Speech

What do you do?

This by far is the worst question asked at networking events all over the world. I literally cringe at hearing that question. I usually answer with, ‘don’t you have a better question?’, which usually gets me a really disgusting look from the questioner.

The chances are when you go to a networking event you’ve already been agonising, on your journey there, about how to introduce yourself. In the end, when posed with that question, you’re likely to just say, ‘well I’m an accountant’. So that ended the conversation, 100% guaranteed. Everyone knows what an accountant is, don’t they? Well not really, accountants have stories too, they have clients, whose stories may interest you as a business owner and may actually reveal something about the values of this particular accountant. Nothing is certain in life, not even the life of an accountant.

How about instead of saying, ‘well, I’m just an accountant’, which is very likely what you would have said and just replace the title with your own title by the way, because that’s what I’ve heard you say. How do I know? I’ve heard thousands of people say the same thing, no matter where in the world.

Where was I? Oh yes, instead say the following, ‘do you have 60 seconds for a story?’, nobody will say no, you’ve just told them it will only take 60 seconds, great they think and you’ve told them that you’re going to share a story and EVERYONE loves a story.

Fact, we’ve been literally hard-wired (in our brains) to love stories. After all, you’ve loved stories since you were knee-high.

So to explain what I mean, I crafted a short 60 seconds story for an accountant. His name is James Ashbrook. Made up name completely fictional, so if your accountant has this name, it’s a complete coincidence.

Have you ever come across folk that leave their business finances until the last minute? Not you of course! Well, I had this client the other day, of course their business remains nameless, but his name was James. Well James hadn’t done his business accounts for 6 months. He kept the receipts though, really great job I thought, but he arrived on my door step with a couple of carrier bags. A couple of carrier bags! And they weren’t even bags for life, they were these really old supermarket plastic bags, you know the ones I mean right? I don’t think they even make those now! Anyway I got to work and then later that day, he chased me to see how far I got! The cheek of it, but I said nothing. Then he told me he needed to submit his accounts to his board of directors the next day! It was just bad after worse all along the way. Anyway, I’m sure you don’t need to hear ALL the ins and outs. The fact is I got it done, he was happy and the great outcome was that he hired me on a permanent basis, plus has recommended me to loads of his clients and connections. Sometimes it JUST pays to go the extra mile. I don’t only think that now, I know I go the extra mile. Yes, my name is James Ashbrook and I run an accountancy called ‘The Extra Mile’, I know we’re meeting now but I’d love it if we met for a coffee and cake too. Who doesn’t like cake, right? Here’s my card!

Not difficult was it?

So now it’s your turn, write your short story, make sure you include a character, yes it can be a completely fictional character, in order to demonstrate your business prowess. Share something that’s memorable, that includes how you solved your customer’s pain points. It’s always about the pain points.

Send me your draft and I will critique it, give you some pointers and then you must practice it in front of your camera and watch it back. Keep doing it until you are word perfect. And then try it out on the unsuspecting public at networking events. You will be in the minority, so you will be remembered for sure.

Happy networking!

Michael de Groot

Mind Map by Michael de Groot as presented at The Technology Supply Chain meeting 25 February 2020 in Birmingham UK

Fair Game

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Valerie Plame is employed by the Central Intelligence Agency, a fact known outside the agency to no one except her husband and parents. She is an agent involved in a number of sensitive and sometimes dangerous covert operations overseas. Her husband, Joseph C. Wilson, is a diplomat who most recently has served as a U.S. ambassador to Gabon, Sao Tome and Principe. Due to his extensive background, Wilson is approached by Plame’s CIA colleagues to travel to Niger and glean information as to whether yellowcake uranium is being procured by Iraq for use in the construction of nuclear weasons. Wilson determines to his own satisfaction that it is not. After military action is taken by George W. Bush, who justifies it in a 2003 State of the Union address by alluding to the uranium’s use in building weapons of mass destruction, Wilson submits an op-ed piece to the New York Times claiming these reports to be categorically untrue.

Speech text:

“How many of you know the 16 words in President Bush’s State of the Union Address that led us to war? (none) How many know my wife’s name? (everyone)

How can you know one, and not the other? When did the question move from “Why are we going to war” to “Who is this man’s wife?”

I asked the first question and someone else asked the second. And it worked. Because none of us know the truth. The offence that was committed was not committed against me, it was not committed against my wife — it was committed against you. All of you.

If that makes you angry or feel misrepresented, do something about it.

When Benjamin Franklin left Independence Hall, just after the second draft of it, he was approached by a woman on the street, the woman said, ‘Mr Franklin, what manner of government have you bequeathed us? And Franklin said, ‘A Republic madam… if you can keep it.’

The responsibility of a country is not in the hands of a privileged few. We are strong and we are free from tyranny as long as each one of us remembers his or her duty as a citizen. Whether it’s to report a pothole at the top of your street, or lies in a State of The Union Address, speak out!

Ask those questions. Demand that truth. Democracy is not a free ride man, I’m here to tell you.

But this is where we live. And if we do our job, this is where our children will live. God Bless America.”

Link to video clip:

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKbpLDdw4KU[/embed]

Links to content discussed in the podcast: https://www.dramaclasses.biz/the-stanislavski-system

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0977855

https://prezi.com/-ejibzd_s82r/sean-penn-fair-game-speech/

Thanks for listening, feel free to reach out with your questions and until next time. 🎈👇

LinkedIn: Michael-Don Smith and Michael de Groot

Michael de Groot and Michael-Don Smith

Rhetorical Devices

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This episode covers the topic of ‘Rhetorical Devices’.

Quick explanation: “A rhetorical device, persuasive device, or stylistic device is a technique that an author or speaker uses to convey to the listener or reader a meaning with the goal of persuading them towards considering a topic from a perspective, using sentences designed to encourage or provoke an emotional display of a given perspective or action. Rhetorical devices can be used to evoke an emotional response in the audience, but that is not their primary purpose.” Some links below with an exhaustive list of them.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glossary_of_rhetorical_terms

https://examples.yourdictionary.com/examples-of-rhetorical-devices.html

There’s no way we will cover them all and you will hear a back and forth discussion between the two Michael’s exploring, explaining some random devices and uncover how they might be used or indeed are being used in some examples they discuss.

Thanks for listening, feel free to reach out with your questions and until next time. 🎈👇

Michael-Don Smith

Michael de Groot

Michael de Groot and Michael-Don Smith

V for Vendetta

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Just in time for November 5th, when we celebrate Guy Fawkes night every year in the UK.

Based on the graphic novel by Alan Moore, V for Vendetta takes place in an alternate vision of Britain in which a corrupt and abusive totalitarian government has risen to complete power. During a threatening run in with the secret police, an unassuming young woman named Evey (Natalie Portman) is rescued by a vigilante named V (Hugo Weaving) — a caped figure both articulate and skilled in combat. V embodies the principles of rebellion from an authoritarian state, donning a mask of vilified would-be terrorist of British history Guy Fawkes and leading a revolution sparked by assassination and destruction. Evey becomes his unlikely ally, newly aware of the cruelty of her own society and her role in it.

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0IyuK069I-w[/embed]

V’s speech:

Good evening, London. Allow me first to apologise for this interruption. I do, like many of you, appreciate the comforts of everyday routine, the security of the familiar, the tranquility of repetition. I enjoy them as much as any bloke. But in the spirit of commemoration, where upon important events of the past, usually associated with someone’s death or the end of some awful bloody struggle, are celebrated with a nice holiday, I thought we could mark this November the 5th, a day that is sadly no longer remembered, by taking some time out of our daily lives to sit down and have a little chat. There are, of course, those who do not want us to speak. I suspect even now, orders are being shouted into telephones, and men with guns will soon be on their way. Why? Because while the truncheon may be used in lieu of conversation, words will always retain their power. Words offer the means to meaning, and for those who will listen, the enunciation of truth. And the truth is, there is something terribly wrong with this country, isn’t there? Cruelty and injustice, intolerance and oppression. And where once you had the freedom to object, to think and speak as you saw fit, you now have censors and systems of surveillance coercing you’re conformity and soliciting your submission. How did this happen? Who’s to blame? Well, certainly, there are those who are more responsible than others, and they will be held accountable. But again, truth be told, if you’re looking for the guilty, you need only look into a mirror. I know why you did it. I know you were afraid. Who wouldn’t be? War, terror, disease. They were a myriad of problems which conspired to corrupt your reason and rob you of your common sense. Fear got the best of you, and in your panic, you turned to the now high chancellor, Adam Sutler. He promised you order, he promised you peace, and all he demanded in return was your silent, obedient consent. Last night, I sought to end that silence. Last night, I destroyed the Old Bailey to remind this country of what it has forgotten. More than four hundred years ago, a great citizen wished to embed the fifth of November forever in our memory. His hope was to remind the world that fairness, justice, and freedom are more than words; they are perspectives. So if you’ve seen nothing, if the crimes of this government remain unknown to you, then I would suggest that you allow the fifth of November to pass unmarked. But if you see what I see, if you feel as I feel, and if you would seek as I seek, then I ask you to stand beside me, one year from tonight, outside the gates of Parliament, and together we shall give them a fifth of November that shall never, ever be forgotten.

Thanks for listening, send us your questions and until next time. 🎈👇

Michael-Don Smith: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaeldonsmith

Michael de Groot: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stayingaliveuk

Michael de Groot and Michael-Don Smith

A Few Good Men

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With this episode we start a 5-episode series of discussing 5 of the most famous and greatest speeches from the movies. We start with discussing ‘A Few Good Men’, starring Tom Cruise, Jack Nicholson, Demi Moore and Kevin Bacon. We unpick the content of the speech and examine it against the ABC of delivering speeches, the colourful language, the metonymies used to make the audience work and remember the speech. Enjoy!

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0104257/

In this dramatic courtroom thriller, LT Daniel Kaffee, a Navy lawyer who has never seen the inside of the courtroom, defends two stubborn Marines who have been accused of murdering a colleague. Kaffee is known as being lazy and had arranged for a plea bargain. Downey’s Aunt Ginny appoints Cmdr. Galloway to represent him. Also on the legal staff is LTJG Sam Weinberg. The team rounds up many facts and Kaffee is discovering that he is really cut out for trial work. The defense is originally based upon the fact that PFC Santiago, the victim, was given a “CODE RED”. Santiago was basically a screw-up. At Gitmo, screw-ups aren’t tolerated. Especially by Col. Nathan Jessup. In Cuba, Jessup and two senior officers try to give all the help they can, but Kaffee knows something’s fishy. In the conclusion of the film, the fireworks are set off by a confrontation between Jessup and Kaffee.


We would love to hear your views, comments and ideas for topics in future episodes. Reach out to us via Twitter, @mdonsmith and @stayingaliveuk. You can also find us both on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaeldonsmith and https://www.linkedin.com/in/stayingaliveuk.

Do connect with us there also.

Michael de Groot, Michael Don Smith.

The Great Dictator

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I’m sorry, but I don’t want to be an emperor. That’s not my business. I don’t want to rule or conquer anyone. I should like to help everyone — if possible — Jew, Gentile — black man — white. We all want to help one another. Human beings are like that. We want to live by each other’s happiness — not by each other’s misery. We don’t want to hate and despise one another. In this world there is room for everyone. And the good earth is rich and can provide for everyone. The way of life can be free and beautiful, but we have lost the way.

Greed has poisoned men’s souls, has barricaded the world with hate, has goose-stepped us into misery and bloodshed. We have developed speed, but we have shut ourselves in. Machinery that gives abundance has left us in want. Our knowledge has made us cynical. Our cleverness, hard and unkind. We think too much and feel too little. More than machinery we need humanity. More than cleverness we need kindness and gentleness. Without these qualities, life will be violent and all will be lost….

The aeroplane and the radio have brought us closer together. The very nature of these inventions cries out for the goodness in men — cries out for universal brotherhood — for the unity of us all. Even now my voice is reaching millions throughout the world — millions of despairing men, women, and little children — victims of a system that makes men torture and imprison innocent people.

To those who can hear me, I say — do not despair. The misery that is now upon us is but the passing of greed — the bitterness of men who fear the way of human progress. The hate of men will pass, and dictators die, and the power they took from the people will return to the people. And so long as men die, liberty will never perish. …..

Soldiers! don’t give yourselves to brutes — men who despise you — enslave you — who regiment your lives — tell you what to do — what to think and what to feel! Who drill you — diet you — treat you like cattle, use you as cannon fodder. Don’t give yourselves to these unnatural men — machine men with machine minds and machine hearts! You are not machines! You are not cattle! You are men! You have the love of humanity in your hearts! You don’t hate! Only the unloved hate — the unloved and the unnatural! Soldiers! Don’t fight for slavery! Fight for liberty!

In the 17th Chapter of St Luke it is written: “the Kingdom of God is within man” — not one man nor a group of men, but in all men! In you! You, the people have the power — the power to create machines. The power to create happiness! You, the people, have the power to make this life free and beautiful, to make this life a wonderful adventure.

Then — in the name of democracy — let us use that power — let us all unite. Let us fight for a new world — a decent world that will give men a chance to work — that will give youth a future and old age a security. By the promise of these things, brutes have risen to power. But they lie! They do not fulfil that promise. They never will!

Dictators free themselves but they enslave the people! Now let us fight to fulfil that promise! Let us fight to free the world — to do away with national barriers — to do away with greed, with hate and intolerance. Let us fight for a world of reason, a world where science and progress will lead to all men’s happiness. Soldiers! in the name of democracy, let us all unite!

Final speech from The Great Dictator Copyright © Roy Export S.A.S. All rights reserved.

The Great Dictator was Chaplin’s first film with dialogue. Chaplin plays both a little Jewish barber, living in the ghetto, and Hynkel, the dictator ruler of Tomainia. In his autobiography Chaplin quotes himself as having said: “One doesn’t have to be a Jew to be anti Nazi. All one has to be is a normal decent human being.”

Chaplin and Hitler were born within a week of one another. “There was something uncanny in the resemblance between the Little Tramp and Adolf Hitler, representing opposite poles of humanity, ” writes Chaplin biographer David Robinson, reproducing an unsigned article from The Spectator dated 21st April 1939:
“Providence was in an ironical mood when, fifty years ago this week, it was ordained that Charles Chaplin and Adolf Hitler should make their entry into the world within four days of each other….Each in his own way has expressed the ideas, sentiments, aspirations of the millions of struggling citizens ground between the upper and the lower millstone of society. (…) Each has mirrored the same reality — the predicament of the “little man” in modern society. Each is a distorting mirror, the one for good, the other for untold evil.”

Chaplin spent many months drafting and re-writing the speech for the end of the film, a call for peace from the barber who has been mistaken for Hynkel. Many people criticized the speech, and thought it was superfluous to the film. Others found it uplifting. Regrettably Chaplin’s words are as relevant today as they were in 1940.


IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0032553/

The CYSS (Craft your Signature Speech) Master Your Message 1 Day Bootcamp with Michael-Don Smith on 27 July 2019.

The Share Your Story — Storytelling Workshop with Michael de Groot on 20 August 2019.

Both workshops qualify for a £40 discount when you use the code SOSPODCAST upon registration and/or checkout.

Location: The Shakti Rooms, 3rd Floor Avebury House, 55 Newhall Steet, Birmingham B3 3RB


We would love to hear your views, comments and ideas for topics in future episodes. Reach out to us via Twitter, @mdonsmith and @stayingaliveuk. You can also find us both on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaeldonsmith and https://www.linkedin.com/in/stayingaliveuk.

Do connect with us there also.

Michael de Groot, Michael Don Smith

The difference between a Speech and a Story?

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Michael-Don does some fabulous challenges throughout this episode to hold us both to account when discussing the differences between a Speech and a Story. We go back and forth, running around the Rabbit Hole, deciding how we can differentiate them. Is a speech just factual? Is a story just a narrative with characters? Is there absolutely no storytelling in speeches?

We would love to hear your views, comments and ideas for topics in future episodes. Reach out to us via Twitter, @mdonsmith and @stayingaliveuk. You can also find us both on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaeldonsmith and https://www.linkedin.com/in/stayingaliveuk.

Do connect with us there also.

Michael de Groot, Michael Don Smith


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What is a Story?

Story of a Speech Podcast

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In this third episode of the Story of a Speech podcast, we examine what a story actually is. What is the structure and it’s impact on the viewer/listener? Now because Michael de Groot is the resident storyteller, you will hear a lot of him in this episode, well of course it his specialist subject after all.

We would love to hear your views, comments and ideas for topics in future episodes. Reach out to us via Twitter, @mdonsmith and @stayingaliveuk. You can also find us both on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaeldonsmith and https://www.linkedin.com/in/stayingaliveuk. Do connect with us there also.

Michael de Groot, Michael Don Smith

What is a Speech?

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In this second episode of the Story of a Speech podcast, we’re examining what a speech actually is. Now because Michael-Don is the resident signature speech coach, you will hear a lot of him in this episode, well of course it his specialist subject after all.

We would love to hear your views, comments and ideas for topics in future episodes. Reach out to us via Twitter, @mdonsmith and @stayingaliveuk.

You can also find us both on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaeldonsmith and https://www.linkedin.com/in/stayingaliveuk.

Do connect with us there also.

Michael de Groot and Michael-Don Smith

Signature Speech

I recently attended (Jan 2018) a great Masterclass run by the amazing Michael-Don Smith, called ‘Create Your Signature Speech’, #CYSS.
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/how-to-craft-your-signature-speech-presentation-skills-masterclass-tickets-38222108355

I see so many business people, whether they work in small businesses or large corporates deliver the most appalling signature/elevator speeches at networking events.

The only reason they are so appalling is because business people haven’t invested the time to create something with structure and discipline.

Michael-Don’s quote was; ‘Structure is your friend and discipline gives you freedom’.

He showed us a number of ways to examine our signature speech and give it structure and discipline.

By having us practice it in front of the group several times it allowed us not only to improve our delivery, it placed us outside of our comfort zone, where really all the learning took place.

I sincerely wish more business people in the U.K. invested a small amount of time and money in themselves in order to improve not just their speaking skills but also their signature/elevator speech to help them feel more confident in front of strangers at networking events.

Happy speaking!

Michael de Groot