Audience research. The first thing you need to learn is that your speech is not about you, it’s about your audience. Before you even start writing your speech you need to do your research, understand your audience: what are they there for; what makes them do things; what are their trigger points; what are their concerns and needs. We do a lot of research and only then then do we start figuring out the right messaging and content, delivery mechanisms and activities.
Atsome point in our lives, many of us will have to give a talk to a large group of people. What does it take to be a highly effective public speaker? How can you improve your public speaking skills? How can you overcome a fear of speaking in public? What does it take to give a very interesting and engaging public talk? In this interview series called “5 Things You Need To Be A Highly Effective Public Speaker” we are talking to successful and effective public speakers to share insights and stories from their experience. As a part of this series, we had the pleasure of interviewing Andrea Heuston.
Andrea Heuston is the founder and CEO of Artitudes Design, a full-service creative services firm that specializes in providing high level speaking and design support to top executives and their companies.
Artitudes works with Fortune 500 companies (Microsoft, Starbucks, and Expedia to name a few) as well as startups and non-profits.
Andrea has 20 years of experience coaching speakers for pitching their companies and ideas to audiences of all kinds and sizes. She is skilled at teaching her clients how to create audience connections through communications, visual and spoken. So much so that clients have called her the script whisperer!
When not helping clients, Andrea is a is sought-after speaker in her own right, speaking on women in leadership and on living our best lives in gratitude.
She’s a TEDx Seattle speaker coach and a certified speaker with Entrepreneur Organization’s Global Speakers Academy.
I grew up in a. middle class family in a suburb of Seattle. One of the defining moments of my upbringing was going abroad and living in Denmark my junior year of high school. It was eye opening, as I found a whole new world and a new way of doing things. Not necessarily right or wrong, just different, and viewpoints and values other than those of my parents. I found my own voice and I was able to realize who I was, independent of my parents and their beliefs.
My father had traditional values around gender roles, favoring female domesticity over entrepreneurship and leadership. He didn’t necessarily believe that women should be in business. The realization that I could run a company and I could do it well was also the attraction, motivation, and inspiration for founding Artitudes.
Can you share a story with us about what brought you to this specific career path?
My company, Artitudes, began as a ‘traditional’ graphic design firm — creating logos and branded content (newsletters, brochures, postcards, etc.) for clients. As technology changed, so did we, moving into the online world. Today we are a solutions provider in the experiential design space — we specialize in designing and executing corporate events — from visual concepts, video, motion graphics, and animation to presentation design for events from 5 to 50,000 attendees. However, I quickly found out that killer creative is just the tip of the spear. All the beautiful visuals in the world won’t make up for a poor presenter. So, I began offering speaker coaching and content writing to our clients and found that I really loved it and it was one of my superpowers. One client called me the script whisperer. My goal is to make every speaker a superhero and I love seeing the transformation that takes place.
I’m also passionate about empowering women and closing the gender gap for women in business, so I speak about that at every opportunity I can, in addition to interviewing women leaders on my podcast, Lead Like A Woman.
Can you tell us the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?
I met the Dalai Lama! I was working a large corporate event where he was a speaker, and I had the utter privilege of meeting him backstage. We were working, looking at slides for his presentation, so not discussing a higher purpose or anything like that. But what struck me about him was presence, and not only his presence backstage and how he treated the people there, but his presence in front of the audience. He really connected with them and knew what they needed at that moment. It was never about him as a person or a speaker, it was about the people he was talking to, which is a great lesson for all speakers to remember.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
It wasn’t funny at the time — more like an epic failure — but looking back on it now, it’s like a comedy skit. I was giving a presentation to a group of entrepreneurs, ironically on how to give a great presentation. Everything that could go wrong did go wrong. Despite being prepared with my presentation on my laptop and a backup, my laptop didn’t work with their ancient technology, and I had to put my slides on somebody else’s computer. Then my clicker wouldn’t work with that computer, and we had to borrow one from the venue. They put a lavalier mic on me so that I could walk around. I had my notes in one hand and the clicker in the other. But the clicker was way more sensitive than mine, I had no experience with it, hadn’t practiced with it, so every time I pushed it, it advanced three slides which put me off my game completely. Then, to top it off, the lavalier went out. At this point I’m a third of the way through the presentation, I’m completely discombobulated because the clicker’s not working, I’m losing my place because I look up at the screen and I’m not on the right slide, and all of a sudden, I have no mic. They gave me a hand-held one. But now I had my notes, a hand-held mic and the clicker to deal with. Do you think this went well? Nope! I dumped my notes all over the floor. I was mortified.
It was the first time I’d spoken in front of this group of entrepreneurs, and I thought to myself, I’ll never speak in front of these people again. I actually got an eight out of 10. But for me, it was a minus 10, I was mortified that this happened. What I should have done is just laugh it off, acknowledge it and make it a teaching moment: ‘hey guys things are clearly not going my way today, but this is a great example of what not to do.’ I also didn’t know my content well enough to wing it as I was relying too heavily on my notes. These days I memorize everything.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
My Grandma Gerry (now deceased) believed I could do anything, literally anything. She was my biggest supporter. When I got laid off from a job at 24 and decided I wanted to start my own business, she loaned me $5,000 to buy a Macintosh computer and get business cards. It was a huge amount of money to her, and she didn’t hesitate.
My business operations manager, Carrie, is my rock and biggest cheerleader for me in general, but especially for my speaking efforts. After that disastrous speaking gig, she found me another opportunity. I was so petrified about going back out in front of people that I told her, I can’t do it if you’re not with me, so she came with me. And I got a standing ovation. She’s always been my biggest champion when it comes to things like that, and she’s always the one in the audience that I can look at and know I’m safe.
You have been blessed with great success in a career path that can be challenging and intimidating. Do you have any words of advice for others who may want to embark on this career path, but seem daunted by the prospect of failure?
I’ve been challenged so many times! I’ve learned to embrace it with what I call failing forward. I’ve learned that failure isn’t necessarily failure, it’s about what I can learn and take forward in my life and in my business and my speaking to be stronger and better. The more risks I take, the more I fail forward, the more successful I’ve become. I now look at “failures” as a stair step to something greater. I believe that the only way to truly succeed is to have failed in the past.
As a speaker, you need to know that you will have days when you bomb, or think you bombed. But if you can learn from those occasions, it will only make you stronger and better.
What drives you to get up every day and give your talks? What is the main empowering message that you aim to share with the world?
Currently, my main empowering message is about gratitude and how you make a decision every day about what kind of day you’re going to have. You don’t get to choose what happens to you, but you get to choose your reaction to it, and while it can be very difficult, it’s also the most gratifying thing ever. I’ve even written a book about it, “Stronger on the Other Side: The Power to Choose.” I know it sounds clichéd, but if I can help one person in an audience who’s having a down day, who is dealing with something big, that’s what makes it all worthwhile and keeps me going.
You have such impressive work. What are some of the most interesting or exciting projects you are working on now? Where do you see yourself heading from here?
I’m working on a trademarked process for speakers that will review things like accessibility, cultural sensitivity and audience development — all aimed at building speaker skills and creating highly effective speakers. We’re also developing online courseware to go with it. It’s very exciting.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
“Don’t ask for permission, ask for forgiveness.” That’s been vital for me because I’ve been able to create new pathways that never were there before, especially for women.
Ok, thank you for all that. Here is the main question of our interview. What are your “5 Things You Need To Be A Highly Effective Public Speaker?” Please share a story or example for each.
Audience research.
The first thing you need to learn is that your speech is not about you, it’s about your audience. Before you even start writing your speech you need to do your research, understand your audience: what are they there for; what makes them do things; what are their trigger points; what are their concerns and needs. We do a lot of research and only then then do we start figuring out the right messaging and content, delivery mechanisms and activities.
Location research.
Find out everything you can about where you’re speaking. How big is the stage, how much room will you have to move around, will you be behind a podium? How is the audience spread out? And then practice your delivery within that context. For example, with TEDx, we know that the space for speakers is a 10 x 10. I have my speakers block it out at home with a rug or tape so that they can feel the space and walk around the space when they are practicing their speech. I have them do this so that when they are on stage, they’re not thrown off by having more or less space than they anticipated.
Practice. Practice. Practice.
And then practice some more. It can’t be overstated how much you need to do this. You need to practice it when you’re alone, you need to practice reading it, you need to practice doing it without reading it, you need to practice recording it and then reviewing the recording, you need to give the speech to your dog or the mirror, or your cat, or a family member. And once you feel comfortable with it you should do a dummy run in front of a small audience of friends or trusted colleagues. And be sure to ask them for candid feedback.
Also be sure to watch recordings of your own speeches. You can improve your speaking skills so dramatically when you do this. You’ll see or hear your verbal stalls, you’ll notice your body language, you’ll see when you’re not looking confident, you’ll get a sense of whether you’re gesturing too much, or too little, moving about the stage too much or not enough.
Hook them with an opening ‘heart’ story.
Audiences like personal stories. It’s a way to connect with them. I call it the ‘opening heart story’. But it can’t be a random story, you need to be sure to connect the story to the message of your speech. For example, I was once in a coma (a story for another day!), I start some speeches by saying:
“I started the year off in the emergency room. In March I had surgery. In April I had more surgery. On May 30th, I became very ill. Three days, one misdiagnosis, three emergency rooms, two ambulance rides, and one very concerned husband later, I was in surgery yet again. I didn’t wake up from that surgery for nearly 3 weeks as the doctors put me in a medically induced coma.” It’s a story that gets people’s attention and emotionally involved in my speech immediately.
But I don’t just tell the story to get attention. Between the coma and recovery l was gone from work for seven months and my team stepped in and ran the company in my absence. Prior to the coma I had been a micromanager and touched 80% of the projects that came through Artitudes’ door. I didn’t know how to empower my team. Good leaders know how to delegate and let people play to their strengths. I didn’t. Learning to let go made me a better leader and the company stronger and that’s the point I make through the coma story. The company would not be as successful as we are today if I had kept my old micromanaging habits.
Pay attention to language and cadence.
No matter how great the content, your speech may fall flat if you haven’t paid attention to the language and your cadence. For example, if you use words like ‘just ‘or ‘I think ‘or ‘maybe,’ it weakens the power of your words and reduces your power as a speaker. Women, in particular, undermine themselves with the language they use. You need to be and sound confident.
Other tools include varying the pace, pitch, and volume of your delivery.
One tool I like to use in my speeches is the a ‘repeated stem.’ Repeated stems draw attention to ideas and takeaway points. Probably the most well-known example of a repeated stem is “I have a dream,” in Martin Luther King, Jr.’s famous speech.
In my speech about gratitude, I’ll say, “I have one last thing I’d like to share with you: you deserve a joyful life, where anxiety takes a back seat to happiness; you deserve a joyful life where it’s easy to find gratitude in every moment; you deserve a joyful life, one with endless opportunity in grace, you deserve a joyful life and so on…
As you know, many people are terrified of speaking in public. Can you give some of your advice about how to overcome this fear?
One thing that I ask all my speakers to do, and what I do, is to think positively. It can make a huge difference. It’s helped me as a speaker overcome negative self-talk. I used to work myself into a lather before a speech. I’d think, ‘Oh my God, no one’s going to listen to me,’ or ‘it’s going to fall flat’, or ‘I’m really literally going to break a leg because I’m so graceless.’ But instead, when I coach speakers, I give them affirmations and visualization exercises. I ask them to visualize the audience giving them a standing ovation at the end. I ask them to use affirmations such as ‘I’m going to do well today’ or I’m so grateful for the opportunity to help this audience’, that kind of thing. So then what you’re doing is setting yourself up for success rather than failure.
You are a person of huge influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be?
If I could inspire a movement, it would be to bring more positivity to the world and help people become more accomplished and confident speakers, so they in turn share their message with others in a way that it can be received. If I could do that, then we’ll have multiple movements and many people changing the world.
Is there a person in the world whom you would love to have lunch with, and why? Maybe we can tag them and see what happens!
Michelle Obama. She is one of the best speakers I’ve ever heard and she’s simply mazing as a human being. As a speaker she engages the audience from the minute she opens her mouth, and it’s not because of who she is, it’s because of the way she tells her stories and because she understands who’s listening to her.