Delivery
March 17, 2010 by Jerry
As readers of the prior post saw, one of the most common and pervasive maladies known to humankind is the fear of public speaking. Even professional performers have stage fright. Actor Sir Laurence Olivier, singer Carly Simon, pianist Glenn Gould, jazz musician Benny Goodman, choreographer Jerome Robbins and actor-director Orson Welles all experienced nervousness about their appearances in public. The anxiety heightens when performers step out of their professional roles and appear as themselves. Witness the Oscar award ceremonies. In the high pressure circumstances of the primetime live broadcast last week, almost every one of the actors had the
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March 10, 2010 by Jerry
One of the most commonly held misconceptions about public speaking is that good speakers are born that way. Meaning, in the lyrics of a song from the classic Stephen Sondheim musical, Gypsy, that “Ya’ either got it, or ya’ ain’t.” If any speaker were to accept this false belief, he or she would never be able to change—and presentation coaches would be out of business. I’m pleased to report that the presentation trade is alive and well, and is so primarily due to the pervasiveness of one of the most common maladies known to humankind: the fear of public
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February 26, 2010 by Jerry
“You are what you eat,” a phrase that has become commonplace in today’s lexicon, actually came into being in the 19th Century. In 1825, Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin, a French lawyer, magistrate, and politician, published The Physiology of Taste: Or, Meditations on Transcendental Gastronomy, in which he wrote, “Tell me what you eat, and I will tell you what you are.” Over time, Monsieur Brillat-Savarin’s treatise on cooking and eating has become a bible for foodies, and his phrase, in its shorter form, a slogan for dieticians. Brillat-Savarin’s modern counterpart, food guru Michael Pollan, the author of the bestselling Omnivore’s
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February 24, 2010 by Jerry
On the occasion of the submission of his 2011 budget, President Obama assembled his economic team to join him during his speech. In the official White House photograph, the president is flanked left to right, by Christina Romer, Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers, Timothy Geithner, Secretary of the Treasury, Peter Orszag, Director of the Office of Management and Budget, and Larry Summers, National Economic Council Director. You’ll note that all of them are standing with their hands clasped in front of them, in what is known in the presentation trade as “The Fig Leaf.” In the Power
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February 22, 2010 by Jerry
After months of ducking the media over charges of marital infidelity, Tiger Woods finally met the press by delivering a thirteen-and-a-half minute apologetic statement to a hand-picked audience, and he did not take questions. That did not stop the media from picking over the event like the leftover carcass of a Thanksgiving turkey. The commentary ranged from the sarcastic (London’s Telegraph commented: “Tiger Woods had bought a new shirt. But, rather like a schoolboy on his first day of term, it appeared to be at least one collar size too large”) to the sincere, as Alessandra Stanley, the television
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February 17, 2010 by Jerry
The blogosphere, the fiber optic cables, and the airwaves have been buzzing with stories about Sarah Palin who, during a television interview connected with her speech at the conservative Tea Party convention, used crib notes written on her palm. You can see the infamous moment on YouTube. To compound the moment, Ms. Palin, threw a stone at the White House from her glass house during her speech when she said, “This is about the people. And it’s bigger than any king or queen of a tea party. And it’s a lot bigger than any charismatic guy with a teleprompter.”
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February 5, 2010 by Jerry
In the previous post, you read about how musicians and athletes practice their art to the point of effortless grace; and that presenters, while not performers, must practice their presentations to the point delivering it with confidence and poise. The practice methodology to achieve that lofty state is Verbalization, the subject of prior blogs, as well as a case study in
February 3, 2010 by Jerry
Three musicians and two athletes share a performance quality that any presenter would do well to emulate. The musicians are jazz pianist Art Tatum, violinist Jascha Heifetz, and dancer Fred Astaire; the two athletes are baseball great Joe DiMaggio and any good trapeze artist. All of them perform their specialties with supreme effortlessness or, in the idiom of trapeze artists, without a net. The lesson for presenters is to stand up in front of a mission critical audience and appear supremely confident in describing their businesses. But this is far easier said than done, because presenters, unlike musicians and
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January 13, 2010 by Jerry
Titian (1490-1576), the influential Italian Renaissance artist, painted a portrait of Pope Paul III that established a point-of-view technique used by today’s photographers and cinematographers; a technique that presenters would do well to heed. In the portrait, currently on display at the Louvre museum in Paris, Titian, the painter—and therefore the viewer—is looking up at the pope, emphasizing his high social status. Conversely, the pope is looking down at the painter/viewer. The audio guide to the exhibit calls this position the “Sociological Role” because the angle reinforces the pope’s exalted position. To prove the point, the guide goes on
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January 11, 2010 by Pearl
Teenagers and young adults are constantly caught in a whirlwind of socializing via mobile phones, instant messages, online video games and social-networking websites. In my previous blog, you read about the decline of nonverbal communication among Gen-Y today. Further on this subject, Jeffrey Zaslow of the Wall Street Journal suggests that “there are a host of new questions that need to be addressed in schools, in the workplace and at home.” Among these new questions is, “how much work can ‘hyper-socializing’ students or employees really accomplish if they are holding multiple conversations with friends via text-messaging, or are obsessively
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