Rob Cottingham

Category: Speaking

  • Why I cartoon

    I delivered this short presentation to last November’s Interesting Vancouver event, sandwiched between some of the most, well, interesting people around. This is the first time I’ve ever told an audience why I started cartooning; how my early dreams of earning my living drawing the next Doonesbury gave way to something a lot more personal; and how a gift from Larry Kry, my Grade 11 physics teacher, has helped colour my entire life.

    Check out the full range of Interesting Vancouver talks; the videos really do help to capture something of the amazing spirit of the night, and the people who shared their remarkable lives and endeavours.

    (Speaker self-improvement note: This was also my first time using one of those amazing little Countryman boom mics; I think I’d adjusted it badly, because it felt like it was trying to crawl off my ear the entire time. At one point in my presentation you’ll see me acknowledge this to the previous speaker, who’d had a similar challenge. In retrospect, radical transparency notwithstanding, I’d have done better to keep that to myself.)

  • Well, that’s one way to wing it in an emergency

    When I arrived at Jilin, I found that one panelist? […] ?had a conflict and had to cancel [….]

    But when [the other panelist] showed up at Jilin University’s Friendship Guesthouse, he said he wasn’t planning to talk about Snowden; he thought he was speaking on conflict resolution.So that left me with two hours to fill. And I had maybe 10 minutes of talking points, mostly cribbed from the Vanity Fair article I had read about Snowden the night before.

    Ah, but I had one surprise (well, make it two): a Rubik’s Cube I bought at a campus shop at Northeast Normal U.

    How Rubik’s Cube saved my lecture and my face

    Filed under: Craft, Speaking

  • You can run (on at the mouth), but you can’t hide

    More than 50 lies, half-truths, and instances of disingenuous spin. Rob Ford’s speech lasted 16 minutes, therefore Rob Ford took liberties with reality, on average, three times per minute. And that was in a speech where nobody asked him about drugs, alcohol, or criminal behaviour.

    via Torontoist

    One crucial thing speechwriters need to remember: the days of the one-way speech from the podium are over. And even if you’re betting that mainstream media are stretched too thin to check what you’re saying, there may well be a blogger in the audience with the resources to follow through.

    In this case, Toronto Mayor Rob Ford’s speech gets a thorough point-by-point refutation (not just a rebuttal) from two bloggers at Torontoist. If you needed a reminder to avoid the temptation to fudge the truth for the sake of a good line, here it is.

    Filed under: Speaking, Speechwriting

  • Nick Selby’s convocation speech is why speakers shouldn’t settle for just meeting expectations

    Sophomore Georgia Tech student Nick Selby welcomed this year’s first-year students in unforgettable style. There are lots of things a speaker or speechwriter could take from this clip: the use of crescendo, knowing your material cold, owning the stage, using your body as well as your voice, using a callback (“the shoulders of giants”) and so on.

    Those are all worth reflecting on. But here’s the biggest thing that struck me.

    Mr. Selby could have delivered the same achingly sincere address you’ll see at a bazillion such events. An opening joke, a reminder of the greatness that has gone before them, a quote from Oh, The Places You’ll Go — and he’d have been applauded and thanked warmly. He could have just met the crowd’s expectations.

    But instead, he left those expectations choking on his dust. And he gave his audience something they’ll remember for a long time to come.

    That’s what I take from this. Whenever you have the opportunity, don’t just rise to the occasion. Rise past it. That’s how speakers become remembered.

  • “If I knew then what I know now”: My presentation to the IABC/BC event

    This was my speech capping off a wonderful evening of presentations hosted by the IABC/BC. It’s all about embracing regret and seizing opportunity.

    A quick speechwriting note: Normally I’m a strong (even harsh) advocate of diving right into what you want to say. But it had been such a terrific range of speakers, offering such amazing, inspirational and often moving advice, that I didn’t want to miss the opportunity to reflect on it.

    So I tried something I’ve never done before at this kind of event: an introduction based entirely on the previous hour and a half. I took something from everyone’s presentation (and borrowed from one other event: getting drawn to win a very nice gift basket donated by the folks at Blenz).

    I think it worked out pretty nicely. And it was some of the most fun I’ve ever had on stage.

    Update: Seattle’s Nancy White has a marvellous and thoughtful take on many of the same themes, and looking more firmly to the future.

  • Join me at the IABC/BC Bronze Quill awards!

    I’m going to be emceeing (take that, autocorrect!) the IABC/BC Bronze Quill awards next Wednesday night, June 12, at the swishy Renaissance Vancouver Harbourside.

    (For everyone who is suddenly consumed with anxiety at that news, the organizers have spoken with me and made it clear that my usual garb of Speedo and football cleats will be, ah, inadequate for the event. So it’s off to Mark’s Work Warehouse for a whole new wardrobe!)

    We’ll be celebrating the very best in organizational communications, and I couldn’t be more delighted. Tickets are still available from the IABC.

    See you there!

  • “If I knew then what I know now”: insight and wisdom from veteran communicators

    Back in April, I got to join a lineup of communications professionals, sharing our experiences and career life lessons at an evening of storytelling hosted by IABC/BC.

    The evening surpassed every expectation I had. Each of the presenters spoke with passion and often with real courage; the stories they shared were sometimes painful but always inspiring – and tremendously valuable.

    The organizers have been posting each presentation on YouTube. Each one clocks in at around five or six minutes, and they’re well worth watching. (The first three and a trailer are up already, and I’ll be adding new ones to this playlist as they’re posted.)

    [youtube width=”560″ height=”315″]http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLA1INu4XiILZpbcKUfPhJ6ZlnqYULzXrE[/youtube]

    A big, big thanks to Catherine Ducharme for inviting me. One last lesson I took from the evening: I have to go to more IABC/BC events, because this one was terrific.

    P.S. – As the final speaker after a series of powerful talks, I was facing a classic hard-act-to-follow dilemma. I’ll tell you how I tackled it in a separate post, once my talk’s online.

  • 5 tips from Alex Honeysett, and two more from me.

    Alex Honeysett offers a solid set of 5 Public Speaking Tips for Entrepreneurs who are nervous at the thought of getting up in front of an audience. Her advice includes

    1. practicing
    2. knowing your space (really important, and so often overlooked)
    3. knowing your audience
    4. finding the balance between self-promotion and the content people came to hear
    5. breathing – which is to say, relax.

    I’m going to suggest two more:

    Know what you want: What do you want the audience to do as a direct result of your speech? Maybe it’s to march on the capitol. Or to adopt a new open standard in public health inspections. Or to stop using “perpetuate” when they mean “perpetrate”.   Build your speech toward that, and then ask them directly to do it.

    Know your story: If you know the spine of your story, if you can trace the unbroken logical flow of narrative in your sleep, then no matter what else happens on stage – speaking notes catching fire, mic melting into slag, PowerPoint inexplicably replaced with porn, Involuntary Sudden Onset Yodelling – you’ll be able to recover.

    Filed under: Speaking

  • You, in the back. Stop looking at me and start tweeting.

    Jeff Hurt reports on a study that suggests tweeting during a class isn’t distracting – it actually increases engagement:

    Education Professor Christine Greenhow, Michigan State University, conducted a study on Twitter as a new form of literacy. Her results showed that adults who tweet during a class and as part of the instruction:

    • are more engaged with the course content
    • are more engaged with the instructor
    • are more engaged with other students
    • and have higher grades than the other students.

    via Now Proven! Using Twitter At Conferences Increases Attendee Engagement.

    So the next time you look up from your speaking notes into a sea of heads bent over laptops, tablets and mobile devices, don’t despair – as long as they’re tweeting and not, say, checking their email, your audience may be more engaged with you than ever.

    Filed under: Social Speech, Speaking Tagged: backchannel, twitter

  • Knowing enough to be useful is enough.

    Lauren Bacon shares a personal demon (possibly a genetic one!) about public speaking and imposter syndrome:

    My mother [is] a brilliant and successful woman who has spent her entire career in the nonprofit housing sector, and who runs an organization that she has built up from a small nonprofit with a few apartment buildings to a multimillion dollar, large-scale social enterprise that has inspired hundreds of social housing advocates.

    She is amazing. And she has a terror of public speaking.

    I was on the phone with her about a year ago, and she said, “Someone asked me to come and speak on this panel for [such-and-such conference]. And I said yes, but I don’t know what they hell I’m going to talk about, because it’s about social enterprise, and nonprofits and government working together, and I don’t know anything about that stuff!”

    I sat in shocked silence at the other end of the phone. Two gears turned in my head. Click. One: My mother couldn’t possibly be more of an expert authority on these topics. Two: That is exactly what I hear in my head when I am invited to do something I haven’t done before.

    (from Expert Enough: Slaying Imposter Syndrome and Stepping Up to the Mic)

    It hurts my head to think of how many great ideas, how much wisdom and how much experience is out there, untapped — locked away in the minds and memories of people who don’t feel they have the expertise that gives them permission to share it.

    I have any number of theories as to why that applies so strongly to public speaking (theory #529: many of us associate public speaking with priests, and feel we have to be somehow ordained if we want to do the same). But I hope Lauren’s post helps more people who have valuable ideas, insights and stories to share to step up and take the mic.

    Filed under: Speaking Tagged: expertise, fear, imposter syndrome, lauren bacon

  • Uh, how to, you know, fix a speaking, ahhhhhh, tic

    There are several relatively painless ways to fix a tic. My favorite is to get someone, a friend, to count the tics over some specified period of time, like a speech, and then charge the offender an agreed-upon sum for each offense. Usually a dollar is enough to get the malefactor’s attention. And you’d be astonished how quickly the tic goes away after you’ve had to pay up a couple of times.

    via Nick Morgan, Public Words: Do You Have a Speaking Tic?

    A technique I’ve heard is to have that same friend clap once, loudly, every time you “um”. I’ve seen that work (although I’ve also seen speakers flinch in anticipation, even as they’re trying to stifle the “um”).

    But don’t go too far down the aversion therapy road. If a tic’s resisting change, or if you start to see some other symptoms emerge, there may more involved than just a bad habit.

    (By the way, Nick’s book Give Your Speech, Change the World is terrific. Hunt it down and read it.)

    Filed under: Craft, Speaking

  • How Nancy Duarte prepares for a TED-esque talk

     

    Nancy Duarte delivering a presentation

    Source: duarte.com

    10 Ways to Prepare for a TED-format Talk

    It’s kind of reassuring to know that even a public-speaking icon like Nancy Duarte can run over time (even if it did take a nasty chest cold to make it happen). But reading through these tips, it’s hard to imagine much short of a ferocious virus forcing you off-schedule if you followed them.

    But that’s not what really stood out for me in this list (although I’ll definitely be adding a few of these to my repertoire). It was point number four:

    A lot of times, as the presenter, you know your material so well that you think you’re making each key point clear. You might not be. Your coach should make sure you are telling people why. It’s the “why” around our ideas that make them spread, not the “how”. Articulate the why so your audience understands what’s magnificent about your big idea.

    Whether I’m writing speeches or delivering them, I’ve always found that’s what cracks the nut. Everything else falls into place (sometimes with some shoving, I’ll admit) when you have the “why”.

    Filed under: Craft, Presentation Design, Speaking, Speechwriting Tagged: nancy duarte, ted, timing