Monthly Archives: December 2011

The Power of the Spoken Word to Sell Books

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A recent article in the Wall Street Journal chronicled the woeful state of the book tour for bestselling authors. Most authors read aloud poorly, according to Joanne Kaufman, author of the article “Rethinking the Familiar Book Tour.” She wrote, “Sure, they [authors] know how to read, but they may be none too skilled doing it out loud.” She quotes one audience member: “When some authors read, I’ll mutter to myself, ‘Is that snoring I hear?'” Exceptions, she writes, are “skilled performers of their own material.” They include T. C. Boyle, Sebastian Berry, and Brad Meltzer.

Two factors are in play here. One is that people’s attention spans are short and they are not willing to spend their time listening to boring readings. The other is that people are used to being entertained in a fast-paced manner and constantly bombarded with information.

This current trend underscores the importance of the power of the spoken word delivered well and to the importance of holding the attention of the audience when you do speak.

Kaufman recounts that Brad Meltzer, author of thrillers like The Book of Lies, “…regales crowds with background stories about his books and with tales of the 24 rejection letters he received at the beginning of his career….”

In any career you can improve your competitive edge in the market place by excellent delivery style and using stories when you speak. You can improve your ability to read or tell stories by punching out key words and proper nouns. Take an acting class to work on the use of your voice. Listen to the style of the professionals who narrate the popular “books/CDs on tape.” Practice the craft of reading aloud by reading to small children—maybe your own toddler, preschooler, grandchild, or a child of a neighbor. (Warning: This may make you very popular with the local moms.)

Be a student of your own life. What memory do you have that might be developed into a story to illustrate a point you want to make in conversation or a presentation? Think of what you learned from certain work-related experiences that might prove a point you want to make.

As is the case with best-selling authors, you may have an excellent command of the language but speaking the words so people will want to hear them involves a different skill set. Take the time to practice what you plan to say so you can say it with enthusiasm and energy and develop illustrative material to make the audience want to listen.

As Robert Redford’s character, Tom Booker, said in the movie, The Horse Whisperer, “Knowing is the easy part; saying it out loud is the hard part.”

Stephen D. Boyd, Ph.D., CSP, is Professor Emeritus of Speech Communication, College of Informatics, Northern Kentucky University, near Cincinnati. You can contact him at 800.727.6520. He presents keynotes and seminars to corporations and associations whose people want to speak and listen effectively. Visit his site to read other valuable articles on effective speaking and listening.

Conversation Time!

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Erin Moriarty of 48 Hours said, “With cell phones, iPhones, Blackberries and computers, Americans today have no trouble making connections…it’s making conversation that seems to be a problem.” Good conversation is a diminishing social skill. Because it is the holiday season when people get together at parties or family gatherings, a look at the keys to good conversation is important.

A key to good conversation is listening. People tend to talk at each other instead of taking turns talking and listening. You will make the talker like you and respect you not by what you say so much as how well they think you are listening. People love to talk and when someone has a story to tell, you can’t wait to tell your own story. Sometimes the only reason you listen is because you know you get to talk next.

Spend more time listening than you do talking. Add a competitive element to your listening. Summarize in your own mind what the other person’s point is. If it is a familiar topic, listen closely to learn something new. Think of a question you might ask even if you don’t get to ask it. These simple mental exercises will keep you listening instead of interrupting the talker or thinking of what you want to say when he or she stops talking. Voltaire said, “When you listen, you have power; when you talk you give it away.”

To improve your conversation skills, learn to ask questions. A good question will keep you engaged with the topic. As someone said, “The person who talks a lot dominates a conversation, but the person who asks questions controls the conversation.” Don’t ask too many questions; you will seem like an interrogator. Ask more open questions than closed questions. Good open questions might start with “What do you think,…” or “How do you feel about…” or “What is your opinion…”

Finally when you do talk, keep your comments short and concise. A little boy asked his mother a question. The mother said, “Why don’t you ask your dad?” His response was, “I don’t want to know that much about it.” Some people can’t give a “yes” or “no” answer to a closed question. They feel like they have to elaborate or give an example.

As Moriarty concludes her discussion of conversation, she writes: “Talk may be cheap, but good conversation is priceless.”

Don’t Miss It!

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Some things we miss are obvious. A player for Indiana University last month missed an uncontested layup in a basketball game against Butler. The 17,000 fans at the game saw it, as did thousands watching on the Big Ten Network. Any time high-profile people miss something, everyone hears about it.

Many things missed, however, are not so obvious. That is one of the problems with multi-tasking. When you seek to do several tasks at the same time, you may miss what is really important, inspiring, or helpful. When you are speaking on the phone and reading email at the same time, you may miss the ache or frustration in a person's voice. When you are focused on your smart phone, you may miss a beautiful sunset or flower. One writer said, "The world's most beautiful garden might as well be an asphalt parking lot if you pound through it while barking into your cell phone." 

A big challenge in effective listening is being able to pay attention solely to what the person you are listening to is saying. During conversations I've seen people answer cell phones or read a text message or check email. Not only is this rude, but that person may be missing important time with important people with important information.

Since you think four to five times faster than you can talk, chances are high that you will miss a significant piece of information. We have all messed up the directions when finding an unfamiliar location and ended up on the east side of town instead of the west side—that is, until along came the GPS. However, that little magic box can keep us from paying attention to the highway as we drive. So we are constantly struggling with paying attention. How can we keep from missing the important, the valuable, and the memorable? 

Exercise your mind to learn to focus. For example, you can learn a second language. This makes you pay better attention to the words people use in conversation because you have been studying what that word or sentence means in another language. Because languages have different pronunciations, you will be more sensitive to the tone and pitch of a person's voice. These benefits are in addition to the mental exercise of memorizing words in a different language. I'm being tutored in Spanish and the time I devote to memorization and comprehension certainly motivates me to concentrate.

Carve out quiet time in your daily schedule. When you are quiet for a while, you tend to pay better attention when you do engage in conversation or sit at your computer reading email or composing a letter. Quiet time gives you an opportunity to think and prepare mentally for the important tasks of the day or significant meetings you must contribute to. This might involve spiritual meditation, a walk in the woods observing nature, sitting by a creek enjoying the background sounds, or simply pondering areas important to you for the day as you sit in your favorite chair at home.

Expose yourself to new ideas, activities, and knowledge. When you move out of your common routine, you tend to see things you have never seen before or look at events in a new light. Ballroom dancing has given my wife and me opportunities to know more about the beat and time of music, identify different kinds of music, and visit places to dance that we had never seen before.

Read a book out of your field. Travel to other countries and learn about other cultures. After spending several weeks in Thailand, I pay better attention to ethnic foods and dress.

You only have a finite amount of time to live; don't miss the important. As Paulo Coelho wrote, "You can become blind by seeing each day as a similar one. Each day is a different one; each day brings a miracle of its own. It's just a matter of paying attention to this miracle."

Stephen D. Boyd, Ph.D., CSP, is Professor Emeritus of Speech Communication, College of Informatics, Northern Kentucky University, near Cincinnati. You can contact him at 800.727.6520. He presents keynotes and seminars to corporations and associations whose people want to speak and listen effectively. Visit his site to read other valuable articles on effective speaking and listening.

Embrace Serendipity in Your Next Speech

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Last week the Cincinnati Enquirer featured a story about a little girl who was sitting in her third grade class playing with about an inch-wide gold, heart-shaped locket. She took off the necklace and in the process fumbled the locket and the locket went down her throat. This made it very difficult to breathe and her chest hurt. Her mother rushed to school and then on to the hospital with her.

En route to the hospital, the family car hit a massive pothole. The jarring caused the locket to discharge from the girl's esophagus, forcing it to travel all the way down her throat and saving her life.

Usually you want to avoid potholes, but here the pothole was a life saver. This young lady was the recipient of serendipity! Good things happen by accident. If you look for good things to happen in a speech, you will be more alert to contextual factors that improve your presentation. Seek to make serendipity work for you.

One of the benefits of getting to the meeting place early and meeting some members of the audience is that you might learn something unexpected that could help you in your presentation. As I talked to people before one presentation, I found that several had had me in class at the local university. So I mentioned that early on to boost my credibility with those who did not know me and connect with those who did.

Be grateful for serendipity when there is no explanation. For example, once I was making the point early in my presentation that I hoped by the end of the speech each would have an "aha" so that they would leave thinking "Aha! I can use that tomorrow on the job."  When I said "aha" the audience broke out in applause. The initials of their national organization were "AHA."  They thought my play on words was great and at the time I had no idea what I had said that made them applaud. I just enjoyed the positive feedback and their immediate connection with me.

Don’t be oblivious to serendipity, but embrace it and use it to your advantage.