Look – I’ve never been trained in giving presentations or speeches. I didn’t go to school for it. When I got my graduate degree, we had a speech and writing class, but I paid no attention during the speech portion of the class and did what I wanted. I ignored lectures, didn’t take notes – the class taught me nothing regarding public speaking. Still, the professor did give out one “perfect” score – to me.
Am I a natural?
Nope.
I’ve spent 20 years studying acting. Beyond scene study work, I’ve delved deeply into a form of acting called Meisner. Meisner was created by Sanford Meisner, a 20th-century American acting teacher. Meisner was a contemporary of Lee Strasburg and Stella Adler, who each developed branches of the American form of Method Acting. Meisner went a different direction with his approach, putting the focus on external stimuli over internal processes. I could get on my soapbox here about my dislike of method acting, but I’ll spare you and cut to the chase – Meisner is all about responding truthfully and authentically to the reality of the situation in front of you. The work starts improvisationally, and as you develop your skills, text is integrated.
The short and sweet of it is that I trained as an actor for a long time, and I will work with you not as a public speaker or speechwriter but as an actor. The actor’s job is to communicate the deeper meaning of the text to the audience, and so it is for the presenter. The toolkit is the same – just be thankful you don’t have to communicate Shakespeare!
And don’t worry – I’m not going to have you doing tons of acting exercises, either. I’ll just be applying the same methodology used to learn and explore a script to your speech process!