Since the last election, we’ve seen an increased respect for the power of rhetoric, thanks to the reputation our current President earned on the campaign trail. Even his enemies concede his power as a speaker. Last night he took off the gloves, and got to his “make-my-day” moment: the upcoming election is going to be a doozy.

The president, as all of us would be, seemed a little short on saliva last night. He had dry mouth syndrome, which means his nerves were acting up. There were, after all, hundreds of people within shouting distance who hate his guts.

But he got some things off his chest. He has tried to gain the respect and cooperation of his own party, and that of his opponents, but so far, it’s been a rough road, and it’s not likely to get smoother.

The process by which public speech moves people to action is complex and mysterious, but it has something to do with lighting up neurons in our brains that want to be lit up. Public speaking is as old as our species, fresh as wet ink on newsprint, and as personal as your private business.

Public speech is personal because while it trumpets big ideas and values, it comes from the mouth of one person and goes deep into your own private intellectual and emotional synapses. You can reject it, or you can open yourself to it, but when it comes from someone you believe in, someone you trust, it’s going to take root in you, and swim in your blood stream.

So let the war of words begin. Game on! Let those who cheer for one leader enjoy their champion landing blows on the ideas and values dear to others. And let all of us, rich and poor, give thanks that it will be a war of words, and not a war of bullets.

And then, after giving thanks for our democracy, let’s hope and pray that it’s a war of reasoned, thoughtful words and not a war of slogans, clichés, and bullet-points.

Sims Wyeth & Co. provides public speaking courses, executive speech coaching, presentation skills training, voice and speech training, speech writing, and courses that address stage fright, body language, presentation strategy, and effective use of PowerPoint, all of which contribute to greater executive presence and personal impact.

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A speaking voice that lacks clarity and expression can undermine the success of an otherwise bright and talented individual. And when there is a regional or foreign accent present, the challenge can be even greater.

Sims Wyeth & Co. provides voice and speech training for executives and professionals of all stripes who need to have their voice and speech do justice to their knowledge and professional abilities.

The process begins with a diagnosis of the clients’ needs. A curriculum is then developed to address those needs, light homework is provided, and teacher and student meet regularly to address those speech habits that require improvement.

The method emphasizes “the whole voice.” In private and group instruction, clients learn that the voice is a wind instrument. They learn to strengthen the breath stream, open the back of the throat, release the jaw, and expand their verbal expressiveness, so that the speakers’ logic is more evident, and their personal presence more appealing.

The method also helps speakers improve their diction. Physical exercises requiring the student to increase the mobility of the tongue and lips can change the speech and vocal habits of a lifetime. Drills and cold readings challenge the speaker to use greater range in pitch, volume and speed, which can lead to greater confidence and the ability to be more assertive. The physical change can give birth to a psychological change.

Course materials include written exercises, and digital sound files for student practice.

About the instructor

Sharon Wyeth is a veteran voice and speech coach to executives in high tech, pharmaceuticals, professional services, theater and other industries. She is the former head of the Voice Department at Actors and Director’s Lab, then part of New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts.

“My goal is to bring out the best in my clients,” says Sharon, “which means insisting that they speak with confidence, conviction, and clarity without sacrificing what makes them unique.”

She holds a B.A. degree with honors from Harvard University and an M.F.A. with distinction, from Hunter College, City University of New York.

General areas of study:

1. Breath control

2. Clarity of articulation and accent reduction

3. Expressiveness, i.e. pitch, volume, speed, inflection

4. Alignment: an area where qualities of vocal expression are aligned with intention. For example, clients often need to sound “enthusiastic” or communicate “confidence” in their products.

Sims Wyeth & Co. provides public speaking courses, executive speech coaching, presentation skills training, voice and speech training, speech writing, and courses that address stage fright, body language, presentation strategy, and effective use of PowerPoint, all of which contribute to greater executive presence and personal impact.

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As she introduces her voice and speech students to breathing techniques that strengthen the voice,  she finds it necessary to differentiate between volume, projection, and intensity—three words that at first glance appear to be synonymous—but upon closer scrutiny have useful  and distinct shades of meaning.

Volume implies loudness, or number of decibels.  However, we’ve all encountered deranged people on the streets who have loud voices.  And any sane person who is consistently loud, no matter the social circumstance, will have difficulty building a trusting relationship with an audience of any size.  So loudness is sometimes necessary for an effective vocal presence, but certainly not sufficient.

Good presentation skills require adequate decibels, but they also need the voice to project to its intended listeners.  This means it must carry the intention to connect  with those it seeks to influence.  It must be suitable for the environment, appropriate for the audience, and couched in a discriminating awareness of the occasion.  It is volume moderated by calibrated intention.

Finally, in addition to volume and projection, a highly effective voice has intensity. Sharon defines intensity as the expression of emotion,  or conviction.   Intensity implies belief, confidence, and intellectual certainty.  Intensity has energy, a sense of urgency and excitement.

The words we use to describe a good speaking voice, one suitable for highly effective presentations and speeches, are similar to those we use to describe music.  As we train the speaking voice to be stronger, we increase its musicality, and thus expand its capacity to hold attention and influence the thoughts and feelings of others.

Sims Wyeth & Co. provides public speaking courses, executive speech coaching, presentation skills training, voice and speech training, speech writing, and courses that address stage fright, body language, presentation strategy, and effective use of PowerPoint, all of which contribute to greater executive presence and personal impact.

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Good leaders make good companies, and good leaders are, among other things, good at communicating who they are, what they believe, and who the employees should believe they are.  In the end, the final challenge, the ultimate task of leadership is to confer an identity on those the leader leads.

For instance, did Steve Jobs do this?  Did he confer an identity on a large number of people?  I would say that he did.  If you worked for him and his company, I suspect you carried a little voice inside your head that constantly reminded you that you were an Apple person—an Apple-onian; a little voice that made you feel good about yourself.  And in your social life, at parties, when you met people, you might sweetly keep your place of work a secret, but when asked, you might feel a little flash of triumph as you revealed, “I work for Apple.”   It’s like dropping the H Bomb (the Harvard thing.)  It confers an identity on you, for good or ill.

Shakespeare’s Henry V strives for this result in his St. Crispian’s Day speech, when promising his men that they will forever be remembered and honored if they survive the about-to-happen battle of Agincourt.

This story shall the good man teach his son;
And Crispin Crispian shall ne’er go by,
From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be remembered-
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne’er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition;
And gentlemen in England now-a-bed
Shall think themselves accurs’d they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin’s day.

I am very interested in giving our clients a process for creating, designing, and delivering presentations that ascend the step-ladder of value-creation, moving from the bottom rung of knowledge to the highest rung of identity—which includes the ability to convey values, principles, behaviors, expectations, and all those soft intangibles that shepherd us to excellence.

Knowledge and intelligence are necessary, but not sufficient for leadership.  We need people who are capable of conferring on us an identity that will help us become our best selves.

Some of us can create such an identity for ourselves, but not for others.  Some can do it for others, but not themselves.  And some of us create destructive identities for ourselves and others.  None of us is perfect, which is why we need laws, and leadership, and cultures.  We need shaping to be at our best, and for that, we need people who are more than knowledgeable, more than intelligent.  We need them to tell us stories—about who we really are, and who we can become.

Sims Wyeth & Co. provides public speaking courses, executive speech coaching, presentation skills training, voice and speech training, speech writing, and courses that address stage fright, body language, presentation strategy, and effective use of PowerPoint, all of which contribute to greater executive presence and personal impact.

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The simple old-fashioned way to do this is to write, “To answer your question: Yes, I am coming to get the bikes,” or something to that effect.  You have to remind the sender of the previous exchange.

Same thing when you’re updating senior execs on how things are going.  If you don’t remind them about what you said last time they will have no idea what you’re talking about – they’re busy, and have too much to think about.  They need to know the backstory.

So presentation skill #43 is begin with the backstory.  It’s old news to you, but the senior people have been busy since they last saw you.  Take them back to the material they’ve heard before.  They will appreciate the update, and your news of progress will make more sense: you’ll be putting the content into context!

Sims Wyeth & Co. provides public speaking courses, executive speech coaching, presentation skills training, voice and speech training, speech writing, and courses that address stage fright, body language, presentation strategy, and effective use of PowerPoint, all of which contribute to greater executive presence and personal impact.

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I have rarely had mushrooms in my garden, and never a toadstool with an orange stem and a phallic tip topped by a red pimple on its nosecone.

I remain horrified by the sight of it, and worried about the malicious conspiracy transpiring under ground.  What other alien life form is going to come out of the earth under the hydrangeas?

Sharon and I washed our hands after we touched it, but half an hour later, we still had to scratch an alarming epidemic of itches that popped up in unmentionable anatomical places.

An otherwise routine Saturday morning was made famous by this unexpected visitor.  We will talk about it for years…but for all the wrong reasons.

Some people bring toadstools into their presentations and get attention for all the wrong reasons.  They tell jokes that fall flat.  They wear clothes that make them look cheesy.  They talk about themselves too much.  They show off, pontificate, grandstand, ham it up.  They go over the time limit.  They scratch in the wrong places.  They mispronounce key technical or industry terms that they should know.  Or they use their own technical language despite the fact that the audience doesn’t know it.

It’s good to be memorable, but only for the right reasons.  Not for being outrageous, or shocking, or sensational.  Rather, be memorable for your expertise, warmth, and relevance.

Don’t bring toadstools into your talk to get attention.  You will quickly wear out your welcome.

Sims Wyeth & Co. provides public speaking courses, executive speech coaching, presentation skills training, voice and speech training, speech writing, and courses that address stage fright, body language, presentation strategy, and effective use of PowerPoint, all of which contribute to greater executive presence and personal impact.

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In this article, Mr.  Westen points out that Obama was elected to the presidency and given control of both houses of Congress to do the will of the people, which was to restore the rule of fair play to the American economy, and abolish the golden rule, which stipulates that he who has the gold makes the rules.

Whether you agree with the majority of the American people is not the point of the Times article, or of this post.  The point is that we humans are designed to absorb information through stories.  We tell ourselves stories about the past (history), stories about what’s going on in the present moment (news and commentary), and stories about the future (setting a course for a more perfect union).  And, according to Mr. Westen, Obama has failed so far to tell any of these stories that he was elected to tell.

Stories have heroes and villians, but due perhaps to his conciliatory disposition, our President does not like to name names and point out culpability.  He prefers a balanced approach and compromise, even though he was elected to clean up Washington.

Arthur Miller, the great American playwright, pointed out that when we elect our presidents, we are electing an archetype, a great father who will provide and protect, a hero who will create safety for us, and lead us into fights against those who mean to do us harm.  In essence, said Miller, we elect a metaphorical killer, someone who is brave enough to step onto a battlefield, whether that be in the halls of Congress, the mountains of Afghanistan, or the bully pulpit of Sunday morning TV, take out our enemies, and come back with their scalps.  Obama got bin Laden, but he has not taken the heads of those he was elected to neultralize (metaphorically!).

The present seems to be swarming with intractable problems.  The future is a frightening blankness fraught with a range of horrific possibilities.  We need and want someone to tell us a story about how we got here, how we can get out of this mess, what the future can be and how we can shape it.

I urge you to read this article.  It is relevant to any speaker who is trying to get an audience to do something.

Sims Wyeth & Co. provides public speaking courses, executive speech coaching, presentation skills training, voice and speech training, speech writing, and courses that address stage fright, body language, presentation strategy, and effective use of PowerPoint, all of which contribute to greater executive presence and personal impact.

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Let me think aloud.  If you bolt the public speaking techniques onto your exterior, aren’t you automatically deepened by the process of using them, or at least changed in some way by the effort?

Or, if you approach presenting as a spelunker, someone who sees the task as a process of personal growth and development, do you eventually arrive at the tips and tricks, buried like treasures in the center of your being, only this time they’re growing from the inside, out?

This idea presupposes that the public speaking tips and tricks are somehow fundamental universal principles that are present in all of us, lying dormant deep inside us.

Maybe if you approach the discipline of public speaking as a set of mechanical techniques they remain just that – tools you use – due, perhaps, to your willingness and ability to see them as tools that you put down once the job is done.

But then you are changed by the knowledge that you have a new ability, a greater power to influence others through your persuasive speaking, which could very well be a self-fulfilling prophecy, since your increased sense of power will give you greater confidence, which could speed you up the steep and thorny path to career success.

However, you may use your new-found confidence to speak lies, half-truths, and ideological blather to your audiences, in which case you have improved yourself as a speaker, but not as a person.

So it all comes down to intention.  You can become a better public speaker or presenter through acquiring tips and tricks, or by approaching it with the intention of using your skills for the greater good, but what will determine your personal growth is not your technique, but your purpose.

Which reminds me of this line from T.S. Eliot:

The last temptation is the greatest treason:

To do the right deed for the wrong reason.

Sims Wyeth & Co. provides public speaking courses, executive speech coaching, presentation skills training, voice and speech training, speech writing, and courses that address stage fright, body language, presentation strategy, and effective use of PowerPoint, all of which contribute to greater executive presence and personal impact.

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Geoffrey Miller notes that most adults have a vocabulary of about sixty thousand words.  And yet the most frequent one hundred words account for 60 percent of all conversations.  Why do humans bother knowing those extra fifty-six thousand words?

So they can more effectively sort through and impress potential mates, says Miller.  He calculates that if a couple speaks for two hours a day, and utters on average three words a second, and has sex for three months before conceiving a child (which would have been the norm on the prehistoric savanna), then a couple will have exchanged about a million words before conceiving a child.

That’s a lot of words, and plenty of opportunity for one of them to get offended, bored, or annoyed by the other.  It’s also ample enough time to fight, make up, explore and reform.  And it is long enough for them to stay together to raise a child, which is crucial since a single woman in a prehistoric environment could not gather enough calories to support herself and her offspring.

The logic of this is astonishing.  Basically, Miller is saying that we are creatures biologically wired to:

1.  Use language to impress potential mates.

2.  Use the language of potential mates to eliminate them as contenders.

3.  Use language to entertain so that men and women stay together during vulnerable pregnancies and birth.

4.  Use language, therefore, to ensure the survival of the species.

The implications of this are even more astounding.  If language is designed to help us pick partners, exclude those who are unsuitable, and then serve as the glue to create the future, I venture to say that our use of language, in all its forms, is the most important skill we can ever have.

We get jobs based on how we talk–how well we use words to make fine distinctions.  We keep jobs the same way.  And the business cultures we build, and the products and services we create, are generated by words…by the awesome, generative power of language.

Our careers depend on it.  Apparently, our marriages depend on it.  Our children will depend on it.  And the survival of the human race depends on it.

I am language.  My hands are on the wheel.  My foot is on the gas.  There are no brakes.  Where do you want to go?

Sims Wyeth & Co. provides public speaking courses, executive speech coaching, presentation skills training, voice and speech training, speech writing, and courses that address stage fright, body language, presentation strategy, and effective use of PowerPoint, all of which contribute to greater executive presence and personal impact.

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His predecessor in the White House, Warren Harding, was an expansive orator, who described his own style of speaking as “bloviating,” by which he meant “speaking a lot and saying nothing.”

Coolidge was a refreshing contrast. Once, after the president had attended church, a reporter had this conversation with Coolidge.

“What was the sermon about, Mr. President?”

“Sin,” answered Coolidge.

“What did he say about it?”

“He was against it.”

There’s another story about Coolidge’s brevity.

A woman in a receiving line at the White House once gushed to him, “Mr. President, I bet my husband that I could get you to say more than two words.”

“You lose,” was Coolidge’s reply.

While this is not an entertaining way of speaking, and actually conceals a contempt for the power of speech to enchant an audience, it is concise, matter of fact, and reveals a bone dry sense of humor.

Most of us talk too much. I know I do. I just got feedback from one of my clients, letting me know in no uncertain terms that they wanted to do more of the talking at any seminars I might have the privilege of running for them in the future.

My goal is to say what I want as efficiently as possible so that people actually are pleased when I open my mouth to talk.

Talk is cheap. There’s an over-supply and little demand.

Silent Cal was onto something.

Sims Wyeth & Co. provides public speaking courses, executive speech coaching, presentation skills training, voice and speech training, speech writing, and courses that address stage fright, body language, presentation strategy, and effective use of PowerPoint, all of which contribute to greater executive presence and personal impact.

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I skirted that word by simply saying that presence is hard to define, but we know it when we see it.  So we did not spend any time trying to define it.  Instead, we spent time trying to display it.

So far, having dismissed the foggier aspects of the topic as too obscure for our purposes, we are working on vehemence as a behavior that could lead to presence.

We’re not saying that being more expressive is the only way to have presence, but it’s a start.  To speak with vehemence makes people pay attention, which makes the speaker more of a presence in the consciousness of the listener.

I am aware of the argument that to speak with vehemence is to assert one’s truth by increasing the violence of the assertion.  But I am also aware of the unfortunate fact: if truth were self-evident, eloquence would not be necessary.

We are working on vehemence of purpose, vehemence of structure, vehemence of word choice, and vehemence of speech and gesture.  The before and after contrast was astounding.

Sims Wyeth & Co. provides public speaking courses, executive speech coaching, presentation skills training, voice and speech training, speech writing, and courses that address stage fright, body language, presentation strategy, and effective use of PowerPoint, all of which contribute to greater executive presence and personal impact. 

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They have a simple storyboarding template of four blank squares.  In the first, you draw or paste a picture of your client in pain, along with the exclamation that’s coming out of your customer’s mouth.  Nice and simple.

Then, you draw or paste a picture of the visual metaphor for your product, service, or concept.  For example, a health club might visualize itself as being able to turn a couch potato into an Adonis.

In the third panel, you draw or paste a picture of your client– happy after you’ve removed the pain.  Again, you also draw the exclamation that comes out of the client’s mouth.

Finally, in the fourth panel, you draw or paste a picture of you, your logo, or your product, and write one thing you want the client to do or remember.

This is good stuff for presenters too.  It helps us think visually.  It keeps our presentations focused on our listeners’ problems, and forces us to present solutions.   It makes us think about emotions in addition to information.  It encourages us to use metaphor, which is the ability to link what is new to something familiar. And finally, it demands that we have a call to action at the end of our presentation.

Plus, it helps those of us who are word people speak the language of picture people, which gives us stereophonic input into the brains of both tribes.

Sims Wyeth is an executive speech coach in Montclair, NJ specializing in presentation skills and public speaking training in order to give accomplished people the knowledge and skill they need to become accomplished speakers. Learn more public speaking tips at www.SimsWyeth.com.

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It is important to have no misspellings on the slides, no inconsistencies between the data displayed and the data verbalized; important to make tenable claims, and demonstrate the sterling methods by which the data were generated; important to argue logically, rationally, objectively, and demonstrate a clear understanding of the difference between fact and opinion.

My brilliant clients do all this.  They work long hours to make sure the content is thorough, precise, and accurate.  They make no turn without stoning any assertion to test its strength and weakness.

Yet they often disregard themselves and how they come across. By education, training, temperament and culture they dwell on the facts.  They know that expertise is necessary for success, and they often act as if it were also sufficient.

It is not sufficient.  It is necessary, but not sufficient.  Audiences also need the facts shaped into a narrative that holds their attention—one that is clear and meaningful, and flows in a manner that appeals to the mind.

And always, under its breath, the audience is muttering, “Do I trust this guy?  Can she make this happen?  Does he have what it takes?  Would I like to have a drink with her?”

It’s never not also the person.

Sims Wyeth is a speech coach in Montclair, NJ specializing in presentation skills and public speaking training in order to give accomplished people the knowledge and skill they need to become accomplished speakers. Learn more public speaking tips at www.SimsWyeth.com.

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In this way, you create attention and interest in your topic by linking it to our primordial fascination with puzzles and problem solving.

The article has brought out opposing views.  Some of them seem to be opposed to Obama’s policies rather than his speaking skills, but others make good points.

They accuse him of simply being good at reading scripts on a TelePrompter.  I admire the President’s comfort with the TelePrompter, but some have said that this is no indication of oratorical skill or leadership ability.  Perhaps we could train a chimpanzee to use a TelePrompter, but we couldn’t train one to write Candidate Obama’s speech on race, or deliver it with such restrained passion.

Whatever you think of TelePrompters, they are tools that speakers must learn to use.  The President is not an actor who is given 4 weeks to learn his lines.  He gives dozens of talks a day and must use the tools at his disposal. 

On another front, many of the comments on the article on Bnet make the point that when President Obama goes off script, he says “er” and “uhm” a whole lot, and that does not inspire confidence.  At the same time, one or two commenters mention that his speaking skills are tools of deception, and that I am advocating that business speakers develop their ability to “seem” authentic, or “appear” confident and authoritative.

(Interesting that they fault the President for saying  “er” and “uhm” while at the same time fault him for being slick.)

While I agree that authenticity and genuineness are attractive traits, and that there is a thin line between “polished” and “slippery,”  I also know that nobody follows a weak trumpet. 

In a job that requires non-stop public speaking, a  good man with bad speaking skills will be less effective than a bad man with good speaking skills.

We as Americans want a leader who is ethical, smart enough to figure out how to solve our problems, and tough enough to get the job done.

And by the way, he better be a good speaker, too.

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