This content was created by Sally Koering Zimney. This content was uploaded by Sally Koering Zimney. This is a YouTube talk titled "How to tell your audience to REMEMBER THIS (without actually saying it)" (created 2021-06-14). It is a solo instructional/coaching recording in which a speaker (the host of the Signature Talk Studio program) discusses public-speaking techniques—especially the importance of ‘‘the between’’ (pauses and silence), pacing, and using pauses to cue audience attention and memory. The excerpt references a Signature Talk Studio salon/workshop, an upcoming STS showcase, an anecdote about a speaker who mastered the pause, and includes brief live interruptions (a dog and a request to call someone).
Chapters
What happens between what we say is as important as what we say. That's what we're talking about today. So, woo-hoo! I think we all know this, but we forget about it sometimes when we think about preparing and wanting to wow and feeling confident. We're so focused on what it is that we say. That we're forgetting about what happens after these words leave my mouth and go out into the world and like come into your ears and you take them in. There's an exchange. There's a co-creation that is happening in that. And it requires us to give some space to the between. Last week in our Signature Talk Studio salon, And if you don't know what that is, the Signature Talk Studio is my core program where I help you write and develop and deliver your signature talk and then scale it so that you can show up in any moment and become known as the authority and the go-to in your industry by leveraging a signature talk. It's such a powerful asset to have. And as part of that program, we do these half-day salons. It's an awesome chance for people to show up and workshop their talks. So they show up and share what they have, and they get some feedback from me, and they get feedback from other people. It's just, it's awesome. It's really an amazing experience. And one of my speakers last week, I had this moment where I was like, we need to give more space to the between. So many of my speakers have created these beautiful scripts, these powerful ideas and content in these moments that I'm like, oh my gosh, that is beautiful. That's a mic drop moment. It's just so, so, so good. You guys, you're going to be able to see these at the end of June. We'll do our STS showcase. But one of my speakers was just like flying through her script. Now, part of that is like a nervous energy, and part of it was a stylistic choice. And, and there are moments where I really, really love that, but then there are moments where I'm like, give us a chance, give us a chance to let us take this in with you. We need a moment. We need a moment to just sit with that feeling and that experience. We want to feel it with you. We really, really do. If you say something really powerful and then keep moving through it, my assumption is it's not that important. So actually, the between is one of the ways that we cue our audience in that this is something we want them to remember, that this is important. So it's not just helping them remember, it's also cueing them in to pay attention. It really does both. And so we want to think not just about what it is that we say, but what happens when we're not talking. My very first speaker I ever professionally coached was the master of the pause, absolute master of the pause. And while the rest of my speakers, same length of talk, like it was an 18-minute talk, same length, their talks were like 5 to 7 pages. But he was such a master of the pause that his talk scripts were 2, maybe 3 pages, same length, but he knew how to let those moments breathe. Now, there were some times where it was like, you got to move through that faster. We got to pick up the pace because if you, if you let every moment breathe and let everything be the same level of important, nothing is important. And then We don't have any idea what you want us to take with you. But our job as a speaker is to look at it holistically as like, what's the whole experience that we're creating? And then serving up the most important tidbits by using all these strategies so that we make sure they walk away with the ideas that we want them to walk away with. Does that feel vulnerable for you, it can feel really vulnerable to stand up there and just trust that you can keep them engaged with you without talking. For a lot of people, it's like, I'm just gonna keep talking so that I can keep them engaged with me. And the truth is, when you change tack, either talking to not talking and then not talking to talking, any change will pull an audience back in with you. So So you wanna be able to leverage that in between and let it breathe. All of these together really help us own that moment out front and be the most memorable speaker we can be, thinking about how we can help our audiences remember the things we want them to remember. My dog has just come into the office. You can't chew on that while I'm recording. It's like having a toddler. Hey, Mar, can you call Bailey? Sorry. Okay.
