Speaker's Digest December 2003
In this issue:
The holidays are upon us, and the snow has reached the doorsteps of those of us living in the land of four seasons. This month’s issue of Speaker’s Digest comes complete with exciting announcements, new ideas, and a popular excerpt from holiday issues of the past.
New Junior Partner
EMS proudly welcomes its newest partner, bouncing baby boy Noah Hirsch Shapiro, born with a full head of black hair on November 11, 2003. Noah and his parents, Eliot and Ellyn, are getting to know each other better while working to catch up on sleep.
New web site
EMS Communications is pleased to invite you to our new website at www.presentationtrainers.com. (Your existing bookmark at ems-communications.com will bring you to the new location.) Our new site contains excerpts from previous issues of Speaker’s Digest, worksheets that you can download to assist you in planning your next speech, and some additional speech-planning resources available for purchase. Next time you’re out surfing the web, drop on in and see what we have to offer.
New E-Book
If you know someone who has been losing sleep because they’re anxious about a presentation they will be giving in the near future, consider giving them our new E-book entitled “Sell It, Don’t Tell It: How to Write and Deliver a Winning Presentation.” This step-by-step guide to developing and organizing your speech is the best alternative to working with Eric and Eliot in person. You can download the book from our website for $49. Look for the link to “EMS Gold” and pay using any major credit card.
Phone Consultations
EMS is developing a new business product that will enable us to provide phone consultation to out-of-town clients. This training module, which will offer up to an hour of one-on-one coaching to help you plan a presentation, organize your thoughts, or give you a last-minute boost of confidence. Could you or your colleagues use such a product from EMS? Please send us an email to let us know your level of interest.
The Lesson of the Etch-A-Sketch
If you haven’t yet seen the movie Elf, ex-Saturday Night Liver Will Farrell plays Buddy, a north pole elf who is chronically behind in his production quota of Etch-a-Sketches. This reappearance of the classic toy reminds us of this tip we’ve given out in our seminars:
It’s easy for people to fall into habits. We take the same route to work every day, listen to the same radio stations, buy the same groceries, eat the same lunch, and talk to the same people. At work, people fall into patterns of working with the same vendors, writing the same memos, and rehashing old programs. (Ever hear someone say this? “Let’s just do what we did last year.”)
Speakers have been known to fall into old habits as well. They start out with the same tired joke, use the same slides, become bored or tired with their materials, and let the energy drift out of their presentations.
Creativity and innovation experts talk about the benefits of adding some variety to a daily routine. Shaking things up can help many tired workers find new paths to success and passion. Starting from a blank slate can energize an often-repeated speech.
See where the Etch-a-Sketch comes in? It looks a little like an early generation laptop computer, but there’s no memory, no attached printer, and nowhere to “save” the image. If you want to create a new picture, you “reboot” by turning it upside down and shaking vigorously (letting go of the old image in the process.) You’ll have to create a new image from scratch, and odds are that even though the material inside the Etch-A-Sketch is exactly the same, you will end up with a very different masterpiece.
So as you approach the new year in search of new ideas, new goals and personal growth, think of the Etch-a-Sketch. Don’t be afraid to really shake things up for your next presentation. You’ll be rewarded with a blank screen -- a screen full of new opportunities and new possibilities.
Keep your eyes peeled for our second annual ‘Rate the President” survey, where we email invite you to join us in evaluating the presentation style of President George Bush while watching his annual ‘State of the Union” Speech. EMS received a great response last year from Speaker’s Digest readers, and we hope you consider participating in this great way to apply presenting fundamentals to this speech, known by us as the “Super Bowl of Public Speaking.” Watch for more information about our “Rate the President 2004” questionnaire in your email box in mid-to-late January, or visit our web site for more details.
A Wonderful Movie, A Wonderful Presenter
That’s ol’ George—he’s always
making a speech. Hee Haw!
Sam Wainwright, boyhood friend of
George Bailey in It’s a Wonderful Life
There are so many reasons to love It’s a Wonderful Life. There’s the brief but memorable appearance of former Our Gang’er Alfalfa Switzer, missing his trademark upside-down ponytail; future TV producer Sheldon Leonard (The Dick Van Dyke Show and I Spy, among others) as Nick the bartender; and the unnamed neighbor who exclaims: “Aw, youth is wasted on the wrong people!” We look forward to watching Clarence Odbody save the day as an angel trying to earn his wings, and laugh every time we hear Annie, the household servant, cry out: “I’ve been saving this money for a divorce, if ever I get a husband!”
Jimmy Stewart, of course, stars as George Bailey. And as we watched the movie for the umpteenth time, we realized that those of us who strive to make better speeches and presentations can learn a lot from George Bailey/Jimmy Stewart. (Why else would we include this in Speaker’s Digest?)
Stewart’s George Bailey is a bona fide hero, a tireless community leader who continually fights to give people a better way of life. When we meet him as a child, he already embodies the philosophy of “Think Globally, Act Locally” when he lectures a young Mary Hatch about his National Geographic magazine, and in the next breath keeps old man Gower from mistakenly poisoning a customer. George Bailey’s lifelong passion, his determination, his focus and his zeal make an impression on the picket fenced town of Bedford Falls, New York.
So what, exactly, makes George a great speaker?
Energy. George Bailey exudes energy throughout the film. His ideas are big, his goals are big, and his exclamations are big. Whether he’s excited, angry, nervous, or scared, he uses the full range of his voice, and adds the facial expression to match it. We encourage our clients to take their natural energy and turn it up a notch, like George/Jimmy. When you watch the movie again, pay attention to how he delivers these lines:
- Wish I had a million dollars. Hot Dog!
- Holy Mackerel!
- Attaboy, Clarence!
- Doggone it!
- Yay!
- Zuzu, my little gingersnap!
- Hallelujah!
- Merry Christmas, you wonderful old Building and Loan!
Big Thinking. When George Bailey talks about traveling, he’s not thinking about a trip to the next town, or to a nearby B&B. He wants to go everywhere: Tahiti, Fiji, Italy, Baghdad (perhaps to assist with the arms inspections?), Greece, Venezuela, the Yukon. He wants to build skycrapers and change the world. Of course, the irony of the movie is that he never leaves Bedford Falls. But that doesn’t mean he failed. (We can’t give away the ending here, even if you’ve seen the movie a dozen times.) Like George, a speaker who thinks big demonstrates passion and vision, which can mean a better presentation.
Pre-Game Warm-up. George seems to know when to take a moment to psyche himself up. We see him pacing in front of the home of Mary Hatch, soon to become Mary Bailey, shortly after learning that he wouldn’t be leaving Bedford Falls after all. Everyone in town – and in the theater—figured he was headed to Mary’s house. But he seems surprised when Mary spies him outside and asks: “What are you doing out there, picketing?” We know that George was just mentally preparing himself to make an entrance, a good practice for any speaker.
Sells the Benefits. We talk about this topic a lot in our workshops. Speakers get caught up in the small details, trying to explain what they do, neglecting to focus on the big picture benefits. George brilliantly demonstrates how to communicate benefits. Twice in the movie he has to persuade groups of people to take action, first addressing the board of the Bailey Building and Loan who are voting to put the company out of business in the wake of his father’s death. He goes right to the heart of what the business stands for, challenging the board: “Is it too much for (the working people of Bedford Falls) to have them work and pay and die in a couple of decent rooms and a bath? My father didn’t think so!”
Then, when a bank closure has turned his customers into an angry mob demanding to close out their accounts, he doesn’t talk about interest rates, account balances, or costs of doing business. Instead, he reminds them of the business’ main objective: to help people own their own homes. “You’re lending them money to build, and then, they’re going to pay it back to you as best they can.” He appeals to the crowd by citing individual examples of his company’s worth: “Ed, you remember last year when things weren’t going so well, and you couldn’t make your payments? You didn’t lose your house, did you?”
A few years back, you could watch It’s A Wonderful Life a dozen times a year because it was on TV so often. But thanks to the good folks at NBC, it’s been reduced two showings this year. Our suggestion: take a seminar on George Bailey at your leisure. Buy the movie on video or DVD, pop some popcorn, and watch it without commercials, keeping an eye on Jimmy Stewart at all times. Look for ways that you can incorporate some of his energy, big thinking, warm-up routine, and salesmanship into your presentations in 2003.
And write it all off as a business expense!
Bill Mellin
President and CEO
New York State Credit Union League