1 http://www.ted.com
2 http://www.vocaltechnique.co.uk/breathing.html
3 http://edo.med.miami.edu
4 http://www.benjaminzander.com
5 Robert Burns, “To A Louse” (dialect edited)
6 Columbus' egg: A popular story about how a brilliant idea or discovery seems simple or easy after the fact. Christopher Columbus, having been told that discovering the Americas was no great accomplishment, challenged his critics to make an egg stand on its tip; after they gave up, he did it himself by tapping the egg on the table so as to flatten its tip. (Source: Wikipedia.org)
7 http://www.presentationzen.com
8 See appendix
9 “Veni, vidi, vici”: a famous sentence in Classical Latin reportedly written by Julius Caesar in 47 BC as a summary report of his short war with Pharnaces II of Pontus. It means: “I came, I saw, I conquered.” Its form (a three-part sentence or motto) is classed as a tricolon and a hendiatris. Source: Wikipedia.org
10 Debbie Fields, Founder of Debbie Fields Cookies
11 Note: Speaking the audience's language has two meanings here: 1) The same natural language and 2) use a vocabulary and language they are familiar with and can relate to.
12 Others might have different opinions here.
13 See Maister, Galford, and Green, The Trusted Advisor (2002)
14 There are certain speeches for which it is not appropriate to end with a smile, such as when you declare war or announce that catastrophe has struck. Body language must always be authentic, must agree with the message, and must conform to your objective.
THE SEVEN MINUTE STAR
become a great speaker in 15 simple steps
Florian Mueck
Copyright © 2010 by Florian Mueck
Cover artwork, illustration & composing by www.navarra-design.com
published by: epubli GmbH, Berlin, www.epubli.de
ISBN 978-3-8442-2983-7
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.
For permission requests, write to the publisher, at: info@thesevenminutestar.com.
www.thesevenminutestar.com
Writing the first book is an incredibly enriching experience and a great opportunity for self reflection. I would like to send out some special thank-yous to the following people who helped me bring The Seven Minute Star to life:
for Rose
New Orleans — jazz, Mardi Gras — the historic French Quarter, and the vibrant nightlife! I dived into it when I stopped over on a road trip in 1995. Cats Meow, on Bourbon Street, is a famous karaoke bar. I stood in the crowd admiring the people who dared to step out onto the stage, into the spotlight in front of the raucous crowd. I wanted to sing too, so very much! But — I just couldn’t. I was terrified by all those critical eyes out there, staring, judging, sometimes admiring but sometimes booing. I suffered from what we all suffer from: I suffered from stage-fright!
Now it’s fifteen years later, and I speak at weddings, at parties, at business meetings. I write songs and perform them. I have created my own public speaking seminar that’s both educational and entertaining. And my role as primus inter pares of The Festival, a European movement of which I am the initiator and co-founder, often requires that I give informative and inspiring speeches to a wide variety of people, and to different audiences all the time. And I love it! I constantly look for new opportunities to be a star - The Seven Minute Star.
You’re not looking to be a star? Not for a lifetime? Not for a few years? Not even for just a few months, or weeks, or days? Not even for — seven minutes?
Fine. No problem. I didn’t write this to turn you into a star — but I do mean for this book to inspire you, so sometimes you can feel like a star.
So — A Seven Minute Star? What the heck is that, anyway? Well. what is a star? A star is someone with charisma, with a positive attitude, an engaging spirit, enthusiasm, passion. People admire stars. We celebrate them.
And seven minutes? Seven minutes is the best amount of time for a public speech. There are one hour speeches, 30 minute speeches, and TED1 talks of 20 minutes, but normally it takes about seven minutes until the first few people in the audience, usually the ones in the last three rows, start to fall asleep. Seven is king!
Stars and public speakers have a lot in common — so whenever you get up to make a speech, to any audience of any size, you will be The Seven Minute Star. And if you follow the steps I offer you in this little book, you too will be able to speak, even for 45 minutes, without anyone falling asleep.
So How Did It Happen?
The answer goes back to the year 1924, when Ralph C. Smedley founded Toastmasters in Santa Ana, California. Today it is Toastmasters International, with local clubs nearly everywhere, all around the world. Toastmasters has changed my life; it has transformed me into an outgoing, extroverted and passionate public speaker — I enjoy what I speak about, and I also simply enjoy the act of speaking in public.
My introduction to Toastmasters came in 2005, when a friend invited me to a meeting of Prestigious Speakers, a local chapter in Barcelona. I signed up right away. “Wow,” I thought, “these people are moving from just plain smart to being so brilliant, they’re almost like Aristotle!”
Toastmasters emphasizes learning by doing, and you do it with people you like. You’ll learn
You’ll turn into a passionate speaker, and you’ll always have your greatest asset on display: your smile!
This book, The Seven Minute Star, is a collection of my own personal experience gleaned not only from spending four years with Toastmasters, but also from applying its lessons in the real world. This book is experience-driven, and offers practical tips and tricks on how to master those seven minutes on stage.
There’s a star in each and every one of us — we just have to prepare ourselves, and let that star step out into the spotlight.
I will definitely return to New Orleans, and when I do, I’ll head straight for the Cats Meow. I’ll climb right up onto the stage, take a deep breath, calm myself, and look deeply into everyone’s eyes. Then — with passion — I will sing: “Start spreading the news...”
So, Thank you, Ralph! You helped me change my life.
So here we are - YOU are about to become The Seven Minute Star — and in just 15 simple steps!
All 15 steps are autonomous learning blocks. If your goal is only to become starlet rather than a fully-fledged seven minute star, you could apply any one of these steps individually, and your speaking style will improve correspondingly.
But of course the secret lies in climbing up all 15 steps, up to the stage, elevating your speaking abilities, growing and expanding, so you’ll shine in the spotlight.
The first two steps — confidence, transparency — are the foundation of your performance. You need these basic principles to climb up further.
With the third step — your first sentence — you’ll create that indispensable link of tension between yourself and your audience.
Steps four through seven — eye contact, voice, body language, visual aids — keep that tension high and guarantee that no one in your audience falls asleep.
Steps eight to eleven — structure, rhetoric, anecdotes, quotations — gives your audience the impression that what they have heard was more than informative, but has actually been profound.
To make your speech truly memorable, though, you need to continue with steps twelve to fourteen — humor, enthusiasm, passion. And the final step, both the simplest and the most difficult, the most obvious and the most important, is your smile.
Once you’ve climbed up all 15 steps, you’ll be standing on the stage ready for the spotlight. For seven minutes you’ll feel like a star. Indeed, you’ll be a star, and it will be unforgettable.
So what are you waiting for — let’s get started!
Imagine you’re a cat. Imagine also — you’re giving a speech to an audience of 500 Rottweilers. The term “hostile audience” would have to be redefined! Yet you take on the challenge. You are even thrilled to do it. You step up on stage. The snarling and barking crowd down there might cause you some concern, but rather than being scared, you feel inspired; you’re even more enthusiastic, because you know what you have to say is important. You cut through the sound of hostility with a roaring “Meow,” and with a firm voice you begin to purr. You are the cat’s meow! You can do it because, from your whiskers to the tip of your tail, you are filled with a wonderful essence, the most important quality any public speaker can have: confidence.
Search your memory — remember the last time you saw someone speaking in public. Can you picture the scene? Good. Now, how did the speaker look? Nervous? Tense? A little coughing? Did the speech begin with a long and disturbing “Aahhh — Ummmm” before an “OK, well...” got added, for variety? Was the room still noisy when the speech began? Did the speaker look at the floor, or off to the side, or over everybody’s head?
That Darn Stage-Fright!
Stage-fright is one of those things, like fleas, that nobody really needs. Where does it come from? When I was in college, why couldn’t I sit in a group of students and just say, “Hi, I’m Florian, I study Business Administration, and I’m here today to find a great employer, ” without suffering from a dry mouth, sweaty palms and high blood pressure?
Once I attended a seminar about moderating discussions given by my friend Bernhard Pelzer from Hamburg. He explained that, when you’re leading a discussion in a larger group, you should always focus on sub-groups of five. This is because a very long time ago we would be sitting in the trees in groups of - you guessed it - five! So, when we were still covered with fur, five was the crucial number. This is now written deep in our brains, in our cerebellum.