A "black tie" week!

Hello and happy Thursday to you.

WOW, what a glamourous week I had recently.

Yes, hard life. I had to bling-up twice whilst delivering and witnessing a host of good, bad and ugly speeches too.

First of all, the Change Awards was magnificent. The brilliant founder, Margo Waldorf (pictured middle), gave a fantastic speech if you don’t mind me saying. I did help her, and she didn’t use a script - bullet points only. Yay. Triumph.

And then I had the pleasure of hosting a charity ball with professional auctioneer, James Hasler (pictured right), who was absolutely brilliant.?

I have to say, I witnessed some excellent speeches and some pretty interesting scripting NO NOs too… read my conclusions below.

Script Sucky Blankets!

For the first time in my life, I witnessed 3 people using their mobile phone to read their script, as an “autocue”.? They thought if they could scroll like a teleprompt, somehow this would make reading their script…

• Easier to deliver
• More natural ?

However, in reality, if you use your phone as your script or prompt, this is what your audience will actually think…

• They’re looking at their bl@@dy phone
• They are NOT engaging
• They are too scripted

If your phone script becomes your sucky blanket, I get it. I used to have one, you need to re-think your script strategy.

Good news… you can overcome script sucky syndrome.

One of the phone scrollers asked me to rehearse his 3 minute speech before his big podium moment. He warned me…

“Don’t change too much I’ll never get my head around a new script”.

Then he proceeded to fiddle with his ingenious ‘Teleprompter’ APP on his phone.

What could I say?

I thought to myself,?“shall I be honest and tell the truth?” or?“Should I let him scroll on his phone and look down for 3 minutes, only for the audience to think (as above), they’re looking at their bloody phone, they are NOT engaging with me, they are too scripted.”

We only had half an hour to go so I did what I felt was best. ?

I took a risk. I decided to be brave and come clean.

I asked this dashing young man.

“Do you want the audience to think….

A – “Ooh he’s struggling with that script” for 3 minutes

Or

B – “Ooh what a genuine guy, he thanked us from the bottom of his heart” for less than a minute?

Guess what he chose to do?

It worked. He chose B and got loads of compliments.?

Phew, job done.

Good lesson though. Teleprompts can be a curse. Beware of the 'script sucky blanket'.

You can have a script, notes and bullet points if you want to. You can stash them in all sorts of funny places. However, please don’t use your phone.

I sometimes have bullet points in BIG FONT on A4 sheets on the floor where only I can see them. And a little bird told me that Tony Robbins does that too! Ha ha, I’m not a huge T Robbins fan, however, I’m glad to hear he needs notes scattered on the floor too.

Want to know how Barack Obama does “script”?

Click on Obama below to find out...

As you may know, I run fun and interactive masterclasses for international teams who NEED to engage remotely and I love it.

If you or your team need to up your game when it comes to delivering scripts and maximising your natural talents, get in touch, I’d love to help.

#Presenting #PublicSpeaking #SpeakingTips