Pause

There is so much to be said about "Pause" but most important: do not be afraid of it! Pause is your friend, use it! Here are some ways of use it as described in Graig Valentin's blog, used here with his permit.

Pause when...

Before you begin your speech

Before you begin your speech, I suggest that you pause and look at your audience. I’m not talking about staring at them for 10 seconds and making everybody uncomfortable. I’m simply suggesting that you look at them and let them know you see them before you start speaking.

Why? Well, what do you think about a person who doesn’t look at you when you first meet? Some people won’t trust the person and others will think the person isn’t really interested in connecting with them. Either way, this is not good for the connection. Your audience can think the same thing about you if you don’t at least acknowledge their presence with a look that says, “I see you” before you begin your speech (i.e. as you first meet). The good news is this can be done in a couple of seconds.

 After you ask a question

Whenever you ask a rhetorical question on stage, answer it in your own mind and that will give you an adequate and effective pause.

So often I see speakers ask their audiences a question but then they don’t pause long enough to let the audiences respond. If you want a verbal response then it becomes easy. However, when the question is rhetorical, it becomes slightly more difficult? Why? Because you might not know how long to pause. What you pick up here is my secret key to asking questions and  pausing for the appropriate length.

Secret Key: In my mind, I answer the question I just asked as if I am in my audience.

After you say something profound

Another important reason to pause is after you say something that hits home with your audience. How do you know it hits home? You know by watching your watchers and listening to your listeners. You’ll see on their faces when it hits home. Over time, you will know which parts of your message resonate the deepest.

Key: The larger your audience, the longer you pause.

Too many speakers start feeding their audiences the next lines when the audience is still chewing on the current line. Let them finish chewing before you give them more. Many speakers know not to step on the laughter but they haven’t yet learned to avoid stepping on their audience’s thoughts and reflections.

When you make your audience laugh

Knowing and doing are two different animals. Most speakers know not to keep talking while their audience is laughing.

Why? Because stepping on the laughter is rude to your audience. Your audience wants to be heard too. That’s why they laugh. That’s why they yell out at times. That’s why they nod their heads and give you verbal cues that they’re connected with you. Let them speak in their own ways including laughter.

The key is to get the laugh, pause, and then come back in at the very end of the laughter just as it’s dying down.

Keep in mind that laughter from a large audience requires a longer pause because it takes them longer to laugh. That’s why, each year, I see contestants in speech contests go over time. Why? They underestimate how long it takes those larger audiences to laugh.

Pause you give inside of your stories. For Suspense. Reaction. Interaction, Action..

Julie added to it:

And of course, do not hesitate to pause either instead of Ah, Uhm, whenever you are stuck, no one will realise it is not a Power Pause! And I learned, in an Improvisation Class that those in "power" pause longer!

Last meeting, next meeting

Next Lewisham Speakers meeting, the 1st of February. Great line-up!

Last meeting of January, great joy: first times won all the first prices!
Serena, for her first evaluation, Windy with  his first speech, and one of our guest Dee (who will become a member) for Table Topics, showing that you can become effective speaker very fast in Toastmasters, and that it is not the number of speeches that count but their impact on the audience.

Evaluation Workshop by Freddy Daniells

31 January at Meridian Speakers,  at the Spanish Galleon begins at 19h in Central Greenwhich :All those from Lewisham Speakers who did not participate to Freddy's wonderful Evaluation workshop, at Lewisham Speakers, in July are invited.to assist

48, Greenwich Church Street SE10 9BL Near Cuty Sark

It lasts even not two hours, it is interactive but in fact, you will use it, remember it always! It will last long long time!

Storytelling Workshop 11.1.2012

What a high octane workshop we had, so much fun, energy and learning.
The two main aspects covered were the importance of body language and the voice.

Richard in his usual enthusiastic style discussed the importance of body language, which culminated with the attendees participating in an exercise. They demonstrated the appropriate skills whilst reading a short passage written by Richard about nearly receiving the cane. I can still see and hear the images described so elegantly and realistically.

Steve facilitated a session about the voice where the attendees stated and discussed the important aspects of the voice in storytelling. This was followed by an exercise which involved them delivering a very short speech in their usual style and then changing to characters such as a sergeant major and game show host. So much fun and experiential learning.

Everyone taken way out of their comfort zone. Katy and Flavia were really fearsome as sergeant majors. Chris and Marcella were very intelligent and articulate as professors, whilst Windy and Manoj looked as if they had been on the TV for years as they performed being game show hosts. The exercise clearly demonstrated the importance and impact how your internal thoughts effect your voice and body language.

Useful mnemonic for remembering different aspects of the voice and vocal variety is PAPER TV:

P ause
A rticulation
P itch
E nuciation
R ate

T imbre (quality)
V olume

The above skills enable us to enrich our stories and speeches with more colour and realism by keeping the audience actively engaged and creating the appropriate images in their minds. The audience become actively engaged following the story. 

Steve

4 January 2012

Richard as Toastmaster brought in the New Year with a bang. With the enthusiasm of a firework display he effervesced and energised our first meeting for 2012.

Manoj gave his Project No. 7 CC speech entitled "Cache or Cookies" and told us about the importance of internet protection from potential hackers. Chris finished his evaluation of Manoj's speech by saying "I am going home immediately to run my anti-virus". It was a very effective speech.

Zhanna, an Advanced Toastmaster speaker, gave an very interesting folklore speech entitled "Family Folktale", the video is already in our blog! Philip, in his usual lively manner, gave an excellent feedback in his evaluations.

After our social recess, Serena, for the first time, took on the role of Table Topics Master. She did a splendid job around the theme "End of year/New Year". Zandria, using her storytelling skills, won best table topic as she discussed, with lots of humour, her imaginary homelessness and how she would acquire a new home.

Our General Evaluator for the evening was Helen who was visiting us from Brussels. Helen is a very experienced Toastmaster and has been the founder of three Toastmaster Clubs.

In the business part of the meeting, Manoj was voted on to the Committee as Secretary, replacing Steve, for the next six months.

In all it was an excellent beginning to the New Year for Lewisham Toastmasters.



Flavia

Zhanna's Family Folk Tale

4th January, Zhanna told us a folk tale from her own family in Russia, Steve had took a video of it - as you will see, she is already an Advanced Toastmaster Speaker

We all enjoyed her story and delivery a lot!

Instead of preaching, tell a story

Another interesting blog with lots of advices, is a blog by Craig Valentine, I have assisted to his workshop too. This time he wrote a post about how we can avoid "preaching".

1. Use "soft you" not hard "you".
Soft : "have you considered", "you see me as"
Hard: "you should do"

2. Adress the audience with a "past" question, rhetoric or not.
Have you ever? It would be nice to be able to turn every challenge into an opportunity....

3. Let the story tell your point!
Each point deserves its own story (or other anchor such as an Activity or Analogy) and that way each point can be uncovered within the story and prevent you from preaching. Then it only takes a Foundational Phrase and perhaps another line or two to drive that point home and get your audience across the bridge.