Public speaking as a profession

Most people already know that public speaking is helpful in such diverse careers as law, politics, religious ministry, and business. Not everyone knows that successful independent public speakers sometimes make fabulous amounts of money. It is not unusual for the pros to charge $15,000 or more plus expenses for a one-hour appearance. (No one, of course, should expect to start that high. Most speakers start by presenting a year of freebies.) All it takes to succeed would be superb public speaking skills, excellent self-marketing, hard work, and a message that is worth hearing. There are several books about how to get started; my favorite is Speak and Grow Rich by Dottie and Lilly Walters.

Also see my update on this topic. 

Best business speech ever?

I've been looking over some recent business speeches. Some of them are really good, but I don't think anyone has surpassed Russell Conwell's "Acres of Diamonds," which explains how to take advantage of the opportunities that are right under your feet. In this wonderful speech. Conwell makes his point with down-home examples and stories, one after the other.

Conwell made a small fortune in speaker's fees by giving this speech many times across the United States. Maybe his acres of diamonds really came from being such a successful speaker. People who want to give business speeches really should look at how Conwell did it. The man was a master speaker.

Public speaking in the business world

The New York Daily News recently published an article showing how becoming a good public speaker can boost a business person's career.

Psychology and Communication

This is a bit late. I'm on a program at the 2016 American Psychological Association Convention. Let's go back a year. At the 2015 APA Convention, I heard presentations by top social psychologists. How do psychology and communication relate to one another? My thoughts:

1. APA Division 49, Group Psychology and Group Psychotherapy, is a major force at APA. Their work directly relates to communication. However, group communication researchers often focus on group decision-making. Division 49 panels often focus on using groups to help people develop social skills and improve their life outcomes. Similar, and related, but distinct.

2. I have seen very few APA panels about attitude theory or what communications professors teach during a persuasion class. Many APA social psychology panels emphasize practical issues. I have seen APA panels about the psychology of mass media.

3.We communication and speech people can continue to learn from psychologists, but they can learn from us, too. One of my 2015 APA papers discussed communication in training programs, partly based on the work of Steven Beebe, Timothy Mottet, and K. David Roach. This may have been new information for many of the attendees.

4. Communication classes often talk about Philip Zimbardo's research: either his controversial Stanford Prison experiment, or his studies about shyness, of which he seems very proud. Here is Zimbardo speaking at the 2015 APA film festival at a showing of the Stanford Prison Experiment feature film. Note the Super-Z shirt.

Speaking without fear?

A relaxed speaker gives better speeches.

Relax? And give a speech? Really? 

You want to be relaxed and confident when you speak. To do this, you need to know what you are doing. Speech is a skill you can learn.

I no longer get very nervous when I speak. I usually just become a little nervous. I still get nervous when I do plumbing repairs on my house. That's because I don't really know what I'm doing, and I'm worried that I'll flood the kitchen. The more I learn about plumbing, the more confident I feel. This same principle--preparation and experience--also can give speakers more confidence.

Let’s put speech nervousness in context. Public speaking generally poses no hazards at all. Most audiences will sympathize with you even if they disagree with you. You can prepare and practice, just as people in any stressful job must do, so that you know what to do. You will still be keyed up—no one will take that away—but you can still do a great job. 

Speeches aren't usually dangerous. It's just that people worry about making a mistake. If you have a serious speech phobia, a psychologist can help. For the rest of us, who just need more garden-variety confidence, the solution is to develop skills. If you know what  you're doing, and if you are well-prepared, you will feel more confident. Keep track of this blog for simple, time-proven ways to speak with power and confidence. 

Freedom of Speech on College Campuses

There's been quite a bit of recent controversy about free speech on college campuses, and I share the concern. Students often object to college speakers whose views they reject. Members of the public sometimes express outrage if they dislike a college speaker.

When I was in college in the 1970's, schools routinely invited controversial speakers to campus. For example, I heard Julian Bond speak when I was a student at the very conservative College of William and Mary. Although he is a civil rights icon today, he was a controversial choice at the time. William Kunstler also spoke on our campus. Such controversial speakers are rarely heard on campus today. Many professors would welcome giving their students a chance to hear both sides of controversial issues. In the past, conservatives have objected not only to communist speakers, but also to people like civil rights leader Malcolm X. Liberals today sometimes object to conservative speakers. The problem is not universal; conservative Ken Starr spoke at USC Aiken's commencement last year. Still, how can students expect to understand our issues if they never get to hear leading advocates? President Obama recently advocated free speech on college campuses; so far, his advice seems to be largely unheeded.

Colleges are afraid that controversy will affect their fund-raising and state appropriations. Their concern is not unfounded. I do hope that colleges will become more willing to invite controversial speakers, but I equally hope that students, legislatures, donors, the public and the media will be more willing to cut colleges some slack when they do so. If a college invites Ward Churchill to speak, that does not necessarily mean that it endorses his views, but merely that the students should  know what his views are. If George Will speaks on campus, that, again, only means that students deserve a chance to hear his opinions. Both should be welcome on campus. Colleges reflect their societies, and I fear that our society has become less willing to hear open debate on controversial matters.

See my follow-up post.

How a speaker can get people's attention

Let's return to public speaking tips. Speakers want the audience to pay attention right away. Great speakers gain attention in many different ways, but three methods are easy to use and work just fine. Suppose that you want to present a speech against excessive corporate downsizing. (Note: this is just an example of how to gain attention. I'm not an expert in corporate downsizing.)

1. Give a startling (true) fact. If this is your method, the startling fact ought to be your speech's very first sentence. Do your research so you're not caught giving a startling falsehood! GState your startling fact, then give your preliminaries ("thank you for inviting me," "greetings to our visitors," whatever)

Example of a startling fact: Contrary to what many executives think, companies that downsize often go downhill. That's why economist Bernard Baumohl calls it "dumbsizing." (Disclosure: I'm not an expert in corporate downsizing; this is just an example of a public speaking technique.)

2. A quotation. To work, the quotation needs to be well-phrased, relevant to your topic, and absolutely accurate.

Example: According to Ronald Henkoff in Fortune magazine, companies that repeatedly downsize, "rather than becoming lean and mean, often end up lean and lame."

3. Tell a story. A made-up story is OK as long as you're honest about it; a true one is even better.

Example: A leading restaurant chain downsized its wait staff. The company thought it was a great idea, but the new policy soon endangered customer service. The wait staff was overworked and customers felt neglected. The company may have saved staffing money, but it wasn't worth it. Hungry people don't want to sit around waiting for a server to show up.

And never begin your speech with a question or a tasteless joke. Never! Never!

Speakers should tell the truth

A good speech must be an accurate speech. No matter how energetic the voice, no matter how powerful the language, a good speech must, to the best of the speaker's ability, be accurate. If a speech is inaccurate, it is a bad speech. Accuracy in speaking means two things: first, that the facts must be right and, second, that the speech gives the listener a meaningful impression of those facts.

Factual accuracy has become even more vital in the Internet age, when fake Founding Fathers quotations and made-up numbers find prominent homes.

Not everything on the Internet is true, and some things that most people believe are actually wrong. A speaker is responsible for what he or she says, and needs to check all information for accuracy. Public libraries are excellent places to start looking for information; most libraries today subscribe to excellent databases, and the librarians can help patrons look up current information from knowledgeable people and organizations--all at no charge. For current new items, it is important to find at least two completely independent sources for potentially controversial information.

I tell my students that there are already too many people who know how to convince audiences of falsehoods. Our country does not need any more such people.

Knowledge is good, and careless mistakes often come back to haunt speakers who make them.

Speech research in the new media era

Pundits often complain that the Internet tends to spread wild rumors, conspiracy theories, fake founding fathers quotations, and so forth. So it does. It also, however, makes fact-checking much easier. The Internet makes it easy to spread nonsense far and wide, but it also helps to catch crooks, liars, and scoundrels who peddle false information.

Speakers of all persuasions need to verify their facts carefully, for an audience equipped with smart phones can catch their errors in a moment. Spread a business myth--misquote a statistic about the divorce rate--get a historical fact wrong--and the audience will know during, or right after a speech, that the speaker made a mistake.

Suggestions for speakers:

1. Get information from more than one source.
2. Avoid sources that have an obvious agenda. Such sources tell you what the agenda is, but might not tell you what the truth is. 
3. Your public library offers free databases to patrons, and the librarian can guide you to the best ones for your topic. You can usually access them from your home computer. Once you get used to them, database searching is almost as fast as Googling, and the information is more likely to be accurate. 
4. Not everything that everyone believes is true. It's the speaker's responsibility to give accurate information.
5. As President Ronald Reagan said, quoting an old Russian proverb, "trust, but verify." Speakers need to check their facts.

Aristotle said that truth was more powerful than error (Rhetoric 1355a), a sentiment that Thomas Jefferson echoed many centuries later during his First Inaugural Address. In the long run, truth usually is more powerful than error. Whether a factual error is deliberate or accidental, a speaker who says wrong things will eventually lose credibility.

Speech at the 2015 National Communication Association

The 2015 National Communication Association (NCA) met at the Rio Las Vegas in November 2015. I presented a paper about the argumentation that underlies the unjustified Sandy Hook conspiracy theories. My thesis was that conspiracy theorists try to shift the burden of proof to compensate for their lack of evidence. I also had the honor to represent the Philosophy of Communication Division on the NCA's Legislative Assembly.

One highlight of the convention was an excellent (although poorly attended) film series. David Zarefsky gave an excellent presentation about Abraham Lincoln's rhetoric. The Carroll C. Arnold lecture, by Arvind Singha, looked at how we can better understand problems by flipping questions. Singha, who is a specialist in health communication, showed how a small number of people succeed in difficult circumstances. Instead of looking at the many cases where people fail under difficult circumstances, Singha looks for the few people who succeed even when failure is the norm, so that lessons can be learned from them. It's an interesting idea.

I tell my students that conventions in their various fields are indispensable opportunities. It's great to read about people's work, but there is no substitute for making direct human contact.

The casino was right in the middle of everything, so I had to walk past the slot machines and blackjack tables to get to the programs, or, for that matter, just to eat lunch. The gambling did not interest me at all. In Ocean's 11, Vegas gambling looks like fun. In real life, most of the gamblers looked bored and worried.

And--an extra treat--here was the view from my hotel window:

Anna Thompson at the 2015 APA Convention

Here is Elaine Clanton Harpine's intern, Anna Thompson, presenting her poster at the APA convention. She also made her debut oral presentation on a panel, at which she gave a lively talk about her work at Elaine's reading clinic.

Some communication experiences at the 2015 APA Convention

Dr. Elaine Clanton and I made presentations at the 2015 American Pscyhological Association Convention. We did notice that the top research psychologists are also fine public speakers, which just goes to show the impact that effective speaking can have on one's career.

Due to its size and focus, the American Psychological Convention offers several interesting features.

One of the most interesting of those features is the enormous book exhibit. The association sets up a temporary bookstore. Here is a picture of the 2015 APA bookstore in the Toronto Convention Center. As you can see, APA has a major publication program. There are also food concessions and a selection of shirts, coffee mugs, portfolios, and so forth with the APA logo. Over the past few years, I have bought a couple of APA shirts at the end-of-convention clearance sales. (I'll buy an NCA shirt if one appears for sale at the November convention.)

The APA exhibit hall is quite a bit larger than at the National Communication Association, which I have attended for many years. This is partly because of the number of publishers who attend, but booths are also rented by people who are marketing psychological materials such as standardized tests, treatment programs, statistical packages, a massage booth, and so forth.

So, it was quite an event!

Start and end a speech with a story

Here is one of my favorite public speaking secrets:

1. Gain attention in the introduction by starting a story. The story must tie straight to the speaker's topic. Often, the start of the story will be sad or disturbing. Don't finish the story yet! Leave the audience in suspense.
 
2. End the speech by finishing the same story. With luck, you'll be able to give the story a happy ending. The audience will see that you presented a problem, explained the issues, and then showed them how to solve the problem.

Example:

Start with the story: "One day, Chris was failing in college. Chris wasn't completing the homework and felt discouraged every time a big, fat textbook came into view. Chris could escape temporarily into the world of video games or the party scene, but Chris' school problems didn't go away. Chris was ready to give up and drop out. Then, Chris figured out the real problem: Chris just didn't have the reading skills for college-level work."

Then, the speaker explains how adults can improve their reading skills, describes adult literacy programs in the audience's region, and presents research proving that they work.

End by finishing the story:

"So, finally, after finishing the adult literacy course, Chris returned to school with a new attitude. Subjects that seemed too hard to learn were now within reach. The textbooks didn't seem so fat and scary. Chris started getting good grades, graduated, and started a successful business. Adult literacy is a problem, but the solution is in plain sight."

Many of the greatest public speakers told stories. Russell Conwell's great speech "Acres of Diamonds" was just a string of stories that all aimed at one point. Ronald Reagan told stories. People love stories. You love stories, too, and so will your audience.

Sometimes, it's good to speak slowly . . .

I once sat next to an elderly gentleman at a symphony concert at the Koger Center in Columbia, South Carolina. We had a nice chat. He was very friendly, and his speaking manner was slow and clear. I left after the concert with the impression that he was someone important, maybe a retired college dean, or a company executive, or whatever. Actually, I had no idea who he was. I still don't. All I knew about him was the way he spoke. His manner of speech gave me the idea that he was influential and powerful.

One thing that I have often noted about many important people: U.S. presidents, corporate CEO's, university presidents--is that they do not talk too fast. Many of us chatter like chipmunks when we get behind a podium. That makes us sound breathless and insecure. People with power usually sound relaxed and confident. Now, one also does not want to speak too slowly, but, really, speakers who are too fast never seem to sound serious.

Good speakers do, of course, also vary their rate of speech: sometimes faster, sometimes slower. Variety helps the audience stay interested, but too much speed keeps people from sounding important.