I am lucky to have extended family in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. That means that during our visits, we don’t have to explore the jewels of this Civil War town in one fell swoop. We get to discover it piece by piece, one visit at a time. Each year, the week before we travel, I watch Martin Sheen and Jeff Daniels in the film Gettysburg, to refresh my memory about the pivotal events that took place here more than 150 years ago. It makes my visit mean more. There is absolutely a sacred and hallowed ground here in Gettysburg. As you know,…

I recently finished Steven King’s masterpiece, The Green Mile. He did an interesting experiment when writing it – releasing it as 6 “novelettes,” one at a time. After all 6 parts were in circulation, he sold it as a box set. Reading it became an unexpectedly fun experience at my house; my daughter got started on it first. She was halfway through book 3 before I started. I flew through books 1 and 2, staying just a book behind for about a week. Then my husband started book 1. Much to her dismay, while Elizabeth was at an overnight, I passed her…

  For as long as I can remember, I have been passionate about all aspects of communication and message development. Whether I was watching a commercial, reading a news article, or dissecting nationally televised talks like the State of the Union, I have always looked at messages as intricate puzzles. I take the message apart, look closely at each piece, inspect its persuasive function, and evaluate its effectiveness. “Do I need this part? How does this sentence fit amongst the others? How should it be phrased for maximum persuasive impact?” Every piece of a message – spoken or written –…

This 3-part blog post series digs into the “Speaker-Audience-Message” of that triangle as it relates to persuasive speaking. You are reading part 3. In today’s post, we end with “M for Message.” “M FOR MESSAGE”   Freytag’s Pyramid is an excellent tool for crafting a pitch deck, sales deck, keynote or TED talk. But what is it? Generated by 19th century novelist Gustav Freytag at the height of the American Civil War, Freytag’s pyramid emerged in 1863. This “how to tell a story” tool was widely used centuries earlier in Shakespeare’s 5 act plays, it just hadn’t been put to paper…

How well do you know your audience? In my experience working with speakers, the point on the triangle that is the hardest for them to accomplish is Audience Analysis. Just last week, I was in the audience and at the end of the talk, a hand shot up. “Your talk on employee handbooks and HR-related concerns was interesting, but most of us in the audience – we’re 1-person entities. We don’t have employees.” [Silence.] A quick look back at the Rhetorical Triangle: There’s a reason the On Point logo is an equilateral triangle. It’s because a…