Gary C Smith Public Speaking

noreply@blogger.com (Gary C. Smith) — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 22:34:00 +0000

Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and right doing,

There is a field.

I’ll meet you there.

When the soul lies in that grass,

the world is too full to talk about.

Ideas, language,

Even the phrase each other doesn’t make any sense. Rumi

This concept is ancient win/win, open source & is free attention.

There are no limits in the world of poetry, but public speaking is USUALLY not poetry.

We love the poetic, and appreciate the imagination involved and an audience comes to hear the specific.

An audience wants parameters, surprise is fine, and WIIFM* the audience asks.

Public Speaking means put fences around the pastures.

It means clues to right and wrong.

*What's in it for me.*

Creating Rapport with an Audience

noreply@blogger.com (Gary C. Smith) — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 23:45:00 +0000

Rapport is the best gift you can give your audience.

A speakers two best friends are rapport and preparation.

How can you create rapport with an audience?
It is tough to mirror and match an audience of more than a few.

TIPS:
Get there early, be first and introduce yourself to everyone.

It's not easy with more than ten, so still be early, be by the door, wear a name tag.

Plan your presentation to match the four different personality styles.
Be bright, vivacious, enthusiastic for the promoters-they have on the bright colors, the most jewelery and are aggressive and informal in style.

Give a bottom line objective and results for the controllers. There creases are neatest.

Recognize and speak slow and soft toward the nourishers’ and acknowledge their presence. Become their new best friend.

Be reasonable analytic in the why we are here to the analyzers.

Tell the truth-be authentic-be real in desiring to create rapport.

“Good morning. I wish I had the time to connect with each of you, and EVENTUALLY I will, for NOW please know that I am here to do that-to connect, to create results, to have fun and provide the information you deem important for us to trust each other."

You can create rapport when a question is asked.

"I'm glad you asked that. Let me repeat the question."

Do not wait till the end

of the seminar for Q&A.

Great rapport means no one gets lost along the way.

“We are all on the same page. Your goals and our goals match because rapport is the best gift we can give each other."

Remember there is an interconnectedness of all things.

We have more in common than we do in difference, and who wants to be indifferent to change?

Create an Attitude of Gratitude.

Be and feel honored to speak.

Have a plan to put your gratitude into motion.

Acknowledge everyone!

Appreciate yourself for the risk taken, Challenges met & skills you have developed and willingly share.

Shameless self Promotion

noreply@blogger.com (Gary C. Smith) — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 23:42:00 +0000

“Mommy mommy look at me.”

It begins at an early age.

It’s the stage after we begin to learn & want to share a new skill & get others attention.

The theme is shameless self-promotion.

A mixed and convoluted way to spread the word, the promoter, the promotion and often much much more.

This is not a rant on why not too self-promote, but how to do it ethically.

How to with no shame and ask for what one wants from the purity of our intentions.

For we have nothing for which to be a-SHAMED.

Shameless self-promotion happens all our life.

We may have joined Toastmasters to get good at it.

If you really get good at it you’re a star.

Madonna got so good at it that re-invention as a different kind of star became a mainstream rage.

Look at Oprah

Look at our President Obama

You can’t be a popular politician without Shameless self-promotion.

Daytime TV is made up of shameless self-promotion.

The dictionary offers insightful looks at the terms.

Shame

1. a. A painful emotion caused by a strong sense of guilt, embarrassment, unworthiness, or disgrace. b. Capacity for such a feeling: Have you no shame?

2. One that brings dishonor, disgrace, or condemnation.

3. A condition of disgrace or dishonor; ignominy. See synonyms at disgrace.

4. A great disappointment.

Self-promotion-noun

1. The act of promoting or the fact of being promoted.

2. Advancement in rank or responsibility.

3. Encouragement of the progress, growth, or acceptance of something; furtherance.

4. Advertising; publicity.

This is a term, like manipulative, that has got bad press.

Manipulate means to artfully and skillful do something.

If someone is manipulative they are considered improperly using someone and are BAD.

It is not the words it is the implications in the mind of the listener.

Shameless self-promotion means to bring no disgrace, no dishonor, no disappointment, or the pain of guilt to an endeavor.

Self-promotion is about an advancement of responsibility.

The encouragements of progress.

It is A furtherance of a person place or thing.

Shameless self-Promotion is an honorable project.

Rid yourself of any feelings of guilt.

Harbor no shame.

Advance the Ranks.

It's not like Riding a Bike

noreply@blogger.com (Gary C. Smith) — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 14:06:00 +0000

Overcoming the fear of Public Speaking is a sensitive issue.

Sensitive because our EGO is involved.

I can't make a mistake.

It was our egos that created the sensitivity and fear.

Our four year old grandson Trent has aquired Grandpa Gary's verbosity.

The censors have not arrived & his speech is free flowing, fearless, & with excitement. He has seen, heard and felt life and wishes to share it.

He is in the 'actually' stage. "Actually Grandpa, it is Speed racer and not Kyle Busch."

It's a wonderful version of 'correction without invalidation.'

He just wants to get the facts straight, I have to be right."

He practices a lot.

It's all new, & no one has told him, & it will never come from me, that he is wrong.

It's all good stuff.

But with those who have had the other kind of experiences, the I am 'stupid & wrong.'

"They laughed at me",

"I forgot what I was going to say",

"I feel stupid",

"I can't do this,"

the sensitivity-embarassment, ridicule, taunting, kidding, teasing takes its toll.

It may not be the phsycial pain and scars of a bike crash, those heal.

We forget, put on a helmet and get back in the saddle.

Where is the helment for the scars are EGO's create?

How can we get back back in the saddle, after embarrassment, and the fear returns?

Practice.

Practice again.

Practice some more.

Just cause you got over the fear once, it can come back and the only answer is practice putting your attention out.

When your inner turmoil becomes to large to handle, put your attention on practice, on something outside of yourself.

Accept, initiate or reinitiate the beginners mind.

The fear lives in only one place, inside you.

Oh yea, I already know that.

You don't have to be right, be a lefty for a change.

You can make a mistake, you are human.

And you do know all of this, so share it with others.

Telling a joke to the clerk at the store, gets you back in the saddle.

You have value-share yourself.

Rapport is the best gift you can give.

noreply@blogger.com (Gary C. Smith) — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 22:10:00 +0000

Rapport is a speakers best friend along with preparation.

How can you create rapport with an audience?

It's tough to match and mirror an audience of more than a few.

Here are some tips:

Get there early, even be the first one there and introduce yourself to everyone.

With large groups wear your name tag and stand near the door and observe.

Plan your presentation to cover the four personality styles.

Be bright, vivacious, and enthusiasm for the promoters, the blings in vivid color.

Give the bottom line objective to the controllers, the suited, well pressed ones.

Nod toward the nourishers, speaking slower with empathy recognizing them.

Be reasonable and analytic in why we are here and the immensity of info to cover.

Be authentic, tell the truth, in your desire to create rapport. "Greetings to each of you. I wish to connect with each of you, and EVENTUALLY I will, for NOW know that is my intent. I trust we will have fun, create results, decipher the information we need to feel good."

Create rapport when a question is asked. Do not wait till the the end of the presentation for Q&A, great rapport means no one gets lost along the way.

The interconnectedness of all things. We have more in common than we do in difference, and who wants indifference to our topic?

"Your goals and our goals match because rapport is the best gift we can give each other."

The Attitude of gratitude and Acts of Apprehension are the guides.

People like people who are and like them.

Accept the honor that speaking creates and especially Appreciate yourself for the risk, challenges and preparation you share.
Dirk Gently-Wholistic Detective-In search of the Interconnectedness of all things

Paying for the Words

noreply@blogger.com (Gary C. Smith) — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 12:48:00 +0000

-"That's a great deal to make one word mean," Alice said in a thoughtful tone.

"When I make a word do a lot of work like that," said Humpty Dumpty, "I always pay it extra."

How much are you paying for your words?

"When I use a word," Humpty Dumpty said in a rather scornful tone, " it means just what I chose it to mean-neither more or less."

"The question is ," said Alice, " Whether you can make words mean so many different things."

"The question is," said Humpty Dumpty, "which is to be the master-that's all."

Who is the master?

Are you choosing or are you being what your words believe you are.

Is the word, the name, the label more than what you mean it to be?

Are you trapped by your words?

Are certain words running the show?

Is there power in CAN'T?

Does WORRY run the show?

Has WHATEVER taken over?

Our Public Speaking is 93% body talk and vocal variety,

BUT our words are 100% of our communication in our Private Speaking.

Chose our words carefully, we may become them.

Get Fit

noreply@blogger.com (Gary C. Smith) — Tue, 19 May 2009 01:06:00 +0000

Is there any activity, endeavor, skill, task, or goal that doesn't come easier when we are fit?

Dealing with the fear of public speaking, the nervousness, is much easier to handle with the breath control attained from physical fitness.
Shallow breathing, a rapid up heart rate, that unneeded adrenaline rush does not show poise and confidence.
My favorite exercise pattern now is NIA, " a high powered energizing workout...its a total mind body celebration...NIA is like chocolate" it gives you the high without the calories.
NIA builds self appreciation by focusing on the pleasure of our bodies.

Our bodies make up over 50% of what we communicate.
A NIA class encourages creativity of movement.
NIA sets the mind to explore the bodies possibilities of expression.
A NIA instructor uses martial arts, healing modalities, and dance forms to provide an environ to communicate positive affirmations, strength, and flexibility.

As a speaker those are traits I wish to build every day.
Get Fit and Dance through Life. and Speak Fearlessly.

Becoming Mediterranean

noreply@blogger.com (Gary C. Smith) — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 15:44:00 +0000

Gesturing.

How many gestures do you have? Let's do an inventory.

Can you:

Stop in the name of love?

Can you:

Invite someone in?

Can you:

Hitch a ride?

Can you:

Be the one

Can you:

Say a prayer?

Can you:

Beats me.

Can you:

Hurry up.

Can you:

Slow down you move too fast?

Can you:

Shh, be quiet.

Can you:

Come on join in

Can you:

Be disgusted

Can you:

Wail and flail, get confused and then get centered?

All with your gestures.

Can you become Mediterranean?

Be silent, speak only with your hands.

How important is it to Speak?

noreply@blogger.com (Gary C. Smith) — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 20:41:00 +0000

It is important to have a message.

It is important to share that message.

To tell a story and make a point is how humanity evolved.

It was eons of generations before a story could be shared other than by speaking.

Eons before the written word storytellers shared the messages of wisdom, of which berries to eat, where the clean water flowed, food, shelter, the magic of survival and words to thrive.

Storytellers held the clan together, understood death, passed on nourishment, brought laughter,

acknowledged change, spoke of taboos, victories, and taught others to speak the truth.

But today, where does the importance reside?

The media's have spoken words in a billion places, movies, audios, TV, the Internet.

The magic,wisdom, laughter, the stories have been told, recorded and are available to all.

The importance now resides in the speaker.

The courageous ones who choose to speak and share the greatest gift of humanity, our presence. Sharing our story, the uniqueness of me, of you, of us.

The importance of speaking is in the past, the future and mostly in our presence.

Our wish to share, to inspire, to motivate, to entertain.

To build a skill 99% of the populace can learn and master.

To understand the concepts of 'need to know and need not to know.

To understand it is not what I say, it is what you hear.

To understand that 93% of our communication is not the words.

To connect with another or a group and deliver words of change, words of victory, words of care, laughter to handle upsets, words to unfold new points of view.

Speaking fearlessly is abolishing fear, the biggest lie.

History or Herstory its Your Story!

noreply@blogger.com (Gary C. Smith) — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 22:52:00 +0000

History or Herstory
“Everything great must have its story.”
--Found on a tin of Velamints.

What’s your story?
All of us have stories.
Stories of times when we made a difference.
Stories as unique as person telling the story.

But like so many skills & art forms it takes a coach to bring out the best.
We are losing our ability to tell stories. Much of our history is being re-written, spun to an agenda. Generations have lost the ability to pass on wisdom, know how, kindness & compassion.
The oldest generation experienced life in ways never to be seen or heard again. Each individual was part of the power of that NOW.

You have a message.

You have meaning to that message that needs to be passed on, not passed over.

It is an important time to formulate your message and deliver that message in writing, but more importantly by word of mouth.

To break the media cycle of human less communication and use the SPOKEN WORD to preserve and share your wisdom, hopes & fears, doubts & triumphs, and most importantly your unique POINTS OF VIEW.

Speaking to groups, family or friends they need to hear as much as you need to speak your voice.

We are not just aging; we have aged to being an elder, with a message, and its time to speak up.

Having reached the magical age of 60, Gary C Smith, is coaching those who wish to share their message.

As a coach, Gary deals with the fear of public speaking, assists with providing and editing content, connects with the 93% of communication beyond words, and shares the fun and meaning of your message.

Chronicling Your Story-A Tip
Telling and translating a story can start with a list, a tree-to hang your fruits upon, a really cool digital watch-to keep them in real time, or a mind map. The map starts with key idea, and then I armed with memories that lead away or toward more of who, what, when, how, and why you are.
Have fun being an omnificent writer, an engaged first person narrator, an impartial third person with video, or combine all three as in a dream, be the director, viewer and the star, even have a cameo role.
Get started today, tomorrow there will be one more thing to remember, put pen to paper NOW . For now you don’t need an editor and will never need a judge!y or Herstory

“In olden days when a storyteller comes to the end of her tale,

she places the palm of her hand on the ground and says,
‘I put my story here so that someone else may take it up another day.”

Phone Magic

noreply@blogger.com (Gary C. Smith) — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 22:46:00 +0000

Phone: Friend or Foe? How to tell:
We all use them each day. Sometimes our business and our success is driven by our phone presence, but how do we know what is going on the other end? Are they getting our message? What kind of an impression am I making?
Here are some phone guidelines I find effective:
1-Client Fishing. You put out the bait, an ad, a business card, a one to one meeting, and they called. Oh, Happy Day. Have a standardize greeting, “XYZ business. This is Gary. How can I help you? LISTEN then use the Five Magic Words. “Tell me about your ____.” Script the blank to your service or business. “Tell me about your hair, yourself, your loan, your child, your roof, your challenge.” Or with your sincerity ask, “How I can help you?” The KEY is to have an active attitude of curiosity and gratitude for the call and respond by putting all your attention on the caller. If you make a lot of calls having a mirror in front of you can be very helpful at maintaining attention, smiling and reinforcing your side of the call as positive. Without being able to show your happy face, you must intend them to know your interest in them. You must let them know you care. “

2-Taking Notes. Show you care by asking if you can take notes. Your showing you care, are paying attention and want to get it straight. You can add to this at the end of the conversation by saying, “Let me read back my notes so I can be sure I got our conversation right.”

3-Breathing. Belly breathing is the best way to stay connected on the phone. It slows the need to rush, and it keeps you more in tuned to the magic of feeling. I don’t think judging from feeling is useful, but being in your feeling is usually more effective than being in your agenda.

4-Digital Remembering. This is my reminder on how to get an appointment right. Make sure all the information is correct by index finger pointing at the info and reading it back. “Sam our meeting is on January 29, Thursday, at your office, 123 Main street at 2:00.” Remember to pause and listen for the response.

5-Humor and Honesty. Tell them your glad for the call, even say “I want you to know that put a smile on my face.” Become a teammate and show you’re also concerned about the issue.

6-Brag, just a little, about your connection and appreciation of them. “I just want you to know that we are sending, referring, linking to your business. A business to business connection. We want you to know we appreciate you.”

7-Thank them. Feel the thanks. You can never say thanks too much, or for creating a special feeling. Phone service is not about being right, always winning or even getting the truth told. It is an impression, a limited sensory experience, so make the best use of your guidelines, and project your appreciation for taking them a bite.

Connecting over the Phone is a program available from Gary C Smith Public Speaking & Trainings 510-722-3212

The Art of Persuasion

noreply@blogger.com (Gary C. Smith) — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 15:14:00 +0000

Audio communication doesn’t get any better than The Art of Persuasion by Dr. Rick Kirschner. Dr Rick has a voice that intones interest. His use of characters, stories, and humor give him abilities to make large valuable pieces of information palatable and memorable. This audio is a must for everyone from sales people; counselors, teachers, parents, children and anyone who has an idea and wishes to create change and break free from the inSAMEity of the habitual sleep walk society has fallen into.

There are brilliant individuals in our society with life changing ideas who need this audio. Our ‘information-tech’ society will not flourish without the insights and the keen sense of ‘useful assumptions’, a reduction of individual differences by ‘blending’, understanding ‘access languaging’, and the move from limits to ‘possibilities gates’ that Dr Rick clearly states for all personality styles. It is both a beginners course in the art of persuasion and a doctoral dissertation on persuasion and how to protect yourself from persuasive manipulation.

Dr. Rick has made the valuable transition from helping us deal with difficult people, to dealing with the most difficult person of all, our self.

This is not an audio of scripting, manipulation techniques or psycho babble, but here are the basic patterns of effective persuasive communication, not just with others, but to better understand who I am, and the ethical qualities that honest, authentic, real people need to know

Our educational system needs to be revamped around Dr. Rick’s’ The Art of Persuasion.

As a trainer of speakers I use Dr Rick information as guidelines for my marketing group, Toastmasters, and public speaking.

He sums it all up with two quotes:
“If you have to be right, your doing it wrong.”
“You make a difference in your world and in our world.”
I can say the same and more about the works of Dr. Rick Kirschner, he makes a difference in my life.
Thank you
Gary C. Smith Public Speaking & Trainings

The Greatest Speech

noreply@blogger.com (Gary C. Smith) — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 00:04:00 +0000

Get ready it is coming.

The greatest speech of our lifetime, prehaps of the history of the USA.

How do you know?

What else could Mr. Obama do?

He is going to amaze us, make us cry, give us hope, speak complete sentences and really, really, really mean it!

Oh yea,

I know cause I've had the flu and tapped into some amazing auditory hallucination.

I can't remember the speech word for word.

I am a little confused about the ideas,

I am sick, but by golly, by gum I feel it!

The road he's travelled, the colleages he's gathered, the family he loves and his ability to put his attention in the moment!

"Here & Now boys & girls."

"Here & now boys & girls."

Get ready to listen.

Practice with your chuildren, your co-workers, at the unemployment line, applying for a job, working the soup kitchen, listen.

Listening is not about the sounds hitting the ear drum, the hammer and anvill doing some type of synphonic cacophony, but, like in my auditory hallucinations, hearing what's important. Grasping meaning and being able to share the meaning.

Listening is looking right in the eyes, and not switching channels, or adding a new down beat or changing the tempo.

Listening is about letting the speaker speak, without your agenda, the Democrats or Republicans agenda, not your mothers or Gods agenda.

Things will be said that sway us into hearing each other better.

And that's what I want, to hear the message that everyone has to say.

A message came in my dreams
Where Mr. Morpheus planted seeds
Of magic beans & missing friends
who speak words bearing love
hidden beyond sights, sounds & smells
wonders of life
& dark days being celebrated.
Seeds holding gifts of fruits
Faces inspiring poets
& play of children holding hands
& whispering
“I’ve got a secret.
Let me tell you how it goes.
If your real quiet
You can see
& feel
how we’re all the same.

Let us Sleepers Awake.

Toasting

noreply@blogger.com (Gary C. Smith) — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 15:15:00 +0000

Speaking Fearlessly with Holiday Cheer.

I hope you find an occasion to provide a toast for and to your fellow holiday revelers.

This months Toastmaster Magazine has an article Tips on Toasting Well.

“The purpose of a toast is to shine a gentle spotlight and pay tribute to the honored guest or event. Toasts typically proffer well wishes, good fortune, long life, health, happiness, sage advice or other positive thoughts. …Begin by introducing yourself, state first and last name….explain how you’re related to the guest of honor then present the toast….Be brief, be bold, be done.”

Be Brief-“No toast should last longer than 60 seconds was Mark Twain's golden rule.”

Be Bold-“Stand proud and speak loud. Ensure that everyone sitting in the room…can hear your tasteful toast.”

Be Done-“Smile, nod, and accept any applause…then refocus the spotlight on the guest of honor.”
…”speakers can add a humorous story about the guest of honor after they explain how they know the honoree and before the actual toast.”
Why is it called a ‘toast’?
From Shipley’s Dictionary of Word Origins “in the middle ages, drinks often had sopped in them a piece of spiced and toasted bread….The Tattler #24 June 4, 1709 tells that the use of the word (toast) arose when a celebrated beauty of the time of Charles II was in Cross Bath; one of her admirers took a glass of the water in which she stood, and drank her health to the company. Another present said he liked not the liquor, but would have had the toast(i.e. the lady sopped in it. Thereafter, when men drank to the one they delighted to honor, it was called a toast.”
A Master of Ceremonies in formal terms is called the Toastmaster.
I learned of the "Toast to the Idiots" from my Gurdjieff teacher in 1971.

Annie Lou Stavely, Gurdjieff Group Leader

A true "idiot" is one who knows that he does not know, a ‘conscious incompetent.’

The toasts were given at the end of a meal, usually with Armagnac or Calvados, high alcohol content Cognac’s. The group gathered to do ‘the work’, the Magnus Opus and the toasts were celebrating and honoring that we knew we were mechanical slaves, sleep walking through our lives and were will to work to awaken. Without Gurdjieffs’ help, and he died in 1949, no one got past idiot # 6.

1 ordinary idiot-Here is to the ordinary idiot, those who sit at this table.
2 super idiot-Here is to the super idiot who thinks the most.
3 arch idiot-Here is to the arch idiot, who would have us all follow him/her.
4 hopeless idiot-Here is to the hopeless idiot who gave up too soon.
5 compassionate idiot-Here is to the compassionate idiot, who sees us all in the same soup.
6 squirming idiot-Here is to the squirming idiot, the idiot who wants out.
7 square idiot
8 round idiot
9 zigzag idiot
10 enlightened idiot
11 doubting idiot
12 swaggering idiot
13 born idiot
14 patented idiot
15 psychopathic idiot
16 polyhedral idiot
Idiots 17-21 constituted a spiritual hierarchy, reflecting progressive gradations of objective reason
Idiot 18 presented the highest development which a human being could reach, but in order to attain it, he had first voluntarily to descend again from 17 to 1, the ordinary idiot.
Idiots 19 and 21 were reserved for the sons of God.
21 - Unique Idiot (God himself being the Unique idiot)

Happy Holidays
Gary C Smith
Blogging Idiot

It's Your Ideas not the Words.

noreply@blogger.com (Gary C. Smith) — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 16:42:00 +0000

You may forget the words, but the ideas are still there.
If it is poetry, a song, or someone else’s work, use their words. Be diligent and respect their work, however you have permission to use your ideas in public speaking fearlessly.

It is YOUR IDEAS that have stirred you into a presentation. It is your task to hold those ideas and flow with them with stories and keypoints like waterfalls into pools.

Present an idea, a sacred point that leads to a story, a pool of imagination that the audience can take a cool dip or a refreshing swim or shocking plunge into the next pool, the next point, next story.

Then add the next idea, this falls drops us into a new way of seeing, a new vista to assess our position and see if that will support our fall into the next pool of multiple ideas or a pool where the one right decision can be made.
As you soak in that pool prepare for the next plunge over the edge of limits and safety into the next new pool of unlimited ideas or the current that brings your raft into the port of prosperity, happiness, and to the next stage of your journey.

Remember it is your ideas, clearly formed you are presenting. It’s your showboat of who you are. Know your self and your ideas will flow and carry your audience with them.

An Attitude of Gratitude

noreply@blogger.com (Gary C. Smith) — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 18:04:00 +0000

The title of this blog is Public Speaking Fearlessly, and I hope you have moved past the fear and into the essences of life, the interests, empathy, joy, enthusiasm and gratitude.

The appreciation of the amazing fact of being alive.

The wonders of the senses.

The magic of the imagination.

The enjoyment of each other, of how we differ and how we are the same.

The delight to feel the interest for others, of life with an audience.

It’s the start of the Holy-Day experiences.

Take the time to Check Inn with yourself and find what and who you appreciate.

My Hope exploded on November 4th with the election of Barrack Obama.

His acceptance speech had me in tears.

His family, the crowd, the respect he was shown by his opponent transmitted a message of the American ideals and placed them at the forefront of our minds.

He has raised the standard of Public Speaking.

With all his new responsibilities and great formiable challenges he uses his meaningful pauses, and appreciation of his family, as a bench mark, a ground of being for a strong message of take the time to not only smell the roses, but share the appreciation with those in the Rose Garden, Adopt an Attitude of Gratitude and let Thanksgiving begin with you.

Time for a Colorful Metaphor

noreply@blogger.com (Gary C. Smith) — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 23:46:00 +0000

"Just come out and say it."

"But I don't, know what it is ? Its too big, or too small or just too hard to say."

"Well what's it like?

"It's like the first day at school. Being excited, scared, and lost all at the same time."

The first day of school, an event all readers have had, different but with more sameness than difference.

The first day of preschool is different than the first day of grad school, but it resonates with the emotional center of the brain, Limbic something or other, that connects us all, and that's what a colorful metaphor can do, connect the speaker to the audience.

Even connect the speaker to the inner world of meaningful moments, synchronicity, epiphanies.

Finding how This can be like That energizes the brain to find more connection, more of the rapport speakers are working toward.

Knowing we are all climbing that mountain searching for the treasure of insights, joy, wonder and good questions that only a metaphor can solve.

A good metaphor open doors to rooms we didn't know existed.

A powerful metaphor changes life's.

A metaphor can sound like something we have 'met before', familiar and new all at once.

Speaking metaphorically creates space for the listener imagination to create, to become like the palette upon which Disney's' artist awaken us with Sleeping Beauty.

Make a house fly with Dumbo, and Hippo's dance in Fantasia.

What's a useful metaphor for your life, your love your adventures?

Namaste

Gary

LIghten up & Laugh

noreply@blogger.com (Gary C. Smith) — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 14:53:00 +0000

Angel fly because they take themselves lightly.
Laughter heals, and healers laugh.

Being successful in front of a group requires a lightness of being. As in, “he ain’t heavy, he’s my brother.” He, being the audience.

I remember in 1968 when ‘heavy metal music’ made an impact. Jimi Hendrix, Grand Funk Road, Led Zeppelin, as in ‘lead,’ a heavy metal. It was followed up in 1969 with the sound of mellow. Country rock from the Byrd’s, CSN, Pentangle * the English troubadour bands.

But it is the lightness, the non-fixated attention that the lifts us above the average, above the norm to float, as if by magic, because it is the magic of lightness that holds an audiences attention.

The psychology of laughter runs a gauntlet from the physiology of the chuckle to the incongruity of the slapstick physical humor of the slip, slap and painful fall as the clown or anyone, accidentally, gets hurt and I twitch into the ‘nervous reaction’ of the inappropriate laugh.

“I just can’t help from laughing.”

“Ouch, that’s gotta hurt,” Seinfield mutters, as Kramer smashes into the door.

Does the humor come from a mind that needs to react?

Do we laugh to release the incongruity, I mean someone has hurt himself or herself and I am laughing. It doesn’t make sense. AHA, nonsense (No sense), an occasionally laughable subject.

Am I an inconsiderate sadist asshole?

Does it give me pleasure to see others pain?

It does give me fits of laughter when Chevy Chase takes a fall, the Stooges whack each other, Wiley Coyote goes off the cliff or when the Bart & Lisa Simpson favorite characters Itchy & Scratchy perform diabolical deeds of destruction on each other.

Cartoons may set the laughter gauge from a young age, but to laugh at the pain of another continues into old age. Perhaps the laughing at another’s pain is a lesson for us to learn how to handle our own pain. Taking it all lightly maybe a key to entering heaven.

The reasons for the slapstick laugh is not what a speaker is after, but the fact that it triggers one of speakers favorite responses is a curiosity worthy of a speaker’s attention.

Understanding the physiology of how breathing changes, the shortening and gasping of breath, the blood rushing to certain extremities, belly bouncing even in the leanest. It is a fact that that the physiology of laughter creates the stimulus for the laughter. You can experience humor and laugh or equally successfully you can laugh and create humor.

Ask the Masters in Laughing Yoga classes. If you don’t know how to spontaneously laugh it time to learn. To stop the reading of this serious tome and begin the tee hees, haha, hee-haws, belly rocking, snorting, head nodding, eye closed, belly shaking laughing. Its healthy, stress releasing and adds another tool to your speakers tool box.

To be able to laugh on cue, to lead an audience to laugh where you want them, is part of the magic of Oratory Lessons.

Angels fly because they take themselves lightly.
Speakers laugh because they know how.

Learn to laugh, especially with your-selves in duet-

Gary C Smith Public Speaking & Trainings

510-722-3212

The Power of Exaggeration

noreply@blogger.com (Gary C. Smith) — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 20:19:00 +0000

Putting lipstick on the pig.
Eye shadow on the crow.
Metaphors of exaggeration.

Exaggeration can be a tool that relieves sensitivity and expands possibilities.
Exaggeration builds the imagination muscle.

I can hear Steve Martin on Saturday Night Live, saying “Well excuse me!”
He powered down the threat, powered up his own creativity, and got a laugh.
If you can laugh, make others laugh, or see the humor you are speaking fearlessly.

Many memory tools are based on exaggeration, I wonder how many people remembered me with a beard as hairy Gary?

Now there is a exaggeration safety net for those who worry by asking-
'What’s the worse that could happen?’
Or my favorite question I attribute to Voltaire, “In the best of all worlds, how would it be?"

Want to have an adventure into the Land of Exaggeration,
How bad could the economy go?
How deep the depression?
BUT REMEMBER that to delve to the depths of depression the Laws of Consciousness require the sane (those who remember being source) to ascend to the best of all worlds.
How prosperous can the economy be?

To speak fearlessly one needs to have a sense of the extremes, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. Being prepared for The Audiences of Withhold. The stern clapless.
The Audiences of Appreciation. The enthusiastic clappers.
The Audience of Vegetable Tossers.

Exaggeration can move us out our comfort zone into areas of possibilities.

Exaggerate emotionally usually flattens sensitive feelings.

Exaggeration of thoughts often stops them entirely and leaves moments of clarity and room for feedback.

Physical exaggeration can create humorous new movements, and improved self-confidence and self esteem.

Exaggeration as a speaking tool builds gestures, improves postures, grows metaphors, excites beginnings, expands the body of a presentation and captures an audience.

Don’t worry about being extreme, if you can stay at the extremes you’ll probably become famous look from Voltaire to Steve Martin.

It take a coach to get past our fear of embarrassment to get to the Land of Exaggeration, call Gary C Smith for help. 510-722-3212

Get the Fear out.

noreply@blogger.com (Gary C. Smith) — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 13:33:00 +0000

Fear is in one place-inside you!

No one is 'laying fear on you.'

You are not a victim of the audience.

You fear exists because you put it there, inside yourself & continue to pay attention to the fear.

Fear is exciting.

Beats the hell out of boredom.

Drives us, creates changes, magical moments, unforgettable times, can send so much adrenalin through our body it unclogs arteries, leaps us to new heights or stops us from breathing, and can leave a speaker in a stupor of idiocy.

Save your speech.
Move your attention to the audience.
Put your attention out!

Be concerned that if we put our attention on the audience, our old friend, often a best friend, our fear, will demand our attention.

How to Save our Speech?

Practice.

Can you remember a time when all your attention was identified with a person or a task.

A time you got lost in a book, a job, or what someone else was saying?
That was your attention,out there, on something other than your self.

There are disciplines that split your attention between inside and outside.
The Gurdjieff works calls it Self -Remembering.

Firesign Theater had a phrase that I remember went something like "How can you be here and there when you are now where at all?"

In public speaking, how can you be in your program and with the audience, when your scared?

You can't!

You can be in your presentation, & with your audience but speaking fearlessl.

For techniques and exercises to master the fear within:

Gary C Smith Public Speaking & Trainings.
510-722-3212

Namaste
gary

Hands exercise

noreply@blogger.com (Gary C. Smith) — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 22:26:00 +0000

Public Speaking fear is made up of a number of elements.

Not all public speaking trepidations are fear driven. Some like the hands discomforts add to the insecurity ledger, and become a symptom that leads from discomfort to upset and is generalized as fear.

Hands, what to do with them?

Not every word needs a gesture.

Hands are about security and its evil twin insecurity.

Hands are useful for creating comfort and sending a natural message.

Here is an exercise designed to move past discomfort to being comfortable with your hands.

The exercise works best with a buddi, a full length mirror and a stop watch timer.

Set the timer for one minute, stand in front of the mirror, and let the hands dangle at your side for one minute. Your buddi can help you stay focused.

Practice while waiting in lines, while networking and especially at times when you find yourself with arms and legs crossed.

This exercise also builds the nothing muscle, the muscle that knows how to use the meaningful pause.

Public Speaking fearlessly is about being comfortable, in your body, any and all times.

For more cues, clues and exercises contact Gary C Smith Public Speaking & Trainings. 510-722-3212.

Categorize the #1 fear?

noreply@blogger.com (Gary C. Smith) — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 04:21:00 +0000

If Public Speaking fear is the number 1 fear, what type of fear is it?

Is it possible to categorize the fear, label it? f

Is it the same fear for everyone?

For some it is related to Embarrassment.

Some it’s Peer Pressure,

Some it’s Fear of Strangers,

Some have Fear of being Judged.

Others have taken the event into a Fear of Failure

Many label body reactions-shortness of breath, nausea, shaking as Fear.

It’s only the Butterflies needing to be put in Formation.

The Real Fear:
Fear of Nothing-

The pause that refreshes and heals.

“Ya gotta stop!"

Acknowledge what you are experiencing.

Label it

Own it,

It's your brand of fear

What's its purpose?

NOW-

Let it go!

If the fears too big, get a coach,

Gary C Smith Public Speaking & Trainings

Speaking Coach

What I Did on My Summer Vacation

noreply@blogger.com (Gary C. Smith) — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 15:46:00 +0000

It's back to school time for lifetime educators and permanent students.
School clothes, school supplies, old friends, new friends, homework it all begins day after Labor Day.
It's Show and Tell Time: What I Did On My Summer Vacation
This may have been your first public presentation.
This is probably where your ground-of-being for Public Speaking began.
It was time to recall & remember what happened. To find the fun from summer.

This is where the self-judgments began.

You may have found it's fun to share.

You may have found nothing to share.

You may have been too scared to share.

You forgot, stuttered, lisped, talked too fast, held your breath, found a spot on the back wall to stare at, became embarrassed, looked at the floor, fidgeted, hated it and hoped you'd never have to do that again!

From an early age you were treated with respect.

You were acknowledged for sharing your truth and stories.

The dinner table was where everyone shared their day.

Holidays were where the family shared values.

You sang some, knew a couple of nursery rhymes, and read aloud to mom & dad.

BUT

If like most of us, you were traumatized by SHOW and TELL, there is a cure.

That was way back then, and here and now Gary C Smith Public Speaking & Trainings can guide the erasers of fear to your blackboard.

And

begin a new chapter on a clean slate of Public Speaking Fearlessly.

What Did You Do On Your Summer Vacation-
"Boy did I have fun.
I swan,
played ball,
planted a garden,
ate lots of fruits,
made a cherry pie,
visited my relatives,
got bigger,
stronger and learned some new jokes.
"Let me tell you one...."

Namaste
Gary

Basics of Public Speaking Breathing

noreply@blogger.com (Gary C. Smith) — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 17:36:00 +0000

Public Speaking Fearlessly does not mean there is no fear.

We are no longer plagued with saber tooth tigers, but there are enough areas of doubt, uncertainty and traffic in the world to keep from tossing fear entirely. With Public Speaking how can the Adrenalin rush, the fight or flight syndrome or get them before they get me attitude create positive results in the world of Public Speaking. (Try saying that paragraph in one breath)

Its all about the breathing. Any fear lessens when breathed into.

Our life is totally governed by our breath and so too success in speaking is governed by our breath. As with any exercise regime we must learn when to take the in breath to prep for the exertion and the out breath to complete and relax. To accumulate the power to say it, and the exhale to be heard.

So in speaking before learning the subties of abdominal breath, circular breathing or throat singing, get a coach to help with the basics to add the pauses that refresh speaker and the audience.

Hands Free

noreply@blogger.com (Gary C. Smith) — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 19:04:00 +0000

There was Cool Hand Luke, Slow Hands Eric Clapton, the Pointer Sisters were looking for a man with Slow Hand, in Public Speaking one of the biggest challenges is what to do with the hands.

Pockets are unacceptable. Rattles keys & change &....

The behind the back grip works in ice skatting but not as a speaker.

Hands clinched in prayer (the usual prayer is "I wish this was over") doens't work outside of church.

Clinched fists may scare the audience.

Constant gesturing wears out an audience.

Hanging loose, relaxed at the side with your attention out on the audience is a sign of a professional speaker.

Try this exercise:
Stand in front of a full length mirror, set a timer for one minute (almost an eternity for the hand holders & wringers) and relax. Breathe into your hands, your feet and your diaphram. Take a break, shake hands, make a fist, say a prayer and then up the time to 2 minutes. Besides training your hands, it also is training in being comfortable while being uncomfortable.

For help with this exercise and other tools & training on Public Speaking call 510-722-3212 Gary C Smith Public Speaking & Trainings.