Following up President’s Day 2015. Hope you had a great one yesterday!

Although he was regarded as gangly and awkward physically, President Abraham Lincoln knew how to connect to audiences. Here are two more practices he embraced that could help you, too.

(1) He chose words that anybody could understand.
Mr. Lincoln was known to show respect for people of all stations in life. This attitude was reflected in how he selected the words and phrases he used in his speeches. You didn’t find thousand dollar words or ones only the super-educated would understand.

When you select the words for your message, bear in mind who’s listening and the kind of impact you’re trying to make.

(2) He did not hide how he felt about the topics he presented.
While Mr. Lincoln could have been an intimidating figure, given his height and often serious, sad face, when he spoke on the key issues of his day, he did not hide his emotions or passions.  Instead, he successfully used these feelings to help bring alive the carefully crafted logic and facts he presented.

When Lincoln was a young man doing odd jobs in New Salem, Illinois, he was often asked to write letters for his less literate friends. The future president “learned to see other people’s thoughts and feelings and ideas by writing their friendly, confidential letters,” according to a friend from that era, Mentor Graham.

I recommend that you envision a real person or a small group of people you know when you craft a speech or presentation instead of an audience of strangers. Keep it as personal, value-rich and as down-to-earth as you can. And don’t forget to give yourself time to practice until you’re “natural” looking and sounding, as Lincoln did! Let me know how your presentation goes.
 
Best Regards,
 

Anne B. Freedman
(305) 273-6641
(305) 733-4054 – Cell
anne@speakoutinc.com
www.speakoutinc.com
 
 www.facebook.com/speakoutinc
 @AnneMiami or twitter.com/AnneMiami
  in  www.linkedin.com/in/annebfreedman/

 As a freshman at the University of Florida (Go Gators!), I experienced the final days of curfew for women students on campus in the spring of 1968. Before its demise, there were strange practices like “panty raids” in the dorms. Where we actually threw underwear out the windows to the anxious throbs of handsome young men below!  It all seems so quaint now, doesn’t it?

I was surprised and thrilled during the Oscars when Patricia Arquette, winner of Best Supporting Actress for her role in Boyhood, delivered an unabashedly pro-women statement as part of her acceptance speech. “We have fought for everybody else’s equal rights,” she said. “It’s our time to have wage equality once and for all and equal rights for women in the United States of America.”

In not quite the same spirit, I am proud to announce that Speakout, Inc., has joined the ranks of certified women business enterprises, affiliating with the Women’s Business Enterprise National Council, (WBENC).  After satisfying a huge list of requirements, our new designation means that certain companies with goals of doing business with women-owned and minority-owned enterprises will now consider hiring us.

Once certified, you have to fill out forms online to become a possible vendor with each individual company, and then, the usual effort to find a real and personal connection begins. I’ll keep you posted and welcome any introductions you may have.

While I am truly excited about the opportunity to establish a working relationship with these highly successful companies and their top executives, part of me wonders why this kind of certification is still necessary for women in 2015. We’ve come a long way in many respects, for which I remain grateful and also proud, but in others?
 
Best Regards,
 

Anne B. Freedman
(305) 273-6641
(305) 733-4054 – Cell
anne@speakoutinc.com
www.speakoutinc.com
 
 www.facebook.com/speakoutinc
 @AnneMiami or twitter.com/AnneMiami
  in  www.linkedin.com/in/annebfreedman/

What’s the difference between getting yawns and really nailing it?

I am especially proud of a long-time client who has chosen to go where others in her field have never gone, as the newly departed and beloved Mr. Spock might have said.

She could have taken the familiar route, delivering a lecture-type presentation of facts and trends.

Instead, she made her remarks personal and relevant, thought-provoking and enjoyable.

To introduce the idea of Cloud technology, she asked for a show of hands about how many had experienced a computer crash – at home or in the office. To replace a recital of the role apps are playing in our lives, she challenged her audience to admit how many hours they spend on mobile devices, and what exactly they were doing on them.

She wrapped up with an animated discussion of technology trends and how her firm has been tracking them on their clients’ behalf.

No matter what your topic is, I firmly believe nothing ever has to be boring. While some material is admittedly more interesting than others, from my experience, a presentation is boring because the person delivering it wasn’t willing to invest the time and energy to discover how to make it relevant and fascinating.

How can you ramp up the enjoyment factor in your next message? Share a real-life experience you had, or perhaps someone close to you or a client may have had. Use that episode to create a bridge between your facts or trends and your audience. Here’s a mini-outline:
Personal story.
Fact 1. Trend 1.
Different personal story.
Fact 2. Trend 2.
 
For years I struggled against my journalistic training which opposed the idea of putting myself into the story, as opposed to being neutral or just reporting the data at hand.
 
If you are not a journalist, neutrality has no place in your speaking – unless you really do want to be boring. It’s your choice.

Best Regards,
 

Anne B. Freedman
(305) 273-6641
(305) 733-4054 – Cell
anne@speakoutinc.com
www.speakoutinc.com
 
 www.facebook.com/speakoutinc
 @AnneMiami or twitter.com/AnneMiami
  in  www.linkedin.com/in/annebfreedman/

The directions by the workshop leader seemed simple: “Share the story of how you started your business or why you chose the profession you did.”
 
To my surprise, the stunningly beautiful young lady I was paired with immediately paled and grew frustrated, complaining: “I never know what to say when they ask me this question!”

I asked her if I could “play reporter,” explaining that I’d been a professional journalist originally, trained in the art of questioning “to get the story.” She agreed. So I probed a little bit, suggesting she look back into what had prompted her to become a health and wellness coach.
 
Again, I was surprised, because she broke into tears. “When I was 14, my best friend died of leukemia. It was incurable. They couldn’t do anything to save her,” she recalled, crying while sharing her experience. “I decided then that I wanted to be able to help people stay healthy.”
 
Now, Angela (not her real name) works as a health and wellness coach, helping men and women create as healthy and strong a body as they can.
 
“I’ve never told anyone that story before,” Angela told me. I urged her to seize the moment and go to the microphone where others were relating their “aha” moments from this exercise. Angela repeated what she had revealed to me to the rest of the folks in the room — still quite emotionally — stirring quite a few others in the room to tears as well.
 

Your story doesn’t need to be as heart-wrenching as Angela’s. But the strategy does work best when the story is real, relevant, and yours. Once you’re identified at least one powerful personal anecdote, practice it aloud over and over again to be smooth, natural and in control of your delivery. At the same time, keep your story-telling fresh and fun so you don’t sound robotic or tired of the tale. Let me know how your story-telling goes!
 
By the way, if you have not yet liked my Speakout, Inc., page, I invite you to do so!
 
Best Regards,
 

Anne B. Freedman
(305) 273-6641
(305) 733-4054 – Cell
anne@speakoutinc.com
www.speakoutinc.com
 
 www.facebook.com/speakoutinc
 @AnneMiami or twitter.com/AnneMiami
  in  www.linkedin.com/in/annebfreedman/

Part of why some of us dread meetings within our company or nonprofit organization is because they often force us to do “public speaking.” We are called upon – or expected – to say something of value.  I believe everyone who goes to a meeting needs to be ready to contribute to its goals. That usually requires a bit of pre-planning, just as any other good public speaking demands. If you go in totally cold, it’s hard to be warm and ready to say anything meaningful.

Another reason why we dread meetings is because they can become a four-letter word when not controlled by a leader in a positive way. I’ve left certain meetings with a huge headache, feeling frustrated or disappointed, and you probably have, too. Having an agenda is not enough. You want to be sure that everyone gets heard, not just the direct personalities. Further, I believe you want some kind of action and collaboration to come out of every meeting. If not, why meet? Ask yourself: what’s your meeting’s true purpose?

I have found that you usually have two levels of volume at meetings – the louder folks and the quieter ones.  If you’re in the louder volume category, ready to speak before you’re even asked, I recommend a bit of pre-meeting reflection to help you craft a more thoughtful recommendation when it’s your turn. If you are among the quieter types who often get overlooked or unheard at meetings, doing a bit of “out loud” practice ahead of time will give you confidence to share what you see as important.

Who has the responsibility to create an environment where there is mutual respecteven when disagreement may be strong? While I believe the leader needs to set the standard, all of us in attendance share the obligation as well. Phrases like, “the problem with that is …” and “here we go again …” and other disparaging remarks throw a negativity and counter-productive tone into the mix.

The good news is that meetings can also produce wonderful solutions and out-of-the-box thinking, building valuable relationships and trust over time.

If you have not already liked our Speakout, Inc. Facebook page, I invite you to click on the link now.
 
 
Best Regards,

Anne B. Freedman
(305) 273-6641
(305) 733-4054 – Cell
anne@speakoutinc.com
www.speakoutinc.com
 
 www.facebook.com/speakoutinc
 @AnneMiami or twitter.com/AnneMiami
  in  www.linkedin.com/in/annebfreedman/