The Wolf of Wall Street & Audience Analysis

Selecting the right message for a given audience can save much discomfort for a speaker.  There is a scene in The Wolf of Wall Street that illustrates this well.

The Book and Movie

A few months ago, I was walking through my library and saw a display of books. Prominently displayed was The Wolf of Wall Street, which is a memoir from Jordan Belfort, a former stockbroker, a convicted financial criminal, and now speaker and author. I checked the book out from the library, read it, and later watched the movie.

Both the book and movie are too long in my opinion, and there are some significant differences between the movie and book. Both are entertaining, but at times credibility is stretched significantly. To test if my skepticism was reasonable, I searched other reviews and opinions and many support my disbelief of some details.  

For example, in the book, there is a scene where Belfort’s rented yacht is sinking in Italy, and as he, his wife and others are about to be rescued by helicopter, he and his wife lightheartedly joke about needing to shop for clothes later. It’s hard to imagine that dialogue, and any levity, taking place in such a moment. There are many more examples of exaggeration and embellishment.  

Further Details

Belfort’s story is amazing for many reasons. More detail is available here if you have more interest.

https://www.looper.com/866224/everything-the-wolf-of-wall-street-doesnt-tell-you-about-the-true-story/

 

Public Speaking Examples

I was entertained and very interested in the public speaking scenes. Belfort was, and I’m sure remains, a very persuasive speaker. His style isn’t my style, but his approach is undoubtedly effective with his audiences.

In one scene entrepreneur Steve Madden addresses Belfort’s brokers, Belfort’s sales staff, and the scene is fascinating in its illustration of audience analysis and engagement. It’s a great example of poor audience analysis and lack of readiness.

In the scene, Belfort’s firm is about to take Madden’s self-named shoe company public, in an IPO offering, selling Madden shares to their clients. Belfort brings Madden to the office to pump up the sales team and get them ready to promote and sell the shares that are about to be released to the public. Big money is at stake.

Madden begins meekly with a self-introduction, but the audience already knew his name and that he was the founder of the company. Somebody in the impatient audience shouts “we already know your name!” Not a strong start.

Madden then delves into trivialities of shoe design and manufacture. The audience starts throwing wads of paper at him.  Belfort steps forward, gracefully moves Madden aside, acknowledges his comments and his work, and then takes over the presentation building the sales team into a greed-inspired frenzy. He understands his audience and speaks about how much money the members of the sales team are about to earn.

We might not agree on the motivations, but this remains a great example of understanding an audience, meeting their energy level, and delivering an appropriate message.

 

Three Questions For Audience Analysis  

Here are some questions for any speaker to consider before any engagement;

1.   Why am I invited to address this group?

2.   What is my sponsor’s desired outcome with this specific audience?

3.   How do I assess the audience energy level and meet them where they’re at? Immediately before speaking, assess the energy level of the audience and work to be compatible. You can then take the energy level elsewhere, but try to avoid a mismatch of energy.

 

More On Audience Analysis

I wrote previously about audience analysis here https://gycz.blogspot.com/2023/11/short-cut-to-audience-analysis.html

 

Conclusion

Choosing the appropriate message for a specific audience will save a speaker from an uncomfortable interaction.  This requires some time before finalizing any remarks, but is well worth this effort.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Middle East magazine - Anyone Can Become An Effective Public Speaker

Anyone can become an effective public speaker, as this article states. I’m quoted extensively in this article published in 2016. The content remains relevant

https://www.ceo-middleeast.com/ceo/ten-steps-become-better-public-speaker-652066-html

When Your Speaking Time Is Cut Short – Fastcompany Interview

Have you ever prepared a presentation and just before you are about to take the stage, you’re asked to reduce the planned presentation time? It has happened to me, and if you’ve delivered any quantity of presentations, I’m sure it has happened to you.

I suppose you might have the option to say that you’ve prepared a certain amount of material and will do your best to condense. However, a lukewarm commitment, or rushing through your material is usually unsatisfying for you, and the audience might not receive your message and be left only with the impression that you speak very quickly.  It’s better if you can agree to condense and then deliver on your commitment.

When I receive this sort of request, I will do my best to work within the new time parameters. I somewhat enjoy such an unexpected challenge, and I like to assist the organizer if I can, and as long as I perceive that the presenters are being treated fairly.

So how can you prepare for this scenario? In 2016 I was interviewed by FastCompany about such situations.  I will elaborate on the article which is available here https://www.fastcompany.com/3062235/five-secrets-to-deliver-a-short-presentation-without-sacrificing-the-message

First, understand and use your speech structure. Your structure should be simple. As a test you should be able to describe your speech in 20 seconds.  For example, that might sound like “I start by briefly building some camaraderie with the audience, then I speak a little on my background and credentials, I introduce a problem we all face, and then I describe three options I’ve found successful for similar problems.”

If you understand your structure in such a manner, and you’re not entirely bound by a script, you can make a last-minute adjustment. Considering my example above you could reduce part or all of your background material, or you could allocate most of your available time to discussing what you consider your most impactful option, while still speaking briefly to the other options. Such last-minute changes aren’t ideal, but are manageable when you have a plan and approach. 

A second approach is to start with your slides, but based on your new time allotment prepare to abandon the slides at a specific point.  Slides can be a trap. It isn’t helpful for the audience for you to flash a slide and say ‘I don’t have time to cover this slide.”  Slides can also be a trap if you decide to offer a brief comment, but then talk too long, which will add to your time stress.  If you show a slide, you’ll want to speak to your content, because you prepared it and you’re justifiably proud.

You can feel confident abandoning your slides when you understand your structure, your overall plan, and your key messages, and know before you take the stage that at a specific point, you’re going to stop using them and simply speak to your material. You may want to jot down some reminders of key points you wish to speak about to enable you to work without your slides.

When you do abandon your slides, this will appear extemporaneous and will show that you’re in control of your material. The meeting organizer should be very grateful that you’ve assisted to get the overall program back on track. 

It's disappointing when other speakers continue longer than their allotment, or in some other way a program gets off track. However, if you have a plan for such situations, you can earn the respect of organizers and the audience, and still do a great job of landing your message with the audience.

 

 

Comfort Zones and Keeping Material Fresh

 

Sometimes speakers need to create entirely new material, or feel a need to create entirely new material.  In my experience, great speakers often work within one or more core sets of material, and tinker and add over time.  I like to focus on evolving my material over time to ensure it remains relevant and fresh for attendees in the audiences.  Such a slow evolution of material results in a deep expertise in the topic area.  My expertise is in speaking, communication in general, leadership and marketing and I continue to search for new ideas and approaches.

I’m inspired to write on this topic because this week I have quite a few speeches to deliver.  On Monday I speak to a university class, Wednesday to a multi-cultural group, Friday to some Toastmasters board of director candidates about board governance, and Saturday to an international group about leading in a virtual environment.

I don’t often feel much stress about presentations but when I looked at my upcoming calendar, I did feel a little stress at the volume of upcoming events and the varied topics and diverse audiences. That said my core material for each presentation relates to communication and leadership, and the governance session will be group discussion style on the book The Imperfect Board Member (If you’re interested in this book please see https://www.amazon.com/Imperfect-Board-Member-Discovering-Disciplines/dp/0787986100

I take comfort in knowing that my material and reusable PowerPoint slides address key premises of communication and leadership. These key premises haven’t changed much over time.  While our world is more online in 2022, concepts such as clear communication of team goals and team progress, recognition of helpful behaviors, and communicating effectively to audiences large and small remain relevant.

I do recognize it is critical to keep material fresh for the audience and for me as a presenter.  To that end I will perform some research on any news or articles related to communication, leadership and governance that is relevant to these audiences and some will make it into some new slides and speaking points.  (For example here is an article with some good perspectives https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/2022-public-speaking-online-challenges-self-tips-amalia-sterescu/

My point in writing this is to remind speakers to work from your core expertise.  But continue to make incremental changes to your knowledge and experience for the benefit of audiences and you as a presenter.