FINAL # 81 Public Speaking


0:03
Welcome. This is the Public Relations Review Podcast, a program to discuss the many facets of public relations with seasoned professionals, educators, authors, and others. Now, here is your host, Peter Woolfolk.

Peter Woolfolk 
0:23
Welcome to the Public Relations Review Podcast and to our listeners all across America and around the world. As public relations professionals, we have numerous skills that allow us to be successful. One such skill that perhaps does not get the attention it deserves is public speaking. Now, just how important is public speaking? Well, are you aware that a lackluster speaker can make a solid product or proposal seem less than enticing? While a polished speaker can add allure to an otherwise mediocre proposition? Consider this. Public Speaking also advertises your strong knowledge base. From your platform, you can clearly and carefully articulate your thoughts to an audience who can benefit from your wealth of knowledge. Now, most PR management positions require some amount of public speaking to pitch proposals and to lead meetings. These are just a few benefits of public speaking. My guest today has been coaching business leaders, executives, public speakers, and entertainers for over 25 years. She knows what makes a dynamic executive speaker and she teaches those skills to us so you can own it. Janna Landry is an accomplished vocalist and professional actor. She holds a bachelor's degree in vocal performance and has studied the voice extensively. She has created a comprehensive program that blends practical communication techniques, with created performing techniques to bring out the strength, confidence and unique talents of business professionals. So having said all that, and now from Franklin, Tennessee, I welcome Janna Landry to the podcast.

Janna 
2:09
Hello, Peter, thank you for having me so much. Well, I'm glad to see. I'm glad. I'm certainly glad to have you here. There's no question about that. I think this is gonna be a good conversation.

Peter Woolfolk
2:21
It's going to be fun and interesting for your listeners. I think the voice is so compelling. And interesting, it elicits emotion. But it also can make or break a presentation if you don't know how to use it properly. So we're going to talk a little about that today. Well, I agree, I tell you what, let's start out then by talking about some of the major shortcomings of not being a good public speaker.

Janna 
2:46
Okay, what so let's just think about this for a minute. Our voices are the most important sense that we learn to use as human beings, from a small child all the way up to adulthood.

Janna 
2:58
As I said earlier, it elicits the most emotion of all of them, it causes people to react simply by the physics of the human voice and what it does, once you breathe properly, and you send that sound wave out into the air. So if it's not appealing to begin with Peter, then people tend to tune out, and they don't listen. So it's important to understand, first and foremost, just the physics of how to work your voice a little bit, and I'll talk about that in a minute. Secondly, we have become a very immediate society, we make decisions in three to five seconds now, as opposed to many years ago, simply because we have a lot of noise out there through visual stimulus with traditional media and everything we see  
what we hear out there, in radio, and social media and that kind of stuff, as well as the sound itself. So we're making decisions very, very quickly in who we want to use, and who we trust. That trust factor is very important. It makes or breaks a presentation and a sale simply because if we believe the person that we're listening to, then we will listen to them. And we will want to hear more about what they have to say. So between just the you know, the Sonic, the physics of the voice, and what you're talking to, to your clients, and your audience is very, very important. So if you don't understand how to use the voice and how to set up your presentation or your pitch, then you're going to lose them from the get go.

And again, we don't have a lot of time for those decisions to be made with our business, professionals and such. So I think it's really important to understand that.

Peter Woolfolk
4:40
One of the things that comes to mind, I think you touched on it that sometimes people have important things to say, but it's their delivery that pretty much takes the wind out of the sails, then people don't want to listen too much more. Is that some?

Janna 
4:56
Yeah, that's very true, Peter, and we're also I can talk a little 
bit about what I call the three C's clear, concise and commanding communication. It's very important, it's important to be clear, but also to have a little bit of emotion in it. So let's talk a little bit about first, just the voice itself, the physics of the voice. The most important thing to understand is your breathing, we breathe low into our bodies with this cool little muscle that's shaped kind of like a doughnut called the diaphragm. So when you first are learning how to present and how to speak, it's important to just know that you need to take full breaths, it's very simple, just take full breaths. The second is just keep an even warm and warm tone to your speaking, you want to have some pitch variation, you want to bring the pitch level up a little bit and down a little bit so that there is interest just in the pitch range of your speaking voice. You want to keep things fairly relaxed, so that you're not rushing, you're not rushing the dialogue, or you're not rushing your sentences. So people can take a second half of a beat, to understand what you're saying, so that you don't miss any important points. And then lastly, I always say don't ramble, try to be concise tried to have organization to your words, and your pitch so that people feel like there's a beginning, a middle and an end, that makes people you know, be able to put that put that little presentation in their brains as kind of a PowerPoint or however you want to say it. It's interesting, the Sonics of the voice, people grasp a very interesting voice more than they do sin and non, you know, a non warm or kind of a edgy, or, you know, a voice with not a lot of color to it, you want to have as much warmth and emotion in your voice as you can. That's what that's what grasps people initially. So the next thing is storytelling. And that's a big buzzword right now in presentations. And just in general, in marketing, we have such little time now to make the choices about our brands and the people that we align with that it's very important to put a little bit of you in your presentation. And what I mean by that is, yeah, just don't be afraid to talk a little bit about something personal, how it affected you personally, when you're talking about something that's of importance to a business client or a group. People want to know their brands, they want to know who they're talking to, on a bit more of a personal basis than they used to years ago. So it's, I always say it's kind of fun to interject humor, or to interject something funny that happened in relation to whatever it is you're talking about. You know, if you're pitching an auto company, you might tell a funny story about your car, or something having to do with food or vacation. people relate to human stories and human interest stories. And they want to hear those in the in the conversation a little bit so that they feel that there's a little bit more warmth and trust introduced to the conversation. Well, you know, one of the things we're right on track there, because having done public speaking myself, that is one of the things that I certainly do in terms of after I guess an introduction, is to include some form of brief humor, and that to get people relaxed. The way I like to do is move around on the stage. I mean, if that's possible for moving around, and then, you know, I was to have eye contact with some of the people who are close by as, as I deliver the information Does that help? People seem to be reasonably comfortable with that. That's exactly right. And that's the third thing that I was getting ready to bring up here. That's exactly right is eye contact, it is absolutely imperative. If your eyes are darting from person to person, they're not going to trust you. It's important to think, like you're talking to your best friend when you make eye contact with somebody, even if it's a large room. And in my book, I talk about a way to split up the room in sort of little grids, or little squares. So that actually when you're speaking to a large audience, you can kind of tag that room in little equal like a graph so that you make sure you look way out to the left or you look over to the right, you make sure that you talk a little bit to the front of the room, but also that you talk to the back of the room, which oftentimes kind of feels like they're not included with a lot of public speakers if they're not speaking to the back of the room as well. And then also try to stay on somebody for two or three phrases. You know, I mean, so that you're not darting around, you know, your eyes are darting around. Again, that eye contact elicits trust, it elicits confidence. It elicits relaxation and calm. And that's very important. When you're talking to business professionals. You want them to feel calm. You want them to feel that you're the trusted adviser.

Peter Woolfolk
9:43
What in your experience has been perhaps the largest mistake that you have seen some some speakers make?

Janna 
9:53
I think I would say in delivering something to a large group Peter is 
starting out, like you said, with a little bit of a connection, a human connection, and then understanding that you want to solve a problem or deliver some kind of information to them. So wait until the room understands who you are a little bit. And again, like you said, walking around, getting comfortable in the room, making them feel relaxed, so that then they are willing to listen to you, once you do that. So I always say there's three sections to a good presentation. The first section is simply introducing who you are, and why you're there. That second bulk of information is solving a problem or giving them information. And then the third thing is a wrap up. And again, something that brings the conversation back to something a little bit more personal. Maybe you give them an offer, or you talk to them, or you open it up for questions, so that they again, feel like there is a personal connection at the end of that, I think that's the biggest thing is oftentimes when I see somebody present, they just jump right into the guts of the of the, of the talk. And they're a little bit insecure about getting to know their audience first. And it's important to get to know them, like they're a bunch of friends, treat them like they're a bunch of your friends, there's just might be more of them. But it's a bunch of your people that you're going to be hanging out with on a Friday night or something. It just levels the room, it elicits a little bit more trust, and it makes you feel more comfortable just as well as they,  

let me say this, I think this perhaps goes without saying that, on some rare occasion, some people get up to speak about issues that they are either not comfortable in, they don't know that much about. But they don't know, they're there to represent a group simply to deliver some information, but because folks might know that they're not the person that has all the most accurate information that causes a loss of trust in the delivery. Have you ever seen anything like that happen? I have seen that. And the thing that's a little scary is oftentimes if people are a little bit insecure about speaking in public, they will bring somebody else up to do that. And I always say that's the wrong attitude to take. Anybody can learn how to get up in front of people and talk as long as they believe in what they're saying, or they're passionate about what they're saying. And so that's why the fundamental skills are important to learn, again, the breathing, this the speech, the content of the speech, and the pacing, and like you said, Peter walking and being comfortable on stage. So you're not just standing up there terrified, but truly understanding that it's about human connection. So the more you know about what you're talking about, and the more you believe about what you're talking about, the more this audience is going to feel that confidence and feel that trust and feel that passion, and so they're going to listen a little bit stronger. So I do agree with you on that, Peter, I think it's really important to know what you're talking about. And to believe it, I talk about that a little bit in my book about you, brands you and who first off, figure out who you are and what you believe in. And then from there, it makes it much easier for you to deliver the information that you need to deliver. By the way, this episode is sponsored by burrell's, emilian relations, planning, monitoring, and measurement services professionals. 

Peter Woolfolk 
13:29
I understand you've written a new book about public speaking. So tell us about that. And perhaps even how we can get our hands on one of them.

Janna 
13:37
So interestingly, I'm not generally somebody that would write, and this is not a big book, this is this book is, you know, 145 pages or so I'd write I'm used to writing songs, I'm used to writing scripts, I'm used to writing small pitches and things like that the reason I was passionate about this, Peter, is because I come from a show business background and a lot of responsibility as a performer is learning how to elicit quick emotion or to make quick decisions on stage or behind camera. And then of course, just learning how to use your voice and learning how to how to deliver something with warmth and sincerity that causes your audience to feel something to feel emotion. When you're on stage. You feel that whether you're listening to somebody in a play situation or seeing a beautiful song. So my book is really taking some of these fundamental skills that we learn as performers and applying them to business professionals for better communication skills in business, but also just in your personal relationships. I've been doing this for a long time with performers and then as I moved into doing this, and coaching professionals, I found that these skills are very similar. I can teach professionals that are non performers, the same sort of fundamental issues that we learn as performers and so It's a kind of a workbook, it's called dazzle your listener, find your voice and captivate your audience. And it really is a just an instructional book that kind of utilizes our practical tools, tools to master your communication, for business, but also for personal growth. So, after most of the chapters that I have, I have a little, a few little challenges, what I call challenges. And basically, they're just you calling up things in your past that make you communicate the way you do, or practicing some of your breathing skills, writing down some fun things about you that you could put into some of your speeches or some of your pitches. So I have like kind of little homework assignments after several of the chapters. 

I've been thinking about the book writing the book for years. Now, that being said, with busy schedules, as we all have as professionals that the pandemic was a little bit good to me in that sense, and that I really got time to focus on finally putting this book together. So it's called dazzle your listener, find your voice and captivate your audience and it's on Amazon. Now you can go on to Amazon and type in dazzle your listener and Janna, Landry, and it'll pop up. And it's a great little tool. It's kind of a fun little workbook tool. And by the way, everybody, if you have any questions at all about anything having to do with the voice presenting, or how to give a great speech, jump on my website at Janel landry.com. That's www Jana landry.com. There is an area there where you can shoot me a quick question. And I will respond to you immediately. And we can dialogue about it. Thank you. 

Peter Woolfolk 
16:41
Well, that's good to hear. Let me let me just sort of maybe go in another direction for a second. If someone has become good at whatever it is that they do. How would you suggest that they begin practicing to become a public speaker so that they can overcome some of the maybe they can't overcome the audience? Because they need to get in front of one but but practice some of the skills we just talked about? How would you suggest that they begin to start doing that?

Janna 
17:11
What I suggest is first understanding your voice, there are a lot of voice teachers out there. And I have, you know, again, been teaching that with singers, actors and speakers for a long time, it's important to find somebody that understands not just the singing voice, but the speaking voice. If you are not confident with your voice at hand, because there are actual exercises that you can do that will enhance and fatten your voice make your voice more appealing. breathing exercises, tonal exercises, we do a lot of you know vowel vowel kinds of exercises where you're working two and three vowels together, which is very much the way speeches. So I would say first and foremost, just understand how your voice works. And here's why I say that theater, one of the biggest obstacles and the I would say the number one thing that I hear over and over again from my clients over the past 25 years is I am terrified to get up and speak on a microphone. And here's what I tell them. A microphone is just a little tiny piece of metal that's amplifying your voice, your passion, all of your beautiful experience that you have learned in life, there is no reason to be afraid of it. The other key thing about about stage fright is that you have to understand that as a species as a human species, we are fight flight or freeze animals, it is the way we're wired, we can't get away from it, it isn't going to go away. So you really just have to learn how to understand your body and what it does when you're frightened or when you walk up to a microphone. And the first thing I tell my clients is just breathe, take a few seconds to breathe, your audience is not going to fall apart. If you take a few seconds to just relax, look at them. Smile, breathe a couple of deep breaths, it will help you center it helps to take away all of that adrenaline and that cortisol that's running through your body because we our fight or flight animals. It's a very simple biological process that happens. And you just have to learn how to manage it. So I say first just understand your physical body, the breathing, the stage fright, the tonality. Second, I would say know how to give a good fun talk where people are going to be engaged. That has to do with understanding the spoken word and how to place it as we talked about a few minutes ago, having something at the beginning that's just fun and humorous that people go Oh, okay, this person is human. I don't have to be intimidated by them and they don't have to be intimidated by me. I'm there to listen.  


Then you put in I talked about the guts of the speech. That's where you get into the information that you want them to know. And then simply wrap up with something again, that relaxes the room that makes them want to engage with At the end of your pitch, it's just as important at the end as it is at the beginning to engage your audience to have them really want to listen to you. And then the other. The third thing I'll say is, go practice on your friends. I talked about this in my book, go get a group of your fun, trusted friends together, have them over some Friday night, offer them some appetizers, and maybe some cocktails if you know if you want to, and give a little mini speech to them and say, Hey, guys, I want your feedback. I want to know what you think about this. I want to know how how I did what kind of you know what kind of feedback can you give me? What do you think I need to improve on? Do I need to slow down? Do I need to speed up? Do I look terrified? Or do I look relaxed? That's the best place to start is with some trusted friends or even colleagues that you trust that will give you good feedback? And they don't have any agenda, you know, except just to support you.

Peter Woolfolk
20:55
Well, that sounds like a real sound like a great idea. Now, is there anything that we may have missed? Do you think that the listeners should know?

Janna
21:06
Well, I think, again, I think it's important to know that this is not some big, giant, scary thing out there that we cannot accomplish. Everybody and I talked about this, everybody can learn how to get up in front of a group of people and talk. It's just human to human contact. Don't think of it as a whole bunch of people looking at you think of it as I'm talking to one person. But there happens to be a lot of single people in this room right now. But they are experiencing me in their own way with their own agenda. So that there should be nothing frightening about it, don't get hung up on the amount of people you're speaking to make it about that you want to express your passion. Whatever it is that you're talking about at the time, and a little piece of you and your personality and your life experience to each one of them. That's the most important thing is don't make it a big, crazy scary thing. Make it about human communication, human connection, and human touch. And that will help you get just to be stronger and be more effective in your speaking.

Peter Woolfolk 
22:19
Well Janna, you have really given us a lot to a lot to consider and a lot to work with. And I certainly appreciate your being hit. today. You  have been a very valuable piece, a very valuable show to all public relations professionals that listen to the show.

Janna 
22:35
Well, I thank you for the opportunity, Peter, I really do I enjoy talking to people about this kind of stuff you could tell it's my passion to work with the voice for so long, but also making it accessible, making it easy and not so terrifying. You know, I think that's important for people to know anybody can learn how to speak better, how to give a compelling talk or pitch and how to have fun with it, and not make it such a big scary animal. And how much it helps boost their careers as well.  It's absolutely imperative in this day and age, because again, everybody wants to know who is talking to them. What this person is about who is this person that's talking to me, simply because time is of the essence. We don't have as much time now to make those decisions. The world moves faster now, particularly the business world. 

Peter Woolfolk 
23:28
Janna, thank you so much. My guest today is Janna Landry. As you can tell she's a very passionate about helping you become a good professional speaker. So you might want to rush out to Amazon and get that book. And Janna, thank you so much again for being a guest on our show. And I was also again want to thank all of my listeners, whether you're in the US or other parts of the world for listening. And if you've enjoyed the show, please give us a review. We look forward to it. And again, make sure that you let your friends know and you will join us for the very next edition of the Public Relations Review Podcast.

Many thanks to our sponsor Burrelles for making this episode possible. Check out a special offer just for Public Relations Review Podcast fans at Burrelle's dot com forward slash Public Relations Review Podcast and thank you for listening.

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24:22
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