Hollywood is a source of top speeches

By PATRICIA FRIPP

The sultry blonde looked deep into the executive's eyes, her voice throbbing with emotion.

"I know you don't know me," she said, "but you must trust me. We don't have much time. You need to do everything that I tell you."

The couple spent the next four hours in a locked room. Their activities included role-playing and changing positions. "That was so good!" she'd cry. "Do it again!"

Finally the door opened, and the executive emerged, exhausted but smiling. "I've been Fripped," he told his friends, "and I can't wait to do it again."

This is how I open my speech called "How to Add Hollywood to Your Presentation". The premise is: if you want to be a better speaker, go to the movies.

Why? Imagine that you have unlimited resources to design a keynote speech that will make you hot. Where would you go to get the best writers and directors in the world?

Hollywood! And you can use seven basic Hollywood techniques to increase the impact of your presentations.

Start with a flavour scene.

"Flavour scenes" grab attention and position the audience for what is to come. They don't necessarily have to lead where the audience expects, but should make an impact and must tie in to what follows. Where do you think my sultry blonde story is going?

Use scene changes.

Early in each movie, the hero or heroine commits to some course of action. The sooner this happens, the sooner the audience gets emotionally involved.

Next, the lead character licks one challenge and runs smack into another. The movie moves from point to point, maintaining interest by changing settings, focal points, emotions, and energy levels.

The biggest enemy of a speaker, no matter how good, is "sameness". Use variety.

Tell Hollywood stories.

What makes a good Hollywood movie? Exactly the same thing that makes a good keynote speech: a great story, with a purpose, a beginning, middle and end, and a punchline.

Start by identifying your main theme or purpose - your plot - and any sub-plots. For example, an executive I'll call John had just an hour and 20 minutes to work on an important speech.

He was speaking for eight minutes to 500 store managers, the topic was a programme to get employees to contribute money-saving ideas.

The Fripp tips to him: Never open with "good morning". It's boring, it's obvious, and the previous speakers have already said it. Walk on stage, look at the audience, and say: "We are here to talk about heroes." In seven words, you've just proved that this is not another dull, corporate speech.

Say: "We are here to talk about company heroes. They may be sitting behind you. They may be sitting in front of you. They may be you."

I asked John to tell me a story about someone who had saved the company money. One young man in the shipping department had noticed that seven company newsletters to the same address were going out in separate packets.

This mailroom hero thought: "Why don't I pack them together, with a note asking that they be distributed at the other end?"

It worked, so he urged his colleagues to question similar duplications. Savings: $200,000 that year.

To close, John would challenge his audience: "As employees, you have good ideas all the time. Do you write them up and get them in the process so they can be evaluated? Or do you say, 'what's in it for me?"'

This is where John would talk about cash rewards. He rehearsed his eight-minute speech, polishing, tightening, and adding more energy with each run-through, until he could do it without notes.

He concluded by playing David Bowie's song Heroes, which tied the opening to the close.

Create captivating characters.

Fill your stage with other exciting performers, real and imaginary.

In Analyze This, Robert De Niro kills people. Yet in the end, he gets only a few months in prison. Why? Because he is likable. The audience ends up pulling for him, despite his flaws.

Build this likeability into your characters. Start by identifying the values, needs, and wants of your audience. Then tell them about characters who also share them.

One of my audiences was made up of government employees, many of whom were feeling under-appreciated.

"The best thing about performance-excellence on the job," I said, "is that you take it home, and it affects your family life."

And I told them about Bobby Lewis, a proud father who took his two boys, aged three and seven, to play miniature golf. Tickets were $3 for adults and kids over six, free for those younger. He handed over $6.

"Hey, mister," the attendant sneered. "You could have told me the big one was only six. I wouldn't have known the difference."

"Yes," Bobby replied, "but my children would have known the difference."

And the 2000 people in that audience broke into spontaneous applause.

That simple story, told with dialogue and a dramatic lesson learned, represented their values.

Construct vivid dialogue.

Your stories come alive when you can present actual dialogue between your characters, as above.

Provide a lesson learned.

All great films and speeches have a message. For example, Ingrid Bergman leaves Bogart and gets on the plane with Paul Henreid in Casablanca because honour comes before love in wartime. The funniest or most exhilarating story will be pointless if you don't tie it to your theme and provide a lesson.

But back to the sultry blonde - who was me. The executive was a former engineer who wanted to give an inspiring kickoff speech and look presidential.

"Everyone sees you as ethical," I said, and asked him to tell me about his parents and where this honesty came from. Then I asked him about his early achievements.

"When I was seven," he said, "I was on a waterpolo team. I was a good team player, but they decided I had leadership potential and put me on the fast track for the Olympics."

"Tell your audience about this," I said, "because it shows you have been training to be their leader since you were seven."

He recounted other experiences: competing in Mexico City, then training - and banqueting - with other American athletes in Russia.

"They kept making toasts with vodka, and my room-mate didn't know you should just pretend to drink it. He ended up drunk, running up and down the hotel hallway in polka-dot shorts and cowboy boots, pretending to be a bull."

"And why did you join this company?" I asked. The former engineer talked about the opportunities he could see.

I said: "Walk to the 'power position' in the centre of the room, and start by saying, 'If I were you, I'd be wondering who this guy is and where he is taking the company. Before I tell you where we're going, let me tell you where I came from.'

"Then you do two sentences about your parents. Tell about when you were seven and about Mexico City. Tell the Russian story from the perspective of the Russian hotel maid.

"Then talk about why you joined the company, the upgraded headquarters and new products. Tell them: 'Now, it's time to upgrade the workforce - you!' Explain how this is going to happen and what they are going to do."

Ten days and some solid rehearsal later, he gave a breathtaking speech with no notes.

And you can too. Identify the story you want to tell, populate it with flesh and blood characters, add stimulating dialogue, and provide a dramatic lesson learned. Just like the movies.

Talk your way to the top

England-born but San Francisco-based Patricia Fripp, a past-president of the influential National Speakers Association in the United States, visits New Zealand in November for a series of seminars with corporate conference company Executive Knowledge.

She is in Christchurch on November 19 (Centra Hotel), Wellington on November 21 (Te Papa), and Auckland on November 20 (Crowne Plaza).

She is the author of four books: Get What You Want!; Make It, So You Don't Have to Fake It!; Speaking Secrets of the Masters; and Insights Into Excellence.

Fripp

Executive Knowledge