Page 41 - Social Media Musings

Social Media Musings – Part III My Reflections on the Practice and Life
us, because the more we speak publicly, the more comfortable we will feel and the more natural we will look.
I learned from Kendra Akin Jones at the FDCC Public Speaking Conference that brevity and getting to the point, making the point and moving on to the next point is critical for effective communication.
I learned from Kile Turner at the FDCC Speaking Conference that we lawyers are warriors and that we live by a code of ethics, much like the ancient Samurai lived by the Bushido Code, set of rules and morality that governed their behavior.
I learned from Craig Marvinney at our FDCC Public Speaking Conference the importance of imagination and seeing relationships between disparate things to make connections for the audience.
I learned from Marie Trimble Holvick at the FDCC Public Speaking Conference to read the audience and create ways of getting the audience involved to enhance their attention. No one wants to be lectured to, and everyone wants to be spoken to in terms and through means they understand and are comfortable with.
I learned from Ana Ramos at the FDCC Public Speaking Conference that the fight or flight syndrome causes us to perceive time slow down and makes us speed up when
we speak. We think short pauses are much longer. They are not. Pause. Speak in phrases and not sentences and pause between phrases.
I learned from Miranda Soto at the FDCC Public Speaking Conference that you should video tape yourself speaking using your smart phone and then watch yourself on mute to observe your body language and see how effective it is.
I learned from Tim Pratt at the FDCC
Public Speaking Conference that gravitas - confidence, self assuredness, self possession - is what makes a leader a great leader and a speaker a great speaker.
I learned from Craig Thompson at the FDCC Public Speaking conference that stories matter and that they are all around us. Ideas are all around us. Themes, catch phrases, metaphors and analogies - they are all around us - and that we owe it to ourselves and our clients to see the potential of an epiphany in everything we watch and hear.
The best speakers are like jazz musicians. They know the melody of what they need to say and knowing this, they venture out, they improvise, they riff, they communicate with the audience and create an entirely new, original, compelling song. Don’t memorize your speech. Don’t be married to your power point. Go out there and create.
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