It’s Not WHAT You Say, It’s HOW You Say It
I got booed off a stage by a crowd of annoyed high school students…and this is why.
Early on in my career I was hired by a company to do public speaking to high school students across the country.
I WAS PUMPED! (really, I was)
I flew out to the company’s HQ where I found out that the speech was entirely scripted. Not the creative liberty that I’d assumed I would have, but I rolled with the punches and memorized that script line by line.
(much like I did when I was 12 and locked myself in my room to learn the lyrics of the Bangle’s song Eternal Flame…but that’s a story for another day)
My first gig was at a huge high school in Hartford CT and I felt READY! EXCITED! And convinced that this one hour presentation was going to CHANGE THESE KIDS’ LIVES!
…until I stepped on the stage.
There were close to 500 kids in the audience, and to say they were NOT feeling the same level of excitement that I was is the understatement of the year.
I’d like to say I lost them, but the truth is that I never had them in the first place.
I looked at the students who weren’t much younger than I was at the time and immediately felt out of my league.
And I let it go immediately to my head.
I talked, but I was quiet.
didn’t look up much.
stayed planted in one spot on the stage.
By 5 minutes NO ONE was paying attention to me. By 10 minutes in they were BOOING, and by minute 12 the principal got on the stage and quickly led me off.
It was mortifying - and I knew I'd never let it happen again.
On my drive home I dug into what my fatal mistake could have been, and somewhere between my 4th and 5th round of Eternal Flame carpool karaoke style, I realized my fatal mistake.
I practiced learning the words, but never HOW I would say them.
So when I got home, that’s what I began to do.
My next gig was a few days later, and this time I stepped on that stage and hooked them in right from the start.
Same words.
Different delivery.
The kids were hooked right from the beginning, and I held their attention AND got a rousing round of applause at the end of my 60 minutes (which, if you’ve ever stood in front of a group of teenagers, is a huge feat in and of itself).
That’s the power of effective communication.
You don't need to be naturally good at it. You just need to practice - a la 1989 Bangles superfan Krista.
