Welcome to the third edition of “Interviews with Speaking Experts”. John has contributed to Toastmasters Magazine and he maintains a Toastmasters blog.
Marcus Smith: On a scale of 1 to 10 how would you rate your first speech? Why?
John Spaith: – 7 – allowing for the fact that I was a terrified 17 year old. I was working at a science museum demonstrating a Van de Graaff generator, which makes people’s hair stand up and causes sparks. I was scared mostly of the audience, but also of electrocuting myself. I was throwing up minutes before I went on stage but I sucked it up, did OK, and found I really enjoyed myself as the job went on. Most of the trick was just showing up.
I’d give the Van de Graaff generator a 10 for not electrocuting me.
Marcus Smith: – On a scale of 1 to 10 how would you rate your last speech? Why?
John Spaith: – 3 – allowing for the fact I’ve been in TM for 5 years. I brought in my piano to my Toastmasters club and related playing it to speaking. I assumed I’d speak after a break so I’d have time to set up in peace. I was the 1st speaker so there was an awful pause as the whole audience watched me get the gear ready. I should’ve had the schedule amended but had tunnel vision on actually playing.
Halfway through I decided to play “name that tune” to talk about audience connection. These were standard US pop songs but only one member had heard of them. I should’ve stopped after the 2nd song when it was bombing but got flustered and did a 3rd anyway. I assumed that the gimmick and my playing would hide the fact I hadn’t practiced the speech content enough, but it didn’t.
I’d give the piano a 10 for not electrocuting me.
Marcus Smith: In your opinion what is the most important part of a speech? Why?
John Spaith: It’s a cliche, but it’s probably the opening. You can certainly lose your audience after a good opening, but it’s very hard to them back if you don’t have a halfway OK opening. You have to do a bunch of stuff in the first few minutes and there’s a fine balance. You have to show that you’re a regular, humble guy and know what you’re talking about at the same time. You have to bring in a lot of energy without coming off crazy. Also, you need to have a great hook – either some dramatic opening line, story, or funny gag for a less serious speech. Don’t come off like a soap opera or a complete clown.
Marcus Smith: In your opinion what is the least important part of a speech? Why?
John Spaith: Gestures. If you have a good story/message and your vocal variety isn’t awful, then people will stay with you even if your feet and hands stay in the same place. I’ve seen corporate types go crazy trying to move around, but when fluff is coming out of their mouth it doesn’t matter. Dr. Amen, who is a brain specialist, gave a great talk on PBS about how to change your diet and thought patterns and how this can change your brain and your life. He had his hands clasped the entire time, he even looked a bit dweeby (I’m being harsh). However, he was so knowledgeable and funny that I couldn’t stop watching him.
Marcus Smith: Why is public speaking such a paralyzing fear in the world today?
John Spaith: I think we have this sense that the audience is going to be as hard on us as we are on ourselves. They won’t notice minor flubs and probably not even big ones because they’re more worried about their own problems than the fine points of the speech’s delivery.
In addition to the very high expectations of ourselves, most people have never received decent speech training. Sport start actually do have to be perfect given the money and size of their audiences, but they have the training piece down very well which takes off some of the nervous edge. That’s what makes Toastmasters so valuable; it’s a cheap way to get a ton of practice.
Marcus Smith: Who is the speaker that you admire the most and why?
John Spaith: Cicero. He worked hard to become the leading orator of Rome; he even went off to relearn oratory after a few years as a successful lawyer. It’s amazing that he could be profound in one sentence and then be completely vicious (and very funny) attacking some enemy in the next. Cicero was both vain and a coward and he knew it, but he could rise above his faults. He was one of the last men who believed in the Roman Republic – rule of law, not men – and was beheaded by Mark Antony for it.
Marcus Smith: What are your thoughts on writing a speech word for word prior to delivery?
John Spaith: I’m against it in general. It has a place in formal speeches where every word has to be right (like Obama/McCain type stuff, which is why they have teleprompters). The problem with it is I’ve seen new speakers memorize a speech, forget one or two words, and then they get flustered and have difficulty recovering to exactly where they were supposed to be. It’s OK to write out the speech word for word as you’d ideally do it, but during practice the goal should be good delivery and not sticking to the script exactly. It also takes an awful long time to do word-for-word memorization.
Marcus Smith: Why were you initially drawn to public speaking?
John Spaith: After my stint with the Van de Graaff generator I got afraid of speaking again. I got into TM when I was 26 not to build a strength but because I wanted to fix a huge weakness that bugged me. After that I learned that I like the sound of my voice and the ego kicked in! I get a rush out of delivering a good speech, and even with the 3 out of 10 piano speech I learned something.
Marcus Smith: List 3 common myths about public speaking that you hear constantly. Tell us why they aren’t true.
John Spaith: The big one when your audience listens to your speech, 7% is based on content, 38% on vocal, and 55% on your body language. In the Toastmaster Magazine a while ago the guy who did the initial study said that those results were misinterpreted by later people. He had a very specific experiment where he got those numbers, it is not as broad as its quoted.
My all time best speech I gave sitting down, with PowerPoint, and I was probably slumping even at my chair. I tried to make the boring tech talk funny by putting in a ton of jokes and (to my amazement) every one of them landed. I mean, I got uproarious laughter, and I wanted people to do something for me too which they did. My body language was awful and vocal variety was OK, but the content saved me.
I’m not coming up with another 2 good myths. Anyway, undervaluing content is probably myth enough to dispel.
Marcus Smith: What advice would you give someone who was about to deliver their first real speech before an audience?
John Spaith: Unless you’re giving a speech in front of a bunch of monsters, the audience is going to be rooting for you. They want to be entertained and inspired for their own sake and it’s painful for them to watch you screw up. Most people are basically good; they want you to succeed for your own sake too. It may be awful at first but it gets better the more you do it, no matter how poorly you start. A final cliche but a good one — Just do it!
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