This blog is about presentations & public speaking - how to make 'em, how not to make 'em and how other people are making 'em. Feel free to read, use and comment on what you find here. And good luck with your presentations...
Swanning around
It’s a cliche, I know but there’s truth in it anyway, any performance - which includes presentations,
of course - should have the swan thing going on. I don’t care how hard you’re working underneath with your paddling in hyperspeed for all I care: what the audience must see is the sweet and calm.
Remember one simple thing about your presentation. If it looks like you’re working hard when you preform, you’ve not worked hard enough when you prepare. Simple.
I take it as a compliment when people tell me training and presenting looks easy….. they just don’t get to see me flake out afterwards! 
Claptrap or Clap Traps? - part one
So what’s the difference? Well, according to at least one online dictionary claptrap is ” Pretentious, insincere, or empty language” where as a Clap Trap is a trick used to generate applause: it’s an old theatrical gimmick… apparently now obsolete.
Except, of course, that we know it isn’t - because Clap Traps are still used in presentations an public speeches left, right and centre around the world. This is particularly, I’ve noticed, in the political arena: in fact, I’d go so far to say that they pretty much only work in the polictical arena - that’s the area where people’s emotions are allowed vent.
Sure, you can get passionate in a business presentation but not in the way people do at a polictical rally - in any case, I don’t think Claptraps work in the kinds small and/or reserved audiences you tend to get there. They only work when the audience can get into the “mentality of the mob” - by which I mean they feel free to forget their inhibitions, in the way they might do at a football match or a big hockey game. People in big crowds can (and do) behave in ways they’d not even think about if they were working as individuals!
But hang on a minute! What is a claptrap then? Well, there are books on the subject (Atkinson, 1984 for example as well as serious online articles) but in short, they’re rhetorical tricks to elicit a (positive) response from the audience - such as clapping. They include things like
- lists of three - “education, education, education” is a bit of a cheat (Blair), but you get the idea - or “…a time for sadness, a time for struggle, a time for rebuilding ” (Bush)
- high contrast phrases - ” Never in the field of human conflict has so much been owed by so many to so few”
I’m sure you get the idea - but before you rush out and start trying to use them, remember two things. The first is that your audience needs to be receptive (large groups for example and already warmed up) - otherwise you’ll end up looking like an idiot as your attempts fall flat on your face. The second thing to remember is that you need a certain level of chutzpah to pull these off: they’re not techniques for the novice or the faint of heart!
And at last (at last!) I come to the point of this article…. Clap Traps really are just claptrap, aren’t they - they’re techniques of rhetoric - of emotional manipulation or motivation - not anything to do with having a persuasive content of value.
…..more to follow in part two soon
Amazon prices!!
Of course, I’m very flattered, but….. just here it appears that Amazon.co.uk are selling second hand copies of my voice book for up to £114! Brand new from me it’s only £8.50 (+p&p but I’ll throw in a signature! ).
Flattering, of course, but it’s hardly a collector’s item!
Some mistake, surely?!?!!?
Uh? uh-huh!
We live in a high stress society. To prove it, drop your shoulders: if you can drop them, you’ve probably got a bit of a tension issue - unless you’re in a situation that justifies stress, of course. One of the things that goes wrong when you’re stressed is that your voice shifts up in pitch. In short, it gets higher than it “should” be. What’s worse, we get so used to this that we think this is our “normal” voice!
Stewart Pearce is a voice coach of considerable reputation and he suggests that one way to find your “true” voice’s pitch is to say “uh-huh”. If you say it as though you’re confirming something you probably go down on the second syllable and if you’re using it to ask a question you probably go up on the second.
Either way, he says, the higher of the two is typically the pitch you usually use - and think is your voice - but the lower of the two is the ‘true’ voice you should be using… the one you’d use if you weren’t anxious about something or stuck in a bad habit.
Check it out and see if you shouldn’t be making your presentations at a different pitch… it’ll make you sound (and feel!) a lot less anxious about whatever you’re saying.
S
