Manuel

It started early. Even as I showered the morning of my presentation at last month’s conference I could feel the nervousness building. I had to force myself to eat breakfast over a bit of a queasy stomach. I found myself distracted as I wandered from room to room attending the other sessions that morning. My sparse notes are evidence to the fact that I was thinking of other things.

Nervousness always comes. No matter how many presentations I make I think I will always be nervous right before I speak. The key is to have a strategy to deal with the nervousness.

My strategy for dealing with my nervousness at this conference was to attend the session that immediately preceded mine. This would give me a chance to:

1. Find the room well in advance of my time slot
2. Observe the room layout, sound setup, and so on
3. Learn from the way the previous presenter “used” the room

As I watched the previous session, I watched the sound man, dressed from head to toe in black, as he quietly, with few words, did his job. When it was my turn to be mic’ed, he strode toward me and asked, “Are you my next speaker?” I acknowledged my role and followed his instructions as we tested the equipment. After everything was hooked up, he looked up at my title slide emblazoned across the big screen at the front of the room. “Impromptu speaking, huh?” He asked, “Are you a Toastmaster?”

The man’s name was Manuel. He had a strong, smooth voice. He was a Toastmaster. In fact, he was in the process of forming a new club. We chatted for a few minutes about our shared connection through Toastmasters. I gave him a 30-second overview of my talk. I thanked him and began the last-minute preparation for my talk.

As the talk began, I noticed Manuel working the sound equipment. I could tell he was making live adjustments to the sound. When he was done, instead of leaving as he had done for the previous session, he walked to the back of the room and sat down. He granted me the honor of teaching him–Toastmaster to Toastmaster.

Manuel honored me with his words and with his presence. He encouraged me by just being my friend.

Advanced Communicator Silver!

This week I delivered my 30th regular speech at my local Toastmasters club meeting. That achievement, coupled with a couple of other presentations, has earned for me another Toastmasters award: Advanced Communicator Silver.

I’m excited!

I thoroughly enjoy Toastmasters. I encourage you to check them out:

Toastmasters International

Position-Action-Benefit

My Toastmasters colleague, Laura Poole, recently sited something that I use to help in speechcraft. It’s called Position-Action-Benefit, or PAB.

PAB is a pattern that I use for two purposes:

1) As an outline for my open/close of a longer prepared speech

2) As an outline for impromptu speeches of rather short duration

A typical prepared speech would look like this:

- Grabber
- Situation/Complication/Question
- Opening PAB
- Body of speech including 3 main points
- Closing PAB
- Memorable quote or line

The opening PAB is my position, what I want the audience to do during my talk, and the benefit they will get for doing so. The Closing PAB is a repeat of my position, the actions I want them to take after they leave, and the benefits they get from those actions.

Note that the opening position is the answer to the question that came before it.

For example:

How many of you would agree to take a 50% pay cut? (Grabber) The situation is that we have far too many high-school drop outs in NC. (Situation) This is a huge problem because those without high-school diplomas will make, on average, 50% less than their graduating peers. And they often don’t know it! (Complication) In this economy, the question becomes, “How are we going to keep these kids in school?” (Question.) I believe the answer is in building relationships. (Position) What I’d like you to do is take a journey with me into the lives of the young people around us. (Action–code for “listen to me!” Ha!) By the time we’re through, I think you’ll see that just a few hours of your time can make a huge difference in a young life. (Benefit)

Then, at the end, the PAB would be:

I believe that the answer is in building relationships. (position) As you leave here today I’d like you to take a flier with you. After you get home, I’d like to invite you to search your heart for the ways you’d like to help address this terrible problem our children are facing. (action) A few hours of your time can change a life forever. (benefit)

The impromptu (or elevator speech) benefit of PAB is that now I’m ready to talk about my topic in a pointed way given just the briefest period of time. Let’s say the previous speaker goes over time, my plane is late, or a reporter calls me on the phone. I can use the closing PAB plus a bit of flourish to make my point, call for action, and probably get invited back to speak at length.

Win!