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

It's 1903

and this extraordinary guy
named Teddy Roosevelt

is standing on the edge
of the Grand Canyon

and 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."

(Aplauses)

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 USA.

"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."

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've 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
essencecan 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

seven percent of the impact
that one human being has on another.

Voice tone, the variation
in your voice, the enthusiams,

the love, the passion that
comes through your voice,

38% percent 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 tree pathways

that great communication happens in.

Secret #4

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

trying to prove that they are smart,

trying to get all the content out.

Words are the seven percent.

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

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

And that's what we are talking about today.

Secret #5 is fascinating.

If you are afraid or if any of you are afraid of public speeking,

41% of the World, across cultures,

is terrified almost to the point and often to the point

of actually turning down speaking appointments.

Wether 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 you are authentically passionate about.

If you think it's a performance,

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

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 an other 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.

And that's what great speakers do.

When I first met Princess Diana,

she looks me in the eye and says:

"You know I am so scared of public speaking and I wish that I could do what Charles does".

It 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 these funny jokes and then he moves on

and he is completly unphased 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 guts 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.

And that's far more effective than giving a speech,

than telling a funny joke but not sharing your heart.

So, secret #6,

and you've noticed that in some of the speakers,

we actually have 5 parts of our brain.

Those 5 different senses,

seing, hearing, smelling, tasting, touching and feeling,

translated in 4 actual communication languages.

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

Speak 2 of them, you're gonna be average, no matter who you are.

Speak all 4, no matter who you are, you're gonna rock the World.

Because you're gonna be giving every person in the audience, something that they can connect to.

And visualize the energy, it's the energy of energy.

It's Robby Williams, I used to give him as an exemple and I'm gonna continue to use him as an exemple.

How amazing was Robbin Williams.

Auditories, 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.

You don' have that, you don't have the fondation of credibility.

People are gonna go: "Woah, that person is charming but there is no there there."

Kinaesthetic is the James Earl Jones, the Morgan Freeman, The Barry White.

Oh Baby...

It's the poet's alley,

it's that connecting thing that is in each and everyone of us.

That is the most important thing, in being a speaker, in being a communicator.

#7, you could just have this and nothing else and you would still rock the word.

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 that is so effing compelling?

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

because it's a distraught 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.

Lou Gehrig didn't create a tipping point in terms of global geopolitics of the world

But he created a tiping point in understanding the human spirit and his own.

Here it was as you all know that he was diagnosed with ALS. He tried to play, he couldn't play,

He had to end his carreer, and Yankee stadium held a day for him.

Lou Gehrig day, it was in 1939.

He gets out there and he, like so many of you gets petrified in 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.

"I can't do this. I can't do this."

His manager comes up and puts his arm around him and says: "Lou, we're all here for you my friend."

And walks him up and goes and this is what he says:

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

Everyone who study public speaking, puts that speech on their list.

It's just unbelievable the sense of gratitude this man had in the middle of his own personal crisis.

But lets go to the next year.

A huge tipping point is about to happen for Great Britain and their battle against Nazi Germany.

3 days before the speech, King Georges goes to Winston Churchill and says:

"Please, I want you to be the Prime Minister, We get to do something, face this threat".

It's just Winston Churchill's audio, they didn't have the video in the House of Commons in 1940's.

I say to the House as I said to ministers who have joined this government,

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

The Word 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.

Let's thrive from JF 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 40's, a whole new era for America and the World.

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

"My fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country."

and he continues:

"My fellow citizens of the World, ask not what America will do for you

but what together we can do for the freedom of men."

The World became a different place, because of that speech and that new President.

And he proved it several times, couple of years later,

at Rice University, he is talking about his authentic passion:

put a man on the moon.

Listen to the level of details here and notice that this is such a visionary leader

that he even commit himself and the USA when we don't even at that point, know how to do it.

"We shall send to the moon, 240000 miles away

from the control station in Houston

a giant rocket, more than 300 feet tall,

the lenght 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 then it has ever been experienced.

Put 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 speed 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."

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."

"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."

Ok, so, next year after that, or actually later that year,

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

no-one will doubt that this speech, half of what he had lived,

shook the word and created a tipping point.

"I have a dream 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."

If only it were true and we're making progress because of that speech.

Barbara Jordan, someone you may not now,

Texas Congress woman, was the last person to speak at the Wattergate Commity.

Talking about wether we were going to impeach Richard Nixon.

She was a freshman Congress woman, it was around midnight,

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

shook the world and catalysed the movement against Richard Nixon.

"Today, I am an inquisitor and probably will not be fictionnal

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

My faith in the Constitution is whole ad is complete and is total.

And I will not going to sit ere and be an idle spectator

to the demolution, the subversion, the destruction of the Constitution."

Barack Obama:

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

my presence on this stage is pretty unlikely."

and that's it, right there, that speech, was a tipping point.

It changed America, wether you like it or not,

that one speech in 2004, changed America.

We don't have audio of this but one of my favourite speech ever is

the speech given by Albert Einstein:

(reading)

And he did that and created a shift where we understood

how matter and energy are the same.

Created an new paradygme and some people even think

that it mirrors that ancient symbol for God called Ohm.

If you look at it there is a backward E,

there is an equal sign, an M, there is a C and there is a supernumerary that also looks like the square.

Equals E=MC2 thousands years ago, reflected in Albert Einstein's discovery in 1906.

I want to play with this, in my opinion, this is the more powerfull couple of minutes in a recorded oratory,

recorded tipping speech making, in the history of the word.

Feel it and notice, this is the last speech he gave, before he died.

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

Martin Luther King: "Like anybody, I would like to live,

a long life, longevity has it's place, but I'm not concerned about that now.

I just want to do Gods will. And Hes allowed me to go up to the mountain.

And Ive 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.

So, I'm not worried about anything, I'm not fearing any man.

My eyes has seen the glory of the coming of the Lord."

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 word?

"Someting that my unique DNA, which is contained

in every one of 50 trillion cells carried in 5000 atomic bombs worth of energy,"

that's what Einstein said.

Will allow me to be out in the World, make a difference,

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

Every single person I worked with had the ability on her 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 indeed I encourage you,

please, step through the fear, share your passion,

share who ou are authentically

and make that difference.

Thank you all so much.