Porcelain Unicorn

This came to me today from a friend.  I thought it worthy of forwarding it to you.  Have a close look at the structure of the film. Can you think of how you can combine those elements into your next speech?

Cheers

Terry

Lance Miller Speaks June 22, 2012 Dear Terry,  In the Toastmasters International Speech Contest contestants have 5-7 minutes to deliver a compelling inspirational speech that touches the heart and changes the mind of a multicultural universal audience.   But what if you only had 3 minutes....and 6 lines of dialogue...? British film director, Sir Ridley Scott, launched a global film making contest for aspiring directors  titled "Tell It Your Way".   The film could be no longer than three minutes and contain only 6 lines of narrative.    From more than 600 entries, the winner was from American director Keegan Wilcox. It's a story of the lifetimes of two people across 50 years - all told in less than 3 minutes. Porcelain Unicorn    Sincerity trumps sensationalism in speaking, cinema and life.  This is a great example of a sincere story that allows the audience to fill in all the blanks and understand the bond of love and kindness that holds humans beings together.      Sincerely,  Lance Miller   2005 World Champion of Public Speaking

Gratitude the Essence of Peace

Showing gratitude is a way of saying thank you for what you have received.

Expressing thankfulness for the Big and Small gifts that come your way in life,

announces your acknowledgement of those gifts at a deeper level of your being.

This produces peace and calm.

 

Do You Procrastinate?

Procrastination, Wow doesn't it take many forms? Can you imagine how many forms it takes and how much of it is fed by doubt disinterest?  I'd love to have a list of all the different reasons we can come up with for 'not' doing something.  I know I am as guilty as anyone else for putting things off or avoiding things that must be done. Even with speech courses.

So why??? Why Oh Why do we continually put ourselves through this pressure of either finding an excuse or madly rushing through something at the last moment.  And who cares about your half baked excuses or even your half prepared effort?  Really it is only you.  

So... Do you procrastinate when you want to do something you love?  Say you are going on the holiday of a lifetime that you have been dreaming of for years and planning for nearly as long. Do you leave the booking of your tickets till the last moment or perhaps the packing of you bags is holding you back, maybe for some unknown reason you are late getting to the airport?  I don't think that would be me. One of my loves is ocean sailing and I am always early at the boat, regardless what the weather or the time of day or night.  Are there enough grossly uncomfortable hardships to encounter while sailing on the ocean to dissuade the most ardent disciplinarian or for that matter the ordinary sane person?  You bet your sweet nellie there are and I often wonder if I fit the normal.  But I love it there is a real attraction for me. So... I don't procrastinate about going sailing.

Do I procrastinate about other things?  Yes I do, and I have to use some heavy discipline to overcome that procrastination. I am not a fan of Doctors and Dentists and I will avoid even making an appointment let alone actually going to visit them.  I avoid accountants because they tell me what I shouldn't have spent money on after I have done it, as if I don't know when I stuff up.

The good news is that you and I can over come this with the proper practice. When I first started learning about public speaking I was the worst procrastinator ever and slowly with help from my mentor and other friends I developed the love for public speaking. It is so liberating to be proud of what you have to say and the way that you say it.  Do I procrastinate now? Yes, occasionally I have to give a speech that I am not too keen on, I then knuckle down and find a way to twist the speech into stories and angles of perspective about the topic that I enjoy thus opening it up to my love.

Give us an idea of some of the excuses you have used in your quest to avoid the inevitable .

Cheers

Terry

 

World Champion Public Speaker

There is a buzz around town.  Lance Miller the 2005 champion of Public Speaking is coming all the way down here to Melbourne town.  I believe he is booked out wherever he goes. I have a ticket to see one of the masters at work and I am also excited to find out more and learn more about Public Speaking.  

I find that there is one thing that has consciously changed about me and that is I now relish - learning new, better, as well as different ways of presenting myself.  The local Toastmasters club is also having an event with Lance to discover his methods of practice and tips to becoming the world champ.  It is being held in Box Hill on Thursday the 7th June and is a bargain at $20 @ head. I don't know if all their seats are gone but if not then email Susan at   susan_morrison11[at]yahoo.com

Studying the greats is a valid method of learning. I always use the phrase of "Do you want to fly like the Eagles or would you prefer to scratch about in the dirt with the Scrub Turkeys?"  Now don't get me wrong I love Turkey ... to eat, it's delicious... Eagles probably think so as well.

Cheers

Terry

 

Practice Makes Perfect

At speech courses we hear lots of old sayings and some make sense and some are...  let's face it old wives tales that have no substance.  Some are good and some are half true and some are downright false information.  And if I hear one more Speaker use the one about 'rather be in the box than giving the eulogy' I think I'll scream. What dull poor regurgitated humour.

Now lets get to 'practice makes perfect'... I think practice is a fantastic way to get familiar with what it is you want to be outstanding at so and I suppose if you want to be perfect maybe you will get close if you practice enough.  

My beef with this is perfect at what?

Practice is something that needs to be monitored on a constant basis.  If we want to be the "perfect" person at what we do then that means we are learning how to continually improve until we are perfect because there is no way we are perfect to start with. So like the top tennis player we need to have our coach constantly tweeking everything we say do and think until we almost become machine like in the way we perform.  

The amazing thing about this 'practice makes perfect' regime is if you practice enough at anything you will become excellent at it regardless if what you are doing is excellent or poor.  You can practice enough to be 'perfectly' excellent or 'perfectly' poor.

Find someone to give you the right feedback, to tweek and build on your skills, to make sure you are developing the way you ought to to achieve your goals.

Cheers

Terry

 

Lets have a laugh

TED Video of Seth Godin.. I am a fan of Seth and this is a great video of his clever use of power point to highlight his frustrations about being broken.

I have no embedding code for this video so you will have to use this link  http://www.ted.com/talks/seth_godin_this_is_broken_1.html

 

I'd love to hear your comments.

Cheers

Terry

 

Types Of Speeches

Well how many types of speeches do you know of?

Boring speeches, Sleeping speeches, Funny speeches, Sad speeches, Happy speeches, Engaging speeches, Informative speeches, Inspirational speeches, Motivating speeches, Persuading speeches, Entertaining speeches and more...

I could go on and on about speech types but to get serious then it seems toe recognised that there are 4 basic types, Inspirational, Entertaining, Informative & Persuasive.

These are really general terms and I think mean little to nothing. If I consider a speech then most have most of these elements in them. That is why I would prefer to be a little more specific about what my intent is with the speech. At least I have a focus to work with and then I can design it to have all the elements in it that I want to use to achieve my intent.

For example a string of jokes can be very funny and get lots of laughs and has a place at a party or the likes but with a funny speech there needs to be a story line and it needs to have a purpose to be more effective than just laughing. Lets face it who really wants to just sit there and have a dam good belly laugh about nothing ;^)

There are no real rules with speaking but there are many. I think it is great to know all the so called rules and then set out to break the ones that don't suit your style, message, situation, audience. Lets face it if you have no arms your wont be using your hands for gestures, if you are blind then using eye contact could be a bit iffy however you can still be a powerful speaker.

I highly recommend you speak from the heart, that you speak to ideas not from notes, that you connect with your audience, that you be the real you when you speak. Audiences see right through over done, over rehearsed play acting of any sort, as much as they also see right through all the insincere, ill prepared, flat, notes driven, death by powerpoint boring presentations.

If you are going to do something do it well. If you need to be a speaker learn how it is as important as being good at a given sport or other skill. Many of you have had years at school to learn basic fundamentals and then more years learning how to perform in your chosen field. Choose a coach/trainer to teach you how to speak, how to connect, how to craft your message and even sometimes how to be the real you, if you are game...