Speaker’s Edge Day 2 Reflections by Gerrit Conover

Speaker’s Edge Day 2 Reflections:

Now about that market place pitch... Perhaps more difficult than the straight informative speech, the market place pitch relies on one’s ability to persuade the audience. As a class, we’ve been tasked to come up with a scenario to describe who we are, who our audience is, and why we are making our pitch. After that, it’s show time.

We used class time to present the basics of our pitch and then gather feedback from the audience. A lot of helpful suggestions surfaced during this time – and not just the basic point about public speaking (i.e. don’t pace, maintain eye contact with the audience) but actual critiques pertaining to the topics. Tomorrow we will break into small groups for more practice and critiquing.

Nonetheless, I found the following two points of emphasis especially helpful from today's session:

1. You can sell only if you yourself are convinced: If you are not sold on the product or service, it will be an uphill battle to sell someone on else. Your lack of conviction will scream through.

2. Be passionate and exciting: Most presentations are BORING! So create a show and make it exciting. Excitement is contagious – just like a yawn.

These two tips come from Tom Szaky, the Chief Executive of TerraCycle, a not for profit recycling concept business. In July of this year, Szaky posted his commentary on the New York Times' blog “You’re the Boss: The Art of Running a Small Business”.

I listened to 16 speech outlines today, and the market place pitches that stood out were the ones that followed Szaky’s suggestions. The most persuasive pitch ideas are the ones that leave the audience convinced of their value.

Wintersession Speaker's Edge: Thursday Week One by Alex Scrimpshire

Writing a mediocre speech is easy. Giving a Mediocre speech is even easier. Not that I thought that my first run of my speeches would be perfect, but after getting all the feedback, hearing the other students' speeches and seeing other ideas and approaches, I realize that I need to strongly fine-tune my speeches. I have realized that the difference between a bad speech and mediocre speech only requires a few minor improvements while the difference from mediocre to great requires in-depth analysis of what you want to say, in what order to say it, what information to use, and how to say it. I find myself with a seeming abundance of information and figuring out how to fit it all together--in an intelligible manner, is quite a task.

It is a task that I am enjoying, as I do enjoy a good challenge. I look forward to when I finally arrange my thoughts and ideas in the best logical manner and also in a manner that my audience can understand and be engaged with. Hopefully, I will be able to pick ideas and techniques from some classmates as they give some of their speeches. Also, I look forward to utilizing the experience and wisdom of our celebrated coaches that will be helping us in the next few days. I hope with their input and wisdom, I can craft some good speeches and learn the craft of producing good impromptu speeches.

Looking forward to more progress tomorrow. Then after tomorrow---we'll be halfway finished!!

Looking forward to hearing great speeches and seeing great improvements from my classmates!

Until next time--be anxious without waiting.