16. SPEECH AS A PERFORMANCE ART: Many speakers spend long hours preparing and rehearsing their speeches. Often they believe the text of their speech must be refined to perfection in order to produce an acceptable speech. Nothing could be further from the truth, however. The text hardly matters at all. Let me repeat that: The text hardly matters at all. And that’s one of the hardest lessons any speaker ever learns. Your audience doesn’t give a hoot about what you say. But your audience will listen with particular attention to how you say it.
Think of a businessman standing behind the lectern, reading a long and tiresome list of financial performance accomplishments. “In the fourth quarter, our business was suddenly confronted by an unexpected array of challenges...blah...blah...blah.” He could recite the Gettysburg Address in Morse Code and be just as effective as a speaker. No member of his audience could possibly pay any attention to what he says because his delivery makes his listeners absolutely deaf to his speech.
Some of the best speeches ever made lack serious structural and logical content. But all of the good speeches - without exception - are delivered with panache.
17. FACIAL HAIR: If you have a moustache or a beard, get rid of it. The1960s are over, and hardly any of you will ever become gunslingers or mule skinners in this lifetime. Those are the only occupations that require facial hair. For the rest of you, a moustache or beard makes you look ill-groomed, slovenly, and unfit for the rigors of civilized life. Your beard will only make you look like a nine-year-old paint brush.
What if you say, “Hey, I like my moustache or beard. What difference does it make if I wear that sort of thing on my face?” Well, personal grooming preferences aside, there is a very sound (pun intended) reason to get rid of them: they muffle sound. They will make you sound like you have three rolls of toilet paper wrapped around your head.
The area around the mouth - the upper lip, cheeks, lower lip and chin - reflect sound. Not all of the sound coming out of the mouth is directed outward. Some of it is compressed and actually travels rearward toward the mouth. It is vital for audience comprehension that those rearward sounds be reflected back toward the audience. Facial hair absorbs those sounds and builds muffled incomprehension. The sounds coming from the nose are absorbed into that gunslinger moustache and disappear completely. Moreover, the sounds from the mouth are lost in that snarly beard.
Do you want to be understood? Then get your razor out of the medicine cabinet and use it.
18. NUN BUOY HEAD ROLL AND OTHER BIG NO-NOS: Some people like to roll their heads from side to side like a nun buoy in ship’s channel. And when you watch them do that while they are speaking all you can say is this: “Black Port on Entry.” You cannot hear or understand a word they say because their body language says, “Look at how stupid I’m acting right now. I’m trying to be a black nun buoy bobbing left to right in the rolling surf. And you shouldn’t be paying any attention to what I’m doing. I am an idiot.”
The head roll, of course, is the moving or kinetic variation of the Chihuahua Head Tilt. Some people like to tilt the head to one side to let the water run off, or to keep the brains from spilling out of the opposite ear, or to show curiosity when offered a small treat. It’s a cute and precious thing to see on a small dog. But a public speaker who utilizes that technique is reduced to a simpering fool.
You are not a black nun buoy or a Chihuahua. Keep your eyes level and your head still. You cannot make proper and credible eye contact if your head is moving or if your eyes are not horizontal.
Think of a businessman standing behind the lectern, reading a long and tiresome list of financial performance accomplishments. “In the fourth quarter, our business was suddenly confronted by an unexpected array of challenges...blah...blah...blah.” He could recite the Gettysburg Address in Morse Code and be just as effective as a speaker. No member of his audience could possibly pay any attention to what he says because his delivery makes his listeners absolutely deaf to his speech.
Some of the best speeches ever made lack serious structural and logical content. But all of the good speeches - without exception - are delivered with panache.
17. FACIAL HAIR: If you have a moustache or a beard, get rid of it. The1960s are over, and hardly any of you will ever become gunslingers or mule skinners in this lifetime. Those are the only occupations that require facial hair. For the rest of you, a moustache or beard makes you look ill-groomed, slovenly, and unfit for the rigors of civilized life. Your beard will only make you look like a nine-year-old paint brush.
What if you say, “Hey, I like my moustache or beard. What difference does it make if I wear that sort of thing on my face?” Well, personal grooming preferences aside, there is a very sound (pun intended) reason to get rid of them: they muffle sound. They will make you sound like you have three rolls of toilet paper wrapped around your head.
The area around the mouth - the upper lip, cheeks, lower lip and chin - reflect sound. Not all of the sound coming out of the mouth is directed outward. Some of it is compressed and actually travels rearward toward the mouth. It is vital for audience comprehension that those rearward sounds be reflected back toward the audience. Facial hair absorbs those sounds and builds muffled incomprehension. The sounds coming from the nose are absorbed into that gunslinger moustache and disappear completely. Moreover, the sounds from the mouth are lost in that snarly beard.
Do you want to be understood? Then get your razor out of the medicine cabinet and use it.
18. NUN BUOY HEAD ROLL AND OTHER BIG NO-NOS: Some people like to roll their heads from side to side like a nun buoy in ship’s channel. And when you watch them do that while they are speaking all you can say is this: “Black Port on Entry.” You cannot hear or understand a word they say because their body language says, “Look at how stupid I’m acting right now. I’m trying to be a black nun buoy bobbing left to right in the rolling surf. And you shouldn’t be paying any attention to what I’m doing. I am an idiot.”
The head roll, of course, is the moving or kinetic variation of the Chihuahua Head Tilt. Some people like to tilt the head to one side to let the water run off, or to keep the brains from spilling out of the opposite ear, or to show curiosity when offered a small treat. It’s a cute and precious thing to see on a small dog. But a public speaker who utilizes that technique is reduced to a simpering fool.
You are not a black nun buoy or a Chihuahua. Keep your eyes level and your head still. You cannot make proper and credible eye contact if your head is moving or if your eyes are not horizontal.
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