Public Speaking: Lost In Translation

When using translators, humor is tougher because timing and word play don't translate well. You might have to slow down considerably because of interpretation. Some speakers use half sentences to keep up the pace. This is very difficult and requires practice.

Speakers have been known to have fun with interpreters (of course, I would never do this). An unnamed speaker I know purposely mumbled to his interpreter to see what would happen. The interpreter mumbled back. Then the speaker mumbled again. It was hilarious.

Even when the audience speaks English, they may not be able to understand your accent. Avoid idioms and slang and check with local residents to see if you can be easily understood. You may have to adjust your normal rate of delivery and style.

Art Gliner, a longtime humor trainer, gave me this tip: He learns how to say "Happy New Year" in the different languages represented in his audience. That technique always gets a laugh and the further it is from New Years, the better it works. Art also tells me a word of welcome given in the native language works well too.

Difficulties may also arise in question and answer sessions if the presenter cannot understand the questioner. Try to speak with as many local residents as possible before the program so you can get a feel for their accent.

Get more great public speaking tips!

Public Speaking: The REAL Benefits of Humor

TOM'S LIST

YOU WILL BE ASKED BACK. If you succeed in your original purpose for
making your presentation, you may be asked back. If you also make the
audience feel really good by entertaining them at the same time, your chances
of being asked back will be much higher.

YOU WILL GET HIGHER EVALUATIONS OR MORE SALES. If you
make the audience feel good, they will like you better and reflect that in your
evaluation scores or buy more and more often from you.

YOU WILL MAKE MORE MONEY. If you are a professional presenter,
you will be booked more and your fees will rise. If you present as part of your
job, then read the next item carefully.

YOU WILL BE MORE PROMOTABLE. Having and conveying a sense
of humor is on virtually everyone's list of top leadership skills. A humorous
and engaging presentation style will push you up the ladder where good
communications skills are a must.

IF IT'S GOOD ENOUGH FOR POPES AND PRESIDENTS, IT'S
GOOD ENOUGH FOR ME. I don't know about the pope, but I do know
that all modern-day presidents are coached extensively on the use of
appropriate humor for many of the reasons stated above.

YOU WILL MAKE PEOPLE HAPPY. This is my favorite benefit. I get
great satisfaction from knowing that I have brightened someone else's life. I
had an executive come up to me after one of my humor seminars and say,
"You opened up a whole new world for me." I almost cried right on the spot.
I'll never forget it.

Get the speaking training you need to be a great presenter!

Public Speaking: Getting The Sale

Humor can help you get the sales presentation in the first place. It will also help you stay upbeat in the face of rejection, overcome inevitable problems that arise during a presentation, break down sales resistance, and create loyal customers who will buy again. Let me tell you how humor has greatly helped me.

One of the ways professional speakers gain business is to do no fee demo talks in front of potential buyers. I was doing one of these talks for an advertising association in Washington, D.C. After the presentation, a lady came up to me and invited me to call her. She said my information would be perfect for the employees at her government agency. I called three times that week and did not get a return call. I called three times the next week and did not get a return call. I called three times the next week and the week after that. Finally, I got sick of calling so I sent her a funny fax.

She called back within the hour. I went down and got a $3000 contract and another one the following month for $2000. She said my fax really made her laugh in the midst of the constant pressure she was under and that's why she called.

Was my success in this case only because of the humor? No. It was a combination of humor and persistence.

Get more great tips on speaking and selling!

Public Speaking: Info On Your International Audience

Another handy and inexpensive source of international background
information is the Culturgram published by the David M. Kennedy Center for
International Studies, which is part of Brigham Young University, Provo,
Utah. Each Culturgram is a four-page newsletter, updated every August, that
gives you an easy-to-understand overview of the country of your choice. It
includes customs and common courtesies, along with information about the
people and their lifestyle. References are also included for additional
resources. Currently Culturgrams are available for 142 countries.

By far the most comprehensive source of international customs I know of,
other than taking live protocol training, is the Put Your Best Foot Forward
Series by Mary Murray Bosrock. This four-volume series covering Asia,
Europe, Mexico/Canada, and Russia is an indispensable tool for anyone with
an interest in the global community. It is a must for presenters who want to put
that "fine polish" on their international presentations and actions when visiting
a foreign land.

I especially liked the "Letters" from the people of the individual regions. These personal letters give a great insight into how to act when dealing with the inhabitants of the region. Make this a must purchase when you are leaving the country.

Get 30 full days of public speaking training for only $5.00!

Public Speaking: Sales Tips Part 1

Sales Tips Part 1

Don't forget to make your sales pitch. Some salespersons get so wrapped up
in telling jokes they forget to go for the business.

Use testimonials. They can be delivered live by happy clients who are willing
to help you or in writing or by video or audio tape. You could make a funny
video which includes bloopers.

Keep your ego out of the sale. Remember the sales profession is a
profession of rejection. In most cases, it is not you that is being rejected.

Develop and use impressive color visuals. According to a study by the
Wharton Business School, presenters who used them were more apt to win
favorable decisions.

Develop humor to support your points, products and services. Go for quality
humor and stories instead of quantity.

Develop ad-libs for equipment failure and other expected unexpected
occurrences.

Add some type of attention-gaining device every few minutes to keep your
clients alert.

Sales Tips Like These Will Help You Succeed In Being A Better Presenter. Learn More!

Public Speaking: Why Use Humor In Presentations

IT SHOWS THAT YOU DON'T TAKE YOURSELF TOO SERIOUSLY.The old saying goes, "If you take yourself too seriously, no one else will." You
don't want to be known as a stuffed shirt. If you can laugh a little bit at
yourself at the right times, your audience can laugh with you and not at you.

HELPS PAINT PICTURES IN THE AUDIENCE'S MIND. The pictures
humorous storytellers can paint are what people remember, not the words.

MAKES INFORMATION MORE MEMORABLE. Joyce Saltman, a
college professor and well-known speaker in the health care field, did
exhaustive research for her 1995 doctoral dissertation Humor in Adult
Learning. She concluded that "Most researchers agreed that humor generally
aided in the retention of materials as well as to the enjoyment of the
presentation of the information."

LIGHTENS UP HEAVY MATERIAL. Appropriate humor added to heavy,
serious material gives the audience a few seconds to relax. Even Shakespeare
employed this device, called "comic relief," extensively to provide distraction
or offer respite from the serious events of a tragedy.

Get 30 days of public speaking training for $5.00!

Public Speaking: Using Audience Introductions

Interacting with your participants generally increases their learning, holds their attention, helps you make your points, and possibly provides for new information to be shared.

Technical presentations hold some different challenges because most of the participants will be writing and taking notes throughout the program. Interactive processes must enhance the learning process and not just provide a break or entertainment. There are lots of proven techniques, but the introduction seems to work best of all and will, as a general rule, get most if not all of the attendees to participate.

Attendees at a technical session generally have a specific need in mind when they sign up for the program. By getting them to open up and share their needs, all the participants stand to benefit from the applications and concerns of someone else. In other words, there is a sharing of goals, concerns, and needs which may become as relevant and valuable to the participants as the materials you present.

Participant introductions serve two useful purposes. First, getting people to say anything at the beginning of a session gets them involved and is a way to establish interest in what you will say afterward. And second, if the participants do not know each other they may find it useful to know who is in the room. On the other hand, introductions can take up a lot of time. People can insert many irrelevant comments and take up valuable time talking about themselves. If your session is part of a larger program, like a conference, introductions may not fit into the workshop format.

The critical consideration in whether to have participants introduce themselves is time. For instance, if there were 15 people in the room for a three-hour session, introductions might be helpful. If there are 60 people in the room for a one-hour program, the time constraint would
eliminate the possibility of adequate introductions.

Get more great public speaking tips!

Presentation Skills: Costumes

No, you don't have to go on-stage in a gorilla suit, although you could if you
wanted to. A costume can be anything from a flashy tie, to a feathered hat, to a
full blown shiny Marca Polina outfit (the feminine Marco Polo) complete with
an illuminated magic wand, that my friend Sally Walton wears when she talks
about the magic art of "Communicating Across Cultures." Costumes add a flare
and excitement to your presentations and certainly help to make them more
memorable.

If you don't like to wear costumes, get the audience members to wear them.
Better yet, get the "big shots" to wear them and you will probably be the hit of
the meeting. I was doing a customer service talk for a pizza franchise and I had
one of the senior managers march into the meeting wearing a filthy, doctor's lab
coat with ketchup all over it (fake blood). I had another senior manager come in
with a crisp, new lab coat. I asked a simple question, Which manager would you
like operating on you? Of course, all the junior managers yelled out that they
wouldn't let either one of these people operate on them. Everyone was laughing
and joking around, but the point was made. They must keep their employees
looking clean and neat because nice customers won't want to be served by
grungy food service workers.

Costume characters can be hired to hand out fliers at your event, entertain,
and generally create an air of fun and excitement. The local heart association has
a "blood drop" costume they use when they are soliciting funds. There are
literally hundreds of costumes available through costume shops or mail order
(see Morris Costume in appendix). Just make sure, as always, the theme of the
costume matches the theme of your presentation or event.

Get 30 days of public speaking training for only $5.00!

Presentation Skills: Using Your Projection Screen

When using projection of any kind, try to avoid rooms with low ceilings and/or
chandeliers. It won't make much difference for small audiences, but for large
ones it is quite important. If the screen is too low, it makes it virtually
impossible for those in the back to see and, of course, a low hanging chandelier
will obstruct the audience's view.

If you have a choice, ask for a matte finish screen. It gives the greatest
horizontal viewing angle so people looking at the screen at an angle will be able
to see the image more clearly. All screens must be tilted forward at the top or
backward at the bottom to eliminate the keystone effect (top of image is wider
than bottom). Many portable screens have a keystone eliminator at the top, or
you can simply use masking tape on the lens of the projector to square off the
image.

Most of the time you will try to place the screen at an angle in the front
corner of the room. This way the screen is not directly behind
you competing for the audience's attention. The lights right above the screen
should be turned off so the image doesn't get washed out.

Learn more great public speaking tips for the stage!

Public Speaking: Comic Verse

Often a short poem will illustrate your point better than hours and hours of talk.
Poems can be inspiring and motivating as well as funny, and they also add
variety to your presentation. You must flawlessly memorize any poetry you use.
Any stumbles will ruin the effect of the verse. If the verse is long, you may want
to consider reading it, but total memorization will have more impact. Poetry,
whether funny or not, should be used sparingly in any business presentation.
Always look for the points that a piece of comic verse could illustrate. You
normally don't want to use any kind of humor that does not support the points
you are trying to make.

Point: Get going to achieve your goals. You have the tools, but you must pick
them up and use them.

Sitting still and wishing
Makes no person great.
The good Lord sends the fishes
But you must dig the bait.

- Anonymous

Point: Look forward, not backward.

The lightning bug is a brilliant thing
But the insect is so blind.
It goes on stumbling through the world
With its headlights on behind.

- Anonymous

Point: Everyone starts at the bottom. That won't keep you from being great.

Do not worry if your job is small
And your rewards are few.
Just remember that the mighty oak
Was once a nut, like you.

- Anonymous

Tom's rewrite of the last verse (to make the audience feel superior to me)

Do not worry if your job is small
With rewards you can't see.
Just remember that the mighty oak
Was once a nut, like me.

Click here for more great public speaking training!

Presentation Skills: Exaggeration

Expanding or diminishing proportions can be a fun way to create humor. It's similar to a caricature artist that outrageously exagerates the features of an individual, while still
keeping the person recognizable.

I did a talk one time for Secretaries Day at a large insurance company. I was
making a point about how hectic it always was for the secretaries. It went like
this, You're answering the telephone, the fax machine is ringing, you're
making copies, and you're filing every policy clear back to 1910. The
secretaries could relate to each item mentioned. They obviously did lots of filing,
but certainly not as far back as 1910. Exaggerating this date was funny to them
and drove home the point that they always had lots of work piled up.

The key to using exaggeration is to inflate or deflate whatever you are talking
about so much that it is obviously an exaggeration. In the last example you
wouldn't want to use the year 1994 if you were doing the talk in 1995 because
it is very likely that an insurance company would really be working on a file for
a year or more. That's not funny.

Of course, who am I to tell you what is funny. I spent two terms in the third
grade Truman's and Eisenhower's.

Get 30 days of public speaking training for only $5.00!

Pubic Speaking: I Could Do Without Some Emotional Audiences

You may present to audiences that have very negative emotions already piqued.
They may be downright hostile. When this is the case, you need to say things
that will reduce the emotional intensity.

I don't often face hostile audiences, but a friend of mine is an expert on them.
Larry Tracy trains business executives to communicate successfully with
skeptical and even hostile audiences. Larry's expertise comes from hard-won
experience. In a previous life in government, he had the job of speaking to
hundreds of emotional, demanding audiences in the 1980s to defend and debate
the Reagan Administration's Central America policy.

Larry tells me that hostile audiences have a great deal of what psychologists
call cognitive dissonance, a tendency to protect existing beliefs and prejudices
and reject contradictory information. He says this emotional baggage has to be
bypassed before a speaker's facts can be comprehended, and that only a speaker
perceived to have empathy has a chance of reaching such an audience. Larry
trains his clients to follow what he calls the KAP method Know your
audience's concerns, and Anticipate their objections and questions with realistic
Practice. The practice consists of a simulated presentation with colleagues role-playing as the more contentious audience members.

Get 30 days of public speaking training for only $5.00!

Public Speaking: Get The Facts First

If you are not familiar with your intended audience, you might ask in your pre-program research, or questionnaire How diverse is your group? What are some of the characteristics of the members from each of the countries represented? The answers to these questions will help you plan your strategy for connecting with a particular audience.

When I was doing my planning for a presentation in Washington, D.C., I found out that 25 percent of the audience was Asian Indian. I knew very little about the Indian culture and didn't have long to plan. What I did know was that the Dunkin' Donuts store located near my home was owned and operated by Indians. That was a good excuse to stop in, down a few eclairs, and do
some research. I told the proprietor what I was trying to accomplish and he was glad to help. Out of all the information he gave me about humor in India, I only used one line. That was all it took to connect. The line was, I want to tell all my new Indian friends I'm sorry Johnny Lever couldn't make it.

Johnny Lever was one of the top comedians in India. They lit up and I went on with the program.

If your local donut shop isn't run by the appropriate nationality for your next presentation, don't worry. There are other sure-fire methods to get the information you need. If you are presenting out of the country, get the opinion of local people before you attempt to use humor. If you are presenting in the U.S., seek out members of the nationality to whom you are presenting. If you
don't happen to know any, you can always call their embassy. I've called our State Department, The World Bank and even Voice of America for information. Just tell the receptionist you want to speak to someone from the country of interest. Don't forget to tell them you want to converse in English.

Get 30 days of public speaking training for only $5.00!