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 construction. Whether I was watching a commercial for “Air Jordan”, reading Cady Stanton’s famous “Seneca Falls” address (c. 1848), or dissecting nationally televised talks like the State of the Union, I have always been able to look at messages from multiple perspectives. To me, they are puzzles made up of pieces that were selected with great care and deliberation. In college, I’d work cheerfully in the dank, dark basement library for hours on end, analyzing speeches and identifying message strategies the…

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…

The Trouble with Keynotes In the early days of On Point, I was invited to give the keynote address that kicked off a 3-day entrepreneurship event. I had a month to prepare and was given a time limit of 30-45 minutes. I may have mentioned in previous posts that I have four children… who are oftentimes my best (and worst) critics when I’m rehearsing a talk. I don’t exactly have large blocks of time to rehearse a 45-minute talk three times in one day. And I know you don’t either. Keynotes and TED talks are unique. Often, slides are frowned…