CML International

Your “Pow” Factor – Part 2

Concluding Your Talk

By Catherine Mowbray-Lorenz

Recently, I have seen some highly-credentialed and competent business speakers, with great topics, who were well prepared. However, I was disappointed in their presentation wrap up.

They actually had no wrap up. Tossing off a quick “my-time-is-up- thank-you-for-having-me” to the audience, is not the best way to leave your audiences wanting more of you, wishing to hire you or motivated to buy your products or services.

Here are 10 quick tips to provide a great conclusion for your talk. You may wish to incorporate several of these in your next presentation conclusion.

1. Tie in your concluding remarks with your “Hook Them Opening”.
2. Decide whether you want to leave your audience with an inspiration, a call to action, a quote, a motivational thought, a challenge. (Note: You will know this when identifying the purpose of your talk or the outcome you wish your audience to have, whilst outlining your initial preparation.)
3. Be cautious about dropping your vocal pitch unless it is to enhance Point 2 above.
4. In most cases, it would be advantageous to leave your audience on a positive, uplifting note. Even when I have seen former POWs speak, the pathos of their powerful stories is incredibly touching, but they still have made their audiences laugh, even through the tears.
5. If the purpose of your talk is to promote your business, your book, a product or service, do not sound too “salesy” at the end of your presentation. If you wish to offer a give-away, you may wish to carefully consider when best to do this, for maximum impact and to avoid losing your audience’s attention.
6. If you wish to appear powerful during your concluding remarks, go front and center stage.
7. Be sure to always use excellent eye contact from left to right, front and rear, especially during the wrap-up.
8. Keep your energy high! If appropriate, use music to accompany your departure off stage.
9. Have warm, gracious, heart-felt comments to impart beyond the simple words of Thank You and accompany these with a genuine smile!
10. Mention the name of the city, organization, company or group, your host, their charity, anything to personalize your appearance with them, which is appealing and memorable.

When speaking in public, your vocal and body language, your accent, wardrobe, accessories will be viewed as if you are under a microscope. These attributes are now part of your public persona. The human tendency when viewing public figures, celebrities, or seeing someone present, is to thoroughly inspect the speaker more closely than perhaps you would during a one-to-one meeting.  

Therefore, it is always important to your image to be grammatically correct, to sound educated and to pronounce words accurately. Since an image of leadership is a particularly important attribute to a business executive, it is important to carry that positive trait through to your presentations. Proper pronunciation and grammar should be used in your daily speech and your public presentations.  If this is a weak area, it is not a difficult ability to learn. This should be an especially important consideration if you are applying for a job or promotion.

Understand that there are regional pronunciations, which are acceptable in a particular area. Lately, in the media I have heard many incorrect uses of “less”, when “fewer” should be used. You may say in’surance, rather than insur’ance. Or, It-ly, instead of It-a-ly. Do you pronounce error and mirror correctly, with two complete syllables? Do you add a syllable to Realtor and say Real-a-tor? The latter is widely done, but certainly not correct.

If you live in America, you will notice that on the network news, the anchors and reporters, have neutral accents. The accents do, however, show up on the regional news reports. CNN International has some anchors with very pleasing British English accents.

Do you drop your adverbs? Say, drive slow, instead of slowly? I am on a mission to keep our adverbs as an integral part of our daily speech and in our writing.

If you are presenting to persons whose second or third language is English, a slower pace of speech, combined with proper grammar and pronunciation takes on a greater importance. Do be cautious of speaking too slowly as to appear condescending. There are broad accents in many countries that make comprehension tricky, even when you speak the language fluently.  As many years as I have lived in the US, I still have challenges understanding speech in parts of the Southern states. They make one syllable words into two syllables, as their honeyed speech flows gently forth.

My German husband is at a loss when he hears Cockney and it takes at least a day for my ear to become accustomed to the lilting tones of Scotland and rural Ireland.

Invest in yourself and consider hiring a coach who will help you to enhance your speaking, presentation and interviewing skills. Use recordings of your voice to assess your progress. You will empower yourself, achieve more confidence and adopt skills that will last a lifetime.

These are actual complaints received by Thomas Cook Travel in the UK.  Just for fun, I invented some possible replies to the complaints, which are in italics below. Please note that Thomas Cook has no idea that I created some possible responses to their client complaints. Enjoy!

I think it should be explained in the brochure that the local store does not sell proper biscuits like custard creams or ginger nuts.

Well, when they do have them available, the monkeys and baboons run off with them, so that is why they were discontinued. We will definitely note that fact in our next brochure to avoid disappointment.

It’s lazy of the local shopkeepers to close in the afternoons. I often needed to buy things during ‘siesta’ time. This should be banned! 

Outrageous! I would definitely write to the guilty government officials to see if you could initiate a new referendum.

On my holiday to Goa in India , I was disgusted to find that almost every restaurant served curry. I don’t like spicy food at all. 

What no fish and chip shops? Unacceptable!

We booked an excursion to a water park, but no-one told us we had to bring our swimming costumes and towels.

 How silly of them to omit that crucial information! One would hope you didn’t cavort in the pools “au naturel”!
 

A tourist at an African game lodge spotted a visibly aroused elephant and complained that the sight of this rampant beast ruined his honeymoon by making him feel inadequate.

Oh, the bull elephants were just showing off that week. The rangers were experimenting with a new elephant Viagra medication.

 The beach was too sandy.

 Yes, beaches are annoying that way. We apologize sincerely that the sand may have insinuated its way into your body’s tender nooks and crannies. 
 

We found the sand was not like the sand in the brochure. Your brochure shows the sand as yellow but it was white.

I would sue them for mis-leading advertising. We would love to send you to a black sand beach, at our expense.

 Topless sunbathing on the beach should be banned. The holiday was ruined as my husband spent all day looking at other women. 

Couldn’t you take your top off too and join the party? We will connect you with the man who felt inadequate with the elephants…perhaps there may be something there that could mutually support your insecurities.

We bought ‘Ray-Ban’ sunglasses for five Euros (£3.50) from a street trader, only to find out they were fake…

Helloooo! And the price wasn’t a clue?
No-one told us there would be fish in the sea. The children were startled. 

Haven’t they seen Finding Nemo?
It took us nine hours to fly home from Jamaica to England, but it only took the Americans three hours to get home.

That is because the American aircraft was faster!

 
I compared the size of our one-bedroom apartment to our friends’ three-bedroom apartment and ours was significantly smaller. 

??? Duh! 

The brochure stated: No hairdressers at the accommodation! We’re trainee hairdressers – will we be OK staying there? 

 No sharp implements allowed for these lovelies!

There are too many Spanish people. The receptionist speaks Spanish. The food is Spanish. Too many foreigners.

 Rule Britannia!

We had to queue outside with no air conditioning. 

Our apologies, God must have turned it off that day.

 
I was bitten by a mosquito – no-one said they could bite.

They have specific orders to only bite very special people!

 My fiancé and I booked a twin-bedded room, but we were placed in a double-bedded room. We now hold you responsible for the fact that I find myself pregnant. This would not have happened if you had put us in the room that we booked.

Was this an African tour, with some largish elephants on the loose? You should have had him keep his PJ’s on. You are obviously just irresistible!

Bali is one of a chain of islands that comprises the fragmented Malay Archipelago. This broken land bridge links the continents of Asia and Australia and is situated on the world’s volcanic belt. Life is enchanted on this lush, tropical isle and its people are imbued with graciousness and warm hospitality.

As a European resident and Executive Chef at an up-market resort there, Hubert Lorenz’s daily life was far from dull. Christian, Hindu and Islamic religious practices mingled seamlessly with Balinese animistic and ancient rites. The local women laid daily offerings around the hotel in hopes of distracting the ever-present evil spirits. These same women would be present at the Christian churches on Sundays, but still felt it was best for their after-life to cover all religious bases whilst here on earth. Their tablespoon-sized donations usually consisted of a few grains of sticky, white rice, a fragrant flower and a morsel of fruit, all placed on a rhombus-shaped banana leaf. This was placed reverently at conspicuous, inconvenient spots on the hotel kitchen equipment, in doorways, or on top of the computer monitors. A thick moving arrow of black ants would point the way to these miniature feasts.

One of the most amazing of the Balinese rites was that of the Rain-Stopper. When the hotel had a particularly important banquet scheduled for pool-side, a messenger would be sent to the local holy man. The sarong-clad wise man would trudge to the temple closest to the hotel grounds with his tools-of-the-trade, carried in a requisite black and white checked cloth. (Sidebar – Cloths that were black and white checks or bright yellow are the respectful colors worn at Balinese temples and holy places.)  He carried a live chicken and several incense sticks. While intoning ancient prayers and imprecations, he would sacrifice the chicken and commune with the forces that governed the weather.

The Rain-Stopper’s reasonable stipend of a few rupiahs per ceremony was an approved line item in the Hotel’s annual Food and Beverage budget. He received no payment if it rained on the event. Incredibly more often than not, no rain would deign to fall on the grounds where the banquet was set up. Yet, a mere 75 to 100 yards away a soaking rain could be falling. Given the mostly daily or twice daily gentle rainfalls in Bali, his success rate was truly astonishing.

Catherine’s husband, Hubert Lorenz is a Master chef with his own catering company in San Diego. www.theculinarywizard.com

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