Better public speaking

After listening to Rene Rodriguez discuss how to "Amplify Your Influence" on the One Thing Podcast, I listened to his audio book. The timing was great as I was preparing to give a presentation to my staff in which I was hoping to influence as many of them as possible to make some major transformational change.

Rene's message for his formula are Frame + Message + Tie Down. The frame is the frame of reference for which your audience should be ready to hear your message. Without this, each audience member will bring their own life background to your message, and therefore interpret it in multiple different ways than you want them to. The message is then obviously your point, but he brings multiple good ideas about how you speak, how you appear, how to engage the audience in the message. The Tie Down is the final takeaway you hope they learn.

I had not crafted a solid frame in my presentation, I was just ready to jump to my message. I actually had the frame buried within the middle of the message. Pulling that out to the front really helped to set the tone of the conversation, and help people see the why for the message. I then focused on the pace of my voice, where I stood, my posture, my hand positioning while speaking. Finally the tie down included my ultimate goals with why I think they are important.

The message was well received, better than had I not put his thoughts into my actions. The next steps are my follow through on how the message is being implemented by my staff. Qualitative data will be taken from conversations and observations, and quantitative data will be assessed by their results.

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