Matt Eventoff

“He was my model. I learned from him how to hold thousands in thrall.” – Sir Winston Churchill

So who was “he”?  He was W. Bourke Cockran, a Congressman from New York City in the early 1900s who was described in his day as the greatest orator in the land.  He also served as a role model to Churchill.

Congressman Cockran was noted for his ability to move colleagues and constituents to support causes or even change positions due his magnificent oratory.  Churchill once wrote to Cockran, about Cockran, “…there are few more fascinating experiences than to watch a great mass of people under the wand of a magician….”

Why mention Congressman Cockran today?  I found it only fitting after watching what I would describe as an oratorical debacle on Sunday during the healthcare debate on the floor of Congress.  This post has nothing to do with the merits of the bill.

While there were some bright spots in the debate, they were very few and far between.  Instead, there were lots of speeches full of self congratulations, accusations, big words, addresses to others within the Chamber, reading from prepared statements with little to no emotion, etc – but not one that really differentiated itself from the rest in any positive manner.

There were countless speeches given on Sunday. The timing was perfect to launch an oratorical career. Unfortunately, in my opinion, that did not happen.

* Michael McMenamin and Curt Zoller have written a book, Becoming Winston Churchill,  that I have read countless times about Churchill and Cockran — I highly recommend it.  I consider Winston Churchill to be my oratorical role model, so I can only imagine how moving his oratorical role model was (unfortunately, I do not believe any recording of Congressman Cockran exists).

Fear doesn’t just exist for the days and hours prior to an event.

In Pt. III of this series, I am going to address tips and tactics when the nerves kick in within minutes of your presentation actually beginning (although every one of these tactics also work hours and days before as well).

1. Body Movement - A few minutes before “taking the stage” –  “Waggle” (lateral movement) your jaw; bend forward and dangle your arms and let them shake; shake your hands over your head; utilize simple stretches and isometric stretches (more on that later) — all of these movements, when incorporated with proper breathing, warm the body, relax the mind and calm your nerves.

2. Body Movement, Pt II - As a former amateur boxer, nothing prepares me to speak better than light shadow boxing a few minutes before I have to speak.  I know a CEO who (literally) does 20 pushups prior to every earnings call.  Still another prominent political figure actually “swings” a tennis racket prior to giving a major address.*  The point is, focused movement helps even more than just for generic movement because…

3. Visualization – …it works.  Professional boxers, when shadow boxing, do not throw random punches — they are visualizing an opponent and quite literally sparring with that visualization.  Ballplayers do the same thing before approaching the plate.  Elite athletes, musicians, actors and dancers utilize visualization regularly — Todd Hargrove has an excellent article on visualization in athletics here.  Visualization, if done properly, works for speakers and presenters as well.

Stay tuned, Pt IV will focus on tools and tactics when the presentation or speech actually begins….

*If you are in a crowd or a situation where you are not by yourself immediately prior to presenting, please send an email and I will give you some pointers on how to improvise.

Last year Megan Mylan set the bar with her Oscar acceptance speech.  This year, unfortunately, no winner quite met the bar that Megan had set, although some certainly took it in a much different direction.

The lack of great acceptance speeches at the Academy Awards is nothing new — Joseph Lindsay has posted an excellent article on that here.

One “thing” that stood out to me more than any other last evening…reports indicate that the number of viewers increased by 15 % from 2009, and stood at over 41 million. 41,000,000. Think about that.

Over 41 million people watched the ceremony, during which awards were presented to a cadre of film professionals.  Said professionals participated in those movies and films that were watched by, oh, I don’t know…maybe some of the 41 million people who tuned in last night.

Not one acceptance speech focused on the one group who made each award possible – THE AUDIENCE.  No one spent significant time thanking the fans who voted with ticket purchases and their time.

There is a crucial public speaking lesson here — if you should ever win an award (and I hope each of you win a number of them), when you accept,  remember your audience, always.

I spent an interesting(and frustrating) two days last week- the first watching a number of legislative hearings, and the second watching a number of presentations/pitches before venture capitalists and private equity groups.

The similarity was striking, and there are

1. You are presenting for your audience, not yourself — It doesn’t matter if you are presenting on the floor of the House of Representatives or on the floor of a private equity investors boardroom — your presentation is not about you, it is about the folks you are presenting to.

2. Focus – What are you trying to accomplish? – Rallying support behind a cause? Garnering votes for a bill? Gaining the interest/investment of equity groups?  Moving poll numbers? Placating a board?  Far too many presentations have no focus,  fail to answer this central question and fail to get the desired response.  Wonder why?

3. Reading verbatim IS NOT fundamental - First of all, the organization Reading is Fundamental does truly wonderful work.  There is one situation where reading is not fundamental, and then is when you are presenting.

I watched an entire Congressional hearing where EVERY opening statement was read verbatim, with eyes failing to meet anything but the copy of the testimony — three things were obvious:  1) the Congressional member reading was rarely, if ever, the author of what was being read; 2) the Congressional member displayed very little, if any, ownership of the words written; and 3) the chances of connecting with the audience was non-existent (Watching reporters and interested parties typing away on iPhones and Blackberry’s is not a positive sign)

To Legislators:  It is understandable that you have staff prepare comments prior to committee meetings and floor votes – your time is very limited and the pressures on you are great.  However, if you do not have the time to take the prepared comments, introduce your own thoughts, and re-write sections in your own words and language, you are better off not speaking at all.

To Entrepreneurs:  It is understandable that you are nervous, have a lot of information to convey, and have written it down in order to ensure that you are able to introduce every concept you feel is necessary.  Reading directly off of a script, or even worse, off of a PPT (the subject of another post) will not allow potential investors to see how passionate and confident you are about your company, your fund or your idea.

Invest the time in practice and preparation. If the President can re-write comments, practice and invest countless hours in preparation for an address, so can everyone else.

The President does it because he is well aware of the fallout should he fail to prepare.  The question is, what is the fallout should you fail to prepare?