What do you do in those long minutes just before your speech? There’s lots to worry about, and you’re probably worrying about some, or all, of it: your nerves, your slides, your audience, your technology, the stage, the lighting, the introduction, the plane ticket home, and getting to the airport on time, the timing of everything — the potential list goes on and on. One thing you should be thinking about is most likely not on your mind: your offstage beat.
I’ll get to the offstage beat in a minute. But first I was chatting with an experienced street artist recently, and he immediately put it in his terms: “Of course; you’ve got to focus on crowd gathering.” In other words, before you can put on a show in the street, you have to gather a crowd.
But why should passers-by stop and pay attention to street artists before a show goes on? Because the show has already started. And that was my friend’s point: you’re already performing. You have to be, to pull in that crowd. You have to figure out how to plant the seeds of a great story even while setting up, or greeting the people walking by, or sizing up potential troublemakers in the crowd.
I love that phrase: crowd gathering. It’s one of the three essential things you should be focusing on in those minutes before your speech — instead of worrying about nerves, slides, technology, and so on. Crowd gathering, the offstage beat, and one other: your purpose. Let’s look at each in turn.
Crowd gathering. As my street performer friend says, the performance starts the instant you want people to stop, watch and listen. For the public speaker, that means thinking about your interaction with the audience before your speech begins. Do you greet them? Work the room? If you’re going to sit in the green room and avoid the audience, how are they going to be prepared for you — how are they going to get jazzed? Don’t rely on the introduction, because that’s so often badly done — or not done at all.
I recently gave a speech to a large audience of salespeople, and had provided an introduction to the staff beforehand. Imagine my surprise when the head of the group simply said, “Please welcome Nick Morgan,” without any indication of who I was. As a result, I had to work much harder to establish any sort of credibility with the audience, who had no particular reason to listen to me beyond the simple fact of my presence. Despite my efforts, then, that crowd gathering piece did not happen, and I started out with a setback.
I learned from that to be prepared to deal with an ungracious or forgetful host by introducing myself if necessary. Not the best way to start, but it has to be done.
The offstage beat. I’ve posted on this idea before. It comes from the acting world. Great actors know that a real person doesn’t just walk into your field of view from nowhere. They always come from somewhere — the dentist, an IRS audit, the cafe across the street. Each of those entry points gives them a different set of attitudes and emotions. That makes them interesting, and gives them depth as people. So actors do the same with their characters — they figure out where that character has just come from before the first scene on stage. That gives the character depth and complexity as they walk on stage.
Speakers need to do the same — get that first emotion or attitude toward your material — before you walk onstage. While you’re being introduced — and I hope you are — think about how you feel about your opening ideas, story, or stats. If you walk on with that attitude, feeling it strongly, you will be far more interesting to the audience than if you’re coming on stage just looking for the podium.
Your purpose. Finally, you should spend those agonizing minutes just before a speech thinking about your purpose — why are you there, what are you hoping to achieve with that particular audience? Who are they, what do they need, and how can your expertise and experience provide it? A speech is a wonderful opportunity. Especially in those first few opening minutes as you begin your talk, your audience is gathered, open, and ready to learn, to grown, to be inspired. What a privilege, to have the chance to hold forth about your passion to them! That is your moment. Know why you’re there. Take full advantage of it. Don’t squander it.
Being a minister/speaker I have seen so many ministers come to the podium unprepared, shifting notes, looking lost, and beginning their sermon with a joke far unrelated to their message or rambling about some experience that you know has nothing to do with their sermon and I wonder, what is this guy going to talk about. I am not ready to listen any more than he is ready to speak. Thanks for reminding me as a speaker that my speech begins long before I get to the podium in regarded to the way I conduct myself and the way I interact with other people. We forget that people are watching and listening to us the moment they see us and even then they are deciding whether we have something worthy to say or not. Thanks for this article.
Thanks, Dennis, for your thoughtful comment. Ministers face a weekly challenge, and it must be tempting to let things slide…..But, like everyone who speaks in public, the preparation in large part determines the success of the outcome.
Hi Nick, i know that Stanislavski-method actors ask themselves three questions “Where have I come from, where am I now, where am I going to?” But what I’m having difficulty with is the acting/reality dimension. Is the offstage beat an act? In other words, for the “I” in the three questions, is the “I” an “I, the actor” or an “I, the character”? Or maybe I’ve missed the point completely.
Hi, Colin — The “I” in question is the character. Actors identify with their roles:-)
Great points, Nick. In addition to the “moment before” that actors use to gather themselves and immerse their character in the world of the play, there’s an interesting technique for auditions.
Whether you’re delivering a monologue for a theater audition or a single line for a commercial audition, you try to imagine it as a response to an unspoken statement or question. So if your line is, “Nothing gets my shirts cleaner than Tide,” you imagine it’s a response to something like, “Aren’t all detergents alike?”
It does make a difference. Suddenly you’re not stating something out of the clear blue, you’re putting yourself in context so the audience will better understand you. So to your point, you’re not parachuting onto the stage, you’re appearing as part of the natural, organic flow of the event.
Love the point, Rob! If only I had known that when I went on auditions:-) My attitude was always, let’s make this audition fun, an event unto itself, so that even if I don’t get the part, it will have been a good time.
That’s a great approach, Nick—if you’re having fun, that will shine through! And even if you don’t get the part, at least you had fun!
Great post as always. I’ve always thought of the first few minutes as SO important, but now I will be more conscious of the minutes BEFORE the speech. I also love Rob B’s suggestion from his acting background.
Thanks for the insights and tips!
Thanks, Donna — glad you liked the post and Rob’s follow up!