Tonight I had the privilege of presenting the Outstanding Student in Communication Award during the annual Honor’s Program at Indiana University Kokomo in front of about 500 people. I’m always encouraging my public speaking students to reflect on their speaking experiences, so I am using this blog entry to reflect on my performance tonight. For starters, here is the text of the speech:
_ _ _ _ _
Years ago, there was Nike advertisement that pictured a lone runner moving across a distant horizon.
The caption read:
He’s fat and he’s soft
And he’s wearing your clothes,
And he’s gotten too old,
And he was born on your birthday,
And you’re afraid if you stop running he’ll catch up with you.
Just do it.This has become a life metaphor for Navi Van Wormer—the recipient of this year’s Outstanding Student in Communication Award.
Navi, would you please come forward?
I know this ad because Navi has shared it in my classes, and she was kind enough to give me a copy of the ad on the final day of classes, and I will hang it with honor in my office.
Everyone who knows Navi knows that she refuses to stop running--despite the challenges that life had thrown her way. This is woman who is obsessed with improving her performance in the race of life—and that drive has led her to shine not just in the classroom, but also in her social contributions to the IU Kokomo community.
Navi, when you graduate tomorrow, you will be crossing a finish line of sorts. Knowing you, you are going to keep on running. You will not let mediocrity catch up to you. But for tomorrow, take a breather. You deserve it. And, drawing on the immortal words of Nike, when-you-walk-across-that-stage tomorrow-take-pride-in-the-realization-that-you have “just done it.”
Congratulations.
_ _ _ _ _
Okay, so that’s the speech. I wanted it to be a bit different than the typical speech that is loaded with lines like, “And Billy Bob was an excellent student in my class as he earned the top score on Quiz 3 during the 4th week of class….” No one remembers that stuff anyway, unless the accomplishments are unusually noteworthy: “Angela finished first in the nation on the National Plumbers Entrance Exam.” That would be unusually noteworthy, as would the “Golden Plunger Award” that would no doubt go with it.
I wanted this speech to be all about Navi—the person—and not just be a recitation of Navi’s academic bibliography. Although I had written a previous version of this speech—a version that was officially printed in the proceedings of the event—I decided to write a completely different draft of the speech after Navi had given me a copy of the Nike ad during our last class of the semester. To me, this was a no-brainer as I knew how much the words of this inspirational ad have meant to her over the years. Plus, it was my way of thanking her for her gift. Further, I wanted to share her inspiration with the audience.
So last Friday, my mind went to work on the theme of running on the road of life. I started with a single thought that I wrote down on the paper to the left: “She has set herself apart not just by taking the road less traveled by pursuing a degree, but also by how she has traveled that road.” I didn’t end up using this, but it was a start. Another road-related line I decided not to use was: “Navi is nothing if not ambitious. When she comes to a fork in the road, she picks it up and takes it home. One example of how she has taken advantage of opportunities was…” I dropped this both because of time and because I didn’t want to have an overkill of metaphors.
I didn’t start writing the speech in earnest until 2:42 this afternoon, which was about 3 hours
before we were supposed to line up for the ceremony. I felt this would give me plenty of time to write and practice the speech, and it did. I printed off my draft of the speech, and headed to the East Building in campus where I found an empty classroom on the first floor. I did what I encourage my public speaking students to do--I closed the door and practiced by talking my way through the speech. You can get a closer look at the draft of this speech by clicking on the image to the right, and you will see that I had made a number of changes to make the wording flow more smoothly. For example, in the first line you can see that I changed “ad” to “advertisement” because it was a bit easier to say, even though also a bit longer. “Ad” seems like the easiest word to say, but I found myself tripping over it as I practiced the first line. Many of the revisions that I made were nothing more than making the wording easier for me to say. And the (P) notations are reminders of where I wanted to pause for effect.
I especially wanted to use my vocal qualities to bring the words of the ad to life. The copy of the ad doesn’t flow all that smoothly, so I went over it several times to get the feeling for what it was trying to say. I decided to say the first three phrases (or two lines) without pausing:
He’s fat and he’s softAnd he’s wearing your clothes, (Pause)
And he’s gotten too old, (Pause)
And he was born on your birthday, (No Pause—Build the intensity/volume in the next line)
And you’re afraid if you stop running (Longer Pause)
he’ll catch up with you. (Pause)
Just do it.In the speech itself, this part went well, but my nervous energy began eating me up about at this point and I probably didn’t paint the words with the same vocal color that I might normally have if I had been more relaxed. That’s the funny thing about public speaking, especially for those of us who tend to get a bit more nervous than most people, and I include myself among the nervous. I had also planned to make eye contact with all parts of the auditorium, and I probably came close to this, but I realized after my speech that this had completely slipped my mind once I started speaking. Actually, now that I think about it, I botched the “And you’re afraid if you stop running” line a bit, and that threw me a bit off balance. I began to focus more on “don’t mess up again” and less on other elements of the speech.
The one part of the speech that I was by far the most concerned about—by far—was the final line. It’s kind of like sticking the final landing in gymnastics, I guess. And yet, that’s exactly what I messed up despite going over the line at least 30 times. The line itself should have been:
And, drawing on the immortal words of Nike, when-you-walk-across-that-stage tomorrow-take-pride-in-the-realization-that-you have (Pause)
“just done it.” The dashes between the words were my reminder NOT to pause until after the word "have." I did this for dramatic effect so that the final pause would pack more punch. I wanted a perfect cadence that built up to the final pause, but this drive to keep words coming out of my mouth is exactly what tripped me up. The words came, but they weren't the ones I had planned.
Instead, it went this way:
And, drawing on the immortal words of Nike, when-you-walk-across-that-stage tomorrow-take-pride-in-the-recognition…Recognition? Not what I had intended. Now that I had just driven my bike off the sidewalk, I needed to figure out a smooth way to get back on track and set up another run for the final phrase and to do this without being too wordy. That was the plan, at least ideally. Instead, I think it came out something like this:
And, drawing on the immortal words of Nike, when-you-walk-across-that-stage tomorrow-take-pride-in-the-recognition-that-you deserve, (Pause) and in the realization that you have (Pause) “just done it.”It was okay, but not great. I learned a lesson from this: Look at your notes more. I had the speech completely memorized and could recite it perfectly before actually giving it. There is such a thing as being over-prepared, but I don’t think I had that problem in this case. All I needed to do was to have glanced at my notes to make visual contact with each of the phrases in my final line. I didn’t do this because I wanted to maximize my eye contact with Navi during this part of the speech. I wanted to make this personal and a special occassion for her. Plus, on another level, I didn’t feel that I needed look at my notes again because I had gone over the wording and cadence of this line so many times in practice. There was a very good chance that I would deliver the line with perfection. But then, enter “recognition” instead of “realization.” If I were to do it over again, I would read every word of the final line directly off the paper UNTIL I got to the final “just done it.” Strong eye contact here with these last three words would have done the trick. [This is very different from the speaking I normally do in that I hardly ever use notes, and I also use a lot of visual aids.]
In short, I look forward to my next speaking engagement on the big stage. Personally, I am far more at home with a small audience of 20 students in a more intimate setting. There is something about being on an elevated stage under the bright lights, and hearing my voice over the PA system that makes me feel like a bug under a microscope. I’m very at home with smaller audience, but come to think of it, I’ve used a microphone less than 10 times in my life. As with anything, practice helps. I just got back from the IUK Cosmic Bowling event in which I scored a 108 on the one game I bowled. Not spectacular—but, you give me just 100 more games to practice, and I’ll be okay—assuming that I’m reflective on my performance and can make the needed adjustments to improve. I think public speaking is a lot like that. The cool thing for me is that I know exactly what I am going to work on for next time, and I’m fairly confident that it will work. That confidence will also carry over into other aspects of my delivery—such as increased vocal color. Waiting until next time….
