My Process for 30-second Speeches

 During the week of August 14, 2023 I prepared a series of 30-second speeches. Each of these will be recorded for later use.  At our Toastmasters International annual conference in Nassau, Bahamas, a few of us have been asked to record some short instructional videos offering tips about leadership and public speaking.

I find it easier to prepare a 15-30 minute speech than to prepare a 30-second speech. A longer speech enables me to identify speaking points, select among them, then sequence them and practice speaking to each point for two to three minutes. With this approach, I figure out how to best fit the points together for a smooth flow.

30-second speeches need to be very focused. Short speeches such as these are typically recorded as video assets, for re-use and re-play. For me, these short speeches require more planning effort than a longer form speech.

My Process for Short Speeches

My process for short speeches and longer speeches do have similarity. 

1.    Identify the broad topic area and identify sub-themes

2.    Answer the question “what is my purpose with this specific audience at this event”

3.    Select only the pertinent points to address the purpose (In a 30-second speech this means 3 or 4 sentences)

4.    Organize the points into a presentation and practice the flow

30-Second Speeches

As I’m preparing 30-second speeches, the brief video content means I only have time for three or four sentences. As these videos will be instructional, I need to address the why and how, that is, why this technique is helpful and how to execute.

 

My Planned Leadership Topics

In preparing my topics, I draw from my experience, and select key points from some longer presentations.  I plan to speak on;

1.    A basic, repeatable speech plan leaders can use and re-use

2.    Helping team members understand core values by utilizing the Toastmasters technique of Table Topics

3.    The immense cross benefits to leaders of speaking and writing

 

My Planned Public Speaking Topics

For public speaking tips I plan to speak on;

1.    My favorite, and fallback, speech plan structure

2.    Mixing logical and emotional appeal in a speech

3.    How speech purpose must determine content

4.    How practice and participation enable improvement

 

Results

At a later date I’ll update this post with links to the videos. The actual videos took the form of brief interviews, where a question was asked related to the planned topic area.

Regardless, planning made the process easier, as the interviewer was able to frame a question around the planned topic area.

Managing Q&A Sessions and “Bad” Questions

Late last year I wrote about serving as a judge at an MBA competition and made some observations about the performance of the groups, and generally about professional presentation habits.  Here is a link to that post should you wish to see it https://gycz.blogspot.com/2022/12/nervous-energy-and-dancing-during.html

In this previous post, I commented on the management of questions and answers by the groups. While I thought this was a relatively minor point in the post, I received some follow-up comments regarding this.   

During the event, teams of students delivered individual presentations, and then the teams were required to take questions from a panel of judges from the business community.  I noted that in most professional situations someone skilled should field each question initially and either answer the question, or invite a specific team member to address the question.  Someone skilled should manage and control the Q&A session.

At the competition any student on the presenting team was able to jump in and answer, sometimes exposing the line of questioning to a new area. This is not a huge issue during student presentations, but in a professional environment could perhaps expose an area the larger team would prefer not to discuss.  Or perhaps a participant not fully developed professionally manages the question poorly. I’ll offer an example.

“Why Would You Want To Do That?”

In the late 1980s, I worked in information technology holding a variety of positions over a ten-year period. One day, we were pitched some software that wrote new software after the programmers provided a few variables.  I’ve seen other variations of such software in more recent years, but I’ve never seen any version that truly worked well.  But perhaps the industry has evolved, perhaps Artificial Intelligence will finally deliver on this long-promised capability.

On the day we were pitched this product, the salesperson brought along a product demo expert, a technical expert, to demonstrate the application and answer any technical questions. Their well-rehearsed product demo went swimmingly, and a few questions were asked and fielded well.

Then a human resources manager in attendance asked if the product could be developed by the product, that is, could the software actually write itself.   That’s an intellectually curious question. I was early in my career and had some rough edges professionally, but I did appreciate the beauty of the question, although I thought it was a bit odd.  I didn’t state that of course.  But the product demo guy did.  He said “that’s a dumb question, why would you want to do that?”

Then, the sales professional jumped in to try to salvage the sale, but at that point, the demonstration and potential sale was over except for professional niceties. The sales pitch failed.

Experience Must Manage and Control

The point of this story is to illustrate that in most situations, someone skilled should take control of the Q&A session, to answer the questions, or to frame any response, and only invite other team members to comment if required.

In my story, if the sales professional had quickly acknowledged the question, commented that it was an unconventional thought, and managed the question to completion, a sale might have been possible. 

Elements of Public Speaking

There are many elements in public speaking. Team presentations introduce another layer of complexity. There is no replacement for experience in managing presentations professionally.

Right Time, Right Place & Your Best Year Ever

Back in the 1990s I was working in the mobile phone business here in Atlantic Canada.  One summer when I was on leave of absence completing a degree, I spent a summer selling mobile phones, including the big, old bag phones and the fixed-installed phones that were popular at the beginning of the industry.  It’s astounding how many people I met in later years who proudly told me that they bought the first mobile phone in the province. I swear I didn’t mislead anybody.

Marketing Analysis

Later in the 90s, I was working in marketing, poring over spreadsheets and working to understand past trends, patterns, and drivers of change, looking to improve margins and invent new product offerings.  One day I saw an interesting anomaly in annual sales and revenue.  The company I was with was the result of a merger of four smaller companies. As I looked at the past revenue and sales results from the four companies, I noticed that all four had record breaking years in the same year.  I believe it was 1997 when each performed exceptionally well.

It was time to make some phone calls and see what had happened that year. In my home province the answer was that the company had released a ‘self-optimizing’ rate plan and customers never again had to worry about exceeding their voice usage allotment. The customers loved it and as a result the company had their best year ever. (It’s hard to believe that data usage came along later and originally the traffic was all voice or text).

I called someone who was with a second company back then and she responded that they had introduced the Motorola Star-Tac phone for $99 on a 3-year contract. Customers loved it and as a result, they had their best year ever.

I called someone who was with a third company and he said they had introduced simplified long-distance calling zones and boundaries to simplify long distance charges.  Customers loved it and as a result they had their best year ever.

I called someone at a fourth company and she said they hadn’t done a lot that year other than open a couple of new retail locations, but yes, that was their best year ever.

Right place, Right Time: Be Prepared

So, four companies in close geographical proximity, four separate actions, and each with their best year ever.  I think the real answer for their success in 1997 is that the entire industry took off that year, and while each company took well considered actions, all benefited from overall industry growth. We were all in the right place at the right time, and prepared to benefit.

I enjoy remembering this story, and those conversations, and the pride in the actions taken.  The preparations each had made was so important to realizing their opportunities. They were ready as the industry blossomed.  Each had retail operations, customer management systems, physical inventory and more. If they had not, the opportunity would have been lost.

In contrast, I watch our current challenges with affordable housing and note that governments pursued population growth and immigration, both of which are desirable. But without planning for where people will live, any population growth could be short lived if newcomers can’t find affordable accommodations and speculators drive up the prices on existing housing inventory. 

Be Prepared

I relate this sort of preparation to communication and leadership training.  Some people take training because they’ve had an experience which taught him that his skills were not as sharp as they should be. I view communication and leadership skills as core skills, and I want mine to always be sharp. Communication skills include responding to awkward questions, giving timely feedback, and organization of thoughts and ideas. Leadership skills include running meetings, keeping teams focused, providing performance feedback and more.

Toastmasters

If you agree with this point of view and you wish to keep your communication skills sharp, I invite you to visit one of our 16,000 Toastmasters clubs, to join, and attend regularly or semi-regularly.  You can learn more at www.toastmasters.org

When your industry takes off, when opportunity knocks, you want to be ready and prepared. If you’re ready and prepared, you can have your best year ever. 

The Gift of Someone Else’s Enthusiasm

Today I had a conversation with a new member of our Rising Tide Toastmasters club.  She joined last week and is eager to start participating, receiving feedback, and developing her skills.  The first speech a member delivers is always an Ice Breaker, a four-to-six minute speech to introduce herself to the group.

New Customers and New Toastmasters Members

The new member clarified our modest expectations. Although Toastmasters isn’t a pass/fail organization, she wanted to discuss the expectations, the general approach to her first speech, and also asked for some more advanced tips. I offered a couple including to always focus on what she as a presenter desires the audience to do differently, think about differently, or what action she wishes them to take. She will deliver her first speech at our weekly meeting Tuesday 7:15-8:30 a.m.

After our chat I thought that it’s an absolute gift to be exposed to someone else’s enthusiasm. When we offer a product or service that we play a part in enabling, and someone is excited to participate or buy, that is very energizing. It will be fantastic to see her first forays into public speaking, and watch and support her development.

Sales -  Recognizing Enthusiasm And Asking For The sale

An element to this is recognizing someone’s enthusiasm and then supporting and nurturing it, whether we’re developing their talents or offering a product or service. I remember many years ago moving to a small town.  When I was getting the television service connected (yes television - this was many years ago), I chatted with the installer about the move.  I mentioned I liked the town, but I had a few disappointments including being out of range of the college radio station I liked to listen to back in Saint John.  This was before such services were available on the internet. 

When I indicated I missed that station the installer said his company had a service that made this available.  I responded with a simple, delighted "really?!?!”

“Yeah, we just grab the signal, run it through some amplification and then rebroadcast it on one of the channels." I didn’t really care how it worked, but he felt a need to explain this.

I was pumped to know that I might be able to receive that radio signal. I was ready to buy. But there was only silence between us.  An overly long pause.

Finally, I offered "how much does that cost?"

"Something less than $10 but I’m not sure of the exact amount."

I could afford $10 a month. I was ready to buy, but again there was silence.

After another extended pause I said "can I get that?"

And he said "sure, no problem."

Years later I still recall this interaction as an example of asking, or not asking, for the sale.  Perhaps the technician didn’t recognize he had made the sale and only needed to close. As a customer I was enthusiastic, and ready to pay for this additional service, and the installer just needed to ask. I’m sure he wasn’t trained in sales, but I continue to wish he had recognized my enthusiasm, and asked, but instead I had to ask to purchase.

Recognizing Enthusiasm

I’m pleased that our new Toastmasters member is so enthusiastic.  It’s a gift for me to witness such enthusiasm. I’m sure it’s a gift for you when you’re greeted with spontaneous enthusiasm. To be successful at sales, marketing, and working with people in general, we need to show enthusiasm for our products and services, and recognize, acknowledge and nurture it in others.

Comfort Zones and Marketing Your Own Work

I hate marketing my own books and my own work. Which is odd because I spent most of my corporate career in marketing, and still perform marketing consulting, that is, marketing the products and services of other people.

With clients, I very much enjoy working to define a business problem well, identify and consider alternatives, and then help the client choose a path, and begin to execute a path. 

Regarding my own product and service mix, I have written a couple of books over the past couple of years, and will produce some more.  They’re distributed primarily through Amazon for paperback and Kindle products. I have spent very little energy in marketing and selling the books, and I know they offer more income potential.  I have read and viewed material on how to market on Kindle but I quickly lose interest, and my meagre efforts have borne modest results. And I’m ok with this.  I produced the books to support the speaking and consulting business and they have done that.  But every once and a while I will look to those books and decide they could be generating more revenue.  Then I’ll try something, it doesn’t work well, and I lose interest again.

Now I am a bit aglow this week as I am running an Amazon price promotion the week of April 6-12^th,  2022 on Kindle and as a result, my book about a Quebec and Maritimes based hockey road trip of 18 games in 18 cities is selling well, currently #9 on their hockey bestseller list nudging out Haley Wickenheiser’s biography.   So now I’m curious where my book peaked but I’m not going to go the effort to try to find out, although I will check the list from time to time.

amazon.com/author/jimkokocki

Giving Advice To Others

Isn’t it odd that we can be good at giving advice to others but not act on similar wisdom or advice for ourselves? I’m sure I could push more volume from my two books, but marketing these products is not something I enjoy.  And so I haven’t. 

What I have realized recently is that I should pay better attention to my more broad market.  My recent speaking engagements have been on the themes of running effective meetings, and injecting some levity and fun into those meetings. We’re still in the Covid-19 pandemic, and hopefully easing out of it, but we are now in a 6^th wave in Canada.  People always need advice, tips and tricks on running effective meetings, and in these pandemic days on engaging with employees and coworkers.

My point in writing this is to encourage others to spend time on work they enjoy. I acknowledge that I don’t enjoy marketing my own products. And based on my goals and objectives this is ok. Each year in Canada there are approximately 50 million books sold to 38 million Canadians and a lot are sold by authors with whom we’re all familiar, and I accept my very tiny slice of the market. 

I hope you have the ability to earn a comfortable income and choose to spend your energy in places that offer you enjoyment.

 

 

 

Comfort Zones – A Sales and Decision Making Model

How do people make decisions?  A helpful way to consider how people progress through decision making is with decision making models.  A long time ago I learned about a model that works for marketing, sales and public relations.  I know the model as AKIDA, although it’s usually simplified as AIDA.

What is the AIDA model and the AKIDA model?

The AIDA model is comprised of

-         Awareness

-         Interest

-         Desire

-         Action

Here’s how it works. If a prospective customer isn’t aware you exist, he doesn’t buy your product obviously. If the prospect is aware you exist, he may develop interest in your product. A change in his needs and life circumstances may drive desire to purchase your product. And finally, a further life change, or a sales promotion you offer, may drive action to purchase your product.  Moving through these stages may take minutes, but it may take years.

The AKIDA model inserts knowledge after awareness.   This makes sense to me because without some knowledge of product features, benefits, and success stories it makes progression difficult. I suppose knowledge may be implicit with awareness, but I find it helpful to see it clearly called out.  It becomes obvious that part of our roles in sales, marketing, public relations and leadership is to drive awareness and knowledge that develops interest, desire and action.

An Example of AIDA (AKIDA)

Here's an example.  I’ve been an avid cyclist for years, and have a couple of nice bikes.  I’m generally aware of e-bikes, which are not terribly new, but are becoming much more popular these days.  I have awareness, but little knowledge about price, benefits, and I haven’t had discussion or thoughts about how they might fit my lifestyle or my transportation needs. I have awareness.  I have little to no knowledge.  I have no interest, desire or action to purchase. But it may be the case that an e-bike would be a great option for me now. So vendors need to be effective at driving messages to prospects like me to see us progress along the purchase decision.  

How To Expand Your Comfort Zone

I share this because I’m interested in how people make progress in expanding their comfort zones, which is in itself a decision. I’m interested in how you make such progress. Do you have awareness of what holds you back from making progress on goals and aspirations?  Do you have knowledge on options and alternatives that will set you on a path to making progress?  If you have awareness and knowledge how strong is your interest and desire to take action.

I spend a lot of time developing speakers both professionally and in Toastmasters. Toastmasters is a low-cost high value option to develop improved overall communication skills, public speaking skills, soft skills and leadership skills.  I’ve seen people join Toastmasters who say that they’ve known about Toastmasters for years but a life change drove them to take action.  Often there’s an urgent need to address a skills gap. Sometimes it’s a retirement speech, or a speech at a wedding, or a desire to play a role in their community.

The AKIDA model helps in planning how to reach prospects and offering solutions to their needs.