Deceptive Public Speakers
Deceptive Public Speakers and presenters - or just the blind leading the blind?A disappointing deception is being perpetrated in the so-called public speaking and presenting arena. For years it's been a (now fading, thank God) ?norm' for companies to have a ?motivational' speaker at annual marketing, sales and other conferences. Being a veteran public speaker and founding member of the National Speakers' Association of SA (NSASA), I need to declare an interest. The purpose of this article is to 1) Alert relevant parties to the ?canned' nature of what they may be getting for their speaker money and 2) Hopefully save some young wanna-be speakers from going down a highly inappropriate and ?ersatz' road.My opinion of the role of an authentic public speaker is that one takes a brief to get enough information to really understand the audience and the intended outcome of the assignment or conference. You then custom-craft something or ?tweak' an existing suitable presentation for the event and then deliver that material in an engaging, and hopefully also ?professionally entertaining' way.What triggered this article can only be described as a Damascene experience.
Biblical-proportion scales fell from my eyes when I realised that the majority of the self-proclaimed ?top' speakers around the world have moved out of public speaking into public parroting and parody. And some South African speakers are now at risk of falling into the same trap. It's the equivalent if you will of Madonna, Josh Groban or Placido Domingo lip-synching. Why the analogy? Well, because it appears that many of these speakers learn ?off-pat' every single word of what they say on stage. Worse, they rehearse, memorise and do the same with every vocal inflection, movement and gesture - including the ?spontaneously' arched eyebrow and the pregnant but utterly contrived pause.I studied speech and drama under the eagle eye of the redoubtable Rita Maas-Phillips in Cape Town.
We trainee thespians became very familiar with the genius of Constantin Stanislavsky. He was the renowned director of the Moscow Arts Theatre and the father of ?method' acting which was subsequently adopted - to singular effect - by discerning movie actors. Seasoned live theatre actors had long benefitted. In method acting, you ?become' the character. So when Daniel Day-Lewis played the lead role in ?My Left Foot', he would sustain his on-camera character even off-set.
If you were to play Quasimodo, you would continue to walk, eat, speak and interact as you believe the legendary hunchback of Notre Dame might have. What the audience got was as we say in South Africa, ?die ware Jakob' the real thing, the ?Makoya!'It seems that inappropriate competitiveness and a desperate need for acclaim by peers and public has shifted public speaking at the top end of the (former) ?art', into an exercise in mimicry. Parrot-fashion learning and highly manipulative NLP-driven stage movements hold sway. I cottoned on to this when I saw one of these characters demonstrating so-called ?stagecraft' to some fledgling speakers. Each time, he replicated the same few lines, inflections and movements with terrifying and mathematical precision.
It was like watching a rewind and slo-mo replay of a sequence on TV. He proudly proclaimed that this was how he managed ?to get a predictable and consistent result from an audience, time after time.'This is regretfully, high-school speaking competition or Eisteddfod-type ?memorization'. At its worst, neurolinguistic manipulation. It's not even decent amateur acting. Because although an actor will commit to heart, her or his lines, the nuances and variations in each performance will give it memorable impact and make it art.
But the parrots of the speaking circuit don't allow themselves even that leeway. They produce a clone of their performance at function after function and at venue after venue. All good communicating on a topic will always of course have to incorporate the ?skeleton' on certain aspects. So yes, there may often be a degree of repetition. But it will be differently phrased and delivered each and every time because of the unique audience energy, dynamic and interaction ? or, lack of it!So why am I so disturbed by this galloping trend in the public speaking arena? Simply because it's an absolute waste and abuse of what can, with the right mindset and understanding, be a speaking gift.
When you have a good sense of the issues you'd like to explore in a presentation, you've got a sequence or line of thought and you've got your support material (if required) together, then comes the time for the real art. The first, more commercial approach will be to source, structure the material, have a very clear sense of where you're going and know how long the presentation or talk will take. But you intentionally keep ?open' your receptivity to subtle audience interaction (not necessarily spoken, but a ?vibe') and feedback in the form of engagement, response and so on, driving an element of your presentation. This can happen even with a typical non-interactive ?keynote' address.The second ? and highest form of communicating - is doing all the required prep but then trusting to the universe, God, your higher consciousness, intuition, the Ancestors, your Muse or whatever you wish to call it, to use you as an instrument to bring something special and of value to your listeners. Yes, even though it may be a business presentation, it can have an ?edge' that is unique and different.When you're appropriately ego-free and understand that you're only ever the instrument or co-player through which such a message will be delivered - but never the sole author - then amazing, sustainable transformation can and does take place.
People are affected and infected by the integrity and congruence of your message. You'll potentially have lower demand appeal, because the undiscerning masses are mainly looking for a quick fix. And there are innumerable frauds out there just waiting to serve up their version of a ?just add water and stir' formula. Don't listen to cynics who say that such integrity-based speaking, presenting or communicating isn't possible or even desirable. Rather, talk with people for whom it is a norm rather than the exception ? and explore your real speaking and presenting potential.The role of intuition shouldn't be underestimated.
For those who respect the gift, there will be the sub-conscious ?reading' of energies and needs emanating from an individual or the audience. You may recall afterwards, that you used examples or analogies that you hadn't for years. Or that you went very high disclosure on personal-experience based and therefore ?healing' information - because you were functioning authentically. You had prepared, you might well have rehearsed to ensure you honour the precise time allocated. But you spoke from the core of your being, knowing that it was not you alone speaking, but you in synch and tandem with the ?Wise Ones.' There's nothing ?mystical' about this.
It's about choosing to operate at another and much more powerful level. You'll know and feel the difference and so will discerning audiences.By
June 2005clive@imbizo.comMay be used freely with appropriate attributionAlso published in tomorrowtoday.biz newsletterwww.marketingweb.co.zawww.imbizo.com.
Emetrics Summit 2004: Web Analytics Conference Attracts Top Speakers -Top Companies
SANTA BARBARA, CA (ContentDesk) May 5, 2004 -- Emetrics Summit 2004 in Santa Barbara to feature speakers from Amazon, Yahoo!, HP and Jared Spool
http://www.emetrics.org. How do leading Internet companies measure the success of their websites? Web analytics is the fine art of measuring website clicktroughs, pageviews and revenues, along with tracking visitor behavior. It is the subject of the Emetrics Summit in Santa Barbara on June 2-3, 2004.Noted usability expert Jared Spool, founder of User Interface Engineering (www.uie.com) will share his research on measuring how well a website allows people to find what they're after. An entertaining speaker by any measure, Mr. Spool's participation in the Emetrics Summit emphasizes the variety of methods available for assessing the value of a corporate website."In addition to Jared Spool, I'm very pleased to have people presenting at...
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Start-Ups Get Started with UCLA Extension
Los Angeles, CA (ContentDesk) March 24, 2006 -- How does new technology make it from the drawing board to the customer? How do start-ups start up? Technology Innovators Forum, a new UCLA Extension course designed for working software programmers, IT engineers and aspiring Internet entrepreneurs, aims to demystify the process for everyone with a good idea -- but no idea how to start a high-tech company.Each week, the forum presents different guest speakers who have successfully started their own high-tech companies. Combined with a customer-oriented business model developed by instructor Daniel Curran, the forum gives participants the know-how they need to start a company with little or no outside funding, while employed elsewhere. As they learn about everything from the customer value proposition to patents, forum participants develop their own IT or Internet start-up launch plans and presentations.Guest speakers (subject to availability) include:Afshin Behnia, CEO of workflow software...
Start-Ups Get Started with UCLA Extension
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Car Stereos
Hobbies differ from one person to another. There can be little doubt that the most common hobby would be music. Marvelous are the effects of music. There is no limit to it. You can have it anywhere and everywhere, even while you are traveling in your car.
Indeed, you can take your favorite music along through your car stereo.
A car stereo includes a set of equipment like speakers, amplifiers, and CD or cassette players. Originally, car stereos meant just a radio run on a battery. Slowly, more additions were incorporated to include traffic signal messages and also sizeable memory. The earliest known brand of car stereo was Motorola.
There are many components constituting a car stereo. They are amplifiers, woofers, speakers, capacitors etc. You need to know the purpose of each component to select the correct one for your car.
Like home audio, car stereo is a fast-growing and ever-changing field with new technologies gaining popularity. By installing...
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Home Theater Explained ? Answers to Frequently Asked Questions
So you're in the market for a new home theater system?
Why not?
Everyone you know either has one or wants one.
Are you sick of having to go to your buddy's place to watch the game on the big screen?
Have you been playing that SNES system, circa 1995, since, well, 1995?
Is your prized movie collection in laserdisc format?
Maybe it is time to invest in a new home theater.
The first thing you ought to do is establish a budget.
You could spend thousands of dollars on your new system, so give some consideration to what you are able to spend.
There's no point spending your rent money on a TV, if you will not have an apartment to watch it in.
Once you have decided what you are able to spend, draft a wish list of components you would like.
Big screen TV or LCD projector?
X-Box or Playstation?
What about surround sound?
5:1?
6:1?
Home Theater Explained ? Answers to Frequently Asked Questions
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How To Get The Most From Google's Adwords
There are various ways to purchase highly targeted advertisingat very low prices. Google AdWords is one simple and quick way toto do this. Regardless of your budget, you can actually get yourtext ads appearing on search result pages based on the keywordsor search terms that you buy. You can also target your ad to a specific language or country.Pricing is based on the position in which your ad is shown butthere is no minimum amount required in order to open an account.Google positions your ad based...
photo printer Speakers How To Get The Most From Google's Adwords Deceptive Public Speakers
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Baby Bassinets
Baby bassinets are portable cradles. The difference being that a cradle is bigger and is usually left in one place. A bassinet is smaller and portable. Most come as complete sets including the bumpers, sheet and mattress. Occasionally even a baby blanket is included to match the theme of the set.
The average price is anywhere between $60 and $120 including the accessories. However, you can find them anywhere between $40 to $300. When looking for a bassinet find one with a sturdy bottom...
mattress Speakers Baby Bassinets
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