Speak like a Fish: Time to captivate your audience

It’s happening again… You are passing by the aquarium when one of the fishes swims quickly toward the window. You could bet it; it actually swims straight to you, its body and fins swinging in rhythm with an unheard song; its mouth opening, closing, bubbles of expression dancing in your eyes. You can’t help, you pause and get closer, and so does the fish, a mirror of your thoughts. A few minutes

later you are still there… eyes trapped in the fluidity of the swim, mind bubbling with ideas, ears looking for notes you cannot hear… listening, watching, wondering, seduced by just the right amount of movement, inspired, hypnotized.

Welcome to our blog series “Speak like a Fish”, an exploration trip of 21 days in the realm of public speaking.

21 days… I know, that’s short and the realm is vast.  Public speaking is so much more than “giving a speech”. Every interaction we have with others is a form of public speaking. It’s a simple fact. When interacting publicly with other(s), we are in front of a public –and the size of that public  varies from one to many, then we have to express ourselves –and most of the time with words, though we will see we can speak without words. Both of these elements are characteristics of public speaking, and therefore every public interaction is a form of public speaking. 21 days being short, we will explore with this blog series the traditional speech giving situation. Everything you will learn such as –elements of a good speech –creating curiosity at your audience –preparing yourself –connecting with the moment, will have an application in any of your public interaction, maybe even in your daily life… we will see why this coming Friday with our exciting post “Public speaking, a step into self-leadership”.

Did you know that relaxation is a fundamental element to learning?

Relaxation does help the mind to be open to new information. Actually it goes further than learning. A relaxed person is also more likely to build lasting memories, thanks to memory-related neurons in the brain firing in sync with certain brain waves, such as “theta waves”. Imagine… creating relaxation while you speak and at the same times, inspiration and lasting memories… Just like a fish dancing in an aquarium…

Are you ready to “Speak like a Fish”?

To start, step back to the last speech (or presentation you listen to) and note your impression; if they were bad, match them against what you would have loved to feel instead. Share your thoughts in the comments below, we will come back to them soon.

And see you tomorrow for our next episode, an exploration into a really good speech, actually one of my favourites. Any guess? Okay, I give you a hint… it’s a speech hosted on ted.com.