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Everything is in the orchestration

Polls have shown that speaking to an audience is one of the most common fears among people from all walks of life. In speaking to many people over the years who harbor this fear, I have often heard them say, “I’m just not a good speaker.” Those words imply that they believe that the ability to speak in front of an audience is determined at birth.

As with almost any skill, to a large extent that is true. Natural ability is always helpful. But natural ability is not what triumphs.

One of the best speakers I’ve heard in a long time is Michael Cloud, who is also a first-rate speechwriter. A couple of weeks after I heard him speak, Michael sent me an excellent article he wrote titled “The 7 Deadly Sins of Public Speaking … and How to Avoid Them.”

I don’t have the space to review the seven sins here, but I can tell you that the first mortal sin I list is not practicing properly. He says that many speakers just don’t practice enough. Others practice arrogantly and haphazardly, simply by following the movements. And, as incredible as it may sound, some speakers don’t practice at all.

Cloud goes on to say that many speakers just try to “improvise.” His attitude is: “Good enough is good enough.” During a later phone conversation, he expanded on this point by telling me something that most people might find hard to believe: that the best natural speakers are often the worst performers.

How can this be? Because naturally talented speakers often feel relaxed and in control in front of an audience. Which in turn makes many of them believe that they do not need to practice.

I can relate to this, because I fell into the overconfidence trap early in my career. From a very young age, I recognized that I had the gift of speech, and mistakenly believed that this ability was all it took to be a great public speaker.

The end of this ridiculous miscalculation came during a performance in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. At that time, my second book, Looking for the n. 1, had just risen to No. 1 in The New York Times bestseller list, and he was drunk on the wine of flattery. He was scheduled to address an audience of 3,000, all of whom I assumed were disciples of Robert Ringer.

After a performance that would have made Johnny Carson envious, I took the stage and started chatting. I was everywhere … every sentence was flooded with “uhs” … repeating myself endlessly … and improvising “jokes” that only brought blank stares from the audience.

Being the insightful young man that I was, after about 10 minutes I felt like I was in big trouble. When raw eggs and tomatoes fly towards you from all directions, you begin to suspect that the audience is not really impressed with either your message or your delivery.

And when pretty much everyone in the room starts to cough nervously, it’s all he can do to resist yelling, “Mom! Come get me, quick!” (I will never forgive her for not coming to rescue me when I needed her most.)

Since that embarrassing fiasco, I have witnessed many high profile people giving speeches that ranged from mediocre to abysmal. In all cases, it has been obvious to me that the speaker was improvising with arrogance and / or ignorance.

With that said, here’s the painful truth about one of the best-kept secrets of great public speakers: They orchestrate their speeches down to the last detail. What I’m talking about here is tireless and continuous practice, not just every word, but also accurate body language, facial expressions, voice inflection, and more.

In this sense, Zig Ziglar comes to mind. When Zig goes on stage, it’s like watching a great actor perform OTHELLO. Years ago, I attended two Zig Ziglar speeches in the space of about six months, and not only were every word and every sentence exactly the same, and pronounced exactly the same way, but he even got down on his knees at precisely the same moment. It was more dramatic than watching Larry Parks sing “Mammy” on Jolson’s story.

So it’s no mystery why Zig Ziglar’s speeches have captivated audiences for decades. Clearly, he is a master craftsman who has orchestrated his performances to perfection.

Tony Robbins is another excellent example of high-level orchestration. Love him or hate him, he is arguably the most dynamic and passionate speaker on the planet. When you look at Robbins, you get the feeling that the words flow spontaneously from his mouth as fast as he can think, and that his thinking mechanism is always moving fast.

But I did notice something interesting during a Robbins speech that I attended in Hawaii a few years ago. I was explaining how important it is to show a high level of energy. To make his point, he ran down the center aisle to the back of the room, then began to walk very slowly towards the stage.

As he walked, his shoulders drooped and he spoke very slowly in an effort to comically demonstrate what a low-energy person looks and sounds like. In perfect sync with his Step’n Fetchit imitation, a sound similar to the sound of a horse’s hooves on a cobbled street could be heard throughout the room.

I looked around to see where the sound was coming from, and lo and behold, the audio technician was supplying the special effects. I found out later that Robbins brings his own sound technician to every concert, which is a long way from improvising. Again, it’s no mystery why he’s a world-class speaker – incredibly detailed orchestration.

Rather, I remember a famous NFL quarterback who told me years ago, when I was in the national spotlight, that he spoke in public during the offseason. I asked him how much time he spent practicing and he replied, “Fuck, I don’t practice. I don’t believe in giving canned speeches. I feel better when I’m spontaneous. I just get up and talk about whatever is on my mind.”

There is a term to describe this kind of attitude: the arrogance of the ignorant. As you may have guessed, after his career ended, this guy disappeared from the speech circuit entirely. Too much for just getting up and talking about whatever you have in mind.

But orchestration is not limited to public speaking. On the contrary, it is one of the keys to success in all professions.

In the early eighties, I saw Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme perform at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. At the time, they were at the top of the entertainment ladder and put on a fantastic show. What I enjoyed the most about their act were their hilarious improvisations and their spontaneous jokes with each other. They were muffled lines, antics and laughing out loud on stage.

In fact, I enjoyed her performance so much that I came back the next night to see her again. Surprise! Every line she’d thought was spontaneous was repeated word for word the second time, right down to their facial expressions, the way they laughed, their body language, and their timing. They silenced the exact same lines and broke off in the same way and at exactly the same times as the night before.

There was no spontaneity. Zippo. The entire act was orchestrated from start to finish. It was really honed to the nth degree.

I later told a good friend of mine who had been Bob Hope’s producer for many years about what I had witnessed in Las Vegas. His answer: “Welcome to the world.”

My friend assured me that everything in show business is orchestrated, especially the lines that you perceive as improvised. He went on to explain, “Do you know those spontaneous moments on variety shows where artists laugh out loud in front of the audience? Everything is orchestrated: every laugh, every grimace, every pratfall.” He stressed that professionals do not get in front of the cameras until they take into account every word and every gesture.

That brings me to my last orchestration example, Tom Brady. You may recall that I did a previous article on the New England Patriots’ star quarterback, based on his interview with Steve Croft in 60 minutes. At one point, Brady was talking about how many hours he spends each day studying game movies, prompting Croft to rhetorically ask, “So is everything orchestrated?”

To which Brady replied, “Everything is orchestrated. You don’t just go out there and improvise it.” So sports, public speaking, show business, just about any profession you can think of, have at least one thing in common: orchestration is the primary key to greatness.

So why aren’t more people putting a great deal of time and effort into orchestrating? Laziness aside, I think one of the main reasons is that they think the orchestration is somehow dishonest. Sheer nonsense, of course. The person who arranges everything in advance simply cares enough about his work to strive for perfection. Orchestration is nothing more than practicing precisely what you are going to do or say … and that’s a good thing.

The same applies to reality shows like The newbie. When the big and bad Donald Trump says to the future executive: “You’re fired!” And brings her to the brink of tears, hapless viewers want to believe that this corporate version of professional wrestling is real. They love to share the “pain” of Ms. Future Executive.

And when the teary-eyed object of Trump’s cruelty pops up on Oprah to tell the world how the other actors (er, job applicants) got her on her back to get The Donald’s job, it’s enough to make an adult. sober physically ill. .

But then unless you believe that Survivor and The Bachelor They are real, I guess you already understand that The newbie it’s a great orchestration. Rest assured, each of the dozen hairs on Trump’s head is set perfectly in place before the cameras start rolling.

What’s good enough for DT is good enough for you and me. To parody the words of a now-deceased legal wizard who managed to free OJ through blatant diversionary tactics and a dose of elementary school poetry, “If you want to be great, you must orchestrate.”

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