Step Up To The Mic

By: Geoffrey X Lane
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  • Summary

  • Are you one of those people that hates public speaking? Or do you have presentation to give that is vital to your career? Welcome to The Step Up To The Mic podcast. Its purpose is to inform & inspire you about the art & science of public speaking. This podcast is recorded for people who now or in future will have to speak publicly or present to their peers. It is especially for those who want to learn to speak authentically and naturally.
    Geoffrey X Lane
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Career Success Economics
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Episodes
  • Storytelling

    Storytelling
    May 24 2022
    Welcome to “step up to the mic” podcast. Number six, the focus of this podcast is stories and storytelling. You might have a favourite story that you like to share with people. And what I would suggest is that if you want to be really effective storyteller, you need to fill in the details well enough and clearly enough that your audience can almost see it, feel it, and taste  it. Imagine if you're trying to talk about lemons, so you could say, well, you know, I was eating this lemon and most people would go, Ooh, because lemons are sharp. But if you were saying, for example, there was this brilliant white lemon. I picked it up. It smelled so good. I gave it a squeeze and the lemon oil was going up my nose. It was so good. I took a knife, a very sharp knife, and I gave it a cut and I bit into the lemon, Ugh, the acid in my mouth. Oh, even as I'm talking, I can taste the lemon. It hit my tongue and went down my throat and it was sharp, but it was also sweet. Ah, for hours later, I could still taste the lemon on my lips and in my throat and in my nose.  Now that's so different from saying, I took a lemon, I cut it. And I been into it and it was sharp. Yes. You see directions and fulfillment and the whole smell, taste, touch, feel for people matters. When you're telling stories, stories are our number one way of communicating all the time. We tell stories to each other. We just don't realize that it is something we do all the time. It feels so natural. So let's talk about what it is. So powerful about a story you see, when you tell somebody a story, they have to use their imagination. They engaged their imagination in order to follow along with the story. When I said to you, I took a bright lemon and I cut it and I smelled it and I bid into it. I'm sure that you had physiological reactions, even though you had no lemon there, some of you might even have been able to smell a lemon. That's the point of stories. They engage at a level that facts and figures never can. If you talk about the finances of, or the structure of their facts, but facts just convey information. They don't convince, they don't involve. They don't engage people. You see, when you start talking about facts, you're engaging the front part of the brain. It's a very small, thin layer of the frontal cortex. It's one of the smallest parts. However, when you start talking about touch, taste, sound feelings, movement, actualization, you engage the whole brain. You engage the feelings in your hands, and you engage all parts of the human experience. If I say to you, I went for a walk along the beach. You could imagine some things. But if I said to you, as I walked along the beach, the wind was cool. And even though I had a jacket on, I was quite chilled, but I was still invited by the sand. And I took off my socks and shoes and I stepped onto the sand. It was cool. It was wet. It was gritty going between my toes. And as I walked towards the edge of the water, he got colder, but firmer, I could feel it. That's quite a different description than saying I went for a walk on the beach. Just the same as if I said to you, I have a dog. And his name is Tucker. Well, if I said to you, I have a dog. His name is Tucker. He's tiny. Well, he's not that small, but if you put your hand down and feel his fur, it's soft and fluffy and he's bark is sharp and hard. And he, when he bites, Ooh, and he has that lovely doggy smell, he's very affectionate. And when I'm writing or when I'm talking and doing something on the, on the microphone, he likes to sit on my feet and it's so nice because he's warm. And I know he is there, and I always feel comforted. That's so different from saying to you, I have a dog named Tucker. Well, actually I don't have a dog named Tucker. I did have a dog named Tucker. He passed away quite a number of years ago, but his smell and his taste and his weight, his feel, and his excitement is still with me. He's still deep in my heart stories. They're so important. You can make so many points with stories. Now you can have a teaching story, which you have a specific outcome you want to make in point of, I've got a couple of stories that I've collected over time. And I'd like to read you one it's um, , I'm just trying to find it. Let's see. All right. Okay. So this has to do with a, with a psychologist talking to a class and she was talking about stress, and she went away about it in a way that just, just caught me. So it goes like this. As she walked to the class and she walked up to the front of the room, she'd turned around and she had picked up a glass of water that was sitting on her desk. She held it up and they all thought, quite naturally, she's gonna tell us it's half full and half empty. I'm gonna ask us questions about it because she's a psychologist, but she surprised him. And she said, how heavy is this glass? And she got all sorts of answers about was it's eight ounces. Um, it's six or maybe it's 10 ounces. And she ...
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    26 mins
  • #5 Focus

    #5 Focus
    May 18 2022
    Podcast #5 Welcome to show up. Number five, I'm gonna talk about focus, your focus and how it impacts every presentation and speech that you make.  Well, let me start with, there is no such thing as the right way to be a  . There are no rules about how you be and how you come across and the energy that you show as a  . There are no right rules. There are practical, useful stuff to know that will make your life easier.  When you go to do a presentation, whether that's on a YouTube channel, or if that's, uh, at a business meeting, or it's an office meeting where you're called to speak, having a plan, or having some ability to focus on what you need to do to be successful is ‘focus’. So most people, when I say focus, they immediately focus upon themselves.  Well, how I look as is, is my dress okay? Or is my shirt the right one? Or do I need a haircut? Is my haircut, or I, you know, as my two-day year-old shave, oh, where am I? What's my focus? When I say focus, your focus should always be on one thing. Only the audience because you see it's the audience you're speaking to. If you can connect to the audience and give them something, they either want need, or a new insight, they will walk away happy if it's just a performance and they don't really get anything from it, they might say, yeah, well, well done. There was a nice performance, but if you leave them with an experience or an understanding and knowledge, they will thank you for it. They will thank you for how you make them feel or how you increase their knowledge or how you pass on the knowledge to them.  So here's a few questions for you to think about your audience, ask yourself these questions, who is my audience? Well, most people say, well, Jack, they're human beings, but sure. What's the ratio, male, female, what's their age. Are they university graduates? Are they? College graduates. Are they professionals? What mix of professionals and office workers? What's the mix of female participants and male participants? What is their age group? Are they above 50? Are they above 40? Are they below 40? Are they all 15 years old? Are they high school graduates? Are they electricians, plumbers, carpenters? Who are they? What is this? What is this listening group? You see, you need to know more about them almost than they know about themselves as a group. Obviously, it's very difficult to pick one person and use them as an example, but you can use the, the collective knowledge of them.  If 60% of your audience is female and their university graduates, and they all work in the medical field, that gives you enormous understanding about the balance of that audience, ask yourself, how do they listen? Are they facts orientated? Are they emotionally orientated? Do they care more about the ‘why’? Or do they care more about the experience? And I just said, why are they here? You know, I've had audiences that have been told to show up. I can remember that. So clearly, I went to one distributorship who told everybody in the office to show up and listen to this guy. He is an expert. And I walked in, and I knew there was a certain kind of folded arm crossed energy. I'm not gonna listen to you until I addressed it. Hey, have you been told to be here, or do you want to be here? What do you want from me? What's your expectations, but you see, I did know some of those before I speak always try and find out why the audience is there. Why, why have they turned up today? What is their relationship with you? Have they heard about you? Have they bought your book? Um, is it because you have a responsible role that will affect their lives? What expectations do they have for the time that they are giving you as a listener, then check on yourself. What assumptions do you have? What assumptions do you have about them?  Does your story, or what you have chosen to share with them is that useful to them? The biggest thing that I've ever I've learned to do is how much do they already know if they already know all of this? Why are you speaking? Because you better offer something new, some powerful insight to make a difference. What do I want them to know about me? For example, my background, my future plans, what will make it easy for the audience to understand what the local colloquialisms are, the local slang, mind you, you better make sure that you understand the slang before you use it And what visuals or what tools or models do I need to support what I'm going to say.  Now, one of the things that I do is I'm something called a presentation director. That's where I'm in charge, helping a team, making a bid or an offer. And the presentation needs to be guided. It's usually a team of people. When I was working with one group in Florida, they had gotten a two thirds approval by the hospital group and the different vested interest in the hospital, but a substantial part of it wasn't on their side, but they had the stats because I read them. And, you know, two ...
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    14 mins
  • Step Up To The Mic #4

    Step Up To The Mic #4
    May 10 2022
    Step Up #4 Welcome to step up to the mic. Number four, in the previous podcast, I talked about that I would share the message, how to write a message and what goes into the message. But let me refresh the  , the tools, the message, the audience. I use the analogy of an Archer trying to hit a target. You are the Archer, the  , the bow represents the tools or the delivery system. The arrow represents the message. The target represents the audience. You're gonna focus mostly on the arrow or the message and a structure of a good message or an effective message. But first I always wanna say, there is no right way of being you at the front of the room. There is no right. Look for a   or a right sound or a right language or a right accent or tone. That's all BS. Just be yourself, show up, step up to the mic and be you.   Yeah, I know if you listen to more than one of my podcasts by now, you know that that's my credo show up and be yourself. Okay. So let's talk about how you craft a message and yes, you do have to think about how a message being passionate and involved in your message is wonderful. Your passion should show the way you feel should be felt by the audience. It should be felt by yourself as you deliver it. But if it comes out as a bunch of garbled pieces of high energy and intensity, the audience will start to shut down.  I often watch activists around the climate change, get lost in their own anger and frustration. Um, it's amazing because sadly, the lack of knowledge of how to craft an arrow or a message loses them and loses their message itself. So what are the elements in a message that are, or should say what works cuz I'm, I'm very practical. I'm only interested in what works, not the fancy words. I want to know what works.  So let's break down an arrow. It has a tip, a sharp tip, hopefully with the Arrowhead having a notch on it. So it will stick in the target. It has the shaft, which is the strength of the message. And then on the back it has, what's called the flesh, the feathers that guide the message to the target.  Now it's your responsibility as the Archer/speaker to craft the message so that the audience will listen. You see, if you ask, let me give you an example. If you are speaking to the rotary club and everybody who's in this particular rotary club works in the oil industry, getting up and doing a rant about how the oil industry is corrupt and it does, fracking and it spoils the water and it pollutes the atmosphere and attacking them while many of those facts might be true. It's an ineffective message.  If you want to change their minds my first step in the process of doing and crafting my message is to look at the audience, how do they listen? What kind of language do they use? Who are they? Where are they?  Obviously, me speaking in English, I'm limited to an English-speaking audience. There's not gonna be too many Spanish or Puerto Rican or uh, German people who would automatically listen, just because they have resources in their own language.  And if they do, they're gonna have to work to understand my message. So that's the first step is research the audience you're speaking to, how do you want to influence them? What impact you wanna make on them? You see it's not one size fits all every situation and everything that you are doing has a different purpose. So if you are speaking to children, for example, talking down to them is one of the worst things you can do. Treat them as little, tiny people that don't really understand. In fact, I find children understand a great deal more than we give them credit for. So three parts to a message, the Arrowhead, the shaft, and the fletch, the feathers on the end, the Arrowhead is it has another way to describe it. It must be a grabber. It must grab people's attention. It must pull them in.  You can use a provocative statement to grab people's attention. You need to be careful with provocative statements. I kinda like them myself, but they have, they have a great opportunity to, shall we say a offend or put off maybe 50% or 60% of, of the audience, although you can use it as a strategy.  One young lady, I was coaching. We decided that what she should do in her message, because she was talking about equality of men. And she used to come out on the stage, dressed very business, crisp pants, suit, little white shirt, tied up, you know, buttoned at the throat. And at one particular event, I said, well, let's try this because she wanted to be more provocative. She came out in a wonderful dress, which was very, I would say more nightclub or let me seduce your kinda of little dress black Lacey.  She was in very tall shoes. Her hair was swept up in a classic greek style. And she had very bright lipstick on. She didn't look like she was going to be speaking to a business audience. Just her appearance was provocative. It was part of the message. She then said to the audience, are you more interested in my figure and my ...
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    24 mins

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