How Speakers are Like Musicians

Emerging speakers can learn a great deal from great musicians. They can learn to connect their heart with their listeners, their audience. A great musician does not merely play notes. A great speaker does not merely utter words. They use their instrument,their voice, to communicate feelings of sadness, joy, drama, and curiosity.

Great speakers use their words to help their audiences connect with their emotions. In a short time, the audience is not just listening to the speaker’s message but feeling and experiencing it.

Here are a few tips to create a great performance:

1. You want to be nervous. Get your butterflies to fly in formation.
Some tension brings about a great speech. You usually don’t look as
nervous as you feel.

Be prepared, be relaxed. Practice, practice, practice. Use visualization techniques. One speaker suggests that you curl your toes and get rid of your adrenalin. Get out of your head and in to your heart. Reduce nervousness with self talk.

2. Great speeches have great stories. Sprinkle them throughout your presentation. We delineate our thoughts visually and your audience needs to “see” what they “hear.”

3. Your voice is the source of power. FDR, Martin Luther King, Churchill used the power of their voice. Remember people need to see what they hear. Slow down, add a pause, whisper. . .use your voice to change tones, be loud or soft as needed.

4. Use your eyes – to make contact with audience. Focus on one person at a time and all the other people will feel as if you are talking to them also. This will help you to connect with people and make them feel you are there for them.

5. Interact – provide your audience with short role plays or partnering exercises. This gives them an opportunity to practice what you are telling them to do. Give them an opportunity to tell someone about their challenge and get some feedback as to how to resolve it. Then they can walk out the door at the end of the program ready to think or act differently. This is what every great speaker wants!

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Sandra Schrift 13 year speaker bureau owner and now career coach to emerging and veteran public speakers who want to "grow" a profitable speaking business. I also work with business professionals and organizations who want to master their presentations.

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