Fripp THE Executive Speech Coach

Powerful Public Speaking: Personal Connection Edge

Powerful Public Speaking

This was written by my negotiations expert associate David Palmer.

Dozens of factors figure into your audience’s minds, whenever and whatever you’re teaching, communicating or selling. You create a competitive edge when you establish a personal connection.  You must connect emotionally and intellectually with both individuals and members of an audience, so they like you and trust you . . . more than any other training they have received or sales person’s message they have heard. They’re just like you; if you don’t trust the messenger, you don’t trust the message.
How do you get the Personal Connection edge? 

Do the following:
• Focus:  It’s all about them!  If your presentation does not respond to their concerns and you grind on with a prepared presentation that is not focused on their concerns, or you are too technical for the individual or audience, they will decide that you don’t care about them or their problems. Once they get back to work, they won’t make your training applicable to their jobs, or invest in your solution to their problem. Rather, pick up on their concerns, and address them.

• Be Confident & Sincere:  If you appear nervous or unsure, you may seem devious or incompetent.

• Eye Communication:  Look your listeners right in the eyes for a complete thought or sentence as you talk convincingly about your ideas and information.  Your eyes darting about the room is not connection or communication.  Smile.

• Divide & Conquer:  Shake hands with everyone . . . and look them in the eyes as you do it . . . when they enter the room.  Connect with them so you see them as individuals.  You’ll both feel more comfortable and you’ll become more memorable to them.  (People are usually shyer in groups of strangers than one-on-one contacts.)

• Technology:  Use technology to enhance your presentation, not drown it.  It can help keep you on track, but it cannot establish trust.
 
• Keep It Simple & Memorable:  When your listener or audience debriefs after your presentation or sales conversation, you want them to remember what you said more than they learned in other training; or in a selling situation more than another sales presentation.  Therefore, summarize your key talking points into snappy sound bites that are easy to write and remember.  Make them interesting and repeatable.  What are the three to five key points you want them to remember about the information and you?

• Avoid Jargon:  Steer clear of overdoing technical language and industry jargon.  Rehearse your presentation well in advance with your spouse across the dinner table or a team member at work.  If there is anything they don’t understand, you are not focusing on their interests, or you are making it too complicated.  Your goal is to be understood and sound conversational as you do it.

• Tell Great Success Stories:  People learn to resist a sales presentation, or they go to a meeting with a closed mind, but no one can resist a good story.  “Imagine four months from now you go to work and...” Paint your listeners a picture of less frustration, more reliability, and cost-effectiveness. Let the person you are communicating with “see” themselves in a different light.  Use the Situation, Solution, Success formula.  Take a lesson from Hollywood.  Give your stories interesting characters and dialogue, plus a dramatic lesson that your prospects can relate to.

•  Rehearse:  The first thirty seconds and the last thirty seconds of your presentation or sales conversation have the most impact.  Invest your time to create something original and interesting at the beginning and at the end.  Then, commit them to memory.  Do not shortchange your rehearsals.  Three to five rehearsals won’t do it.  Thirty to fifty rehearsals put you ahead of other speakers or sales professionals and give you even more confidence.  Know what you are going to say so well you can forget it!

• Bottom Line:  Everything else being equal, you’re way ahead of any other speaker or sales professional when your audience of one or one thousand relates to you, likes you, and trusts you.  Remember, they must first trust you before they can trust the message.
If you want to learn to be a more effective public speaker check out my speaking school and coaching camp with Darren LaCroix.

The lonely podium: How to deal with a hostile audience

Any article written by my Fripp Associate Ian Griffin is worth reading or reposting. This was first published in a Ragan newsletter. Ian is a fellow Brit and the Past President of The National Speakers Association Northern California chapter. He is a popular presenter at the Ragan Speechwriters Conference which is one of my favorite events to speak at or attend.

The lonely podium: How to deal with a hostile audience

By Ian Griffin 

 Techniques for handling interruptions to your speech

 There’s a long tradition of heckling at political events in the U.K. and in many other countries where deliberately interrupting public speakers is seen as a legitimate form of protest.

 In the 1960s, of course, America saw a number of heated interruptions in courtrooms and conventions to protest the Vietnam War, and this summer we’ve seen the well publicized brouhaha at Democrats’ town hall meetings on health care reform. But disruptions of this kind are rare in the United States, and we’re surprised when they happen.

 In corporate settings, too, disruption during executive speeches is an uncommon occurrence. Sure, CEOs presenting at company town hall meetings might have to deal with a few aggressive questions or mutterings of discontent; and yes, unruly crowds occasionally interrupt shareholder meetings or protest outside plant gates. But overall, employees are pretty well behaved, and executives rarely have to worry about heckling and harassment. 

 But what happens when corporate audiences aren’t well behaved? What should executives do when their listeners speak up and speak out, and the flow of their carefully scripted speeches becomes a backdrop for somebody else’s agenda? The answer is that they should expect the unexpected and be prepared to handle feisty audiences. 

 You not only need to know what to say in a speech, you need to understand how it will be received by the audience. So what can you do to find this out?

 Preparation

 Prepare by researching the audience’s concerns and hot buttons. Check into local issues. Did your plant manager in Oshkosh just fire the local scoutmaster? People in Wisconsin might not be willing to listen to your presentation — no matter how well scripted. 

 If your research suggests controversy is likely, build in feedback circuits ahead of time by providing an e-mail address or Web site where people can send in comments and questions in advance.

 Practice delivering the speech under hostile circumstances. While rehearsing, have someone distract you. Learn how to not get thrown off balance by ringing cell phones, loud noises off stage or loss of power to your microphone. Professional speakers have ready responses to each of these events.

 Delivery

 If someone in the audience does interrupt you, don’t just ignore them. Simply acknowledging that they exist will give them a sense of belonging. Once you have responded, quickly move on. You want to avoid getting into a one-on-one discussion.

 Stand-up comedians relish their ability to make it painful for hecklers – they can chop people off at the knees. Don’t do this. The sympathies of the audience might well be with the person who spoke out (remember that scoutmaster). If you are too unsympathetic or sarcastic, you risk winning the battle but losing the war.

 Appeal to the wider interests of the audience while acknowledging the issue. When a heckler interrupted Obama’s speech on abortion at Notre Dame in May 2009, the president immediately responded: “It’s all right. We’re fine, everybody... We’re not going to shy away from things that are uncomfortable...”

 Personal safety

 However, if things do get out of hand, remember that discretion is the better part of valor. A lone speaker exposed on stage does not stand a chance against a hostile crowd if things get physical. So get out of there. A graceful exit will serve you better than getting into a screaming match.

Public Speaking and Self Esteem

Sims Wyeth my East Coast Fripp Associate who is a great public speaking coach writes...
"A new study from Australia demonstrates that people with low-self esteem felt worse after practicing self-affirmations for a period of time, while those with high self-esteem felt better.
 
Why is this? People with low-self esteem have a belief that they’re not worthy. They hear the affirmation and reject it as false, compounding their negative feelings.
 
As a speaker, if you don’t believe in yourself or your message, it’s tough to show conviction. When selling your ideas, the first person you have to sell is yourself."

15 Tips for Webinars: How to Add Impact When You Present Online

Whenever you open your mouth, whether you're talking to one person or a thousand, you usually want to get a specific message across. How do you do that best when you are communicating through a webinar? What's different when the lecture is in the virtual world? How do you catch and keep your audience? Here are 15 tips.

In the Beginning

1. Use looping slides. Once your audience tunes in, how do you make sure they are entertained and feel involved even before the talk starts? The best way is with a series of looping slides.

Using looping slides is a great way to convey important information and keep attendees entertained while they're waiting for your presentation to begin.

These slides should communicate:

• when the session will begin
• the conference dial-in number
• your photo, name, and title
• what the audience is going to learn
• what to do in case of problems.

You might also have quotes about the content they will be learning.

2. Think Hollywood! Be creative in your use of visual appeal. Just as you would in a live presentation, tell stories and give specific examples-but in a webinar you'll need even more visuals to engage the audience.

Use more slides than you would in a face-to-face presentation. An easy way to do this is to reveal bullet points one at a time as you bring them up, rather than all at once before you discuss them. Using mostly visuals and little text (see the image) is even better. Keep it simple, keep it moving, and interact often.

3. Plan your structure. Outline your presentation on paper or a flip chart before you build the PowerPoint presentation. Don't be afraid to get messy before you get tidy. It's better to have fewer points and illustrate them well.

Be sure to

• introduce your objective
• sell the benefits
• explain the agenda and timing of your session (when will you allow for Q&A?)
• add any logistics, such as how the audience will interact with you.

Knock 'em Dead

4. Open with a grabber slide. Open with a grabber slide, a visual that will grab your audience's attention.

5. Use a hook. After the grabber slide, it's up to you to engage the audience immediately with a powerful and relevant hook that includes the word "you." Your hook might be:

A catchy fact: "It may interest you to know Ferraris hold their value more than polo ponies! I first learned this lesson when..."

A startling statistic: "Did you know that if you had spent a million dollars a day, every day, since Jesus was born, you would not have spent a trillion dollars. Please keep that in mind as we strategize how to increase sales by only 5 percent."

An intriguing challenge: "Ten years ago we were the market leaders. This year we are 13th. You are now in an exciting position to turn that around."

Strong openings grab your audience's attention—then, it's up to you to keep it. It's less effective to start with, "Good morning," than, "Welcome! You are in for a treat! You are about to learn…"

As you introduce the session, sell the listeners on how they're going to benefit. Keep them glued. Remember, they can't see you, so it's all too easy for them to answer their email or get a cup of coffee.

6. Introduce yourself second. Only once you've sold the session can introduce yourself (unless someone else will be introducing you). Do not introduce yourself first. You'll need to say something the listeners care about before they will care who you are.

Forge An Emotional Connection

7. Use a high I:you ratio. The most powerful communication combines both intellectual and emotional connections. Intellectual means appealing to educated self-interest with data and reasoned arguments. Emotion comes from engaging the listeners' imaginations, involving them in your illustrative stories by frequent use of the word "you," and answering the unspoken question, "What's in this for me?"

Use a high I:you ratio. For example, don't say, "I'm going to talk to you about webinars." Instead say, "In the next 56 minutes, you will learn: the six secrets of making a webinar work; the four benefits of using webinars as part of your client interaction; and the three mistakes our competitors are making when they use them."

8. Build in interaction. Depending on the technology you use and the format of your talk, make sure you interact with the audience when it's most logical. A simple method is to find that logical place and time, then stop and ask, "Based on what you have heard so far, what are your questions?"

9. Use memorable stories. People rarely remember your exact words. Instead, they remember the mental images that your words inspire. Support your key points with vivid, relevant stories. Help them "make the movie" in their heads by using memorable characters, exciting situations, dialogue, and humor. With a combination of your examples and visuals, it will be a memorable presentation.

10. Use effective pauses. Good music and good communication both contain changes of pace, pauses, and full rests. Pauses mark the time when your listeners think about what they have just heard. If you rush on at full speed to cram in as much information as possible, chances are you've left your listeners back at the station.

It's okay to talk quickly, but whenever you say something profound or proactive, or ask a rhetorical question, pause.

11. Avoid filler words. "Hmm, ah, er, you know what I mean?" In a webinar, filler words sound even more prominent than in person. Are you using them? Why not have a run-through and record yourself? As Michael Caine has said, "Rehearsal is the work, performance is the relaxation."

Before Closing

12. Review, and assume there are questions. As with an in-person presentation, always review your key ideas with the webinar audience before concluding. Then ask, "Before my closing remarks, what questions do you have?"

13. Tell them what to do next. Additionally, emphasize what the audience should do once the webinar is over. Be clear what their next logical steps should be. Send them off energized, focused, and ready to do something.

14. End on a high note. Your last words will linger. Make sure they are your own. Don't quote anyone else-and make sure they are powerful.

Prepare for Hardware and Software Mishaps

15. Have backup computers. Always have two computers tuned into the webinar. My associate Tom Drews, who is very experienced at hosting webinars recommended this technique to Jim Prost and me, and just in time, too.

During a recent webinar, right as Jim took the lead, his computer froze. I was able to jump in and delivered my portion of the talk earlier than planned, which bought Jim enough time to get his second laptop to the place where the first had frozen. He had it keyed up and ready to go, so it only took a few moments to synch himself back up. With technology, you never know!

(This blog post is adapted with permission from an article first published in eLearn magazine: http://elearnmag.org/subpage.cfm?section=best_practices&article=56-1)

As an executive speech coach and sales presentation skills trainer I coach my clients to improve both their sales and the quality of their meetings through effective presentation skills. Fripp Associates are experts in business communication and their services include teaching clients how to be more effective with online meetings.

YouTube - Patricia Fripp: Awesome Storytelling Secrets

This video contains edited highlights from a 1 hour and 15 minute interactive presentation on public speaking given at the 2009 National Speakers Association (NSA) Convention.

Overcoming the Fear of Public Speaking

Overcoming the Fear of Public Speaking
As an executive speech coach and a professional speaker who has been paid to speak in public since 1976 and became a full time professional public keynote speaker in 1984 when I was President of the National Speakers Association, I am frequently asked about how to overcome nervousness when speaking in public.

There are different techniques and different reasons why you are nervous to speak in public. These comments address the natural nervousness and a few practical steps to help you.

You're waiting your turn to make a speech, when suddenly you realize that your stomach is doing strange things and your mind is rapidly going blank. You realize you are probably suffering from the fear of public speaking. How do you handle this critical time period?

People ask me this question in all my speaking classes, but there is no single answer. You need to anticipate your speech mentally, physically, and logistically.

Mentally:

Start by understanding that you'll spend a lot more time preparing than you will speaking. As a general rule, invest three hours of preparation for a half hour speech, a six to one ratio. When you've become a highly experienced speaker, you may be able to cut preparation time considerably in some cases, but until then, don't skimp. Part of your preparation will be to memorize your opening and closing - three or four sentences each. Even if you cover your key points from notes, knowing your opening and closing by heart lets you start and end fluently, connecting with your audience when you are most nervous.

Logistically:

Go to the room where you'll be speaking as early as possible so you can get comfortable in the environment. If you will be speaking from a stage, go early in the morning when no one is there and make friends with the stage. Walk around on the area where you will be speaking, so the first time there is not when you deliver your talk.Then, during your presentation, you can concentrate on your audience, not your environment.

Physically:

A wonderful preparation technique for small meetings is to go around shaking hands and making eye contact with everybody beforehand. For larger meetings, meet and shake hands with people in the front row at least, and some of the people as they are coming in the door. Connect with them personally, so they'll be rooting for your success. We as speakers are rarely nervous about individuals, only when faced with the thought of an audience. Once you've met the audience or at least some of them, they become less scary.

It's totally natural to be nervous. Try this acting technique. Find a private spot, and wave your hands in the air. Relax your jaw, and shake your head from side to side. Then shake your legs one at a time. Physically shake the tension out of your body.

Try not to sit down too much while you're waiting to speak. If you're scheduled to go on an hour into the program, try to sit in the back of the room so that you can stand up occasionally. It is hard to jump up and be dynamic when you've been relaxed in a chair for an hour. (Comedian Robin Williams is well known for doing "jumping jacks" to raise his energy level before going on stage.) Sitting in the back also gives you easy access to the bathroom and drinking fountain. There's nothing worse than being stuck down front and being distracted by urgent bodily sensations.

You can cure fear of public speaking. At my Patricia Fripp Public Speaking and Presentation Skills School we can help you overcome the fear of public speaking by demystify the process of what it takes to design and deliver a great presentation.

If you budget is limited why not find a Toastmasters Club? Then your logical next step is to find high caliber public speaking advice for a small investment. World Champions' Edge coaching community. Through World Champions' Edge you can learn how to overcome fear of public speaking and learn tips on public speaking from Patricia Fripp and Toastmasters World Champions: Darren LaCroix, Craig Valentine, Ed Tate and Mark Brown.

Executive Speech Coach & How to Write a Speech

For many years I have attended the Ragan Speechwriters Conference. Many of these heroes write for history. Rob Friedman is one of the most talented and interesting friends I have made there. Everything he writes and says is of interest to me.

This is a repost from Ragan. Enjoy...

How to write a speech for the ears
By Michael Sebastian

Speeches aren’t print articles, so write accordingly. Top Eli Lilly executive communicator Rob Friedman explains how

Crafting a speech is unlike writing a press release, e-mail or article in the employee publication. On paper—or screen—you’re writing for the eyes. The words are portable; readers can revisit them; there are pictures.

“A fundamental aspect of speeches is writing not for the page, but for the ear,” explained Rob Friedman, director of executive communications at pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly and Company. “It’s what we say and how we say it that’s important.”

Friedman calls speeches made for the listeners’ ears “oral writing,” and explained at Ragan’s Corporate Communicators Conference last May the “Six R’s of oral writing.”

Here they are.

Real—Speeches should be conversational, Friedman explained. Unfortunately, business speeches too often include jargon. “If you’re using [jargon]—cut it out!” Friedman said. “One syllable words are important—use the best word, the easy word,” he explained. “Use this simple test: If it’s a word you use in conver-sation with a friend, it’s fine in your speech.”

Here’s an example from Friedman of a stiff sentence made real: “We’re endeavoring to construct a more inclusive society.” Franklin Delano Roosevelt turned that sentence into, “We’re going to make a country where no one is left out.”

Repeat—“Because listeners can’t reread, speakers must amplify, embellish and repeat key points,” Friedman said. Since speechwriting is about persuasion, repetition is important.

“The spoken word is ephemeral,” an AT&T speechwriter once said. “The words I’m speaking now pass through the air; you can’t bring them back unless I bring them back. When I do, that’s not repetition that’s amplification. Everything I say, I should say two or three ways. I shouldn’t say it only once. You have to hear it again.”

Notice how many times he repeated his point?

Rhythm—“Listeners love rhythm,” Friedman said. “Studies have shown that applause during speeches is triggered more often by cadence than by content.” So how do you get rhythm? Friedman has three tips.

Variety. Sing-songy rhythms are bad; avoid them by ensuring your sentences aren’t all the same length. Take this example of long and short sentences from Winston Churchill: “If you have an important point to make don’t be subtle. Use a pile driver. Hit the point once. Then come back and hit it again and then hit it a third time. A tremendous whack.”

Balance. Strike an accord with your statements and do so with conjunctions (“but,” “and,” “or,” “because,” “when,” “without”), or employ correlative conjunctions like “both/and,” not only/but also, if/then, either/or.

Friedman offered an example of balance in a business speech: “We delivered those solid results without deviating from our core values. We aggressively expanded into new markets and lines of business, but stood by our tradition of customer service. We brought new operations and employees into our family companies, but didn’t forget that people make the difference.”

The rule of threes. A list of three suggests finality, Friedman said. It makes a sentence sound complete. For instance, “I want your input, your ideas, your inspiration.”
Rhetoric—Friedman suggests using these four rhetorical tools to make your speeches easier on the ears:

Anaphora is a Greek term meaning, the repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of a series. For instance, Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” had several anaphora like, “I have a dream” and “Let freedom ring … let it ring”

Rhetorical questions, ask them. Take something declarative, Friedman said. It grabs the audience’s attention. Alliteration is the repetition of a consonant sound. Take this example from Friedman, “We’re making major investments to modernize our plants.” Notice the Ms’?

Fragment sentences. People use them in conversation; you should in your speeches. It helps build rhythm.

Rock & Roll—Good speechwriting, like all good writing, must be three things, Friedman said.

Be dynamic. Nouns must be specific, not abstract, he said. For instance, if you say, “imagine a plant,” someone might think of a building, a fern, perhaps a spy. Instead, try specificity: “Imagine a Pepsi bottling plant.” Also, avoid boring verbs; use energetic ones. Profits can “go up,” Friedman said. Or they can “explode,” “skyrocket,” even “evaporate.”

Be vivid. Write for all the senses. Unlike a magazine, speeches don’t come with images. So create imagery and go beyond the limits of a page or screen. For instance, “The Pepsi plant smelled of burnt metal and sweat.”

Be imaginative. Use analogies, tell stories, work props into the speech. For instance, “The Pepsi plant smelled like cheap soda tastes—pungent and nauseating.” Then produce a prop, a cold bottle of Pepsi, and drink from it. “The end product from that plant is anything but.”

Rousing—Boring speakers need rousing speeches. Friedman wants you to face facts: Sometimes you write for people who are bad, boring speakers. Here are several tips to fight that problem:

Find passion. Your speaker is passionate about something. Learn what that is and weave it into his or her speeches.

Create a story they want to tell, perhaps a personal story.

Develop a stump speech, like that of a politician, with consistent themes and stories. The more your executive delivers that speech, the better it becomes.

Write humor into a speech, even if your executive is humorless. Just make sure the speaker is comfortable with it.

Executive Speech Coach Podcasts on Public Speaking and Presentation Skills

Executive Speech Coach Patricia Fripp Offers Public Speaking and Sales Presentation Skills Advice

You can feel free to forward and share!

Traps to Avoid When You Speak
Podcasts 2009 - June 2009
Written by Patricia Fripp
http://www.salesopedia.com/index.php/podcasts-mainmenu-10171/june-09/2004-traps-to-avoid-when-you-speak

Speakermatch Podcasts: Listeners Favorites

How to UP Your Value in a DOWN Economy
GUEST: Patricia Fripp
http://www.speakermatch.com/teleseminars/022609/

How to UP Your Value in a DOWN Economy:
A Bonus Q&A Session with Fripp
http://www.speakermatch.com/teleseminars/031309/

Get Paid to Speak TV Patricia Fripp with Darren LaCroix
http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/1712133

Patricia Fripp on All Business Radio
"Polish Up Your Sales Presentations"
http://www.allbusiness.com/12324270-1.html

A Speech is Not a Conversation, but it Must be Conversational!
Podcast - Part 1http://www.worldchampionresources.com/AudioLessons/AudioLesson050609.html

Executive Speech Coach Patricia Fripp Has a New Book on Public Speaking

What challenges you about presentations?

What if there was an easier, faster, and more powerful way to connect to your next audience?

Whether your next presentation is in front of three people in a boardroom or three thousand in a convention center, you can create the kind of connection that leaves all of your audiences wanting more.

Quickly tap into seventy-three years of onstage experience from five world-famous speaker coaches.

First EVER book by five world-famous speaker coaches:

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• Win every deal you set your sights on and enjoy the vast rewards.

This is your one-stop shop for speaking success. Learn to master structure, content, and delivery all in one place — the Speaker's EDGE!

Get secrets direct from:

• Mark Brown, 1995 World Champion of Public Speaking
• Craig Valentine, 1999 World Champion of Public Speaking
• Ed Tate, CSP, 2000 World Champion of Public Speaking
• Darren LaCroix, 2001 World Champion of Public Speaking
• Patricia Fripp, CSP, CPAE

A quick read, packed with value!

ORDER BOOK NOW

What's inside? Click here for the Table of Contents.

"I've just returned from Finland where I represented the UK in the European Finals of the JCI (Junior Chamber International) Public Speaking World Championship and I won! The tips and techniques I picked up from the Champs played a HUGE part in helping me put together and deliver a winning speech. Thank you so much!"
—Simon Bucknall — London, England

"The EDGE is the premier educational resource for speakers of all experience levels."
—Chris Elliott — Columbus, Ohio

Speaker's EDGE: Secrets and Strategies for Connecting with Any Audience

A quick read, packed with value!

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This powerful book will give you the tools to:Improve your public speaking skills with useful resources from four World Champions and a Hall of Fame Speaker! The five experts featured in this book represent the best of the best in the world of public speaking and presentation coaching.

They cover topics as diverse as humor, motivation, public speaking, communication skills, leadership, and personal and organizational excellence.

There's no other place in the world where you will find this much skill, talent, passion, and entertainment! How fast do you want to take your speaking to the next level?

Stop wasting time on the expensive "guessing game" trying to become a great speaker. This book provides great information and gives you a sneak peak at the fastest track to becoming a world-class speaker.

This book contains three sections focused on the objective of helping you become amazing on the platform:

Platform Presence. This section is devoted to helping you create impact from the moment you step on stage until you bid goodbye to your audience.

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"This is truly amazing! The value you give in the EDGE seriously exceeds the price. If anybody ever wants to improve their speaking in any capacity, they need to get the EDGE — yesterday!"
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Executive Speech Coach Fripp is part of John Kinde's humor

John Kinde has fun with Patricia Fripp at the NSA Las Vegas.

Here is a brief bit Observational Humor I used as an opening remark at the Las Vegas Chapter of the National Speakers Association.  Patricia Fripp was the featured speaker presenting a full-day program.  Her program included individual coaching of audience members presenting speech openings.
I typically open my speeches with Observational Humor, so my “speech opening” was a short segment of humor.
The Set Up (what happened and what was said before I delivered the observational remarks).
1.  RJ DiDonato is our Chapter President Elect.
2.  Fripp mentioned that she was 5′ 1″ tall.
3.  During her program Fripp mentioned that one of her DVDs had a technical issue that made her look wider than she really is.
4.  The night before the meeting, chapter board members joined Fripp for dinner.  She ordered a scallop dinner.
My Speech Opening
“Would you find it interesting to know how we find our speakers for Chapter programs?  Last evening, RJ and I were driving to the Bahama Breeze restaurant for dinner.  As we approached the restaurant, we noticed a woman, about five-foot-one, standing on the corner of Flamingo and Paradise.  The first thing we noticed was that, for some reason, standing on the corner made her look wider than she really was.  The second thing we noticed was that she was holding a cardboard sign:  ‘Will speak for scallops.’  So we picked her up.  And that’s how we find speakers for our programs.  Would you find it interesting to learn how to create fresh, observational humor that you could use as an opener for one of your speeches?”
Notes:
1.  I made reference to the woman’s height to make it immediately clear I was talking about Fripp, without saying her name.
2.  The scallop dinner was an inside joke, since most attendees were not at the dinner and the menu selections were not mentioned at the program.  I felt that it was OK since I was using the classic format of “holding a cardboard sign” (people anticipate a punchline) and also because scallops is a funny word.  The line received a very good laugh.
3.  The transition into my “speech” used a question in the same format as my opening.  This book-ended my opener and led me smoothly into the body of my “speech.”
4.  The “standing on the corner made her look wider than she really was” line received the biggest laugh.
5.  The sequence would have been funnier if I had used THREE things we noticed about the woman on the corner (triplets and the rhythm of humor).  I didn’t have a third item that I felt was strong enough, so I went with just two “things we noticed.”
6.  Fripp’s Speaking School   It’s a great investment.  Highly recommended by John Kinde who attended for the third time. Next Speaking School will be November 14-15, 2009 in Las Vegas.