The Throw and Catch of Public Speaking

By Todd Stocker 5/2008

I love football. Not playing it, not analyzing it, just watching it. I don’t know stats or who played for which team in what year, but I know the game. Two teams battling for first, possession of the ball and second, getting that ball to the end zone. Strategy, trickery and some divine intervention all make for a great Sunday afternoon of sports-o-rama!

My favorite plays are the passing plays. Quarterback to receiver. Short, long, quick dishes. They all get my blood pumping. To execute a successful pass play, the quarterback and receiver need to be in sync to get the job done. When they aren’t, the pass is incomplete or, even worse, the other team gets the ball.

Public speaking is like the passing plays in football. There is a quarterback (the speaker) and a receiver (the hearer). Each has a specific job to do and the burden of the responsibility is on the quarterback (the speaker).

In my experience, there are four key elements of a successful speech that mirror the quarterback-receiver passing plays:

START WITH THE RECEIVER. Lynn Swan, Randy Moss, Marvin Harrison. These are all NFL receivers that cause football fans to nod their heads in awe. Their God given talent is obvious. But each has their own unique ways of receiving the ball. Some like the pass delivered high, others directly in their gut.

As a speaker, you have to know about your receiver. Where are they coming from? You have to start with them, not with the content of your message. There are many ways to do this, but the best I’ve found is to actually talk with some of them ahead of time.

Recently, I was asked to speak at a graduation ceremony. I was honored but had never spoken to a group of students ready to take on the world. Instead of researching their colleges or coming up with 5 ways to prepare for business life, I simply walked the halls and talked with them. By these simple conversations, I found out that most were not nervous about the upcoming life-changes. They were thinking about how to make the most out of their summer! As a result, I was able to craft a message that connected with them and gave them some encouragement for the next several months.

Beginning with your listener helps relieve the fear of not knowing what to say. When you think through what they need and want to hear, you have a starting point. You can see the pattern they are running and where to deliver the message.

FIGURE OUT YOUR STRENGTH. I heard that Brett Farve of the Green Bay Packers can throw a football through a solid 4x8 sheet of plywood. That’s power! Brett knows that his strength is in his arm. While he’s quick, he doesn’t run too often. He knows that’s not his strength.

As a public speaker, you’ll come to find that there are certain groups you naturally connect with and others not. You’ll find that there are certain ways of delivery and content writing that are more effective than others. Find your strength. Don’t apologize for it and sharpen that skill anyway you can!

DELIVER AT THE RIGHT SPEED. Receivers hate it when the quarterback passes the ball too far behind them. They don’t mind out in front because their natural competitiveness pushes them forward. But deliver the ball to a place they’ve already ran through and you’re in for a verbal thrashing.

Some speakers feel their job is to fill time and not interest. Adding too many words or not moving on from one point of the subject is a like the slow pass. The receiver (listener) is left saying “been there … done that.”

Be sensitive to your audience. Are they nodding off? Do they look puzzled? Are you speaking too quickly (usually out of nervousness) or repeating the same words over and over? If you’re having difficulty reading your audience, it is acceptable to ask them ONCE or TWICE, “does that make sense?” or “does everyone have a handle on that?”

HIGH-FIVE THE WINNER. I was around when they started calling penalties for “excessive celebrations in the end zone.” What a bummer! When a receiver floated about his defender, reached toward heaven and made the graceful one-handed catch for a touchdown, I (and they) would go nuts! Celebration is a key to motivation.

As a speaker, you have to celebrate the listener. In other words, you bring the message to a close with the attitude that together, you and they have finished the race. You have reached a positive conclusion to your journey and now everyone has been changed by the message.

How do you do that? Simply by reminding your audience what a great presentation it was (even if they don’t believe it). One of my favorite ways is to “frame” the speech. Begin the whole presentation with a story that connects you with them. At the end, touch again on a piece of the opening story. If you mentioned client “Bob” whose company expanded because of your product, circle back and say, “and just like Bob, we can help millions of others take their companies to the next level.”

What shouldn’t you do? Do not end with “thanks for listening.” You are the authority. You are the quarterback. You have taken your team on a journey of success, interest and victory. Do say “in conclusion” unless you are actually concluding! In fact, I avoid that phrase like as if it were malaria. First, it tells your listener to start packing your bags, we’re done, and there is no need to listen anymore. Using the football analogy, it gives the receiver permission to stop listening.

EXAMPLE. Say you’re speaking to your team about last month’s sales results. Some areas were good, other numbers needed improvement. Pretty boring stuff I must say. Using our pointers from above, here is an outline that may help you connect with your “receivers”.

Begin with a humorous or real story about yourself that get’s your receivers in sync with you. “For me, I look at these numbers and feel like I’m on the Matterhorn ride at Disneyland! It’s exciting and thrilling and sometimes makes you want to throw up!”

Then, talk through the facts of the information, using real people to celebrate those good numbers. Conversely, do not use names for the negatives. Everyone knows who they are. “The first 3 weeks of June, we spiked due to the extra effort of Sue and Greg and their team. Then we dipped to a pretty low point. This is the throw up part of our sales ride!”

Now the question becomes, ‘what do we do from here’? For purpose of example, I’ll assume the boss wants July to look like the first weeks of June. So here comes the encouragement. “All of us know that July is usually a slow month. However, given our team, the strength of our product and our commitment to our goals, I know that together, July can be the best ride of the quarter!”

Then the closing. “Our business rides on many factors, but just like the Matterhorn at Disneyland, we can choose to enjoy the ups and downs of the market or hang on, close our eyes and hope we don’t die. I choose the former. What about you?”

ABOUT THE AUTHOR.

Todd Stocker has been a professional public speaker for over 10 years. Whether it’s motivating teams of thousands, encouraging clients or just entertaining, Todd has impacted large and small audiences across the country and across all age groups. If you’d like to contact him for personal coaching or speaking engagements, email him at info@public-speaking-central.com