Latest / The Re.invent / The Art of Speaking So People Actually Listen with Heather McGuigan

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The Art of Speaking So People Actually Listen with Heather McGuigan · The Re.invent

0:00
SPEAKER_02: Photographers, are you ready to stop simply participating in the industry and start shaping it?
0:06
SPEAKER_02: I'm Noella Andres, a retired wedding photographer, educator, and the behind-the-scenes strategist who has worked alongside some of the biggest educators, events, and brands in the photography world.
0:16
SPEAKER_02: Every other week on reInvent, we sit down with the people shaping the future of the creative space.
0:21
SPEAKER_02: From speaking coaches, Facebook ad specialists, event hosts, and marketing experts to the voices behind the brands you already know and love.
0:29
SPEAKER_02: You're also going to hear from top educators, community builders, industry leaders, and a few solo Noella episodes along the way.
0:36
SPEAKER_02: This isn't just another podcast about photography or marketing trends.
0:40
SPEAKER_02: It's about learning how to position yourself as a leader, grow your authority, and create lasting impact through the ripple effect of sharing your voice.
0:48
SPEAKER_02: Because talent may get you noticed, but leadership is what's going to leave a legacy.
0:53
SPEAKER_02: Welcome to reinvent.
0:55
SPEAKER_03: Hi, my name is Heather McGwigan.
0:58
SPEAKER_03: I am a professional theater actor and an accent and public speaking coach under the name of Speakeasy with Heather.
1:06
SPEAKER_02: Hi, Heather.
1:08
SPEAKER_02: Okay, I'm so excited to have you here because, as you know, you just recently taught a class in our master class in my mastermind, and everybody was so excited to have you.
1:18
SPEAKER_02: And I just knew that I needed to get you on the podcast and reach more ears than just my closed little mastermind.
1:25
SPEAKER_02: Um I think we all walked away from that class with one, a lot of questions.
1:32
SPEAKER_02: Everybody wants you back to follow up.
1:35
SPEAKER_02: Um and also just have a couple more.
1:37
SPEAKER_02: Like you just have, it's clear you have a lot of knowledge to share.
1:41
SPEAKER_02: And the amount of time that we had was not near enough.
1:44
SPEAKER_02: So I'm excited to have a little bit more time with you today.
1:46
SPEAKER_03: And also like five worksheets to get through.
1:49
SPEAKER_03: I got through like one and a half and was like, oh yeah, this is a big this sort of the concept of public speaking is is so varied.
1:59
SPEAKER_02: It it is, and there are so many more aspects.
2:01
SPEAKER_02: I mean, even what you were talking about in the master, I was like mind blown.
2:05
SPEAKER_02: I never even would have thought to ask those questions or to think about those questions.
2:10
SPEAKER_02: And so I kind of pulled some of them into what I want to talk to you about today because I think that the listeners, and especially I I work with a lot of photographers and creatives, and I think that it's gonna be all of them are gonna be as equally mind-blown as me.
2:22
SPEAKER_02: So I'm really excited about it.
2:24
SPEAKER_02: Um, so I want to kick off uh talking specifically about the education space.
2:31
SPEAKER_02: I I think that there's a lot of educators out there that know their content and their topic really well and automatically think that they're gonna be amazing on stage.
2:45
SPEAKER_02: But they're very two very different types of skills, right?
2:48
SPEAKER_02: Like knowing a lot of knowing knowledge and a lot of um, you know, what it is that you want to teach versus actually getting on stage and commanding a room are very different skill sets I've learned.
3:01
SPEAKER_02: What do you think are some of the biggest mistakes that you see with kind of like inexperienced speakers who just know their stuff but may not necessarily have experience on stage?
3:12
SPEAKER_03: Absolutely.
3:13
SPEAKER_03: And you you it's it's two completely different things.
3:18
SPEAKER_03: It's it's very it's it's similar to sort of being able to do a triple and singing a high note, but then going on stage and having no connection to your character or understanding of stagecraft so that the audience can hear you, or that understanding microphone technique so that that super high note does not blow the system out is really a very separate art.
3:43
SPEAKER_03: A couple of things that I'm gonna talk about.
3:45
SPEAKER_03: One is your voice, which I could tell you nine ways to pump up this muscle right now, whether it's with lightweight, heavyweight, with a band earth resistance, with cottage cheese, with a protein.
4:03
SPEAKER_03: I can tell you so many ways to improve this right now because my knowledge of this muscle and the amount that people have studied it and explained it to me in various ways is vast.
4:18
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, people know zero percent, basically zero percent about how their voice works, how to play with it, why does it sound the way they sound?
4:30
SPEAKER_03: How can I change it to make it sound different for different spaces, for different groups, for different people, for different topics?
4:38
SPEAKER_03: How do I use this thing in a large-scale space?
4:43
SPEAKER_03: Which is kind of if I can compare it to photography, the idea of taking single portraits to taking large-scale family photos and going, yeah, it's still taking a photo.
4:55
SPEAKER_03: Like there's a whole other dynamic.
4:58
SPEAKER_03: No, the cardinal rule, I did not silence my phone.
5:02
SPEAKER_03: Um good those those concepts being really, really different while it is still the same concept of taking a photo.
5:09
SPEAKER_03: So, for one, yeah, is how this voice works, how to warm it up, why it sounds the way it sounds.
5:15
SPEAKER_03: Does it sound raspy?
5:16
SPEAKER_03: Why is it shaky?
5:18
SPEAKER_03: Why does it sound dry?
5:20
SPEAKER_03: Why do I sound nasally?
5:21
SPEAKER_03: Why do I sound why do I sound like I'm yelling when I'm trying to project?
5:25
SPEAKER_03: How do I project?
5:26
SPEAKER_03: What does that mean?
5:26
SPEAKER_03: What does project mean?
5:28
SPEAKER_03: So that's kind of one of the first things that happen is project, is is your voice as a whole.
5:34
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
5:35
SPEAKER_03: The second thing is looking at your entire body language of communication.
5:40
SPEAKER_03: Because again, you behind the camera, your knowledge of what the camera does is very, very different than you presenting your physical body in front of other people.
5:52
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
5:53
SPEAKER_03: And it's physical body matching the vibes that I need to do.
5:58
SPEAKER_03: Am I am I gesturing really fast?
6:01
SPEAKER_03: Do I use this gesture over and over and over again throughout my speech?
6:05
SPEAKER_03: Do I start to sort of feel like um the guy in Talladega nights when he's like with my hands?
6:12
SPEAKER_03: Like you get in front of me and finally you're like, ah, why do I have this claw hand?
6:16
SPEAKER_03: This is super weird.
6:17
SPEAKER_03: And at you photo, you see you're like weirdly hunched over, or you're pacing back and forth, or you're doing like the lay Ms.
6:24
SPEAKER_03: Rock step throughout your speech, and you're like, I don't know why I'm doing this, but I can't seem to stop.
6:30
SPEAKER_03: So it's really understanding and gaining control of your physical body.
6:35
SPEAKER_03: The third is really understanding your space and your audience, because that is how you connect with them.
6:43
SPEAKER_03: If you find yourself on a gigantic stage looking down at a group of people, you're like, whoa, this is really weird.
6:50
SPEAKER_03: Never talked to someone like this before.
6:52
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
6:52
SPEAKER_03: You are down in an auditorium type space, and everyone is suddenly up here.
6:57
SPEAKER_03: This is really different.
6:59
SPEAKER_03: If you're on a creaky, creaky stage, which a lot of conventions are, that's just a platform underneath.
7:05
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
7:05
SPEAKER_03: You have these really loud clicky heels, and there's kinda kind of slippery.
7:09
SPEAKER_03: And I didn't predict that.
7:10
SPEAKER_03: I got this microphone in my hand now, never talked to Falls before.
7:14
SPEAKER_03: So I had this Yeah.
7:17
SPEAKER_03: I don't even know how to do this.
7:18
SPEAKER_03: And I've touched it, or I'm I'm laughing because it was me.
7:29
SPEAKER_03: So a lot of it becomes figuring out your physical body and how that works, and then figuring out how to master speaking in different spaces.
7:42
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, no, that I mean it totally makes sense.
7:44
SPEAKER_02: Can you tell when you when if you're sitting in in the attendees, like you're sitting in the audience, can you tell within minutes if someone's gonna be a good speaker or not?
7:52
SPEAKER_03: Oh, within seconds.
7:54
SPEAKER_03: But that's as as someone who does this for a living and as someone who goes into a theater audition room, yeah.
8:01
SPEAKER_03: So I see either myself, and I can know whether I did a great job or rather, I totally blew it.
8:06
SPEAKER_03: You can read by the panel.
8:08
SPEAKER_03: You sit in on auditions sometimes, so you see people walk in, and then in a dance call, you've got 50, 60 gals in a room together.
8:16
SPEAKER_03: You can immediately start to see these things where you go, Oh, that person's feeling calm.
8:21
SPEAKER_03: This person's trying to be funny, this person's pulling a bit, but it's not working, this person feels more nervous, but they shouldn't be.
8:29
SPEAKER_03: You really can pick up on these things right away.
8:33
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it's funny because the one of the last talks that I did on stage, it was for a bunch of family photographers, like very like a lot of mom, um, you know, that are running like senior or branding photography kind of businesses, very casual.
8:47
SPEAKER_02: And I got on stage and I sat on the stage.
8:50
SPEAKER_02: And I think that was the first time anybody had seen me sitting on the stage.
8:54
SPEAKER_02: But I I hate, I personally hate standing on a stage and looking down at people because I'm and it's just not my vibe.
9:01
SPEAKER_02: Like I even now I'm sitting here, my feet are up, I'm like, we're laughing.
9:04
SPEAKER_02: It's just not my what I want people to feel when they're in the room with me.
9:09
SPEAKER_02: But it was funny because it happened right the same, it was like the day before when um Justin Bieber, I don't know, I don't know if you follow Justin Bieber, but he did a performance where he was so he's actually okay, yeah.
9:21
SPEAKER_03: For me, I've met his grandma, I see his family and his sisters at the skate park all the time.
9:26
SPEAKER_03: He's occasionally been around town, so not like I know the beeps, but like I'm Bieber Jason.
9:32
SPEAKER_02: So Bieber Jason, I love that so much.
9:35
SPEAKER_02: Well, it was right, so I did this move right when Justin Bieber went on stage, and he just sat like in his basically slippers on a little chair with no and like just just so casual, and everyone was like, Okay, Noelle, you're Justin Bieber.
9:47
SPEAKER_02: But it was it was very important to me that people felt like comfortable and welcomed, and then I was talking with them, not to them.
9:55
SPEAKER_02: And so I hundred percent like your analogy of like looking up, down, and um I I can see that being a big part of how when people are presenting, how it makes the audience even feel a different way.
10:08
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
10:09
SPEAKER_02: Um, are you so if you are let's say I'm I'm coming to you right now, I want coaching, I have a big talk coming up.
10:17
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, what is the very first piece of advice you would give someone?
10:22
SPEAKER_03: What do you want?
10:25
SPEAKER_03: That is basically that's a loaded question.
10:29
SPEAKER_03: What do you want from this from this speech?
10:31
SPEAKER_03: It's what do you want from the speech?
10:33
SPEAKER_03: Truly.
10:35
SPEAKER_03: When you when somebody writes a dissertation, when somebody defends a case, anybody who is trying when someone gets up for a political debate or a speech, you should have a one-sentence thesis statement.
10:49
SPEAKER_03: Most businesses have this.
10:51
SPEAKER_03: A lot of photographers will typically have a tagline that's very, very connected to what their business does.
10:57
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
10:58
SPEAKER_03: Your speech should have a one-sentence objective.
11:02
SPEAKER_03: What is the point?
11:04
SPEAKER_03: If you don't know what the point is of the speech, ultimately in one sentence, you are gonna talk all over the place.
11:13
SPEAKER_03: You won't be sure if it's supposed to be funny, you won't be sure if it's supposed to be detailed, you don't know how much information am I gonna talk about money?
11:21
SPEAKER_03: Am I not gonna talk about money?
11:22
SPEAKER_03: Is this about the look or the feel of the thing or the design of the thing or the website?
11:26
SPEAKER_03: So really be so focused on what is my central goal of this speech.
11:32
SPEAKER_03: When you know the central goal, every piece of information that you provide should prove that goal.
11:39
SPEAKER_03: If it doesn't prove that goal, you don't need it.
11:43
SPEAKER_03: If it's a side story that if it is something that is funny and quirky and it happens and you're a comfortable storyteller, then do so.
11:52
SPEAKER_03: But if you have a side story that has nothing to do with that central point, don't need it, not necessary.
11:59
SPEAKER_03: That's the first thing that I would say is you need to have your thesis statement and it needs to be active.
12:05
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
12:06
SPEAKER_03: So it needs to be: I want people to buy my course.
12:11
SPEAKER_03: I want people to start their own businesses.
12:17
SPEAKER_03: I want people to run their own finances through their company, whatever that is, it's a really, really specific goal.
12:26
SPEAKER_03: The second thing, I have three things.
12:28
SPEAKER_03: I'm gonna give you three things that I think I always start with.
12:31
SPEAKER_03: The second is why?
12:34
SPEAKER_03: Why do you want these things?
12:36
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, and it can be it sounds like a really simple question, and then you ask somebody who gets up to do a speech and go, what do you want?
12:43
SPEAKER_03: And they go, Well, I would like people to sign up for my course.
12:46
SPEAKER_03: Why?
12:46
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
12:48
SPEAKER_02: Like what is the transformation almost?
12:50
SPEAKER_02: Is that kind of what you mean?
12:51
SPEAKER_02: Like what yeah, or like why does it matter?
12:54
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
12:54
SPEAKER_03: Uh because I want to grow my business, because I want to build my business, because I love what I do, because I have information, new information that I want to share with people, because I want to be a support system for others, there's a lot of different angles that you can take.
13:14
SPEAKER_03: And when you understand the why, it starts to serve your want and that starts to really color the words that you choose and your vibe.
13:22
SPEAKER_03: Because if your vibe is to be a support system, then you need to pick a lot of vocabulary that's very supportive and helpful.
13:29
SPEAKER_03: If your vibe is that you want to grow your business, your business, my business, by people coming to me, I need to sell myself and the promise of success by coming to me.
13:42
SPEAKER_03: So it's really understanding.
13:44
SPEAKER_03: And so everything starts to feed this ultimate goal.
13:47
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
13:48
SPEAKER_03: The third thing that I want people to understand is what is the audience supposed to do at the end or during the speech?
13:56
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
13:57
SPEAKER_03: Do you want them to think?
13:59
SPEAKER_03: Do you want them to act?
14:01
SPEAKER_03: Do you want them to take notes?
14:02
SPEAKER_03: Do you want them to answer?
14:04
SPEAKER_03: Do you want them to come up and say something afterwards?
14:07
SPEAKER_03: Do you want them to formulate questions they want to ask?
14:11
SPEAKER_03: How do you want them to participate when you understand that and say, I want to have an interactive conversation during the speech?
14:20
SPEAKER_03: Okay.
14:21
SPEAKER_03: Where are the questions peppered throughout this?
14:24
SPEAKER_03: And have I budgeted time to answer them?
14:26
SPEAKER_03: Am I gonna open questions like this?
14:29
SPEAKER_03: Do I want people to participate by yes or no questions that I will ask and have them raise their hands?
14:36
SPEAKER_03: Maybe that's how you get people to participate in something.
14:39
SPEAKER_03: Okay, where are my yes or no questions?
14:41
SPEAKER_03: Am I getting to participate?
14:42
SPEAKER_03: If I want them to think, just think in a different way.
14:46
SPEAKER_03: Have I opened space up in my speech enough for them to think?
14:51
unknown: Yeah.
14:52
SPEAKER_03: Have I created some silent moments and some hypothetical moments for you to have a conversation with their minds and allow that space to ponder?
15:03
SPEAKER_03: If I want them to come right up afterwards and sign up my course, is that somewhere in there?
15:07
SPEAKER_03: Am I putting that in there that like now is the time?
15:11
SPEAKER_03: Am I putting on the pressure to go?
15:12
SPEAKER_03: What are you waiting for?
15:14
SPEAKER_03: Let's let's go, jump up, take the risk.
15:17
SPEAKER_03: If that's in there, then you want to make something inviting that makes people go, yeah, yeah, yeah.
15:21
SPEAKER_03: I'm gonna do I I gotta do this right now, right?
15:24
SPEAKER_03: This is here.
15:25
SPEAKER_03: So it's really under the third part, when you understand what the audience is supposed to accomplish, again, you then you really know where is this speech supposed to go?
15:35
SPEAKER_03: It really falls into place after that.
15:39
SPEAKER_03: This work is very, very similar to actor work.
15:42
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15:49
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15:59
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16:06
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16:12
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16:24
SPEAKER_03: As a character, I don't you can't just become someone else.
16:27
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I don't become a different person.
16:31
SPEAKER_03: It's understanding what do they want.
16:34
SPEAKER_03: What does this person want out of this?
16:39
SPEAKER_03: Why do they want it?
16:40
SPEAKER_03: What is the reasoning behind it?
16:42
SPEAKER_03: I don't have to agree with that reasoning necessarily, I just have to know what it is.
16:48
SPEAKER_03: I also can't always justify it, but as long as I understand what the choice is, I might understand why that person did or is going to do what they do.
16:58
SPEAKER_03: And then understanding what we want the audience supposed to do, do we want them to laugh at this point?
17:04
SPEAKER_03: Want them to think.
17:06
SPEAKER_03: Do we want them to clap here or not?
17:08
SPEAKER_03: Do we want to run this scene through so that actually the peak emotional moment is here, or do we want to give it to them here?
17:15
SPEAKER_03: Do we want to release the audience from tension here, or do we want to wait all the way to the end, which is why Hamilton as a musical runs straight through without a ton of applause?
17:28
SPEAKER_03: Because by the time you get to the end, you're like, I want to click so badly that the audience goes nuts at the end.
17:36
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
17:37
SPEAKER_03: But they've built that tension so that the explosion happens at the end.
17:42
SPEAKER_03: These are all things that get fabricated and thought about.
17:45
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
17:46
SPEAKER_02: So just as you're talking, I'm thinking about, well, I'm thinking about a couple things.
17:50
SPEAKER_02: But one of them is so this is actually something that I teach in the mastermind a lot, is often like, what is it that you want to be known for as an educator slash speaker?
18:01
SPEAKER_02: Um, and also just figuring out your brand voice.
18:04
SPEAKER_02: And I think, I think you had spoken about this in the mastermind too, is like, do you want to be authoritative or do you want to be a little bit more like nurturing or storytelling or, you know, kind of figuring out that?
18:15
SPEAKER_02: And and I think that applies not just to speaking on stage, but also just for a lot of the listeners, even in your social media content, how you market yourself, how you're speaking on stage, how you present on podcasts and like all the PR bits, um, it all comes back down to that.
18:31
SPEAKER_02: Like, what is it that you want to be known for and how do you want to show up?
18:34
SPEAKER_02: And so I guess one of my this leads me to my question is do you find that, let's say hypothetically, I'm asked to think speak on three stages coming up?
18:43
SPEAKER_02: Do I need to be, in your opinion, coming to each stage with the same how, why, what voice, um, mission, call to action?
18:55
SPEAKER_02: Like, does that need to be the same as a personal brand?
18:58
SPEAKER_02: Or do you find that some people show up and kind of change it for every talk?
19:02
SPEAKER_03: I think I like to have three to four core principal values that I sit on as myself.
19:12
SPEAKER_03: Uh for myself, they are energetic, passionate, and driven.
19:16
SPEAKER_03: These are three things that I think drive most of what I do and why I do it.
19:22
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
19:23
SPEAKER_03: I can see those live, they you embody them by the way.
19:26
SPEAKER_01: Well, that's it.
19:27
SPEAKER_01: That's great.
19:28
SPEAKER_01: That's great.
19:29
SPEAKER_03: I'm thrilled.
19:30
SPEAKER_03: Excellent.
19:31
SPEAKER_03: Um it keep it keeps me in check.
19:35
SPEAKER_03: These principles keep me in check for some of the times when I want to be a little maybe maybe stranger, maybe more aggressive, but it doesn't actually suit the audience.
19:48
SPEAKER_03: It's what maybe my instinct wants to be a little more, but you go, nah, that doesn't really serve this.
19:53
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
19:54
SPEAKER_03: In terms of going to different stages, I would more think about, you know, you have like a, you know, on like a DJ, you like fade up something and fade down something and fade this, but the sounds never really disappear.
20:07
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
20:07
SPEAKER_03: So it's understanding that like for this speech in this audience, I might want a little more energy.
20:13
SPEAKER_03: Okay, great.
20:15
SPEAKER_03: This audience, this dynamic, this conference, this group of people, I think they want to be pushed a little more.
20:22
SPEAKER_03: I'm gonna drive this one a little harder.
20:24
SPEAKER_03: So I might come at this and turn down a little bit of the energetic and just turn up the drive.
20:31
SPEAKER_03: And then all of that stuff remains present in you, but it's playing it in different places where you still remain the same.
20:40
SPEAKER_03: You see this with comedians.
20:43
SPEAKER_03: So comedians have such a vibe.
20:45
SPEAKER_03: Netflix specials that you watch, right?
20:49
SPEAKER_03: We can read the and and and we're drawn not just to the fact that they're funny, we're very much drawn to their personalities as people.
20:57
SPEAKER_03: And each special is often like slight where you're like, oh, this one's a lot more spicy than the other ones is.
21:05
SPEAKER_03: Okay.
21:06
SPEAKER_03: Either I like it or I don't.
21:08
SPEAKER_03: But they've maintained who they are, but they're gonna pull out a little bit.
21:11
SPEAKER_03: Oh, okay, great.
21:12
SPEAKER_03: They're like in summertime beach mode, in maybe a place where like political jokes are not the place to be.
21:18
SPEAKER_03: So I can tell that they're pulling out more family general hue than necessarily pushing some buttons at this moment.
21:26
SPEAKER_03: Okay, so they're they're pulling that out.
21:28
SPEAKER_03: They always remain the same.
21:30
SPEAKER_03: So this is where I would say look at the types of speeches, the other people coming, check out the audience.
21:37
SPEAKER_03: And I've got a little list here about on the day stuff that you can uh take on like that.
21:42
SPEAKER_03: Like it's and then also feeling in you.
21:45
SPEAKER_03: So this is a really interesting part of assessing yourself to go.
21:50
SPEAKER_03: I don't feel very pushy today in my life or in this month.
21:55
SPEAKER_03: It's not I don't have it in me.
21:58
SPEAKER_03: I'm feeling more in.
22:00
SPEAKER_03: Encouraging today.
22:01
SPEAKER_03: So let's hang into that world.
22:04
SPEAKER_03: Don't fight and be driven on a day when you're feeling more empathetic.
22:08
SPEAKER_03: If you don't have, if you're not feeling vivacious and Red Bull full of life, then you know, like then pull out the motivational side of you and and bring that energy into something simpler and calmer.
22:22
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
22:22
SPEAKER_03: So it's also do you just have to bring in who you are that day?
22:26
SPEAKER_03: And then it feels right.
22:29
SPEAKER_03: Otherwise, you're trying to fight yourself on stage and people will witness a personal emotional struggle in front of you.
22:35
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
22:35
SPEAKER_03: Can be very difficult to work through as well.
22:38
SPEAKER_02: And so what what I guess what you're saying is is kind of figure out who you are as an educator, as a speaker, but then you know, tweak it up and down a little bit, not only dependent on how you are feeling, but also just the audience and getting a feel for the audience.
22:52
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
22:52
SPEAKER_02: I really love that.
22:53
SPEAKER_03: And because an older an older crowd, let's say your your grandma portrait facility, that kind of doesn't necessarily want the sort of crossfit, I double dare you push.
23:05
SPEAKER_03: Right?
23:06
SPEAKER_03: You're right.
23:07
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
23:07
SPEAKER_03: They're not, it's not necessarily a group that's gonna pull into that.
23:11
SPEAKER_03: They're gonna be more excited by the connection to family, being part of special moments, to feel like you're being creative uh for you know a wonderful chunk of your life.
23:21
SPEAKER_03: That's where you would bring out like the energetic and the energetic and encouraging positive side of yourself.
23:28
SPEAKER_03: That young 20, early 20 crowd, yeah, they might like a little they want fire.
23:35
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, they want a little fire, they want to be dared, they want to be pushed, they want someone to go.
23:40
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, who's gonna be so I dare you to be the first one to start it?
23:45
SPEAKER_03: Who's it gonna be?
23:46
SPEAKER_03: And someone's gonna go, yeah, it's me.
23:48
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, right?
23:49
SPEAKER_03: And so this is this is also about really reading your audience as well.
23:52
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I love that advice.
23:54
SPEAKER_02: Um, so one of the things that I noticed a lot in the photography creative kind of space is that we stress out and spend so much time working on our slides.
24:06
SPEAKER_02: So we spend so much time, you know, in Canva, tweaking the colors and the fonts and reading it and just like perfecting.
24:13
SPEAKER_02: I'm I mean, I've been on airplane rides with friends on our way to go speak, and they're still tweaking the slides on the airplane ride.
24:20
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
24:20
SPEAKER_02: And I think that we put so much emphasis on that, but we don't focus a lot on our voice and how we are communicating.
24:27
SPEAKER_02: And what I really loved about what you talked about in that in the mastermind was even just like the tone of your voice, and you gave really good examples about how the different way that you are communicating can portray a completely different style of talk.
24:44
SPEAKER_02: What do you think?
24:44
SPEAKER_02: Like, do you think that the the content in the slide versus the tone of your voice, like which one do you think is more important, I guess?
24:54
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that's what I thought you were gonna say.
24:56
SPEAKER_02: I'm curious, I'm curious though, like, because I I think you even you even used me as an example.
25:01
SPEAKER_02: I think, and you were talking about how like how I'm a little bit more action-focused and a little bit more aggressive and like quick talker, and how that can totally change the talk.
25:09
SPEAKER_02: And it really doesn't matter about the slides, we're all focusing on the wrong things.
25:13
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, it is as a person who has an artistic eye to create the outside visual that I see, it makes perfect sense for people to go, this is a world that I know.
25:30
SPEAKER_03: I know color and I know composition and I know portrait and I know how to put this thing in the corner and I know how to light and stretch this across.
25:40
SPEAKER_03: That it makes so much sense that the design aspect would be the thing that I know.
25:45
SPEAKER_03: And if someone who chooses, has chosen to be behind the camera and to create art, it can be much more nerve-wracking to have to be a little bit more introspective and to put that art into yourself because it's really vulnerable, it's very, very vulnerable to put yourself out there, which is sometimes why people choose to be behind the camera or to be behind the stage.
26:10
SPEAKER_03: We look at all of those stage managers who are singing and acting and so full of heart, and they go, I love this, but I cannot fathom getting up in front of 2,000 people.
26:20
SPEAKER_03: But this is my creative world.
26:21
SPEAKER_03: If I can light this perfectly, if I can call this cue just right, if this set piece can slide in perfectly, then I know I've done it right.
26:28
SPEAKER_03: And that's very similar to what the visual on the slide is.
26:31
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
26:31
SPEAKER_03: So yes, it is about taking that look.
26:36
SPEAKER_03: We shouldn't need the slide.
26:40
SPEAKER_00: Hmm.
26:40
SPEAKER_03: And it's really But that's my safety net.
26:44
SPEAKER_03: There we go.
26:44
SPEAKER_03: Right?
26:45
SPEAKER_03: That's the thing that I can look at most of the time.
26:51
SPEAKER_01: My whole thing most of the time that I've thought of.
26:54
SPEAKER_01: And I could look down at my computer and push buttons.
26:56
SPEAKER_01: Yes, yeah, 100%.
26:57
SPEAKER_01: So true.
26:59
SPEAKER_03: Ask yourself next time, next time you do, ask yourself if you can do the presentation without the slide.
27:05
SPEAKER_03: Is all of the information present in your voice?
27:09
SPEAKER_03: And are you repeating?
27:11
SPEAKER_03: Because if you are gonna say stuff that is written on the slide, they'll need it.
27:16
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, and saying you don't need your slide is the thing.
27:19
SPEAKER_03: Don't stand in silence and let people read your slides.
27:23
SPEAKER_03: Uh it's really saying this needs to be in addition, but the main content really, really has to come from you.
27:36
SPEAKER_03: Facts, figures, some things that are helpful on a visual to remember is really nice.
27:43
SPEAKER_03: Um, an a visual example of something where you don't want to spend all the time describing.
27:49
SPEAKER_03: That's really nice.
27:50
SPEAKER_03: But ultimately, there should not be two simultaneous presentations running at the same time.
27:57
SPEAKER_02: I'm so guilty that I'm like, I want to hide myself, but this is a camera and I'm not a cat.
28:02
SPEAKER_03: So I know, and it is, it makes so much more sense to it makes perfect sense to do that.
28:10
SPEAKER_03: But the people who you will connect with the most are the ones who who who really don't need it.
28:19
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
28:19
SPEAKER_02: And that it is merely just an additional visual that I'm just so guilty here because I rely so heavily on the slides, but more though, more than just like I know I know a few really incredible speakers who will have a slide and it's just one powerful statement.
28:38
SPEAKER_02: And then you look at my slide decks and like all my content is on a slide deck.
28:43
SPEAKER_02: So I've I've taken a lot away from this already and feel slightly.
28:47
SPEAKER_03: I'm so it is great.
28:50
SPEAKER_03: Visuals are great, people love them, examples are great.
28:53
SPEAKER_03: It's when you can sort of go, can I, if I can't explain this with words, I guess I can put it up here.
29:00
SPEAKER_03: If it would take too long to for me to explain a graph, let's say, I can't want to verbally explain a graph.
29:07
SPEAKER_03: That's a visual situation.
29:09
SPEAKER_03: I don't want to verbally explain the look of a photograph.
29:13
SPEAKER_03: That's something that really should be done visually.
29:16
SPEAKER_03: But otherwise, it really should just be you so that people look up at the slide, gain the information, and come back to you again.
29:23
SPEAKER_03: It should not be spending most of the time looking at slides with the occasional look back at you.
29:30
SPEAKER_03: Otherwise, people will ask, how was the speaker?
29:32
SPEAKER_03: And they'll go, I don't know, but the slides were good.
29:35
SPEAKER_02: So such a good point.
29:36
SPEAKER_02: That's so true.
29:37
SPEAKER_02: I feel like, I feel like I could drop the mic now, but I still have more questions.
29:41
SPEAKER_02: Like that one, I think that's gonna hit home with a lot of people that are listening right now.
29:46
SPEAKER_02: Um so I just for a second talk about pace.
29:50
SPEAKER_02: I'm a fast talker.
29:52
SPEAKER_02: I like to blame the fact that I'm Italian.
29:54
SPEAKER_02: It's like my most anyone who's listening to as I say this all the time.
29:57
SPEAKER_02: I'm like, I'm Italian, guys.
29:58
SPEAKER_01: Oh, it's funny.
30:00
SPEAKER_02: But I fizz I don't know how to slow down.
30:03
SPEAKER_02: Do you have tips for people who are like me who need to pay a little bit more attention to the pace that they're speaking at?
30:09
SPEAKER_02: Even now I'm trying to slow down and it's very hard for me.
30:12
SPEAKER_02: I know.
30:14
SPEAKER_02: I can tell.
30:14
SPEAKER_02: Do you have no no no, you're doing good.
30:16
SPEAKER_03: It's a really common thing.
30:18
SPEAKER_03: This is oh, 60 to 70 percent of my public speaking clients are people who talk very quickly for a few reasons, pardon me.
30:32
SPEAKER_03: It's nerds being unclear about really what the point is.
30:43
SPEAKER_03: There are some languages, if people are uh non-English speakers first, there are other languages that are just generally faster languages words per minute.
30:53
SPEAKER_03: When that transfers over to English, they bring that same level of pace.
30:57
SPEAKER_03: This is a language that just sits a little longer in the space.
31:04
SPEAKER_03: The main way that I love to talk about pace is that I don't actively slow down, I try to lean in to the words that I'm using.
31:16
SPEAKER_03: And it's called diction.
31:19
SPEAKER_03: We all know we've all heard this word before.
31:22
SPEAKER_03: We think that it's really about enunciating the words.
31:25
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, right.
31:27
SPEAKER_03: But what it is, is making sure that I'm making a meal out of every word that's out there, and then what happens is that I'm really leaning in to the style and the words that I'm choosing to say.
31:43
SPEAKER_03: The slowing down part is a byproduct because what happens is when you tell people to slow down, they start to talk like this, and all the mono and an intonation goes out the window, and the facial expression drops, and I've never been more bored in my life watching each and speaking, and so it's just the life just gets sucked out of things.
32:09
SPEAKER_03: So instead, instead of thinking about slowing down, think about diving into what the heck you're saying, and when you lean into those words and they become important to you and also give the audience time to think, you will find yourself slowing down in space, you'll also become more comfortable is sitting with some empty space, yeah, which is all that's uncomfortable, yeah.
32:39
SPEAKER_03: It is the reason the space is uncomfortable is because the space was not intentional.
32:47
SPEAKER_03: It's because I'm lost or because I'm frozen, right?
32:49
SPEAKER_03: And I had lost and I've lost the plot of this moment, but sitting in a thought, yeah.
32:57
SPEAKER_03: You can sit in a thought for a long time in an audience.
33:00
SPEAKER_03: Comedians are magical at this.
33:03
SPEAKER_03: I will always I will constantly come back to comedians because they are so effective as public speakers, they play so much with pace.
33:12
SPEAKER_03: There's times when they speed up, there's times when the energy goes and it goes and it goes and they tell a great story, and then they hit the punchline and everybody loses it, and then they just stand in the glory of being so funny.
33:26
SPEAKER_03: But watch people who can play and sit in space and hold a moment, it's really a flex.
33:33
SPEAKER_03: I will say one of my favorite ones to watch, if I'm allowed to mention please do is Mike Burbiglia, The Old Man in the Pool.
33:40
SPEAKER_03: This is a directed Netflix special where he is telling stories on stage.
33:48
SPEAKER_03: It's comedy, but it's storytelling.
33:50
SPEAKER_03: His control of the audience, the idea that someone is in the palm of your hand, and what that means is just I am leading you with my words and my story wherever I want you to be in this moment.
34:04
SPEAKER_03: And it's a round stage, so he's talking over here and he's talking over here, and he's got people up here for the technicality of how he is controlling that room.
34:15
SPEAKER_03: I think he's a master in that art, and it's a really wonderful one to watch and go, oh he could stay still for like minutes, and I would be like it just disenthralled.
34:30
SPEAKER_02: Interesting.
34:32
SPEAKER_03: He's so committed to the story that he's telling.
34:34
SPEAKER_03: He knows exactly where the trajectory is going, he knows the point, he knows what he's trying to explain, he knows what he wants people to walk away with, and that's how he's weaving this the story.
34:44
SPEAKER_03: It's a brilliant special to watch.
34:45
SPEAKER_03: I'll I'll try, I'll make sure to like link it in the show notes for this.
34:48
SPEAKER_02: If you said it's on Netflix, right?
34:50
SPEAKER_02: I think so.
34:51
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
34:52
SPEAKER_02: I'll I'll see if I can find it.
34:53
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
34:53
SPEAKER_02: I think it is.
34:54
SPEAKER_02: Um so I and I I think that there's a lot of newer speaker.
34:59
SPEAKER_02: I mean, you know that I know this.
35:00
SPEAKER_02: We fill we fill a lot of words with like uh and um.
35:04
SPEAKER_02: Do you think that that is like you just said something that I thought about?
35:09
SPEAKER_02: Like, do you think that that's almost like us being uncertain about what to say next when we say um?
35:14
SPEAKER_02: Is it a habit?
35:15
SPEAKER_02: Like, how do we break that um?
35:17
SPEAKER_03: Yes, it is there, it's nervousness plus habit.
35:22
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
35:23
SPEAKER_03: Habit forms through repetition, obviously, for most of people's lives.
35:30
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
35:30
SPEAKER_03: Um, my dad, I just ummed.
35:32
SPEAKER_03: That's okay.
35:32
SPEAKER_03: You can um and uh for the also a couple of times, totally fine, right?
35:39
SPEAKER_03: It makes us human.
35:40
SPEAKER_03: If we were to meet somebody that like never ummed an odd in a space, it would sort of borderline on being too right.
35:47
SPEAKER_03: There's a there's a world that's really nice where we can have natural communication.
35:52
SPEAKER_03: My dad was an aw er.
35:55
SPEAKER_03: So he was uh here's the thing, and uh and he was kind of a he was a headmaster of schools, he did a lot of public speaking.
36:05
SPEAKER_03: I think he felt it sounded very studious.
36:08
SPEAKER_03: I'm like, uh, and and I developed them for a little while.
36:12
SPEAKER_03: In my earlier years, I noticed I did it a lot and I really had to practice undoing my ah.
36:19
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
36:20
SPEAKER_03: The number one thing you can do is replace it with a breath.
36:23
SPEAKER_03: That is the easiest thing.
36:24
SPEAKER_03: That's a good thing.
36:25
SPEAKER_03: No, instead of umming and awing, take a breath because it makes your voice work better and it calms your brains down and it helps your thoughts and it makes your body and stops your hands from shaking.
36:34
SPEAKER_03: It does magical things.
36:36
SPEAKER_03: Being very clear about what your point is and your ultimate point will also get you there.
36:42
SPEAKER_03: But I can say the biggest little trick that I taught myself is anytime I feel a pause, I'm taking a breath instead.
36:51
SPEAKER_03: And that is That's great advice.
36:55
SPEAKER_03: Exchanging one thing with another.
36:57
SPEAKER_03: Another really lovely trick that I will say is water when you are on stage.
37:03
SPEAKER_03: If you feel lost, if you feel like, oh my gosh, I'm I got lost for a minute, everybody's looking at me, I'm absolutely panicked.
37:13
SPEAKER_03: I don't remember what's next.
37:19
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it's a good idea.
37:22
SPEAKER_01: Man, so good.
37:26
SPEAKER_03: We got a laugh.
37:27
SPEAKER_03: We gotta laugh in the crowd.
37:29
SPEAKER_03: Perfect.
37:30
SPEAKER_03: I got out a funny little water bottle that says something funny about my personality because it's like this character.
37:34
SPEAKER_03: What did it take?
37:35
SPEAKER_02: Oh, yeah.
37:36
SPEAKER_03: It's I got it in a port shop.
37:41
SPEAKER_03: It's got all the islands on it.
37:43
SPEAKER_03: But it's funny.
37:44
SPEAKER_03: I brought it out and people laughed, and it's a thing that I like to use because it just makes people smile.
37:49
SPEAKER_03: But secondly, it gave me a moment.
37:50
SPEAKER_03: A I took a drink of water.
37:52
SPEAKER_03: Marvelous in the middle of the speech when your mouth is going like crazy.
37:55
SPEAKER_03: But I took a moment to just regain myself here.
37:59
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
38:00
SPEAKER_03: I get to connect with the crowd.
38:02
SPEAKER_03: Oh, so good.
38:03
SPEAKER_03: Great.
38:04
SPEAKER_03: Okay, back on my point.
38:05
SPEAKER_03: Here I am.
38:06
SPEAKER_03: I've got myself back on track, right?
38:08
SPEAKER_03: It's a nice little break.
38:09
SPEAKER_03: There is nothing wrong with it.
38:10
SPEAKER_03: It makes you human, it makes you relatable.
38:12
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
38:13
SPEAKER_03: Everybody else probably reached down and also grab yours while you my second little giat tribe on water is if you're gonna take water, make a meal out of taking water.
38:23
SPEAKER_03: Don't do this.
38:24
SPEAKER_03: Don't do a bottle and then go.
38:27
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
38:29
SPEAKER_03: It's the strangest thing to watch somebody try to hide their drinking while you're watching in front.
38:36
SPEAKER_03: Just live in it.
38:37
SPEAKER_03: Just drink your water.
38:41
SPEAKER_03: You will feel instantly relaxed.
38:42
SPEAKER_03: Everyone in the room will feel relaxed.
38:44
SPEAKER_03: You get yourself back on track again.
38:45
SPEAKER_03: I will say, I do do that when I'm yawning because I'm such a bad yawner.
38:51
SPEAKER_03: Yes.
38:51
SPEAKER_03: Yawning is caused by lack of breath while you speak.
38:54
SPEAKER_03: While you speak, that's why you're going.
38:56
SPEAKER_03: Um, because your lungs are craving more oxygen in a moment when you're exhaling a lot, and that's why you're and your your jaw is a little bit tense from speaking.
39:03
SPEAKER_03: And so that's your body going, I need to stretch a little bit.
39:08
SPEAKER_02: So that's why that happens with you.
39:09
SPEAKER_02: I mean, that honestly explains so much because I do I do talk fast, I don't breathe often, and then I'm always finding I'm yawning on stage.
39:16
SPEAKER_02: And I'm like, I don't want people to think I'm bored.
39:18
SPEAKER_02: Or that's very bored.
39:20
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, like that's not what I'm trying to give off.
39:22
SPEAKER_02: Yep.
39:23
SPEAKER_03: It's really common in voice lessons to yawn a lot.
39:26
SPEAKER_03: Teachers are used to it, and it's because we're finally taking in a lot of air and really using these muscles, but and so the body goes like, Oh my gosh, I need more.
39:35
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, you are doing a lot of work here, lady.
39:37
SPEAKER_03: I need some, I need some more.
39:38
SPEAKER_03: Oh my god, backstage, we're all like oh my goodness.
39:45
SPEAKER_03: So that we can get these muscles relaxed before we go back out on stage.
39:48
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that's so good to know.
39:50
SPEAKER_02: Uh, I just thought I was bored.
39:53
SPEAKER_02: Um okay, confidence.
39:55
SPEAKER_02: I just want to I are we good for time?
39:57
SPEAKER_02: Yes, confidence.
39:58
SPEAKER_02: So do you think that confidence on stage comes from like you know, obviously working with people like you, um, leveling up our speaking skills, knowing the content more, or do you think that we can get more confident by just repetition, by by speaking more?
40:16
SPEAKER_02: Or are we just speaking more as a hot mess?
40:19
SPEAKER_02: Like, can we can we I guess do you think that this is something that you can learn through repetition?
40:26
SPEAKER_03: No, it's the former.
40:27
SPEAKER_03: Okay, it's 20 like everything else.
40:31
SPEAKER_03: If you have poor running form and you just keep doing 5K's and your arms are doing this, and your legs aren't right, and you're not breathing well, and you just keep doing it, you're not going to be a good runner.
40:45
SPEAKER_03: You're just gonna keep doing it.
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41:30
SPEAKER_03: A little bit of training is where you are going to find what's working and what's not working for you so that you can really settle in.
41:43
SPEAKER_03: And there might be just a couple of really simple things like you're shuffling your feet around a lot, it's affecting your breath, which is affecting your hands, which is affecting your words.
41:53
SPEAKER_03: And then you go, Oh, I didn't even know.
41:56
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I was moving my feet, and you're like, Yeah, all the time, non-stop, actually.
42:03
SPEAKER_03: Um, or hand gestures or looking at body language and going, I feel like you feel like this, but your body's telling me something else.
42:10
SPEAKER_03: So really doing a little bit of training will advance you.
42:16
SPEAKER_03: If you are someone who has never done any kind of voice work before and you're looking at diction, you are looking at maybe cleaning up and becoming more precise in your words.
42:26
SPEAKER_03: That's something that's very helpful.
42:28
SPEAKER_03: If you've never spoken on a microphone before, holy moly, this is this whole other thing that you have to control.
42:36
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
42:36
SPEAKER_03: Once it's in your hand or like this, no matter what the space is, uh, if people can't hear you, that's the end of it.
42:44
SPEAKER_03: So I do say it's a little bit of it is a little bit of training.
42:47
SPEAKER_03: Repetition will get you over the hump of feeling nervous, but the reality is the nerves will continue if you don't address what is making you nervous in the first place.
42:59
SPEAKER_03: And it's not just the getting up in front of people.
43:02
SPEAKER_03: There's a reason why.
43:03
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
43:04
SPEAKER_03: Um, so it is, and then the confidence idea is that confidence comes when you feel really rooted in what you're doing, yeah.
43:14
SPEAKER_03: And that sometimes it takes a little bit of a little bit of coaching and a little bit of thought process to get to that point, and then it becomes very simple.
43:26
SPEAKER_03: We I always go back to the acting thing because it's you know it's a a big part of what I do.
43:33
SPEAKER_03: The times when I feel nervous going out on stage, it's because I'm not totally sure that I'm making the right choices.
43:45
SPEAKER_03: That's when I go like, I don't feel right in this yet, you know, or a scene that comes up where you go and it's because you're like, yeah, you have not found what this is.
43:57
SPEAKER_03: You need to go back to some tablework here and figure.
44:00
SPEAKER_03: Out what the real intention is, what I'm trying to achieve in this scene is, and then it comes out, then the going out in front of people is the really fun part.
44:12
SPEAKER_03: But it's typically not about the people, it's about the content.
44:17
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
44:18
SPEAKER_02: It's interesting that you say that.
44:19
SPEAKER_02: Like I think, you know, when I speak on stage, I know the content very well.
44:25
SPEAKER_02: I kind of generally speak about two or three things, and I could do it without the slides if I had to.
44:31
SPEAKER_02: But I think so often when the slides are there, I do use it as like a crutch.
44:34
SPEAKER_02: Like it's like, it's it's like my baby.
44:36
SPEAKER_02: Like he's to be accountable.
44:38
SPEAKER_02: But but I I think that um I know the content very well, but I don't present myself as a great speaker.
44:45
SPEAKER_02: And I remember in my early years of of speaking, I was I hate to I hate to say this.
44:53
SPEAKER_02: I hope nobody that hired me in my early days is listening.
44:56
SPEAKER_02: But like I was not, I was not a good speaker, but I was asked to come back uh multiple times.
45:01
SPEAKER_02: And now that I think about it, I'm like, I think that I got comfortable speaking because I was doing it over and over in the same way.
45:09
SPEAKER_02: And and then and then I took a break.
45:12
SPEAKER_02: And I think it was really hard for me to get back on stage at that point because I took took a break.
45:18
SPEAKER_02: I wasn't confident anymore.
45:20
SPEAKER_02: I had to regain that confidence, but I also had to convince stages that I was I knew my stuff still.
45:28
SPEAKER_02: And that was that was really hard for me.
45:30
SPEAKER_02: And I think that if had I had been working with a coach, a speaking coach at the time, it would have been I would have known my content and I would have been a great speaker, and it would have been much easier to get people to hire me to come back on stages.
45:43
SPEAKER_02: Um if I had worked on that a little bit more, I guess is what I'm trying to say.
45:50
SPEAKER_02: Um that was so I'm gonna cut that all out, by the way, because that was all over the place.
45:56
SPEAKER_02: That's great.
45:57
SPEAKER_02: Um okay, I wanna one more thing that you talked about that I think is so valuable is hands.
46:07
SPEAKER_02: And and also you did talk about also about getting to know the room you're speaking in beforehand.
46:12
SPEAKER_02: And the reason why I think those two are connected in my mind is the microphone situation because I am a hand talker, I'm Italian, I'm always using a mic as a way to keep my hands in spot.
46:24
SPEAKER_02: Like this is me during the talk with a microphone.
46:27
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, everything about you looks scared.
46:31
SPEAKER_02: I mean, it's true, but I think if I went into a setting and had this microphone, the Britney Speaker.
46:41
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, like we call them Britney mics.
46:43
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, if I had the Britney mic, I'm just imagining my hands would be all over the place.
46:48
SPEAKER_02: So all over the place.
46:49
SPEAKER_02: It can be.
46:50
SPEAKER_02: Yep.
46:51
SPEAKER_02: So yeah, so you two things here.
46:53
SPEAKER_02: Like, what are we doing with our hands?
46:55
SPEAKER_02: And also just I want to just touch on like preparing for the room because that's a very important thing, I think, to know about before you get on stage is the mic situation.
47:02
SPEAKER_03: Definitely.
47:04
SPEAKER_03: So, yes, physical gestures.
47:10
SPEAKER_03: I'm gonna talk about acting again.
47:11
SPEAKER_03: I'm sorry, I'm going back to the book.
47:12
SPEAKER_03: Oh, do it.
47:14
SPEAKER_03: The root of all of this comes from this is a very cheesy saying that we use in the theater, which is when you can no longer speak, you sing.
47:26
SPEAKER_03: When the emotion is too great to sing, you dance.
47:32
SPEAKER_03: And what this means is as a speaker, the only reason that you should be adding physicality is if the word that you are using is so important that I need a physical gesture to enhance its meaning.
47:52
SPEAKER_03: So physical gestures should be coming out on words that I want you to listen to.
47:59
SPEAKER_03: Physical gestures should happen on words I think are important, words I want you to remember, words that I want you to go home with.
48:09
SPEAKER_03: And otherwise, you can be still, and it's really hard to be still because you think it's boring, but it's not.
48:14
SPEAKER_03: Because when you're totally rooted in what you were talking about, you can watch someone be very, very still for a long time.
48:21
SPEAKER_03: This is why we love close-up movies, right?
48:24
SPEAKER_03: We don't need our actors to be in movies to be out there like constantly doing gestures and you look like me right now, Heather.
48:35
SPEAKER_03: But they use them really, really effectively, and it's it's generally just when it's appropriate.
48:43
SPEAKER_03: And so that's really what you want to think about when you know what you want for your speech and you know um why you want it, and you understand what the audience wants to do at the end.
48:55
SPEAKER_03: What should come up is a list of like 20 words that are really, really important to your speech where you go, yeah, everything I'm saying is important.
49:03
SPEAKER_03: These words are really important.
49:05
SPEAKER_03: And so those are the ones that you need that physical gesture to add to the moment.
49:12
SPEAKER_03: And otherwise, you find everyone's got a comfortable home base to be in.
49:17
SPEAKER_03: Most people prefer the church, the church choir hand, which is just literally what it is.
49:22
SPEAKER_03: Test like your hands are coming out of your habit, they're tucked right here.
49:26
SPEAKER_03: Um, people love a church hand that's very, very comfortable for people to be in, and it grounds two hands together, you're not gesturing at all.
49:33
SPEAKER_03: And it's really so much nicer to use them sporadically when they're valuable to you, and then bringing them down again.
49:41
SPEAKER_03: So that's sort of something on hands.
49:43
SPEAKER_03: And again, large-scale rooms can have bigger gestures, smaller scale things and podcasts can have things like this.
49:50
SPEAKER_03: You'll notice that at no point did I do.
49:52
SPEAKER_03: Maybe I did, but a gesture like this that you can tell on camera is yeah, me we're really weird that doesn't fit at all.
50:01
SPEAKER_03: Um, on camera, I would never gesture forwards.
50:04
SPEAKER_03: This looks really strange, my hand doesn't go bigger than my head.
50:07
SPEAKER_03: That's weird.
50:08
SPEAKER_03: Um, so you notice that for camera, my gestures are sideways and open because this is what the medium of it is.
50:13
SPEAKER_03: Speaking of medium, let's transition into the location.
50:18
SPEAKER_03: Understanding your location is crucial.
50:20
SPEAKER_03: Am I looking up at people?
50:22
SPEAKER_03: Am I looking down?
50:22
SPEAKER_03: Am I on a stage?
50:23
SPEAKER_03: Do I stand on the stage?
50:25
SPEAKER_03: Is it loud?
50:25
SPEAKER_03: Is it echoey?
50:27
SPEAKER_03: Uh how how far left and right and do I need to speak to people in this room?
50:34
SPEAKER_03: Are they here?
50:36
SPEAKER_03: Great.
50:36
SPEAKER_03: I've got this microphone.
50:38
SPEAKER_03: Does it have a cord?
50:39
SPEAKER_03: Have I ever worked with a cord before?
50:40
SPEAKER_03: That's weird.
50:41
SPEAKER_03: If not, practice at home because it was a whole other thing to have to move the cable around and not awkwardly or step over it.
50:47
SPEAKER_03: Things like that.
50:48
SPEAKER_03: If you have a Britney mic, that is the mic that they have provided you with.
50:52
SPEAKER_03: But I don't love a Britney mic because you tend to hear every word because it never leaves your mouth ever.
50:58
SPEAKER_03: It's right in front the whole time you can't take a break from it.
51:02
SPEAKER_03: So if they offer you a choice, take a handheld.
51:05
SPEAKER_03: Also, the Britney mic is going to have a pack on it, which like make sure you're wearing an outfit where a pack might hide, or you have to click it too.
51:16
SPEAKER_03: That's also important.
51:17
SPEAKER_03: So this handheld is always your best option because you get to control it and put it away from things and be comfortable wearing it.
51:25
SPEAKER_03: So, yes, you become aware of your microphone.
51:27
SPEAKER_03: Things that I like to do in spaces.
51:30
SPEAKER_03: Um, if you're the first speaker of the day, haha, good luck.
51:34
SPEAKER_03: Um the second or third speaker of the day, go and sit down in this space and go, what does that look like as an audience member to look up at somebody else on the stage?
51:44
SPEAKER_03: What's the worst seat in the house?
51:46
SPEAKER_03: What's the worst seat to sit in in this space?
51:48
SPEAKER_03: And make sure that you include that person when they sit down.
51:52
SPEAKER_03: It's going, if you're sitting up front, going, wow, this is what this looks like.
51:57
SPEAKER_03: So probably never stand at the edge of the stage in a skirt.
52:01
SPEAKER_03: Uh, because this is quite high up for somebody.
52:04
SPEAKER_03: So now I know where it's yeah, it's sticking and out.
52:08
SPEAKER_03: So now I understand.
52:09
SPEAKER_03: So you start to control those.
52:10
SPEAKER_03: Is there an echo?
52:11
SPEAKER_03: Are there other speeches happening?
52:13
SPEAKER_03: Are there light demonstrations?
52:14
SPEAKER_03: Is there a woo-woo sound going on that I'm gonna get distracted by?
52:19
SPEAKER_03: When you're aware of all of those environments, you then step on stage in control where I hear the woo-woo and I knew it was coming.
52:26
SPEAKER_03: So I'm not suddenly stuffed by that.
52:29
SPEAKER_03: I did not walk forward to the edge of the stage and go, Oh my gosh, okay, great.
52:33
SPEAKER_03: If you were gonna sit on the stool, sit on it first, feel what that feels like.
52:36
SPEAKER_03: Where's my leg go?
52:38
SPEAKER_03: All of the things you can figure out before let you be in control of your environment.
52:46
SPEAKER_02: No, that's such good advice.
52:47
SPEAKER_02: I um I uh in the one of the last time I spoke, I actually had my best friend take a photo of me on stage so I could see what I even looked like before he even went on.
52:56
SPEAKER_02: Because I know I know in especially photography events, there is a million cameras on me.
53:00
SPEAKER_02: And I'm like, I want to make sure that if I'm I'm on stage, I'm looking cute.
53:04
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, 100%.
53:06
SPEAKER_03: And like, what is the view going to be?
53:07
SPEAKER_03: What is the audience's experience of me in this?
53:10
SPEAKER_03: Like, can I alter this?
53:12
SPEAKER_03: If I'm way too far back, okay.
53:14
SPEAKER_03: I need to, I'm gonna bring this whole speech way farther down than I want to be.
53:20
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, there's a lot of things that you can control.
53:23
SPEAKER_02: No, it's so true.
53:24
SPEAKER_02: Okay, I have one more question.
53:26
SPEAKER_02: I've already taken so much of your time and I appreciate it so much.
53:29
SPEAKER_02: Um, I think that a lot of photographers right now, so the photography industry, you know, we get really busy, especially in North America and Canada, especially, we get really busy in the summers.
53:38
SPEAKER_02: And then event season for us is kind of late fall, early spring, winter, usually around that time.
53:45
SPEAKER_02: And so a lot of us right now listening are either applying to speak at at different conferences or events, or they've just recently been accepted to speak um in the spring.
53:55
SPEAKER_02: What is the number one thing?
53:57
SPEAKER_02: So we put all this energy into getting on stage, getting accepted or accepted.
54:01
SPEAKER_02: What is the first thing you think we should do, aside from hiring you, because we're gonna do a whole list about that?
54:10
SPEAKER_02: I mean, we're gonna do a whole pitch.
54:12
SPEAKER_02: I'm gonna I'm gonna do that.
54:13
SPEAKER_02: I promise.
54:13
SPEAKER_02: I'm gonna add all the ways to contact you at the end of this podcast.
54:17
SPEAKER_02: But what is number one thing like?
54:19
SPEAKER_02: Is it listening, finding hype music?
54:22
SPEAKER_02: Is it figuring out what it is you want to be known for?
54:25
SPEAKER_02: Like, what is your number one piece of advice I should do immediately after the accepted letter comes in?
54:33
SPEAKER_03: Find ways to be excited about what you're gonna do.
54:38
SPEAKER_03: And you can be excited about what you're gonna do when you understand what it's going to accomplish and why you want to do it.
54:45
SPEAKER_03: Not just I need to speak at conferences because that's what we do.
54:50
SPEAKER_03: But like, what do I want to share?
54:52
SPEAKER_03: Today I I want to tell people about this thing because I'm passionate about it.
54:57
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, and why do I care about this?
54:59
SPEAKER_03: Because I love it.
55:00
SPEAKER_03: Like, talk your way into this world where you go, I want to do it right now, is what I want.
55:06
SPEAKER_03: I want this conference to be tomorrow.
55:07
SPEAKER_03: I cannot wait to get up there and share this information rather than like, uh, I'm gonna have to get up in front of people and I don't know what to say and I don't know when it's gonna look like and like you can control all of that stuff, yeah, and everything becomes easier when you have the better, the better view it in mind.
55:26
SPEAKER_02: It's a mindset, it's like getting your mindset ready and getting it excited and hyped up.
55:31
SPEAKER_02: I love that.
55:33
SPEAKER_03: It's talking to yourself about what you're great at, and this can be really hard because a lot of times we desire, we think about what we want to be, we think about who we want to become, hyping yourself up to go.
55:48
SPEAKER_03: I'm really energetic.
55:52
SPEAKER_03: People like that.
55:54
SPEAKER_03: That's good.
55:55
SPEAKER_03: I'm okay, I can be okay with that.
55:56
SPEAKER_03: I'm gonna kind of lean into that a little bit.
55:58
SPEAKER_03: I think that's why I'm going there.
56:00
SPEAKER_03: Or I'm very technical, and people like that about me.
56:05
SPEAKER_03: They want to hear my technical expertise on this business.
56:09
SPEAKER_03: That is what I want to share with them.
56:11
SPEAKER_03: So it's becoming excited about what you're doing.
56:13
SPEAKER_03: The second is to get that thesis statement.
56:19
SPEAKER_03: One goal, everything else, the the clothes, the slides, the speech, the vocabulary, the way that you move, the words that you choose, everything will fall into place when you understand what that centralized goal is.
56:38
SPEAKER_03: It's very similar when you are planning a wedding, that you kind of have a theme, but often people choose like one item.
56:46
unknown: Yeah.
56:47
SPEAKER_03: They see like an elaborate gold candlestick with dooleys on the side, and they go, That's it.
56:54
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I'm gonna build everything else above their wedding up at this, but there's something about this candlestick that is it it's everything that I want, and everything needs to build around that.
57:06
SPEAKER_03: And a lot of people in terms of design have that image involved, and we understand that.
57:11
SPEAKER_03: So you need to create that same type of imagery within your own body.
57:18
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, no, that's a great, great, great answer.
57:22
SPEAKER_02: Um, and I and it's like a similar to kind of like theme that I teach and in like a lot of what I do with as far as helping educators, you know, get to be known for, you know, it's something.
57:32
SPEAKER_02: I think I think especially with photographers, you can be you could talk on pricing or posing or sales and all the things, but just finding one centralized thing that you want to be known for and that you want to be taught on because then you're gonna be asked to speak on stages to speak about that topic.
57:46
SPEAKER_02: People are gonna go to your Instagram to find out that content.
57:49
SPEAKER_02: It's all kind of what what you're saying is um very similar.
57:52
SPEAKER_03: And it's the they're not coming for content, they're coming for you.
57:56
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it's it's building a brand around you.
57:58
SPEAKER_03: They're coming for this, they're coming for this, they're coming for your vision, for your creativity, for the way that you think see things.
58:06
SPEAKER_03: They want you because they don't have that in them, they have other skills, yeah.
58:12
SPEAKER_03: They're coming to you because they were drawn to you as a person.
58:17
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
58:17
SPEAKER_03: So I think it's letting that, it's letting that come out.
58:21
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, no, I love it.
58:22
SPEAKER_02: Okay, so I'm gonna give, I'm gonna add all the ways to contact you, your website, all the things in the show notes.
58:28
SPEAKER_02: But if you can just quickly pitch yourself, like what is it that you do?
58:31
SPEAKER_02: When you say hire me, what is it that you're doing?
58:33
SPEAKER_02: How can our people find you and hire you?
58:35
SPEAKER_03: Absolutely.
58:36
SPEAKER_03: Um, so I work um from I am an accent and speech coach, which are two sort of separate sides.
58:45
SPEAKER_03: So I can work for people who are coming as uh English second language speakers who are bringing their first accent into their English and they're finding that it is trickier to speak in the language.
58:56
SPEAKER_03: So I do modifications that allow you to be more understood in spaces.
59:02
SPEAKER_03: That's the accent modification part.
59:05
SPEAKER_03: Two is the public speaking part.
59:06
SPEAKER_03: So I'm looking at a lot of the stuff that we talked with today, which is defining the why and the how and the what's the point.
59:13
SPEAKER_03: Then we look at vocal things like uh sentence pattern repetition, a variation of voice, unpredictability of pitch, pace, diction, magic words, uh, crafting whole paragraphs, delivering speeches, taking up space.
59:29
SPEAKER_03: So that is the we do voice work.
59:32
SPEAKER_03: Then we take that to the physical body.
59:34
SPEAKER_03: So we look at the entire presentation where we are looking at body language walking around.
59:39
SPEAKER_03: When do I walk?
59:40
SPEAKER_03: How do I walk?
59:41
SPEAKER_03: Which way?
59:42
SPEAKER_03: When?
59:42
SPEAKER_03: How?
59:42
SPEAKER_03: How far should I go?
59:43
SPEAKER_03: How many steps?
59:44
SPEAKER_03: This way, that way, this way, that way.
59:46
SPEAKER_03: Where do I look?
59:47
SPEAKER_03: Ah, how do I look out of people?
59:49
SPEAKER_03: Do I do a sprinkler across?
59:53
SPEAKER_03: Do we just stare at one space?
59:54
SPEAKER_03: I keep always just wanting to look at this one person here, and I can't seem to look at anybody else.
59:59
SPEAKER_03: This person I can't bear to look at.
1:00:00
SPEAKER_03: So really getting comfortable with eyeline and feeling control in the room, microphone technique for people who have never spoken on microphone before and want to understand that it's a mood of vertical thing.
1:00:10
SPEAKER_03: Like there's a lot of art to using a microphone well.
1:00:14
SPEAKER_03: Then it's going through your whole speech and looking at the ebbs and the flows and the connection and where are your magic words and what am I getting at the end of this?
1:00:24
SPEAKER_03: Am I walking away with what you want me to walk away with?
1:00:28
SPEAKER_03: And if that doesn't happen, then we make those little alterations.
1:00:31
SPEAKER_03: Uh, and that becomes the gigantic world of public speaking.
1:00:37
SPEAKER_03: This also comes in con.
1:00:39
SPEAKER_03: I mean, it's this content, this is podcasts, this is any manner of public communication.
1:00:47
SPEAKER_03: Um, I've done date coaching, I've done casual marketing and the the networking events kind of conversations, yeah, how to start great click conversations, how to be a great storyteller in a room if that's this is really just about mastering the art of speech.
1:01:06
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
1:01:07
SPEAKER_02: And so do you do you um have like is it coaching sessions, is it single coaching, is it of multiple packages that people can buy if they want to do a lot of things?
1:01:15
SPEAKER_03: All one-on-one at this point.
1:01:17
SPEAKER_03: I would love to get into some group classes so I can say if you have a collection of friends and think, hey, let's all do this together, that's an option.
1:01:26
SPEAKER_03: I typically love to work one-on-one because it is so personal and it is so specific to you.
1:01:33
SPEAKER_03: And it at times can be vulnerable when we're talking about nerves and failure and the body and all of those things.
1:01:39
SPEAKER_03: So I really want to be able to give you one-on-one intention.
1:01:42
SPEAKER_03: So it's one-on-one classes, it is weekly classes, it's one of the months classes, it's 30 minutes an hour.
1:01:49
SPEAKER_03: There's really a lot of variation I can work with.
1:01:53
SPEAKER_03: Okay, it can be general stuff or it can be basically specific.
1:01:59
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, and I can sort of help from a kind of a directorial standpoint as well as the concepts of public speaking.
1:02:06
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
1:02:06
SPEAKER_02: Okay, that's exciting.
1:02:08
SPEAKER_02: Um, so like I said, I'm gonna link up all your information in the show notes, you guys.
1:02:13
SPEAKER_02: I would love for you to follow Heather and just track her down.
1:02:16
SPEAKER_02: I know a lot of us are preparing for event season, and I, I mean, I'm telling you, when I heard her the first time, I was like, wait, I was like, take it.
1:02:23
SPEAKER_02: I have multiple notes, and uh, I just think everything that you're sharing is so valuable, but also not something that we typically think about.
1:02:30
SPEAKER_02: So um, thank you so much, Heather, for coming today.
1:02:34
SPEAKER_02: Um, and that's it.
1:02:35
SPEAKER_02: Have a good day, guys.
1:02:37
SPEAKER_02: Thank you so much for listening to the reinvent podcast.
1:02:39
SPEAKER_02: I hope today left you really inspired and that you walked away with something that you could put into action in your business today.
1:02:46
SPEAKER_02: If this episode resonated with you and you would like to help the podcast reach even more creatives, hit follow, subscribe, share it with a friend, and leave us a review.
1:02:54
SPEAKER_02: Those reviews really help other listeners find us when they need it the most.
1:02:59
SPEAKER_02: So for show notes, links, different resources, head over to my website.
1:03:03
SPEAKER_02: It's noellaandres.com.
1:03:05
SPEAKER_02: That is n o E L L A A N D R E S dot com.
1:03:08
SPEAKER_02: Thanks, guys.
1:03:09
SPEAKER_02: See you the next time.