If you were watching a man juggle a bowling ball and he suddenly threw it three meters into the air only to have it drop straight down on his head, do you think you would remember it?

I just did and I can tell you that you would.

The man who did this seemingly idiotic stunt was Dan Thurmon, and he did it to make a point.

Dan is a professional speaker and a professional juggler and he uses his juggling skills to turn his keynote slot into a performance.

He spoke at a conference in Hong Kong today just before I went up to deliver my own keynote.

I have seen many speakers use props on stage, but I must say that Dan was one of the best I have seen when it comes to using his props to reinforce his message.

In the example of “dropping a bowling ball on his head” Dan had earlier described to the audience how we all juggle many things in our life.

That was of course referenced to the obvious idea of juggling many balls, but then he took the metaphor one step furthered and described to the audience how we all have some things that are “heavier” for us to juggle (problems, a dilemma or predicament that is weighing us down). To illustrate this Dan and exchanged one of the juggling pins for a bowling ball. While struggling to juggle with the heavy ball he told us to think about the heavy thing we have in our lives.

And just as we as an audience was thinking of the things that was weighing us down he suddenly threw the bowling ball high into the air so that it crashed onto his forehead with great speed.

The audience let out a collective “OH!”, shocked at what they had just seen.

But to their, and my, surprise Dan just smiled seemingly unaffected by the impact.

It took a few seconds for the audience to understand that Dan had tricked us – the “heavy bowling ball” was in reality a light, rubber ball designed (!) to look like a bowling ball…

While he effortlessly tossed the fake bowling ball in his hand he reminded us that many things that people may think of as heavy problems in reality might not be heavy problems at all.

Dan Thurmon is the kind of speaker who relies very much on props and symbolism in his speeches. When I talked to him after the conference he explained to me that to him the props are there to help re-inforce a message – not to re-inforce the speaker.

A prop, per definition, is “a person or thing that is a major source of support or assistance.”

Assistance to the message that is.

Personally I almost never use props (unless we choose to define Keynote as a prop), but handled right they can be very powerful. Handled wrongly they can be a disaster.

If you are going to use props as a speaker make sure the props are supporting the message – by making the message easier to remember, easier to re-tell to a friend, more visual (for the people who learn visually), or more impactful, for example.

I am afraid that I have seen many speakers choose to use props in the wrong way. Those speakers use props not as ways to support their message, but to draw attention to themselves, or worse, to distract from themselves or the message.

If the audience remembers that there was a very good juggler at the conference who dropped a fake bowling ball on his head the whole idea of inviting Dan to speak would have been a waste of money.

The ball is not used to be remembered – it’s there to help people remember the message. (In this case that thing that we see as heavy problems might not be as heavy as we think.)

That is the what the people in Hong Kong will remember long after the conference.

I, as a professional speaker, will also remember how Dan mastered not only juggling and speaking at the same time – but also the balance between impressing the audience with props and tricks – and making sure they get the message of his speech.

Is there a prop you could use in your speeches to support your message?

If you are already using props – is there a way you could strengthen the message that the prop is there to enhance?

 

Today I had the joy and privilege to go and attend a performance at my son’s Kindergarten. (I love that I, as a speaker, have job with such freedom that I can decide to take some time off in the middle of the day to go see my son perform.)

The class was performing a play about nature that they had written themselves. (Summary of the message: We need to be nice to animals and we need to stop cutting down trees…)

My son had gotten the role of the tiger, but also one of the roles of reading the story line to the audience of about 100 people.

As a father I was proud as a rooster.

As a speaker I was impressed with the quality of their performance.

Watching my son on stage became a lesson in the simple, basic rules of communicating a message.

Sometimes when someone is getting all tied up in complicated phrases trying to explain something it can help to stop them and say: “Tell it to me as if you are explaining it to a six year old.”

And sometimes I think we might over-complicate the business of delivering a speech. So todays post is about what a 6-year old can teach us about speaking.

This is what my son taught me today.

1) Speak clearly.

Many adult speakers seem to think that to get your message across you need to speak loudly, as if speaking loudly makes people hear you better.
That is not true. If anything a speaker speaking to loudly makes the audience stop listening to you – and makes the sound guy frustrated over having to constantly adjust the volume of your mic.

What my son showed me today was that it’s not about being loud – but about being clear. As he read the words from his script he pronounced them with such crispness and sharpness that he had the attention of every, single person in the room.

 

2) It’s not about you.

Hearing my son read the text about how the “hunters were killing all the animals” I could sense that there was not a single thought in his head about any inner voice going: “Is my fly open?”, “Are they listening to me?”, “I wonder what they are thinking of this?” etc. He was there to deliver his lines.

And you are there to deliver yours.

 

3) Be short and concise.

The full dialogue of the section where my son was acting out his message about the trees was him and his friend walking up to the middle of the stage, looking out at the audience and saying:

“Stop cutting down the trees!”

Then they walked back to the side of the stage and sat down.

Message delivered…

Speakers are often given one hour for a speech almost like it’s a habit. Like it’s a law that a speech has to be an hour. Most speeches do not. I wish more organisers of conferences realised that a 45 minute speech is often as effective as a 1 hour speech, and a 45 minute speech can often be delivered in 20 minutes. If anything that is what TED.com has shown us.

So the next time you are asked to give a speech, ask yourself: “How quickly could I deliver this message with maximum effect?” and then ask for a speaking slot that long. Or should I say “that short”.

 

4) Have fun

It’s just a speech.
Or in their case: it’s just a play.

A few seconds after performing they were happily celebrating a classmates birthday. A few minutes before the play they were goofing around.

Giving a speech, or a performance, is something fun. Enjoy it. Embrace it. Have fun doing it.

 

5) It’s not about being perfect – it’s about being authentic

They say practise makes perfect, and they do have a point. But practice, too much practice, also risk suffocating the spur of the moment, real life, authenticity that comes from just being in the moment.

Those kids today were not perfect in their delivery – but they were being in the moment – and there is nothing more perfect than that.

6) There is nothing to be nervous about.

Many adults would be terrified to go up infront of 100 strangers to speak, not to mention to go up and perform a play that they had written themselves, dressed as a tiger …

My son was totally oblivious to the idea of being nervous. I was biting my tongue after the performance as my adult brain wanted to ask him: “So, were you nervous?!” but luckily my fathering brain stopped those words from coming out of my mouth. There is no need to start putting the idea of being nervous into his clean and innocent mind.

The sad thing is that many adults will get stressed out with angry butterflies in their stomachs for delivering a speech. Stage fright is real and many people suffer from it, but we should all be inspired by those kids on the stage and realise that there really isn’t anything to be nervous about. Go up there and deliver your speech.

Those were some of the lessons my son thought me today.

I must also add that I just love that he goes to a school – International School of Singapore – where they encourage kids as young as six to go up and present and perform at such a young age. These kids are already getting exposure to and experience of the nobel art of delivering a message – one of the most important life skills there are.

Watching the kids perform I was reminded of how, when I was six years old, my father, who was teacher and a part-time musician would bring me and my brother up on stage at his band’s concerts and have us sing a song or two with the band. The ladies in the audience loved the cute kids singing – and we liked how they would bring us small presents like a soft drink or some candy as “tips”. And I understand now that those childhood mini-concerts instilled in me a sense of confidence and a feeling of being comfortable communicating to big groups of people.

Forty and some years later that skill is now taking me around the world to speak. And that is a joy and a privilege – but still that means nothing compared to the joy and privilege of taking the day off to go and see my son perform.