TJ Walker says reading a speech word-for-word usually kills delivery with monotone and no eye contact, but Samantha Power proved it can work at the UN if you rehearse hard enough. He trained a Nobel laureate to read with real emotion by practicing aloud and recording video until the script felt natural.
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A common question I get is, TJ Is it okay to read a speech word for word from a text? And typically, my answer is not really no, because it's very difficult to read a speech without putting everybody to sleep. Because your head is down, you've destroyed eye contact. Typically, your voice goes flat, it goes monotone, the speed gets consistent, the volume is consistent, you don't pause, and it lulls people to sleep. However, it can be done if you're willing to do a few things. Case in point, United nations ambassador American United Nations Ambassador Samantha Power earlier this week gave a riveting speech that rocked the United nations world. She did read it, but the reason it stood out is it was so forceful, so emotional. I'm linking to her speech below. I urge you to take a look at it. She is reading, but she does something that's rare for the United Nations. Typically, you think of diplomats being vague and fuzzy, not wanting to offend anyone. She ripped apart the leaders of Syria, Iran and Russia, basically said, have you no shame? She accused them of being murderers of children. She used very conversational language. She said, is there nothing that creeps you out? There's nothing that makes you ever uncomfortable? This is not the language you typically associate with United nations bureaucrats. It doesn't sound like something lawyers have pored through and rewritten 10 times. I guarantee you it was scrutinized. The other thing I'm quite confident in is the idea that she rehearsed this. She read this speech, but she wasn't tripping over words. She was looking up some. You could tell there was a comfort with the presentation. And that's my big advice to you, is if you're going to do this, practice several times. Because when you're reading a piece of text in front of people for the first time, especially if there are TV cameras around, it's hard to do. It's easy to trip over words. Things just look different. What looked one way on a computer screen, now that it's on paper and the words are curling around in a different spot on a piece of paper can be disorienting. So even though you have the script, you need to practice. You need to practice out loud. And I would go so far as to recommend practicing out loud on video. And that way you really build a comfort level with it and watch it. This speech has gotten tremendous attention all over the world, in many cases a lot more attention than most diplomats receive in their entire career. So, yes, it is possible to read a speech and to do it well, but it requires practice. I remember working with one of my clients who had won the Nobel Peace Prize a number of years ago and not a naturally gifted speaker had a written speech but we practiced it again and again and again to the point where he basically knew the speech. He was still following a full text but he was able to look up a good chunk of the time and he was able to speak with emotion, with a natural flow in his voice. If you're reading a script for the first time, even if it's something you wrote and you believe in sincerely, typically you lose all that emotion and passion. So that's the big tip. Practice your speech. If you're going to use a script, do it many times. Build a real comfort with it and make sure you have something interesting to say. I'm TJ Walker. Thanks for joining me. If you haven't already liked my Facebook page, please do so. It's facebook.com tjwalkerinteractive.
