The seven secrets of the greatest speakers in history | Richard Greene | TEDxOrangeCoast

"Never give a speech", says Richard Greene. In this masterful talk, he explains how the great speakers in history use seven secrets and how we can all become a great speaker by following these secrets and by not just giving a speech but rather creating conversations from the heart.

Richard, by The Sunday Times called "The Master of Charisma," has dedicated himself to creating new paradigms in public speaking, politics, and even our understanding of God.

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx

It's 1903, and this extraordinary guy
named Teddy Roosevelt

is standing on the edge
of the Grand Canyon.

At that time, people wanted
to create hotels and spas

and turn the Grand Canyon, in 1903,

intoa profit-making Disneyland
of the environment.

And he stood and said no.

And he created a tipping point
for the environmental movement

and for the world.

He said, "Leave it as it is.

The ages have been at work on it
and man can only mar it."

(Applause)

The world would have been
a different place today

without those words,

those tipping point words
from President Theodore Roosevelt.

Fast forward, his fifth cousin,
President Franklin Roosevelt,

30 years later, 1933,
in the midst of a huge crisis,

the Great Depression of America,

said a few words to create a tipping point
towards healing for the United States.

Franklin Roosevelt: First of all,
let me assert my firm belief

that the only thing
we have to fear is fear itself,

nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror,

which paralyzes needed efforts
to convert retreat into advance.

Richard Greene: The world
would have been a different place

without those words,
at that time, from that man.

So, in my 30 years of studying
public speaking and great speeches,

I found that there are seven secrets

that great speakers do,
that other people don't,

and it's my belief
that every single human being

can be a great speaker,

and that their words
can create a tipping point,

and that their words and their essence
can change the world.

The first secret is about words

and understanding
that words can be the best,

the most amazing in the world,

but they only actually touch people

and communicate 7% of the impact
that one human being has on another.

Voice tone - the variation in your voice,
the enthusiasm, the love,

the passion that comes
through your voice - 38%.

Your body language:
are you looking into someone's eyes,

or are you looking over their head
and not connected?

So words, voice tone, and body language,

those are the three vehicles,
the three pathways,

that great communication happens in.

Secret number four.

What most people do
is they throw so much data out,

trying to prove that they are smart,
trying to get all the content out.

Words are the 7%.

What's important is what is that one thing
that you want to leave people with?

What is that headline?
That's what makes a great speech.

That's what we are talking about today.

Secret number five is fascinating.

If you are afraid - are any of you
afraid of public speaking?

41% of the world, across cultures,

is terrified almost to the point,
and often to the point,

of actually turning down
speaking appointments.

Whether they are political leaders,

or business leaders,
or charitable leaders,

they turn down opportunities
to shake the world

because they are scared.

There are a lot of reasons
why people are scared,

but in my experience,
the number one reason

is that we don't know
what public speaking really is.

We don't know the true definition.

The true definition of public speaking

is that public speaking is nothing more
than having a conversation from your heart

about something that you are
authentically passionate about, right?

If you think it's a performance,

you are going to be 0% you and 100% actor,

and we don't get to see
and experience and feel who you are.

So, I want you to write the word speech
down on a piece of paper,

and I want you to put a circle around it,
and I want you to put a line through it.

I don't want you ever, ever
to give another speech.

That's not what great speakers do.

They don't give a speech;
they don't give a performance;

they don't make
a presentation to the audience;

they have what?

They have a conversation with.

It's a circle. It brings us all together.

We are a web, connected
to every other person.

That's what great speakers do.

When I first met Princess Diana,

she looks me in the eyes and says,

"You know, I am so scared
of public speaking,

and I wish that I could do
what Charles does."

Now, this was when they
were actually breaking up,

so it was even more difficult
for her to admit that.

And I said, "What does he do?"

"Well, he just stands up there,
and he tells this funny joke,

and then he moves on,
and he is completely unfazed by it."

And I told her that Prince Charles
doesn't have what she has.

And what she had, was what touched
and moved the world.

People connected with her
on a human level.

And all you need to do,
Your Royal Highness,

is just share from your heart,
that huge heart that you have,

and your gut,

and people will love you.

Even through the speech that scares you,

they will feel you; they will know you;
they will connect with you.

That's far more effective
than giving a speech,

than telling a funny joke
but not sharing your heart.

So, secret number six -

and you'll notice this
in some of the speakers -

is that we actually
have five parts of our brain.

Those five different senses -

seeing, hearing, smelling,
tasting, touching, and feeling -

translate into four different actual
communication languages.

Speak one of them,
you're not going to be very good.

Speak two of them, you'll be average,
no matter who you are.

Speak all four, no matter who you are,
you're going to rock the world.

Because you're going to be giving
every person in the audience

something that they can connect to.

And visual is the energy;
it's the language of energy.

It's Robin Williams -
I've used him as an example,

and I'm going to continue
to use him as an example.

How amazing was Robin Williams.

Auditory is the ability to translate
details of what you see,

what you think, what you feel
into a story, into words.

Ronald Reagan was a great example of that.

Auditory/Digital, that's
the Albert Einstein, the Bill Gates.

The analytical, statistically
driven kind of information.

If you don't have that, you don't have
the foundation of credibility.

People go, "Wow,
that person is very charming,

but there is no there there."

Kinesthetic is the James Earl Jones,
the Morgan Freeman, the Barry White.

Oh, baby ...

(Laughter)

It's the poet Ali.

It's that connecting thing that is inside
of each and every one of us,

that is the most important thing,
in being a speaker,

in being a communicator.

And then seven, you can just
have this and nothing else,

and you will still rock the world.

As so many people do.

And that is your authentic passion.

What is it that is so effing cool
that you just have to share it,

or so effing compelling?

And I use that middle word,
you can use whatever version you want,

because it's a visceral thing,
it's not intellectual.

So let's go back on our
chronological tour of great speeches

that have created
tipping points in the world.

Now this person, Lou Gehrig,
didn't create a tipping point

in terms of the global
geopolitics of the world,

but he created a tipping point

in terms of understanding
the human spirit and his own.

Here it was, as you all know,
he was diagnosed with ALS.

He tried to play, couldn't play.

He had to end his career,
and Yankee Stadium held a day for him -

Lou Gehrig day, it was in 1939.

He gets out there.

He, like so many of you,
was petrified of public speaking.

And he is there; he is there,

and then, just when it's time
for him to go on, he starts backing away.

He said, "I can't do this.
I can't do this."

His manager comes up to him,
puts his arm around him, says,

"Lou, they're all here for you,
my friend. They're all here for you."

And walks him up and he goes,
and this is what he says.

Lou Gehrig: Today,

I consider myself the luckiest man
on the face of the earth.

RG: Everyone who studies public speaking
puts that speech in their list.

It's just unbelievable, the sense
of gratitude that this man had

in the middle of his own personal crisis.

But let's go to the next year.

A huge tipping point
is about to happen for Great Britain

and their battle against Nazi Germany.

Three days before the speech,
King George goes to Winston Churchill

and says, "Please, I want you
to be the Prime Minister.

We've got to do something;
we've got to face this threat."

And this is Winston Churchill.
It's just audio.

They didn't have the video
in the House of Commons in 1940.

Winston Churchill: In stage of the house,

and I said to those
who joined the government,

I have nothing to offer
but blood, toil, tears, and sweat.

RG: The world would
have been a different place

without Winston Churchill and those words,

and that level of conviction,
leadership, and resolve.

Let's move forward now.

I have three from John F. Kennedy,
and you'll see why.

This one, you all know about.

He was following an old general,
Dwight D. Eisenhower.

He is in his 40s, a whole new era
for America and the world.

You'll be familiar with the first part
of this but probably not the second.

John F. Kennedy: My fellow Americans,

ask not what your country can do for you,

ask what you can do for your country.

(Cheering) (Applause)

RG: He continues.

JFK: My fellow citizens of the world,

ask not what America will do for you

but what together we can do
for the freedom of man.

(Cheering) (Applause)

RG: The world became a different place

because of that speech
and that new president.

And he proved it several times,
a couple years later at Rice University,

he is talking about his authentic passion:

put a man on the moon.

Listen to the level of detail here,

and notice that this
is such a visionary leader

that he even commits himself
and the United States of America

when we don't even at that point
know how to do it.

JFK: We shall send to the moon,

240,000 miles away

from the control station in Houston,

a giant rocket, more than 300 feet tall,

the length of this football field,

made of new metal alloys,

some of which have not yet been invented,

capable of standing heat and stress,

several times more
than have ever been experienced,

fitted together with a precision
better than the finest watch,

carrying all the equipment needed

for propulsion, guidance, control,
communications, food and survival,

on an untried mission,
to an unknown celestial body,

and then return it safely to earth,

re-entering the atmosphere
at speeds of over 25,000 miles per hour,

causing heat about half that
of the temperature of the sun,

almost as hot as it is here today,

and do all this, and do it right,

and do it first before this decade is out,

then we must be bold.

RG: How amazing was that?

Sadly, he didn't get to live to see that.

But he made it happen
through his vision, his leadership,

and creating that tipping point
with that speech.

And then, as you know,
the famous speech, he is in Berlin.

The West Berliners are suffering mightily.

He goes in and says they're not alone.

JFK: All free men, wherever they may live,

as citizens of Berlin,

and therefore as a free man,

I take pride in the words:
Ich bin ein Berliner.

(Cheering) (Applause)

RG: OK, so,

next year after that,
or actually later that year,

Dr. Martin Luther King,
I think you've all been aware of this,

no one would doubt that this speech,
half of which he ad-libbed,

ad-libbed this speech,

shook the world
and created a tipping point.

Martin Luther King: I have a dream

(Applause)

that my four little children
will one day, live in a nation,

where they will not be judged
by the color of their skin

but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today.

(Cheering) (Applause)

RG: If only it were true,

and we're making progress
because of that speech.

Barbara Jordan, someone you may not know,
Texas Congresswoman,

was the last person to speak
at the Watergate Committee,

talking about whether we, in fact,
were going to impeach Richard Nixon.

She was a freshman congresswoman;
it was around midnight,

and yet, her words with that incredible
voice tone of hers

shook the world and catalyzed
the movement against Richard Nixon.

Barbara Jordan: Today, I am an inquisitor,

and hyperbole would not be fictional

and would not overstate
the solemnness that I feel right now.

My faith in the Constitution is whole;
it is complete; it is total.

And I am not going to sit here
and be an idle spectator

to the diminution, the subversion,

the destruction of the Constitution.

RG: Barack Obama.

BO: Tonight is a particular honor for me
because, let's face it,

my presence on this stage
is pretty unlikely.

RG: And that's it, right there,
that speech was a tipping point.

It changed America,
whether you like him or not,

that one speech in 2004
changed America.

We don't have audio of this.

But one of my favorite speeches ever
is a speech given by Albert Einstein.

He says: the most beautiful and deepest
experience a man can have

is the sense of the mysterious.

To sense that behind anything
that can be experienced

there is a something
that our mind cannot grasp

and whose beauty and simplicity
are but a feeble reflection ...

To me, it suffices
to wonder at these secrets

and to attempt humbly
to grasp with my mind

a mere image of the lofty structure
of all that there is.

And he did that and created a shift,

where we understood
how matter and energy are the same,

and created a new paradigm,
and some people even think

that it mirrors this ancient symbol
for God called Ohm.

If you look at it, there is a backward E,

there is an equal sign, there is an M,
which is on its side,

there is a C, and there is a supernumerary
that also looks like the square.

E=MC2, thousands of years ago,

reflected in Albert Einstein's
discovery in 1906.

I want to play this, in my opinion

this is the most powerful
couple minutes of recorded oratory,

recorded tipping-point speech making
in the history of the world.

Feel it and notice,

this is the last speech
he gave before he died.

He died, and it was obvious he knew it,
he died the next day.

MLK: Like anybody, I would like to live,

a long life, longevity has its place.

But I'm not concerned about that now.

I just want to do God's will.

And He's allowed me
to go up to the mountain.

And I've looked over,

and I've seen the promised land.

I may not get there with you,
but I want you to know tonight

that we as a people,
will get to the promised land.

(Cheering) (Applause)

So I'm happy, tonight.

I'm not worried about anything;
I'm not fearing any man.

My eyes have seen the glory
of the coming of the Lord.

RG: So, are you afraid of public speaking?

If so, you're along with
half of the people on the planet.

The way over that is to see it
as a conversation from your heart

and to ask yourself this one question:

What is my Dharma?

What is it that I am passionate about
that I want to share with the world?

Something that my unique DNA,

which is contained in every one
of 50 trillion cells

carried in 50,000 atomic bombs
worth of energy,

that's what Einstein said,

will allow me to be out in the world,
make a difference,

and give speeches, share my passion,
and make the world a better place.

Every single person I've worked with
has the ability, in their own way,

to break through,

to make the world a better place,
to bring that passion out,

and to create a tipping point that will
change every single thing on the planet,

and indeed, make the world a better place.

And I encourage you,
to, please, step through the fear,

share your passion,
share who you are authentically

and make that difference.

Thank you all so much.

(Applause) (Cheering)