Transcription
How do I get better at answering questions impromptu? How do I get better at answering questions on the spot? And when you're finished with that, perhaps you could tell us what you personally have been doing for the last seven years?
Uh, and the answer to this is really dependent on the context. Because when are you getting the questions asked? Is this during a job interview? Is this while you're in a team meeting? Is this while you're on stage? Context is critical.
And we have a very power tool now that we all have access to. So say, for example, if you are a pharmacist that's about to speak at a conference about how to improve your abilities as a pharmacist in terms of counseling, then you can put those parameters into Chat GPT. And you can say into Chat GPT, "I'm currently a pharmacist speaking at a conference, and I'm running a session on how pharmacists can become better at counseling. List me 20 questions that people might ask me during a session like this."
And it's crazy because Chat GPT would then create you a list of 20 to 25 questions that people could potentially ask you. And then your job is to turn on your camera. Turn on your camera. Imagine you are at a pharmacy conference, and as you read those questions that pop up, imagine it's actually real, and you have to answer it. You just have to, you can't go, "Um, uh, uh, uh, um, pause video." Got to go, "No, no, no, no." Because this is a safe environment here. This is where you can practice.
So all of a sudden, you've got that one test question. Practice answering it. And even if you do that answer, and you answer it really poorly, it doesn't matter. Just get through that one cycle. Because a cycle done poorly is better than a half cycle done. Just go through that answer completely. Then you can watch that video of yourself answering the question back and going, "Oh, wow, okay. I actually knew the answer to that, but it was the, I, I, I fell apart because of the pressure. The pressure caused me to just crumble. Ah, I need to, I need to take a few breaths before I answer it. I need to relax more. I need to look up some, some forms of relaxation."
Or you might watch the video back and as you review yourself, you go, "Oh my goodness, yeah, okay. That, that, the reason I couldn't answer that is actually because I didn't know the answer to that question. Just revealed to me a knowledge gap. I need to make sure I do a little bit more study before I jump into these, uh, these Q&As, because, yeah, I needed to know the answer to that."
Can you see the importance of that? Learning how to get good at speaking impromptu, it requires many different muscles being trained. One, you have to learn how to speak on the spot and deal with the anxiety that does come up from that. You have to learn how to manage those nerves. Two, you have to know your content, right? And, and three, one that we didn't talk about yet, but I'm just going to throw in there as well, is you're also going to get questions where you actually need to learn how to have the confidence to take a moment to give yourself time to process the thoughts, structure the answer, and then answer. But that's a skill in itself, too. The ability to just pause, maybe take even take out a pen and write some ideas down. The confidence it takes to even do that part takes time to develop.
So I'm, I'm, I'm giving you a, a, a bit of a game to play here where you can get Chat GPT and your video camera. All of a sudden now, you can start practicing all of the different muscles that's going to allow you to become a better speaker impromptu, right? A better impromptu speaker. But there are so many different muscles that you have to practice. And those muscles will become relevant, and, and you'll be able to identify what those muscles are the moment you start the process that I've just shared with you.
What advice do you have for handling unexpected challenges during a speech, such as technical difficulties, unresponsive audiences, or hecklers?
These are three different situations. So quick thoughts on each of those situations. Number one, when you have technical difficulties. Ah, the type is all off. Sorry, but I'll just wing this. Tell us what you think. Excuse me. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Okay, if I'm on stage and I've got technical difficulties, I would immediately do this. Hey, quickly, just to the AV team, just letting you know I'm having troubles with my mic. Now, to all the audience members, just letting you all know too, we're just going to take a quick five minutes to fix a couple of the AV problems. We're going to play some, uh, some, some, some music for you all. Please do have a chat amongst yourselves. We'll be back in five. AV team plays some music. We check the things going on. Audience got instruction. They're chatting among themselves. All done, right? Problem kind of solved. Sort it out, then go back on stage, then continue.
Second example. Vin, what if the audience is not responsive? Okay, if the audience is not responsive because they are tired, and it's after lunch, then don't go straight into a presentation. Don't go straight into the meeting. Before you do the meeting, do a quick activity. Do a quick activity with everyone. Just go, "Hey, before kind of kick things off, I know it's right after lunch. I want to get our energy levels up a little bit. How about we play a quick game of two truths and a lie?" Boom. Let's go. They play. They come back. They're energized. Now they're responsive.
Third example you gave is hecklers. Well, if you're, if you're in a meeting, and you can also, before you go into the meeting or before you go into the presentation, make sure you've got someone close by who you can say, "Hey, look, if there are any hecklers, do you mind just dealing them with for me? Because this is a professional event. So do you mind just removing them from the audience if that's possible?" Or if you don't have that, then you can disarm the heckler. So if someone says during one of my communication classes, "Hey, I think everything you're saying is not true. I don't believe in it. I think it's wrong." I'll stop the class. I'll pause. And I'll look at the person and I'll say, "Listen, thank you so much for your opinion. I'm in the middle of a class at this this point. Do you mind if I take this conversation with you offline, outside afterwards? It's okay. I'd love to connect with you. I'd love to hear your opinion. I'd love to hear your side of it. But just right now, uh, everyone has asked asked me to run this one and a half hour session. I am 45 minutes in. I've just got 45 minutes left. Is it okay if I complete the class and then we can connect with it offline outside? Is that okay?" Thank you. Then I'll begin. Then I'll just continue with my talk.
So to me, the moral of the story with each one of these situations is, when something does go wrong, acknowledge it. Take control of the situation. Set the expectations of what's going to happen while you're fixing things or while you're, you're sorting things out. And to me, is have authority while you're doing this. If you are the one that's currently speaking, you are the one that's in control. If you are one the one with the mic, you are the one that's in control. Take that control and navigate your way out of it with authority.
Vin, how do I stop people who keep talking and never stop, and I can't even get a word in, and I have something really important to say?
I feel like I'm the perfect, perfect person to answer this because I'm one of those people. So speaking on behalf of all people who talk a lot and never give others a second to talk, I'm going to give you the secret on how to take us down. This is our tonight. I'll give you two strategies that are a softer approach, and then I'll give you a really strong nuclear approach.
Now, approach number one, visual indicators. So if someone's talking, and you've got ideas, and you want a turn to be able to share your ideas, you can give them a visual indicator. And a visual indicator can look like this, right? So if I'm go for this position to to this position, I clearly have something to say, right? So again, you can do the palm, you can do the finger, you can go, "Ah," right? You can kind of just lift your hand up. And a variation of that visually lets the other person know that you have something to say.
Now, if you are speaking to someone like me, sometimes when I get really passionate, I basically become blind, and I'm just talking, talking, talking. I love the sound of my own voice. Oh, I love my idea, and I'll just keep going. So in order to get my attention visually, if I don't see it, it's not because I'm mean, it's usually because I'm just, I'm a little bit passionate. So then to get through to me, now you can pair a visual indicator with the sound, auditory. So now instead of just going like this, I can go, "Oh, um, just quickly, oh," one of those variations. All of a sudden now, I've paired a visual indicator with an auditory indicator that I have something to say. And those two strategies should be enough to be able to deal with the worst of us. The worst of us.
However, there is a 0.001% of our population who are just relentless. Oh, they're monsters. There are even monsters that monsters are scared of. And if you're dealing with someone like that, and I, I luckily don't fall into that category, but I will tell you that, you know, I'm still a monster, but not that scary. But if you do find a monster that is that scary, that just doesn't stop after visual and auditory indicators, well, then what you need to do now is you need to create space for you to speak. You need to stand up for yourself.
So say, for example, you're talking to this person, and they just keep talking because again, they love the sound of their own voice, and they just really love their idea, and they're really passionate, and sometimes they can be very egotistical, and they just want to keep going. You just have to be like, "Vin, I just want to quickly jump in here. Vin, I know you're still talking, but this is really important. I need to get this across, and I would love to just take one minute to share my idea." And even if I'm talking over the top of you while this is happening, just full commit to creating your own space. And they will stop. They will just confidently commit. Don't do the whole, "I mean, there's just a damn it, he's still going. Yep, he bloody loves himself, that guy. Oh God, he's so annoying. Look at him. He can't even grow a mustache."