His terrific, tactical, timely, and entertaining new book, Speak, Memorably (authored with Juliana Silva), helps professionals break away from canned communication and find their true—and most effective—voice no matter the workplace.
McGowan explains that the three
edicts for how NOT to speak memorably are:
- Produce three key messages.
- Keep bridging back to those messages.
- Tell ’em what you’re going to tell ’em, tell ’em, and tell ’em what you told ’em.
Therefore, Speak Memorably offers concrete strategies and tools to help anyone, in any stage of their career, cut through the numbing sameness of cliches and boring business rhetoric—and helps them break ineffective and out-dated speaking and presentation practices.
“Here is why being memorable is a worthy aspiration. If you say something that rattles around in people’s brains for a few hours, a few days, or longer, you have hit the communications jackpot,” explains McGowan.
“When you do that, you are much more likely to persuade and influence others to see merit in your point of view. And so much of our professional communication is about getting buy-in and swaying people to adopt our point of view. But, before you can coax people to see eye-to-eye with you, you have to hook their attention and keep it; something that is hard to do given the forgettable communications scourge that permeates every level of the business world.”
There are seven effective tools that can make your ideas rattle around in people’s heads for hours, days, or even weeks after you’ve said them. McGowan calls them the Magnificent Seven:
- Analogy: Help an audience grasp an idea by comparing it to shared or
common knowledge.
- Metaphor: A colorful comparison to help understand your message or
idea (cousin to analogy).
- Creative Label: A succinct expression that describes a
social phenomenon or personal characteristic.
- Twisted Cliché: Twist on a cliché, word,
or expression to create something new from the familiar.
- Word Play: The juxtaposition of complementary or contrasting words or
concepts.
- Data with Context: Attaching an experiential component to
data to make your message impactful.
- Original Definitions: Not unique, complementary meaning to a word that helps emphasize a point.
As you read the book you will also learn how to:
- Demonstrate empathy.
- Project a likeable personality.
- Prove, through your actions, a proper respect for others.
- Craft your cohesive narrative.
- Use storytelling as a primary vehicle.
- Create a couple of memorable lines using the tools of the Magnificent Seven.
- Break free from slide karaoke.
- Cultivate a warm demeanor.
- Use your voice like a musical instrument.
- Employ a strategy around your body language.
Some of the key takeaways for me from McGowan's teachings (and in his words) within the book include:
Clear and effective communication can enhance collaboration, and conversely, poor communication can bring teamwork to a grinding halt.
When everyone sounds messaged, no one stands out.
Preparation: What separates one of your best presentations from one of your worst may simply be a product of preparation. When you take the time to prepare, you are likely to be less nervous and perform better.
Storytelling: Storytelling does not require that you spin a long yarn. It does require that you conjure up visual images in the minds of your audience, utilizing an economy of words.
Recurring Theme: Most people introduce the analogous story, deliver it, and drop it. But when you’re able to make it a recurring theme that pops back up a couple of times, your remarks take on a polished, well-produced quality.
Clarity of Thought: When a presenter has great command of the information, their clarity of thought allows them to nail the point concisely and move on.
Portion
Control: When you
exercise portion control in the thoughts you share, you crystallize your
message by eliminating extraneous, meaningless, and distracting content.
Pausing: There are many important benefits to pausing. It can help bold and underline your big ideas, it can give you more opportunities to breathe in the middle of sentences (so you’re not gasping for air in between sentences), and perhaps most importantly, it can dramatically reduce the filler words that infiltrate your speech.
Empty-calorie Expression: If you are leaning on the same overused, empty-calorie expressions as everyone else, it makes it nearly impossible to stand out and leave a memorable impression on your audience.
Levity: Properly applied, levity in public speaking can create an enormous halo effect, making your audience see you as intelligent, confident, empathetic, and approachable. What it does for your content is equally valuable—it gives it lasting power and makes it memorable.
Nonverbal Skills: You can have the greatest content in the world, but if your nonverbal communication skills are lacking, your pearls of wisdom might as well be trapped inside an oyster.
Vocal Variation: In addition to the length and structure of your thoughts, you also want to bring variation to your vocal velocity, vibe, and volume.
Enthusiasm: Take the pressure off yourself to be perfect, or mistake-free, and instead focus on letting your enthusiasm shine through for the value that your information holds for the audience.
Conformity: Don’t be common. Don’t be a conformist. Conformity makes you forgettable.
Finally, McGown says, “I urge you to keep this book within arm’s reach at work or at home (or both!) and refer back to it when you are preparing for a meeting, client pitch, keynote speech, or presentation. I want you to feel you always have a private coach at your side.”
Bill McGown
McGown is the founder and CEO of Clarity Media Group. A two-time Emmy Award–winning correspondent, McGowan has conducted hundreds of interviews with newsmakers, CEOs, celebrities, authors, editors, attorneys, and athletes. McGowan now uses that experience to coach and train everyone from corporate CEOs to celebrities.
Juliana Silva
Juliana Silva is a communications coach for Clarity Media Group and an opinion columnist at CNN.com. At Clarity, she works across all industries in the U.S., Latin America, and Europe, to prepare C-Suite executives and their teams to deliver memorable and engaging interviews and presentations in multiple languages.
Thank you to the book’s publisher for sending me an advance copy of the book.
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