snort report glenn beck ron paul

What is up with Ron Paul winning the 2010 CPAC conference in Washington DC?

In an amazing contest, Ron Paul topped both Mitt Romney and Sarah Palin as he brought the house down in a speech about Freedom that Americans across the country loved to hear! He used tremendous Toastmaster skills to change tempo, bring suspense in with his pauses, and hammer home key points! The crowd loved it.

Ron Paul has a “chi” about him that is quite magnificent. It’s no wonder that his Republican opponents start to hone in on his ideas and repeat them in their speeches. His principles and his ideologies ring true to Americans and they love him for it. There’s a reason Ron Paul won the CPAC conference….

He’s a public speaking genius.

toastmaster barack obama

When you listen to Barack Obama speak, you can’t help but notice the degree of conviction and emphasis he uses. His ability to speak with differing voice inflection, pauses and tempo. This sets the stage for an effective speech.

The State of the Union Speech 2010 expects to be one of multiple different topics. Gays in the military, Afghanistan, Iraq, USA economy, Federal Reserve, national debt…. the list goes on and on.

Watch closely how Obama will emphasize different solutions to unique problems through tone of voice. Watch as he changes tempo and speaks quickly… and then slows down. Watch as he speaks loudly… and then to a whisper.

All of these strategies help Barack Obama bring the audience to the edge of their seats and help them grasp the importance of each and every talking point.

Not bad for a guy who uses teleprompters eh?

What grade would you give Barack Obama for his 2010 State of the Union address?

1: Prepare

You have to know your material. And I’m not just talking about memorizing words and facts. I mean really KNOW your material. You can’t predict what is going to happen that might cause you to get sidetracked. Murphy’s Law dictates that something will happen. And when it does, it’s best to know where you are. That’s when a little acting trick will come in handy.

When you have a large script to memorize, the best way to do it is in chunks. But not just any chunk. It’s best to make a chunk all related material. For example: You’re giving a presentation on why your company should migrate to open source software. You could have five different chunks to your speech: Intro to open source, Cost savings, Security, Reliability, Ease of use. With each of those chunks, you’ll have certain bits of information to know. But always know the names of those chunks. So when/if you get lost, you at least know which chunk you are on. If you know the information within that chunk well enough, you can get back on track.

This has helped me a number of times on stage. If I know the gist of a scene and I get lost, at least I know what the scene is about, so eventually I can right that ship. If I have no idea what the scene is about, I’ll never get that scene righted. Same thing with a speech. If you memorize just a big blurb of stuff and you don’t break it down, you’ll be lost in a sea of information if you lose your bearings. If you get lost within a chunk, that sea becomes a lake and you can find your way back to shore fairly easily. Know your material!
2: Rehearse correctly

Most people don’t realize this, but nerves have a serious effect on how you speak in front of people. Nearly everyone who gets nervous when speaking in front of people will speak faster than they normally would. This can lead to you not being understood and most certainly seeming nervous. (Pitting out that button-down? Shame!). To avoid this pitfall, rehearse your speech more slowly than you would normally. That doesn’t mean speeeeeeaaaak verrrrrrrry slooooooowly. That means just be more at ease and relaxed when you rehearse. That way, when the nerves kick in, you will most likely be speaking at a normal pace.

3: Hydrate yourself

Most would think this a crazy thing to do before speaking. But you know why so many speakers keep water with them when they speak? Nerves dry up your mouth. And when your mouth dries up, you will have a harder time articulating your thoughts. To that end, make sure you drink plenty of water before and during your speech. Now this doesn’t mean down it like you’ve not had water to your lips in days. If you do that, you’ll most certainly need to pause in the middle of your speech to visit the bathroom. Either that or you’ll REALLY embarrass yourself.

4: Relax before you go on

This is another one of those tactics that most people don’t think will work. It does. One of an actor’s biggest jobs is finding jobs. To find jobs as an actor you have to audition. Auditioning is one of the single most nerve wracking things you will ever do. I quickly discovered that if I relax before I go on, my nerves just ease away. But how does one relax? By not obsessing over what you are about to do. If you go over and over your speech before you go on, you will be in a constant state of reminding yourself that you are about to make yourself nervous. Instead, do something to get your mind off what you are about to do. Two activities did the trick for me: Reading a book or playing a video game. It’s pretty easy these days to pack a PSP, DS, Kindle, or paperback with you. Do this and take advantage of the time before you go on. Your heart rate will thank you for it.

5: Rest well

The night before you are going on the biggest interview of your life, don’t go out and paint the town the color of the hangover you’ll have the next morning. Instead, relax, go to the gym, catch a movie, read, or anything that is going to help you get a good night’s sleep. And that doesn’t mean medicate yourself to get those 40 winks. If you do, you’ll wake up feeling worse than if you hadn’t slept.

6: Dress to impress

During my 20 years as an actor, I probably had just a handful of outfits I would wear during auditions. There are two reasons for this: Superstition and looks. When an outfit seemed to help me get a gig, I would use it more than not. But how does this really help? You choose a speaking, interviewing, rallying outfit that makes you look good (both to yourself and others) — and when you feel like you look good, your confidence will soar. So don’t just settle on your usual khakis and oxford. Bring in the help of that significant other to help you find just the right look that makes you KNOW you look good. The confidence you gain by this will greatly improve your speaking.

7: Articulate

Have you ever listened to someone speak who was hard to understand? What do you do after a while? You tune them out. You find them uninteresting and assume they’re not really knowledgeable about their subject. You can be the most brilliant person alive, but if your audience can’t understand you, you will lose them. There are exceptions to this (think Stephen Hawking), but for the most part, speakers who articulate are thought of much more highly than those who don’t.

8: Be heard

This goes hand in hand with number 7. If you can’t be heard, you won’t be heard. If you have a softer voice, you know you’re going to have trouble. And most people tend to speak more softly when they’re speaking in front of a crowd. (Again, nerves can do many things.) Here’s a way to help you out with this. When you rehearse your speech, do it in front of someone but have them stand in the back of the room. Make sure they let you know if you can’t be heard. You can even make a game of it by giving them a nerf gun (hearken back to the ’90s dot-com days) and have them shoot you when they can’t hear you.

9: Warm up

Your voice is like any other muscle in your body: You use it cold and it won’t work well. If you roll out of bed, get dressed, drink your coffee, and go give your speech, you’re going to have issues. Instead, make sure your vocal muscles are ready to work. When you give speeches, you are speaking for much longer periods at a time than you normally do. If you don’t prepare yourself you can wind up with a sore throat (or sounding like you just smoked a carton). Two of the best ways to warm your voice up are by humming (single low- to midrange tones are best or simple melodies or scales) and by doing tongue twisters. If you need a good tongue twister to really get yourself ready try “The big black bug bled blue-black blood.” Repeat that for a while and you’ll be ready to knock ‘em over!

10: Don’t fill the void

How many times have you heard a speaker or interviewed someone for a job only to turn them off because they filled the space between thoughts with sounds or words? You know what I’m… ummmm… talking… ummmm… about. Right? This sounds horribly unprofessional. Instead of filling your voids with grunts, groans, and signs of weakness, fill them with thought-filled, connected silence. Believe it or not, those pauses aren’t as long as you think. And when your audience (be it a single person or a crowd) sees that you are still connected to them, even between thoughts, you will keep their rapt attention. In other words, don’t drift off with ummmm… errrr… uhhhh… eeeee…sounds or words between your thoughts. Hold your listeners’ attention with silence as you continue to press forward.

Dr. James Helmer gives a tremendous essay on how to engage your audience…

How to Engage Your Audience and Keep Them with You
James Helmer, Oral Communication Center, Hamilton College

I. Design an effective introduction.
A. Engage the audience—get them interested, give them a reason to listen. How?
 Describe a scene or a character.
 Tell a story.
 Share a personal experience.
 Relate to a recent event.
 Piggyback on a previous speaker’s remark or theme.
 Point out something important about the audience or the current setting.
 Show a compelling visual image.
 Ask a provocative question.
 State a fact that is troubling, amusing, or remarkable.
 Spell out what’s at stake for your listeners.
 Offer a humorous observation or anecdote.
 Explain your own interest in the topic.
 Tell listeners what the topic has to do with them.
B. Focus the presentation—tell listeners what it’s about. State the presentation’s goal or
your thesis or research question. Tell listeners what they’ll learn.
C. Preview what’s to follow—your points, your approach, or the type of content.
II. Gear your treatment of content to your listeners’ knowledge, experience, and interests.
A. Define unfamiliar terms.
B. Use concrete, specific examples to illustrate points. Tell stories.
C. Make statistics meaningful: Use graphics to help clarify numerical data. Round off
big numbers. Interpret stats, translate them into human terms. Make comparisons.
D. Use analogies to relate the unknown to the known. (“It’s kind of like…”)
E. Build audience involvement by making your subject immediate, personal, and local.
1. Connect to the here-and-now.
2. Refer to your listeners’ experience. Mention your own experience.
Personalize the subject when that’s appropriate.
3. Highlight the local angle—a person, a place, an event. Bring it home.
III. Help your listeners find their way through your presentation.
A. Use previews and summaries.
1. Previews tell listeners what’s coming next or how you’re going to develop a
point. For instance, in a discussion of why discrepancies exist between cars’
EPA gas mileage ratings and actual gas mileage, you might say “First I’m
going to explain how the EPA arrives at its numbers. Then I’ll explain how
the Consumers Union conducts its tests.”
2. Summaries remind listeners of what’s important in what was just covered. A
summary is especially useful in reframing or refocusing the discussion after a
string of supporting details or after any fairly lengthy discussion of a point.
B. Use signposts and transitions.
1. Signposts are words or phrases such as “In the first place…,” “The second
issue is…,” “The key argument is…,” etc. They tell the audience where they
are in the presentation and flag what’s important to note or remember.
2. Transitions make sure no one gets left behind when you move from one point
to the next. They show how pieces of content relate to one another and to
your thesis; they tie things together and improve “flow.” Transitions in oral
presentations often must be more obvious than those used in writing. They
tell listeners not only that you’re moving on but also where you’re going
next. Changes in body position, gestures, and voice can help listeners
recognize a transition.
IV. Use language and verbal devices that are clear to the ear.
A. Avoid vague pronoun references. These are bad in writing but terrible in speech.
Listeners don’t have the option of looking back over the text to figure them out.
B. Similarly, avoid words like “respectively” (as in “John, Ashley, and Tamika
represented the Departments of Economics, Biology, and English, respectively.”) and
“the former…the latter” (as in “You can purchase beef that is either dry-aged or
wet-aged. Professional chefs know that, for the best steaks, you want the latter.”).
Like pronouns, both of these constructions require the audience to remember certain
details in order to understand a later reference to them. The problem is that listeners
may not have paid close enough attention to the earlier details; they didn’t realize
they’d be “tested” on them later. Whenever you’re tempted to use this type of verbal
device, ask yourself, “If I had only my ear to depend on and heard it only once,
would I get it?”
V. Design an effective conclusion.
A. Summarize and refocus. Recap the main points or arguments you’ve covered.
Reiterate your purpose, thesis, or research question. Reinforce what’s important for
the audience to take away from your presentation.
B. Close. Create closure, a sense of finality. Here you can use many of the same kinds
of devices suggested for openings. You can even return to exactly the same
anecdote, quotation, or remark you used at the beginning—and give it a twist. Other
approaches are to lay down a challenge, look to the future, or simply to firmly restate
your basic conclusion or recommendation. Avoid introducing new evidence or
opening a new line of argument.