HOW TO MAKE SPEECHES MORE IMPACTFUL

In our first episode, we’re talking with the absolutely brilliant Speech Coach and CEO of Ovation, Kerri Garbis, and the unbelievably talented Executive Speechwriter, Kristin Boeke-Greven, about the do's and don’ts of writing and presenting a great speech. This conversation was like a year of grad school crammed into 20 minutes. 

You can read the transcript below and listen to Episode 1 on the episode page, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

EPISODE 1 Transcript

JEREMY: Alright, so I am here with Kristin Boeke-Greven and Kerri Garbis, and I was actually thinking about how I was going to introduce you both. Then I realized I really don't care how I would introduce you. I'm really curious to hear how you introduce yourselves.

So, Kerri I'm going to start with you. How do you describe yourself to other people? What are you?

KERRI: That's a heavy question and somebody recently asked me, flippantly, “Hey, what do you do?” I said, “I make people face their biggest fears.” Then she asked me if I was a correctional officer, which I’m not in that line of work at all…I would be terrible in that.

JEREMY: [JEREMY LAUGHS] That's amazing, I'm glad I didn't introduce you. That would be one way for you to introduce yourself. [JEREMY LAUGHS]

Kristin, how about you? What do you do when people ask, what do you do? What do you tell them?

KRISTIN: When people say, “what do I do?” I tell them I'm a speech writer and I help senior executives sound good and look good and feel comfortable when giving big presentations.

JEREMY: I dare say, one thing I do know is you're both incredible at what you do.

Sometimes I like to start these things by questioning the premise, so let me question the premise by saying why do we need you? Why can't the presenter just write a speech, get up, and give it? Kristin, what do you think?

KRISTIN: I think that the value the speech writer brings is helping them distill some very complex things. Sometimes they know too much, and they can't figure out how to get five hours’ worth of content down to 15 minutes. What's the most important thing, and then how do I structure it so it's compelling and connects with the audience?

JEREMY: That's a great point and I completely agree by the way. I'm amazed sometimes at how much people don't know what they want to say, because as you say, they're so in it that they can't figure out what the audience needs to hear.

Kerri, what about you? Why can't they just get up and be themselves and deliver their speech?

KERRI: Well, that's exactly what we want them to do. Get up and be themselves and deliver the speech. What happens is people get up and they don't become themselves. They either put on a persona, which they're not very good at, or when people get nervous or flustered, then bad habits emerge and sometimes they're not even aware of it.

They need me so that they're being the best, shiniest version of themselves versus the hot mess, nervous version of themself.

JEREMY: How do you help them do that? There are some objectives like good speech that we're trying to get you to, and we're trying to get you to your best version of a good speech. How, as a speech coach, do you do that?

KERRI: Coming in as the speaker coach we'll hit it at different angles. We're going to start to build the speaker’s self-awareness.

So, what are their habits? What are habits and what are choices? Are their habits productive and not standing in the way of their awesome message or is there something we want to make them to be aware of and replace it with a more productive and less distracting habit?

JEREMY: I love that distinction. What is a habit and was it was a choice? That's a great way to look at it.

Kristin, what about you? If you're trying to write a speech in someone else's voice, how do you do that? How do you get inside someone's head and not just write a good speech but write a good speech for them?

KRISTIN: Yeah, first of all, you have to talk to them and get to know them. There are some companies who say, "We want to save our executive time, so we're going to have you read this PowerPoint deck and read this white paper. Then we want you to write a speech for our CEO", and that's just never a good idea. It's a recipe for failure every time.

You have to talk to the person you're writing for, so you can actually hear their voice. I always record all of my interviews so I can play it back and listen to it. That helps a lot.

JEREMY: Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. I can see someone thinking that it saves time to not do that, but I think it doesn't. I think it saves time to do that.

Now, let me look at this from the flip side. We're talking about how to personalize the speech and the presentation, but are there any universalities? What makes a good speech and what makes a good presentation of that speech?

Kristin, what do you think from a writer's point of?

KRISTIN: Yeah, I think that good speeches are clear, concise, and compelling. That means that the speaker has to get to the most important point right away. They need to explain why the audience should care. What's in it for them and why does it matter?

To be concise is also really important. As a general rule, I think a shorter speech is typically a better speech. The Ted talk people have a rule that you can't go over 18 minutes, and they've done all this research that shows that's long enough to be serious but short enough to really hold people's attention.

Then finally, the most important part of a good speech is to include stories, anecdotes, and emotions. Those are really like neon signs that tell an audience remember this and that helps them really connect with an audience in an authentic and genuine way when they share those personal stories.

JEREMY: Wow, I feel like that was a masterclass right there. Like, that's it. That was perfect. I want to put clear, concise, and compelling on a post-it note and put it on my laptop because that is everything!

Kerri, what about the presentation of the speech? Are there any universalities that say "this is going make you look good on stage"?

KERRI: It's important for the speaker to identify what is their overall goal or objective. Are we trying to warn this audience, inspire them, or educate them? What do you want to do? Is there a specific call to action? Is that an ideal feeling we want them to have when they leave? What is that?

That to me is a universal truth that we need to have a goal every time we're getting up to speak or else, we’re just giving a laundry list.

JEREMY: I love that. Kerri, I know that you, like myself, come from theatre so let’s keep those questions of “what is your objective” and “what are you actually trying to accomplish” in mind.

For the presentation from a theatre point of view, that feels almost obvious, but from a speaker presentation point of view, I think that is often overlooked.

What is my objective? What do I want them to do?

Everything works backwards from that. I love the idea that, not just from a writing perspective, but how you're going to give the presentation all comes back from that. That is incredible advice.

Okay, again, flipping this on its head for a second, what are the mistakes that people make? These are the kind of things that people should do to get it right. What things do you see out there that people do where you just go, “Oh yeah. Okay. That's that thing that people do that just doesn't work.”?

Kristin, do you have a thought about that from a writing perspective?

KRISTIN: Yeah, I love this question. One big thing that people tend to do is apologize. I'm sure you guys have heard people say at the beginning of a speech, “I'm sorry I don't have more time,” or “If I had more time, I would do X,” or “I'm sorry I'm so nervous.”

All of these things just set the audience up to be disappointed when they don't know how much time you have in the first place. They don't know that you're nervous. You're telling them things that they might not have noticed otherwise.

Instead, I like to just tell people that if you make a mistake, which people do all the time, even the best speakers in the world, just to breathe and smile and keep going. It's what you intended to do all along. It's what you would do if you were having a conversation among friends. You would fix whatever mistake you made and keep going. I think that's one of the biggest mistakes that people make.

JEREMY: Yeah, there's such a difference between what's going on inside the head of the presenter and the head of the audience, and the presenters think it's the same. “They're thinking what I'm thinking, I'm nervous that this isn't going well, that I'm rushing, or that I don't have time.” [The audience is] not thinking anything about that and that's great advice to get [presenters] out of their head and not worry about that.

KRISTIN: Another mistake that people make often is just starting off with a bunch of blah-blah-blah. “I'm so happy to be here", "It's great to be in Chicago.", "Jeremy, you're such a wonderful person", "I'm so honored.”

Instead, you want to start off with a bang because people typically remember what you say first and what you say last. If the most important thing is that Jeremy is a wonderful person, then you should definitely start with that, but if the most important thing is your main topic and what you want to accomplish, then that's what you want to start with as opposed to blah-blah-blah, all the niceties.

JEREMY: You do see that a lot, right? People are generally getting up and talking about how great I am. That's a way that speeches get going. [JEREMY LAUGHS]

No, but yeah, you're absolutely right. Get to it. We're here to hear what you have to say. We don't need all the lead-ins.

Kerri, what would you add to that?

KERRI: I was going to talk about that first moment. That's a huge mistake that we see often. Anybody we'll work with at my firm will call that moment an attention grabber, which is doing something that grabs the audience's attention that is above sayings like “Good morning, I'm Kerri Garbis, and I'm so excited to be here.” If anybody says, “I'm so excited to be here,” at the top of their speech, I emotionally shut down and probably most of your audience, as well.

Do something, as Kristin said, to make sure we're standing out and grabbing the attention of the audience.

JEREMY: That's great advice.

Alright Kerri, then let me start this next question with you. What are some tricks that you've pulled out and that you find yourself using, again and again, where you are like, this always tends to help?

KERRI: I would say that, technically, one thing that helps a lot is the pen. If somebody is physically teetering back and forth a lot, we'll ask them to stick a pen under the ball of one of their shoes. That can help ground them and become aware of what they're doing physically. That's a technical, physical trick that we use that helps often.

JEREMY: I've never heard of the pen trick. That's cool.

What about you, Kristin? What do you think? Do you have a couple of tricks that you've pulled out time and again that seemed too often work?

KRISTIN: What I do in every interview that I have with a speaker is I always end with a question. What's the one thing you want the audience to remember?

More often than not, it's something that they haven't even mentioned to me in the previous 30 to 60 minutes. It's the most important thing that they want their audience to remember and to come across.

JEREMY: That's pretty telling. You realize they're not clear yet on what they want to talk about.

Alright, I'd love to go to our Lightning Round. Just three different questions to throw at you.

Are you two up for that?

KERRI & KRISTIN: Absolutely.

JEREMY: Let's see, Kerri, why don't we start with you. Who's your biggest get? A speaker, entertainer, or subject matter expert that you would either love to see at a live event or someone who you would love to coach.

KERRI: Anyone who says "rehearsal doesn't help."

JEREMY: [JEREMY LAUGHS] Just so you can prove them wrong and say, "I don't think so." That's great.

Kristin, how about you? Who is your biggest get? Someone you would love to write a speech for or would just love to be in the room with when they're giving a speech.

KRISTIN: I would love to write for and listen to Barack and Michelle Obama. I think they're just such excellent speakers, and they have such a wonderful way of presenting warmth and charisma. They would be my biggest get.

KERRI: Kristin, can I be your plus one on that? Just like a guest. [JEREMY & KRISTIN LAUGH]

KRISTIN: Absolutely! Yes!

JEREMY: Alright, second question. What is one thing you wish presenters did more of or less of?

Kristin let's start with you.

KRISTIN: I wish that they would tell more stories, more personal stories to help the audience connect with them on a personal level. To just feel more authentic and genuine and not get into that presentation mode that Kerri talked about before. This is where they are one way when they're just having a conversation with you over here on the side, but then their whole personality changes when they get on stage.

I think telling more stories and just being more personable is a way to connect with audiences.

JEREMY: I'm glad you brought up the idea of being genuine.

There's a quote that I wanted to throw at you two, and I'm going to mangle it so forgive me. I think it's attributed to Spencer Tracy, and he is alleged to having said something like, “When it comes to acting, authenticity is everything. If you can fake that, you've got it made.”

BETHANY: This is behind the scenes Bethany, breaking in with a fact check. The quote Jeremy is referring to is usually about sincerity or honesty, not authenticity. It has been attributed to everyone from George Burns to Celeste Holmes to Groucho Marx. Spencer Tracy, however, never said anything of the sort, but he did say "Know your lines and don't bump into the furniture," which is still pretty good advice for presenters.

JEREMY: It is that right? Is that what we're doing is helping people fake authenticity or is there something about genuine authenticity? How do you know the difference?

KERRI: We are not striving for fake authenticity at all. I think that can be smelled from millions and millions of miles away.

I wish presenters were able to have more of what I sort of named a "flaw-some mindset," meaning this idea that they can't fail, and they can't make a mistake when they get up there.

If you are just being you, mistakes and flaws and all, then you are truly being authentic. That's really what, when we work with speakers, we strive to do. It is to make them the shiniest versions of themselves. That to me is a hundred percent authenticity. Let go of a fear of failure because there is no failure. It's just being you in front of other people.

JEREMY: I love that point about mistakes because that's when they become our heroes. You see it all the time. Someone very obviously flubs something, and the audience applauds…the audience loves it. The audience is just there to back you and say, “yeah, we're all in this together. We're here for you.” It turns a speech around sometimes.

Kristin, anything you want to add to that about faking authenticity?

KRISTIN: I would just say that it really humanizes you when you make a mistake like that. It happens to everybody, and we just have to get comfortable with feeling uncomfortable. It just makes you more human.

JEREMY: Totally agree.

Alright, third and final lightning round question. What is something - could be a book, a movie, a song, whatever you like - that was a big influence on you and particularly, if possible, influenced your professional career?

Let's see, Kristin, what do you think?

KRISTIN: Early on when I was deciding whether or not I wanted to go out on my own and be a speech writer, I had a mentor who had started her own speech writing business. She really guided me along my way.

JEREMY: Kerri, how about you?

KERRI: When I was around 12, my dad took me and my brother on a business trip to Germany, and he had to give a speech.

We went to this dinner where he was giving the speech and all the speeches at this dinner were in German, except for my father's. I knew zero German, so I sat through a couple of hours watching mostly men get up and speak about…I don't know, legal things in Germany…I had no idea.

What I realized was that even though I didn't understand the language, I could glean what they were talking about because of body language, because of pace, because of pause. I thought that was fascinating that I could laugh along with the audience or be bored to tears along with the audience just by listening to how they were saying it and how they were presenting.

That experience was a huge influence on taking my acting skills and applying them to the business professional presence and speaker development world.

JEREMY: I love that. I find myself sometimes, if I'm watching a movie or a TV show with people, that I laugh before a joke has actually happened because there's a rhythm to it that I recognize. I feel the setup and the payoff of the joke before the actual words have come out to make the punchline. There is the body language and the speech patterns that you can read, even if you don't understand the words that tell the story. I completely agree.

Listen, thank you both so much for taking this time to talk to us. I feel like I just learned a ton. That was incredible. I can't imagine that anybody listening to this wouldn't want to immediately get in touch with you if they needed a speech written or had a presentation coming up that they needed some help with.

How do people do that, Kristin? How do people best get in touch with you?

KRISTIN: They can go to my website, which is my two last names together. Boekegreven.com.

JEREMY: Kerri, how about you?

KERRI: You can head on over to getovation.com or I'm readily available on LinkedIn and Facebook, as well.

JEREMY: Thank you both again, this was really a treat! I really appreciate!

KRISTIN: Thank you!

KERRI: You're welcome!

JEREMY: Well, that was so great, getting to talk with Kristin and Kerri. For me, there were four top takeaways, and these are the four tops.

• Number four, spend some time talking to your speech writer, so they can capture your voice and learn what your habits and choices are from your speech coach.
• Number three, it's important to identify what your overall objective is and ask yourself what you want the audience to remember.
• Number two, don't apologize on stage or say you're excited to be here and remember it's okay to make mistakes.
• The number one takeaway, good speeches are clear, concise, and compelling.

Look, I could talk about this stuff all day. If you want to talk to us about today's topic or anything about live events, check out the episode page for more information or drop us a line. We would love to hear from you because at Proscenium, we help presenters do their best in front of their most important audiences. As we like to say, we help brands perform! I have a sneaking suspicion that we can help your brand perform.