Public Speaking University – Class Three – What’s Your Problem?

In Class Two, we discussed one powerful means of introducing your speech that will grab your listeners’ attention: telling a story. This method will not, however, work in every case. Depending on your audience, and the purpose of your speech, you may choose instead to engage your listeners with a problem.

Basically, this involves laying out a real or fictional conundrum, and involving your audience in the solution. The problem may be as simple as a frightening statistic that impacts your audience personally. For example:

“127,000 people died last year from lung cancer because they couldn’t quit smoking.”

This is a powerful introductory statement because many in the audience are likely smokers, or at least know and love someone who is. So this problem automatically involves your audience. They realize something is wrong, and they can be part of the solution, as long as they listen to what you have to say next.

Or, the problem you use to introduce your speech may contain more mystery. Perhaps:

“127,000 people died last year who didn’t have to.  Any idea why?”

This way, you’re not only engaging the audience by letting them know a problem exists, you’re also engaging them by asking a question that requires them to consider an answer.

If you’re speaking to a group with a lot in common, such as at an employee meeting or a convention for members of a particular club, you may be able to bring it even closer to home:

“Last quarter, XYZ Industries lost over $14 million to shoplifters and other illegal loss.  We need to discuss security matters…”

In this instance, you have (hopefully) grabbed your audience’s interest with a problem amplified by a statistic, then engaged them directly in discussing the solution.

These examples are only a few of the many ways you can work a problem into your introduction.  No matter how you do it, though, there are a few points to keep in mind:

• If your problem has an established solution, (i.e. we have already given our store managers permission to shoot shoplifters on sight,) it is best to communicate this early so the audience is not distracted by considering their own possible solutions as you continue to speak. 
• If the problem you choose to present has no recognizable or realistic solution, (i.e. 437 planes have been lost in the Bermuda Triangle since 1935) be sure you explain the reason you presented it.  There’s nothing wrong with using an unsolvable problem to introduce your talk as long as the audience understands why that problem, or the fact that it’s unsolvable, matters to them.
• If you are seeking a solution to the problem from your audience, be sure to have some means of obtaining their feedback.  Perhaps passing out a comment sheet will suffice, or supplying them with your contact information to discuss the matter later.  If you plan to entertain a panel discussion or Q&A after the speech, let them know early on so they can begin to prepare their questions and comments.

As PSU continues, we’ll come back to “problem introductions” again, approaching them from a different angle.  Before that, however, for the next few classes we’ll be discussing the all-important conclusion.  Stay tuned!

I Am Convinced I am Going Insane.

Okay, maybe that’s a little extreme.  And maybe this post is a bit off the beaten path for copyghostblog.com, but it’s tangentially related and that seems to be all I need at 12:12 am.

I worked at my “other” job from 6:30 am to 9:00 pm today.  During that time I developed and forgot at least three excellent blog posting ideas for this blog.  Surrounded by paper, a computer with e-mail, phones galore… and these ideas just zapped out of my mind an into the eternal ether without so much as a hesitation.

And now, here I sit with no clue what it is I want to write even though I know for a flipping fact, as soon as I power down my laptop, something’s going to zing in there.  It’s just the way my right-brain works when my left brain is struggling to handle the real world. 

Learning to control this fiasco is very high on my priority list.  Until then, I will slowly go insane.

A Few Thoughts On Writer’s Block

I’ve been dealing off and on with a semi-serious case of writer’s block for several months now.  This is primarily effecting my fiction efforts, but it occasionally interferes with my work, too.  In culling the files for something, anything, that could help, I came across this article clipped from one of the royalty-free databases online a few years ago.

It helped me in two ways:

One, it’s basic message was a refreshing reminder of some basic block-breaking techniques I was already aware of.  And two, some poor author apparently sent this article out into cyberspace without a resource box!  So as much as I’d like to tell you who wrote it, I can’t.  That’s poor marketing!

Enjoy:

Writer's block is the patron demon of the blank page.
You may think you know EXACTLY what you're going to
write, but as soon as that evil white screen appears
before you, your mind suddenly goes completely blank.
I'm not talking about Zen meditation
stare-at-the-wall-until-enlightenment-hits kind of
blank. I'm talking about sweat trickling down the back of
your neck, anguish and panic and suffering kind of
blank. The tighter the deadline, the worse the anguish
of writer's block gets. Having said that, let me say it again. "The tighter
the deadline, the worse the anguish of writer's block
gets." Now, can you figure out what might possibly be
causing this horrible plunge into speechlessness? The answer is obvious: FEAR! You are terrified of that
blank page. You are terrified you have absolutely
nothing of value to say. You are afraid of the fear of
writer's block itself! It doesn?t necessarily matter if you've done a decade
of research and all you have to do is string sentences
you can repeat in your sleep together into coherent
paragraphs. Writer's block can strike anyone at any
time. Based in fear, it raises our doubts about our
own self-worth, but it's sneaky. It's writer's block,
after all, so it doesn't just come and let you know
that. No, it makes you feel like an idiot who just had
your frontal lobes removed through your sinuses. If
you dared to put forth words into the greater world,
they would surely come out as gibberish! Let's try and be rational with this irrational demon.
Let's make a list of what might possibly be beneath
this terrible and terrifying condition. 1. Perfectionism. You must absolutely produce a
masterpiece of literature straight off in the first
draft. Otherwise, you qualify as a complete failure. 2. Editing instead of composing. There's your
monkey-mind sitting on your shoulder, yelling as soon
as you type "I was born?," no, not that, that's wrong!
That's stupid! Correct correct correct correct? 3. Self-consciousness. How can you think, let alone
write, when all you can manage to do is pry the
fingers of writer's block away from your throat enough
so you can gasp in a few shallow breaths? You're not
focusing on what you're trying to write, your focusing
on those gnarly fingers around your windpipe. 4. Can't get started. It's always the first sentence
that's the hardest. As writers, we all know how
EXTREMELY important the first sentence is. It must be
brilliant! It must be unique! It must hook your
reader's from the start! There's no way we can get
into writing the piece until we get past this
impossible first sentence. 5. Shattered concentration. You're cat is sick. You
suspect your mate is cheating on you. Your electricity
might be turned off any second. You have a crush on
the local UPS deliveryman. You have a dinner party
planned for your in-laws. You . . . Need I say more.
How can you possibly concentrate with all this mental
clutter? 6. Procrastination. It's your favorite hobby. It's
your soul mate. It?s the reason you've knitted 60
argyle sweaters or made 300 bookcases in your garage
workshop. It's the reason you never run out of Brie. FACE IT ? IT?S ONE OF THE REASONS YOU HAVE WRITER'S
BLOCK! How to Overcome Writer's Block Okay. I can hear that herd of you running away from
this article as fast as you can. Absurd! you huff.
Never in a million years, you fume. Writer's block is
absolutely, undeniably, scientifically proven to be
impossible to overcome. Oh, just get over it! Well, I guess it's not that
easy. So try to sit down for just a few minutes and
listen. All you have to do is listen ? you don't have
to actually write a single word. Ah, there you all are again. I am beginning to make
you out now that the cloud of dust is settling. I am here to tell you that WRITER'S BLOCK CAN BE
OVERCOME. Please, remain seated. There are ways to trick this nasty demon. Pick one,
pick several, and give them a try. Soon, before you
even have a chance for your heartbeat to accelerate,
guess what? You're writing. Here are some tried and true methods of overcoming
writer's block: 1. Be prepared. The only thing to fear is fear itself.
(I know, that's a clich?but as soon as you start
writing, feel free to improve on it.) If you spend
some time mulling over your project before you
actually sit down to write, you may be able to
circumvent the worst of the crippling panic. 2. Forget perfectionism. No one ever writes a
masterpiece in the first draft. Don't put any
expectations on your writing at all! In fact, tell
yourself you're going to write absolute garbage, and
then give yourself permission to happily stink up your
writing room. 3. Compose instead of editing. Never, never write your
first draft with your monkey-mind sitting on your
shoulder making snide editorial comments. Composing is
a magical process. It surpasses the conscious mind by
galaxies. It's even incomprehensible to the conscious,
editorial, monkey-mind. So prepare an ambush. Sit down
at your computer or your desk. Take a deep breath and
blow out all your thoughts. Let your finger hover over
your keyboard or pick up your pen. And then pull a
fake: appear to be about to begin to write, but
instead, using your thumb and index finger of your
dominant hand, flick that little annoying ugly monkey
back into the barrel of laughs it came from. Then jump
in ? quickly! Write, scribble, scream, howl, let
everything loose, as long as you do it with a pen or
your computer keyboard. 4. Forget the first sentence. You can sweat over that
all-important one-liner when you've finished your
piece. Skip it! Go for the middle or even the end.
Start wherever you can. Chances are, when you read it
over, the first line will be blinking its little neon
lights right at you from the depths of your
composition. 5. Concentration. This is a hard one. Life throws us
so many curve balls. How about thinking about your
writing time as a little vacation from all those
annoying worries. Banish them! Create a space, perhaps
even a physical one, where nothing exists except the
single present moment. If one of those irritating
worries gets by you, stomp on it like you would an
ugly bug! 6. Stop procrastinating. Write an outline. Keep your
research notes within sight. Use someone else's
writing to get going. Babble incoherently on paper or
on the computer if you have to. Just do it! (I know, I stole that line from
somewhere?). Tack up anything that could possibly help
you to get going: notes, outlines, pictures of your
grandmother. Put the cookie you will be allowed to eat
when you finish your first draft within sight ? but
out of reach. Then pick up the same type of writing
that you need to write, and read it. Then read it
again. Soon, trust me, the fear will slowly fade away.
As soon as it does, grab your keyboard ? and get
writing!

Gotta Give a Plug to One of My Heros: Bob Bly

Just a quick shout out to one of my heros, a man who has shown us all what it takes to become an ultra-successful freelance copywriter, and what’s available out there for us if we put our minds and efforts into the job!

www.bly.com

I spent a long evening at my other job working on some mindless reports while listening to a few of Bob’s audio seminars, which I have purchased in the past.  Every time I listen to them, it helps remind me why I want to write for a living, and gives me the motivation I need to keep plugging away.

It’s not that Bob’s a motivational speaker, because he’s not.  And it’s not even that he has a ton of out-of-this-world ideas that I’ve never heard before or couldn’t come up with on my own, because he really doesn’t. 

He’s just a really down-to-earth guy who’s made a huge success of himself in a field that I would like to one day call my only career, and he’s had the good grace to spend a tremendous amount of time and effort offering his experience and know-how to others for a reasonable fee (i.e. a few bucks for a soft-cover masterpiece like The Copywriter’s Handbook or Secrets of a Freelance Writer.)

This guy is really living the life I want to live, and he’s been doing it for decades.  He’s earned my respect, but more importantly, he’s earned my gratitude.

Thanks, Bob!

Coming Out of Hibernation for a Great 2008!

Just a quick note to say I’m back and better than ever, coming out of my winter sleep with a renewed vigor and an ambitious new marketing plan that should finally create the impetus CopyGhost needs to succeed! In short, here’s the plan:

ONLINE
~ The new and improved copyghost.com should be online and running by the end of this month.
~ A brand new Special Report focusing on the ghostwriting aspects of the business will be unveiled and ready to give away by this time next week.
~ A series of 30 short articles will be completed over the next 90 days to submit to all major online article banks, each linking back to one of my two landing pages (where I give away my two free special reports).
~ A new blog post at least every three days, including more of my continuing PSU series.

OFFLINE
~ Printing and compiling of 10 “canvassing packages” to experiment with super-fast face-to-face sales calls on potential clients. (More on this in the blog as I discover whether or not this method has any legs. I love the idea, but have not yet tried it out in the real world!)
~ Preparations for a potential move to North Carolina! (That’s right, the CopyGhost may be pulling up stakes and heading south!!)

I’m looking forward to the next few months as a real burst of exciting activity after a long, cold season of nothing!