Public Speaking

“If I had a choice between getting a round of applause by delivering a twenty-six second applause line and getting a round of boos by telling the truth, I’d rather get the round of applause.” ~ former Senator Bob Kerrey, on why campaign finance reform won't work.

The Bob Kerrey quote, extracted from Naked Economics by Charles Wheelan, was used to illustrate why campaign finance reform favors small organized groups rather than the masses. But it also says something to me about politicians. They are people like you and me. They prefer being liked than being disliked. They prefer applause and hurrahs to brickbats and broken jaws. (Yes, I went for the cheap rhyme there.)

My thought upon reading this quote (one of many other extracts from this book I'd recommended the other day) is that politicians must get a rush when they encounter large, passionate crowds. And politicians who are good at working a crowd help their audiences enjoy it even more, stoking passions and making moments memorable.

Newsweek magazine, after the Kerry/Bush election, did a marvelously detailed and lengthy overview of the campaigns of John Kerry and Bush in 2004. Their reporters were embedded inside the campaigns, having agreed to share none of their inside observations till after the elections, much like the reporters embedded within the armed forces in their assault upon Baghdad.

One of the most memorable scenes in the Newsweek report was a description of Kerry at one of his last whistle stops in Iowa, the weekend before the election. He'd landed at an airport, the mobs were enormous that had come out to greet him. His children were there, including a daughter who lived in California and was (if my memory is correct) somehow professionally involved in some facet of public speaking herself.

This daughter observed her dad's power to mesmerize the crowd, and then while the energy level was peaking, while they were at a crescendo of emotion, in this particular instance he kept talking and talking and talking, and despite her having chastened him about this before he pretty much violated that basic maxim of public speaking, "It is better to talk ten minutes too short than two minutes too long." Kerry spoke for an hour when twenty minutes would have been more than sufficient. He essentially left them flattened because at that point they did not want to hear all this political jabber. They just wanted to get jazzed.

Whether you're an entertainer, a public speaker or a customer service professional, one of your goals is to keep them coming back for more. You don't have to say everything you know every time you have an audience. Like a daily blog, you just want to make sure there's something of takeaway value that will keep them coming back.

Rather than bore you with everything else I know about public speaking, just go out there and have a great day.

A SOFT FAREWELL
On another topic tangentially related to public speaking, tonight the New York Yankees will be playing their last game at Yankee Stadium. The season is winding to an end and the Yanks will begin next season at a 1.3 billion dollar ballpark across the street. Completed in 1923, a lot of history was made there. One of my most memorable personal moments was seeing the great Mickey Mantle knock in two runs with a one-hop-into-the-stands double to left on Bat Day in the mid-sixties.

Known as The House That Ruth Built, one of the greatest public speeches in baseball was given there by Lou Gehrig, the former Iron Man of baseball, the man for whom A.L.S. was named. Here's the opening line of that great speech followed by a YouTube link to that incredible moment. It was an awesome moment, preserved for us by the miracle of modern technology.

"Fans, for the past two weeks you have been reading about a bad break I got. Yet today I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth." ~ Lou Gehrig, July 4, 1939