“Imagine you just won a worldwide lottery, and you have 5-7 minutes to give the world a message.”
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| Lance Miller, DTM 2005 World Champion of Public Speaking |
Miller spoke about how, through much of our lives, people are encouraged to conform, to go along, to think like everyone else, and to parrot what others say. Often, society does not reward us for speaking out.
Sometimes we lose ourselves – we don't know who we are, what we believe in, or how we feel about our personal environment or the issues surrounding us.
The World Champion said he learned an invaluable lesson about public speaking back in the 1970's from an unlikely source: Dr. G. Malcolm Trout, a professor of food sciences at Michigan State University, pioneer of homogenized milk, and noted historian. When Miller discovered that Dr. Trout had once, as a young soldier, been given the opportunity to address the Allied Forces during World War I, he wanted to know what his professor had spoken about on that occasion. Imaging the young soldier would have offered words of encouragement and praise for the war effort, Dr. Trout's response surprised him.
“When you have an opportunity to speak on that stage, Lance, you tell them what you feel.” Instead of platitudes, the young Malcolm Trout had used his stage time to speak from the heart, describing the true fear and horror of war from the perspective of one who had experienced the ordeals first hand.
The World Champion explained that incorporating Dr. Trout's lesson into his public speaking took years, for multiple reasons. First, before he was prepared to speak about his feelings, he needed to discover what they were. He needed to find his voice, which required digging deep inside.
Further, Miller acknowledged that, even with a grasp on who we are, and what we stand for, translating that knowledge into our speaking isn't an automatic process. He had the audience roaring as he regaled us with some of his early Toastmasters contest experiences. He said that at his club meetings, he reached a point where he frequently won ‘Best Speaker' awards, but when he competed in speech contests, something changed.
“When we stand up and talk in front of people, the strangest things come out of us that aren't us,” he said, as the audience laughed and nodded agreement. “I changed my style completely for contests. I performed, instead of having a conversation with the audience.”
Miller competed in Toastmasters International Speech Contests from 1993 to 2005, eventually perfecting his speaking skills, connecting with his audience on a sincere, humble level. He reached Regionals three times before finally winning the 2005 World Championship of Public Speaking in his third appearance.
He indicated that he learned through each speech contest experience, but particularly through the losses. “I lost a lot more speech contests than I won,” he offered.
Along the way to his Championship, Miller developed his own theory of the ‘Three Parts of a Speech', and the relative importance of each part. He shared his theory with the audience.
- First, as a base, there are the Mechanics, which include elements like speech structure, writing, vocal variety, gestures, use of visual aids, etc. Toastmasters emphasizes and teaches Mechanics, which Miller indicated comprise 20% of the value of a speech.
- The next step up is the Message, which comprises 30% of the value of the speech. It is crucial that we be able to state our message in one short sentence. We should understand that our Message doesn't have to be sensational ; rather, what it has to be is sincere .
- The most important part of a speech is Life Force, which makes up 50% of the value of the speech. We discussed the importance of Energy and Enthusiasm, but spent more time talking about our Convictions: those things we believe beyond any reasonable doubt. A rule of thumb Miller uses to assess the strength of his conviction is how long it would take (were it even possible) for someone to change his position on a particular subject.
- We also talked about Passion, and the Champion pointed out that the root of the word ‘passion' refers to suffering. What are we so dedicated to that we willingly undertake hardships demanded by that activity or belief without considering ourselves to be ‘suffering'? An example the Champion gave was the arduous travel schedule he keeps as he presents seminars across the country and around the world. Miller doesn't see himself as ‘suffering' because he's doing what he is passionate about.
“As speakers, we imbue life into words,” Miller noted. “Good speakers have the courage to speak the truth, and the skill to ‘not get killed' for saying it.”
When attending a 1995 community event, Miller listened as a homeless heroin addict told her story. At the conclusion of the woman's speech, there wasn't a dry eye in the audience. Miller was awestruck, ruing the fact he didn't have that story, or any story he considered to be as powerful as what he had just heard. The experience set him on a course of self-discovery.
Miller set about examining what his own stories were. He considered all the things he'd done, including a progression of interesting jobs, getting his private pilot's license as a teenager, sailing across the Atlantic, and working with the Los Angeles Olympic Committee in 1984. He ultimately realized his story wasn't that he had done those things, but rather, why he had done those things. What had motivated him?
“Life is lived being awake,” he offered, the sentiment a key part of his personal philosophy. “I realized I didn't want to die and have the only thing on my tombstone read ‘He paid his bills'.”
Once the World Champion started really examining his life, he discovered the extraordinary in the ordinary. He identified messages everywhere in his life that would be valuable to others.
“We have thousands of messages to share,” Miller said.
He challenged us to look inside ourselves, giving us a series of questions to ask ourselves, to help us discover our own voice. Among those questions were:
- What is your story?
- What is your philosophy?
- What are the defining moments of your life?
- What is ‘that one thing' you know about life?
- What are you certain about? Uncertain about?
- What issues do all human beings struggle with?
In an interactive portion of the seminar, Miller showed us how we can look at our life and create messages. We first focused on an ordinary object: a clear, plastic CD cover. First, Miller asked the audience to describe the CD cover and how it could be used, encouraging creative thinking.
“It could be an ice scraper.” / “It was once oil, and now it's a solid.” / “It's durable, with a half life longer than any of us will be alive.” / “It was once a T-Rex.” / “It opens out into a figure 8.” / “It's empty now, but we can fill it with anything we choose.” / “We could paint a bunch of them and use them as coasters” / “We could use them as art”… the suggestions were plentiful.
Next, the Champion asked if anyone in the audience was willing to share a personal story of a time in our life when we realized we were somehow more than we thought we were. Several Toastmasters volunteered, including Elizabeth Muchow, who set the bar high with her account of how her father repeatedly told her, when she was a child, that girls were ‘stupid', making her determined to prove him wrong. Only later, when she went to college where she made all A's, did she find out that she had a ‘genius' IQ. She eventually became an engineer, got into computers, and joined Mensa.
“That (finding out she had a genius IQ) was the defining moment in my life,” Elizabeth said. “It was like opening a door, walking out, and finding yourself. A person you didn't even know was there.”
“Do you think that's a story you need to share?” asked Miller. The room burst into applause as Elizabeth tearfully nodded ‘yes'.
At the conclusion of several more Toastmasters' personal stories, the World Champion pulled all our discussions together and delivered an impromptu 5-7 minute speech, using the CD cover as a metaphor of how we're each more than we may think we are.
Lance Miller showed us that we can look at our lives, and create a wealth of extraordinary messages from ordinary objects, events, and experiences.
The World Champion, who lives in LA, sometimes looks to Hollywood for inspiration. “Remember ‘City Slickers'? With Billy Crystal? The scene with Curly and Mitch?” he asked, and described this scene:
Curly: Do you know what the secret of life is?
Curly: This. *holds up one finger*
Mitch: Your finger?
Curly: One thing. Just one thing. You stick to that and the rest don't mean s&#t.
Mitch: But, what is the one thing?
Curly: That's what you have to find out. *smiles*
What's your one thing?” Miller asked the audience.
He showed us another snippet from the silver screen: a clip from ‘Walk the Line', where a record producer listens to a young Johnny Cash perform a tired gospel hymn. The producer tells Johnny that gospel won't sell. The producer challenges the musician to be original, saying, “If you had one song that would sum you up, what would it be?”
The Champion turned to us and asked, “If you had one story that would sum you up, what would it be?
Perhaps Lance Miller's own story is best illustrated by his 2005 World Championship speech, which he presented on video at the conclusion of the seminar. In his speech, he used a parking ticket validation stamp (cha-ching!) as a metaphor for validating the worth of others, that validation ultimately the path to discovery of his own worth.
The World Champion is still validating others, volunteering to present seminars to Toastmasters around the globe free of charge, letting Toastmasters know he still believes in our organization, its mission, and its members.
Cha-ching!
Providing us with tools that can help us all become better speakers. Maybe even world-class speakers, if we're willing to dig deep enough, and work hard enough.
Cha-ching!
Challenging us to find our own unique voice, and deliver our messages to the world.
Cha-ching! Cha-ching! Cha-ching!
Note: For further information about Lance Miller, DTM, 2005 World Champion of Public Speaking, check out his website at: www.LanceMillerSpeaks.com
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