Corporate and Business Storytelling Blog

As a proponent of the appropriate use of emotion in speeches and presentations, it’s been fun to see how, “emotion is the fast lane to the brain” is showing up on the campaign trail.

As the stakes get higher and the candidates get more and more desperate to create some space between themselves and their competition, the rhetoric has heated up. Romney is getting all red in the face. McCain is already red in the face. And Huckabee is cool as an ice cube in a glass of sweet tea.

Barack and Hillary are going at it with Edwards trying to get a rise out of either one of them. We all knew it would come to this didn’t we? What’s interesting is how anyone could have thought it would be otherwise. Whether the emotion is raw and angry emotion or teary and tender emotion, it gets people to pay attention.

The candidates can drone on and on about health care and immigration for hours on end, but what people are looking for is emotion. We get a handle on the candidates true personality by how they handle their emotions. Do they lose control, remain poised or give as good as they get? 

We can get a sense of what a president would be like in a crisis by how they handle being attacked in a debate. Right now, the hottest emotional fireworks seem to be between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. Do we want a fighter or a smooth talker?

On the Republican side, Mike Huckabee never seems to get rattled while Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani enjoy the emotional give and take. John McCain has a tendency to smile when he’s mad, which makes him seem untrustworthy.

People want to see genuine emotion. Let’s see as the primaries continue, what role emotion plays in the results. My bet is on the candidates who aren’t so slick, but rather exhibit genuine emotion.

The Dynamite Speech System is a comprehensive approach to crafting a speech that inspires, motivates and teaches. If you ever wondered how professional speakers write and deliver speeches that are as impressive for their elegant design as for their inspiring delivery, this system will give you the answers.

http://www.storytheater.net/dynamite.asp 

At a recent corporate storytelling workshop for Microsoft, I was asked a question that I hear frequently: “How do I open my speech?”  Several others in the room agreed that the first two or three minutes of a speech are often the most awkward.

Is it that way for you, as well?  Do you have a hard time getting started, but once you get going, you’re all right?  If so – welcome to the club.

In this article, I’m going to share what has worked for me and helped me build a lucrative speaking business. I’ll also share the results of my research into what transforms a good speech into a Dynamite Speech.

I used to have a lot of anxiety before I gave a speech. I knew most of what I was going to say – not word for word – but in general. I knew what stories I was going to tell and what quotes I was going to use, and the overall sequence of things. What freaked me out was what I was going to say first. Read the rest of this entry »