Here’s the 20 public speaking tips that I learned or was reminded of from The King’s Speech.
Colin Firth is clearly an Oscar contender for his role as King George 6th in The King’s Speech which is about his impromptu ascension to the throne and the speech therapist ( played by Geoffrey Rush ) who helped the unsure monarch become worthy of it.
- Pebbles – Demosthenes, ancient Greek orator. Legend says he put pebbles in his mouth, this extra obstacle helped to overcome his stutter. There was a scene from The King’s Speech where the first speech therapist that Colin Firth was working with had Colin do just that, put seven pebbles in his mouth which was to get him to concentrate on something other than the stutter, or the deep rooted psychological fear that was causing him to stutter … Colin spit them out and that was the end of that speech therapist.
- Dont Be Afraid To Spit, Know Your Style – Don’t be afraid to spit out the pebbles from this list, take a little, take a lot, know which of the items on this list work for you based on your style. We are all unique and different and behavioural research indicates that we have a portion of the following characteristics in our behavioural make up; Dominance, Influencer, Steadiness and Compliance – DISC. High Dominance ( Leaders, Decision Makers ) represent 18% of the population, High Influencers ( People, People ) represent 28% of the population, High Steadiness ( Cross The T’s, Dot The I’s ) represent 40% of the population and High Compliance ( Analytical, Careful ) represent 14% of the population. I am a Compliance / Dominance – Introvert / Extrovert behavioural style, so as much as I have the behavioural style of Dominance in my make up, I am well aware that a huge part of my behavioural make up is Compliance and this style requires me to do the research before I can ever be confident in my Dominant behavioural style.
- Breathe – Breath from the lower diaphragm and learn to push the words out with your breathe. Geoffrey Rush had Helena Bonham Carter ( who played Queen Elizabeth ) sit on Colin Firth`s stomach while he practiced breathing to strengthen his stomach muscles. You have to have breath, muscle and the lungs to speak for 90 minutes and cardio and Yoga + exercise on my Nordic Audiorider Stationary Exercise Bike gives me the stamina that is required.
- Annunciate – Practice annuunnnccciaaatinnng the longer words by elongating them, especially words that begin with D and T.
- Sing & Shout Vowels – The vowels of the alphabet, I know them all by name, oh!, a-e-i-o-u, a-e-i-o-u, a-e-i-o-u, I know them all by name, oh!
- Sing It – Think of your favourite song and sing out the first opening lines of your presentation. Good morning ladies and gentlemen and welcome to The One Page Business Plan. If you don’t get the words right, you might build the wrong business! And may never get the numbers right! – It’s a beautiful day, Don’t let it get away, It’s a beautiful day, Touch me, Take me to that other place, Teach me, I know I’m not a hopeless case – It`s A Beautiful Day – U2
- Loosen Your Jaw & Shoulders – Practice rolling your jaw and shoulders in a circular motion going clockwise and then counter clockwise. There are some great Yoga practices for doing this.
- Rock On Your Feet – Geoffrey Rush had Colin firth rocking from his toes to his heals while speaking which gave Colin something to think about other than the fear in his mind that was driving his stutter.
- Type Set With Big Font – Type set your speech and make the font bigger, especially the first few minutes of your speech. While you might not even read it, this gives you a psychological experience that you will be able to find your place if you get lost in your speech.
- Say It To A Friend – Speak as if you are speaking to one friend, not the entire audience.
- Pause – Turn your hesitations into pauses. Mark out places in speech where you can stop, pause and take a breath. Can you think of a world recognized figure that is perhaps more excellent at pausing than public speaking?
- Practice On Site – Geoffrey Rush had Colin Firth practice on site at Westminster Abbey in advance of the Coronation of George 6th so that he could also get familiar with the approach, lighting, seating, stage, step and venue. Colin then had a picture of what he was walking into in his mind`s eye and by being familiar with the environment in advance, it gave him one less thing to worry about. I do this for every large event that I speak at and pick specific seats that I am going to focus on speaking to chairs / members of the audience at 9, 12 and 3 o’clock. This gets me associated to the size of the stage and the size of the crowd because you really have three audiences with crowds of 1000 or more … audience right, audience center and audience left.
- Mind Map Reminders – This gives you the ability to create a picture of the key words that are the subject of each segment of your presentation again giving you another tool in the event that you get lost in your presentation.
- Don’t Care – I saw a recent interview with Johnny Depp and David Letterman and David asked Johnny what made Marlon Brando such a great actor and Johnny said; “he didn’t care”. Of course you want to care about your audience but you can’t need it. If the audience pics up that you have unmet needs of approval, recognition, safety and worthiness they will hear it in your voice, not listen to you and you may need chicken wire for some as they may even attack you.
- Face Your Fear – One of the things that came to mind when Geoffrey Rush asked Colin Firth “When do you first remember your first memory of fear” is that I was watching Colin Firth give an Oscar contending performance about a person’s challenges that were deeply rooted in their childhood. This reminded me of Geoffrey Rush’s stellar Oscar winning performance in Shine which yet again was about Pianist David Helfgott, driven by his father and teachers at an early age to a breakdown. The best way to get rid of the fear of public speaking is to write about the first experience of the fear, drawing it out of your subconscious mind.
- Belief – “I have a right to be bloody well heard” yelled Colin Firth. Take the time to write out your positive beliefs about your ability, content and experience … this will help you to build up your feelings.
- Build Up Your Feelings – Build your vocabulary of feelings like; Certainty, Commitment, Confidence, Conviction … write them and you will own them.
- Why Are You Speaking – be clear about the Purpose of your presentation. My Purpose is all that we do is to seek wisdom, enhance understanding and provide encouragement.
- Affirm Your Values – 15 minutes before your speech, forget the speech, forget the audience, forget everything that I have said because you know what you are going to say and you are practiced and prepared and recite these affirmations; “Complete, Engaged, Practiced, Prepared and Relaxed.”
- Have Love In Your Life – It is very clear that Queen Elizabeth played by Helena Bonham Carter truly loved her family and husband King George 6th played by Colin Firth and Queen Elizabeth played a key role in helping King George 6th overcome his stutter as the tag line for the movie demonstrates; “When God couldn’t save The King, The Queen turned to someone who could.” Thank you Laura for all of your support … I am sure that Laura could see herself in Queen Elizabeth played by Helena Bonham Carter.
Simon Reilly Makes The Final Round Of Advisor.ca Visionary Poll!
Dear All,
I’ve made the final round for Advisor.ca’s ‘Name That Visionary Poll’.
The Advisor.ca ‘Name That Visionary Poll’ started last April. The first step was nomination, the second step was shortlisting the top twenty and this final round is choosing a winner from the top ten so please click here to cast your vote for me.
There are two ways I could have played this:
- Pretending to be a shy and demure Canadian, because that is what Canadians do, in the hope that people will vote anyway – ”I don’t take part in these celebrity competitions because it’s beneath me”
- Bold, outrageous and provocative – ”asking for the business” – vote for me because I love the exposure!
Another reason that I am doing this is to demonstrate the power of E-Nurture Marketing & Social Media as you are a reader of my Blog or E-Newsletter and we were initially introduced through financial advisor speaking or via the internet.
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Again, why am I asking?
■ The exposure is absolutely great for my professional career development
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International Values and Behavioral Analyst, Business Coach, Speaker and Author
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