hefty commission to use the cashpoint at the station!). As with my experience getting to Three Legged Cross before Christmas, I once again found myself being carried by a foreign taxi driver with little knowledge of a place just a few miles away and certainly no understanding of the British concept of a Village Hall.
We found the place in the end and I felt well enough by then to quickly finish my starter ready for the soup (although I did feel sick at the thought that I had saved about £1 on the Butter Naan from Asda only to knock a £13.50 hole in my fee the following night!)
From now on, I stick to my rule!
Public Speaking Tip #151: Do not take any risks with your health before you have a speaking engagement, for example, by eating foods which may upset you.
This extends to the meal itself if you are speaking at a lunch or dinner. Choose plainer dishes from the menu. Do not drink to excess.
But there were no problems with the meal on this occasion. It was served in the Village Hall by an excellent Southampton caterer called Mr Davis, who this WI always use.
There was a lovely moment afterwards when the Acting President asked us to give the catering staff a round of applause. She mentioned that Mr Davis was seldom seen as he was always busy in the kitchen. When she said 'Let's see if we can get Mr Davis to come out, shall we?', it did rather put me in mind of a ventriloquist's act!I was speaking on the Power of Humour in Everyday Life, having delivered My Life as a Freelance Comedy Writer at an afternoon meeting for them about a year ago.
There were 40 at the dinner (including husbands) and I was relieved that seats had been arranged at the far end of the hall for the talk rather than my having to speak in the dining area as the tables were very long and some members of the audience would have been a long way away.
There are a few new press cuttings involving unintentional humour that I am trying out at talks. Two relate to a prolonged local court case and include unfortunate innuendo from defence solicitors (so disastrous, in fact, that you would almost think they were acting for the prosecution!) The first is slightly risqué, the second much more so, and I had made up my mind that I would use the first and decide from the reaction to that one whether to risk the second! The first one got a laugh but not so much of one that I was prepared to use the second so I moved on to different material.
Public Speaking Tip #152: Different audiences have different levels of tolerance for risqué material. You should be able to judge from the response to gentler items how far you can go, If in doubt, cut it out!
I finished off my talk with my tale of the great Quantity Surveyors' Dinner Debacle. There were some questions afterwards and overall it went well but arriving late at a speaking engagement is never a good thing. My thanks to Avis and her husband for running me back to the station afterwards and, once again, my apologies to them for my non-appearance earlier.
Remember, if you see a heavily reduced foodstuff and you know you are speaking somewhere the next day: Just Say No!
Oliver's Battery Women's Group
There were no problems last Monday evening when I caught the train in plenty of time to get to Winchester to speak to the Oliver's Battery Women's Group. This was another return visit after a very long gap (October 1997 being the last time I spoke to them) so I started off by saying that recently I was appearing at so many groups after absences of many years that I was beginning to feel like the Brigadoon of public speakers! It got a laugh.
The Power of Humour in Everyday Life went very well with the 25 or so ladies there and it was pleasing, once again, to see a group which is stll going strong after all these years. A number of them bought booklets and asked me to sign them.
I have been trying to think if there were any challenges I faced with this one, any points arising, any tips to pass on. Just this one...
Public Speaking Tip #153: Many speaking engagements just go well. There are no problems in terms of the venue or the audience, it's just fun for everybody. Enjoy it!
Dorset Association for the Disabled, Wimborne Branch
On Wednesday, I spoke to 55 members and helpers at the Wimborne minster Branch of the Dorset Association for the Disabled, an organisation with 16 branches throughout the county. I was met at the Allendale Centre by Mr John Slow who I had last seen when he booked me to speak to the Methodist Men's Group in Wimborne last year. He is a great character who does a great deal of speaking himself about his career as a solicitor and, well, let's just say he probably never needs to use a microphone! Due to the nature of this group, I gave careful consideration to my material, omitting a few items and re-wording others. Although I don't use many visuals in Life as a Freelance Comedy Writer (certainly no slides, just a few props that I hold up), with hindsight it might have been better not to have referred to these at all as I later discovered that a couple of their members are visually impaired.
Public Speaking Tip #154: When speaking to a group concerned with disabilities, or indeed any audience where you are aware that some members are disabled, consider whether there is anything in your material which:
a) Excludes them or b) May just seem insensitive.
But they were an excellent audience and one member even asked me afterwards if I was the comedy writer who they had heard being interviewed on Radio Solent recently.
This is a very worthwhile and well-run club; delivering a humorous talk for them was a real pleasure.
Newtown Townswomen's Guild
The following evening, I was back at Newtown TG in Poole, exactly a year after I last spoke to them, this time to deliver my Patrick Campbell talk.
From the moment I arrived at the Alderney Manor Community Centre, I could tell that something was wrong as a few members were waiting outside because there was no admittance through the main doors. Apparently the floor of the room where the TG usually meets had been varnished and it hadn't dried yet. They had only been told about this at 10am that morning and were now meeting in some unfamiliar upstairs room but had to find it first!
I said hello to Sandra Yeoman, Dorset Federation of TGs' Secretary, who I have known for many years, and we all set off along the side of the building, led by a pair of friendly youths who tried to give us some directions - which led us into bar! One of the ladies then assumed that a door off the bar led to the stairs before a barman barked (very rudely, I thought) 'You can't go in there!' We then set off in a different direction, up some very steep, narrow stairs and found the tiny room the TG had been allocated. There was no lift so access was either impossible or at least very difficult for any members with disabilities, the result being that some were not attending.
Now, I have have spoken in some 'cosy' venues over the years, including the living rooms in people's houses, but seldom anywhere like this. Even though there were now less than 20 attending, it was still incredibly cramped and the Committee members had to compete with my props for table space. This room also had no tea-making facilities for the ladies who have loyally booked this venue every month for years.
Public Speaking Tip #155: Sometimes venues are less than ideal but you just have to do your best. At least you're probably being paid to be there - by unfortunate organisations who are also having to pay for a less than adequate venue!
I positioned myself in a corner and began the talk, which went very well, considering the conditions, but then these ladies refused to let the inadequacies of the venue get them down. There is a story in the presentation about an occasion when Patrick Campbell tried to decorate his entire living room in one day in time for when he had guests coming to dinner that evening and, of course, I couldn't resist linking this to a Community Centre which failed to get its floor varnish dry in time for the TG meeting!
Public Speaking Tip #156: If you seize an opportunity to link any material in your presentation in a humorous way to problems with the venue, you are almost guaranteed to get a big laugh.
I chatted for a while after the talk and then left them to their business meeting. I didn't think anything else could go wrong for them but the following day Sandra sent me this email:
"Dear Nick,
I thought you might like to know that our evening went from bad to worse after you had left. Just as two of the Community Centre members who were staffing the bar came in to offer us all a drink on the house because of the inconvenience the lights went out. The one emergency light came on which was sufficient for the orders to be taken but Jean had to use a hastily produced torch to read her agenda. We had a message to say the power would be off for at least another hour so we carried on the rest of the meeting in the gloom.The power was still off when we left so negotiating those stairs was a bit tricky for some. Another Centre member appeared at the bottom of the stairs with a lantern which did help but the car park was in darkness.
We enjoyed hearing you again and hope it's not too long before we book another visit."
Public Speaking Tip #157: Sometimes the speaker has the easiest part of the meeting!
I recently met up again with Mel Mellers, a very successful cabaret entertainer who I have known since the mid 90s. Throughout my speaking career, he has been very helpful in giving me advice but nowadays he spends much of his time working on luxury cruise liners so I don't get to see him too often. He told me that on one recent trip he had heard an excellent presentation by Jack Canfield, originator of the famous Chicken Soup for the Soul inspirational books. Canfield had mentioned how, even if we have plenty of approval from people, it's always the discouraging minority who seem to make the most impression on us, even define us, and that we need to stop associating with them!
This got me thinking about how, even if a speaker's presentation is going really well, there can still be the odd person scowling, yawning, looking at their watch or even sleeping and, if you do that proper 'lighthouse effect' thing of sweeping around the room making eye contact with everyone, you can't help noticing them! Now, obviously you can't stop associating with them by having them thrown out (much as you might like to!) but what you can do is spend less time looking at them and more at the encouraging majority. Or you can try to win them over by perhaps stepping up a gear and making the delivery more lively for the scowlers and yawners or introducing some audience participation, such as asking a question to draw in the watch-checkers. As for the odd sleeper, well, I must admit to deriving a certain perverse pleasure from delivering the odd line a little bit LOUDER to wake them if the opportunity presents itself!
But the point is, whether you win them over or not, you must not lose heart and allow yourself to be discouraged by a miserable minority!
Public Speaking Tip #148: If you are making regular eye contact with the whole audience as you speak and notice the odd audience member who appears not to be enjoying your presentation, you must either:
1) Dwell less on them and more on the approving majority from that point onwards
or
2) Change tack in some small way to try and win them over.
Whichever you choose, do not allow these few silent detractors to become distracters as well!
Over on Speak Schmeak, Lisa Braithwaite has posted an excellent article about the effects that discouraging comments can have on us, from childhood onwards. Over 7 years of teaching public speaking evening classes, I only had a couple of students who I would describe as unpleasant. During my first course as a tutor, there was one man who seemed to be negative and antagonistic towards me throughout the term, probably because I very gently pointed out in feedback after one of his early presentations that he was choosing content which large numbers of people might find offensive. From that point, he had me marked down as an ultra-PC, lefty pinko (nothing could be further from the truth!). He worked in horseracing and at one point I suggested that this would make a very interesting subject for talks, only to be told by him (in front of the class) that people who gave talks about their work (as he knew I did) were just 'playing the Big I-Am!' Well, fortunately I didn't take this on board, and I've been playing the Big I-Am ever since! (Postscript: When the course finished, he actually had the cheek to get another student to ring and convey his suggestion that we all carry on meeting up regularly as a social group with me giving further tuition - unpaid! I'll leave you to work out for yourselves whether this went ahead...)
Public Speaking Tip #149: There may be occasions, after a presentation for example, when you overhear the odd negative comment from an audience member, usually someone who doesn't know that you are within earshot! It may well be fair comment and therefore useful feedback but if it isn't, then, once again, don't let it get to you but just keep working at continuing to improve and carry on pleasing the majority.
There are some bookings that a speaker really looks forward to and I was delighted to be asked to speak once again at the Wessex Women's Network in Brockenhurst. My last presentation for them was in October 2004, when The Power of Humour in Business was very well received.
So, on Tuesday evening of last week, I made my way from Brockenhurst station to the Cloud Hotel, which is on the outskirts of this New Forest village. The lanes had no pavements in places and were also unlit, convincing me that a larger torch might be an essential for future evening engagements!
Public Speaking Tip #143: When choosing what to take along with you to a speaking engagement, don't just consider items that you will need for the presentation itself but also anything that might be needed for the journey. It all helps to make the occasion run more smoothly.
The format for these meetings has changed since I last spoke there; the events now take place on a Tuesday instead of a Thursday and the presentation is followed by an excellent three-course dinner.
The award-winning hotel is hugely popular and was full, even in February, so the meeting was moved to a cosy room and the numbers limited to 30.
I had to decide where I would speak from without my being virtually on top of the audience or them having to sit awkwardly to see me. In the end, we settled on the end of the room near the doors.
Public Speaking Tip #144: Although there are some settings, particularly large venues where stages or fixed microphones or lecterns are concerned, where the speaker is required to work from a designated part of the room, for other engagements you should choose where you think will the most comfortable for everyone.
For example, if you are speaking at a lunch or dinner, you do not have to speak from your place at the table. Choose a point in the room where you can be seen without being obscured for some by pillars or the audience having to crane their necks. You may have too many props to put down amongst the water glasses, coffee cups and used serviettes. You also may not want the diners either side of you reading your notes!
Just don't situate yourself too far away from the nearest audience members for all intimacy to be lost.The members of this group are all businesswomen based in the New Forest. Public Speaking is obviously a massive topic but I chose the subject areas which I felt would be of most relevance to them, illustrated in many cases with anecdotes - but short ones because I had so much material to put across while still leaving time for questions.
For my notes covering this 50-odd minutes of material, I was using a piece of stiff, white A4 card folded in half and then in half again to give 8 small pages, each with single words or phrases as reminders of the various topics (which, after teaching Presentation Skills for so many years, I know well enough not to need more detailed notes). I got this tip years ago from a book by the award-winning after dinner speaker Stuart Turner (it's in my amazon store on this site) and it has stood me in good stead for more than a decade. Public Speaking Tip #145: If you are giving a longer presentation, perhaps involving more information than you can fit onto a Mind Map, use a sheet of A4 card folded in half twice to form 8 small pages which you should number. There are numerous advantages to this:
1) It is highly portable and can be slipped inside a jacket pocket and carried with you everywhere, making extra revision or last-minute additions very easy.
2) It is difficult to lose your place, unlike with individual cards which can be turned over two at once.
3) If you drop your notes, you only have to pick up one sheet - unlike postcards which can go all over the place!
4) If you are using one hand to hold a microphone or prop, you can turn over the 'pages' using your thumb (this is why stiff card is a better idea for this than flimsy paper).
5) You can devote individual pages to particular topics, thus making your notes even easier to construct and then follow.
I was introduced by Jan Hoy OBE, who I'd last seen when I spoke at Hythe and District Inner Wheel last October, and the talk went very well. There was an interesting question afterwards from a lady who was nervous about using humour in public speaking. I pointed out that humour isn't just telling jokes but can be asides, observations, self-effacing anecdotes and quotations. Then I got one of those realisations of something seemingly obvious that had, nevertheless, not occurred to me before - despite the length of time I'd been doing this. I told her that I thought quotations were, perhaps, the safest form of humour to use because if you choose one from a well-loved public figure, just by mentioning their name, your audience is automatically primed that what follows will be funny. So that gives me...
Public Speaking Tip #146: Of all the types of humour that you could employ in a presentation, quotations could be your best bet (provided you select ones that aren't too over-used!) Simply mentioning that what follows comes from Groucho Marx or Dorothy Parker almost guarantees a good response before the audience has even heard the saying itself!
The talk seemed to make a great impression at this club which has had some very high-profile speakers over the years. Jan Hoy echoed my belief in the enormous value of Mind Maps for speakers.There was one very interesting revelation from this presentation: I had pointed out that I am a very shy person and that although I had learned long ago to overcome my fear of public speaking, I still hated parties and also found 'working the room' at networking events extremely difficult. I'm fine to get up in front of a large group of strangers and speak for any length of time after an introduction as a speaker but approaching even tiny groups of people who I don't know seems very difficult to me in other settings. I was amazed how many of these highly successful businesswomen said afterwards that they were exactly the same! Public Speaking Tip #147: Even the most introverted person can learn to be a successful public speaker - whatever the challenges they face in other areas of their careers/social lives.
The
dinner was excellent and before I left, I chatted with Avril Owton
MBE, owner of the hotel and founder of the Wessex Women's Network. Hers
is a fascinating story: she was a Tiller Girl
who married a hotelier. When her husband died without leaving any life
or mortgage insurance, she found herself a mother of four children
faced with the challenge of running the hotel, something she knew
little about. Rather than sell up, she threw herself into this task and
the Cloud Hotel is now hugely successful and Avril has won numerous
awards, including the Shine Awards Woman of the Year in 2006.
She is also the Chair of her local branch of the Institute of Directors
and a highly respected and inspirational speaker who has raised many
thousands of pounds for Macmillan Cancer Support.She has recently written a book, Delighting Your Customers: Delivering Excellent Customer Service Without Breaking the Bank,
and it is selling very well (I own a copy myself!) She passes on
valuable insights from running her successful hotel which can be
applied to any business.
