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Rehearsing: Beats & Operative Words

Now we're going to put up some of you on stage again and you're going to read the material that you just worked through using the beats and the operative words as you work through them now what you would do in an actual rehearsal is actually do it as a table read first you would do this work and then the entire cast would sit around the table and this is what you do you work at a table as you're working on a play long before you ever get on your feet and so you would do that first and then get up but we're gonna put you on your beach and so it's a lot more exciting for you and for the audience at home so I would like to start with martes come on up here buddy thanks you can just read what you have there and you khun your eyes can be on the page you're not giving a performance that's part of rehearsal is that if you jump too fast to trying to perform your material that you don't do the work on it to explore it and find it and what might happen and then you make a choice and it's a choic...

e that you made early which is great that you make early choices but then you stay with it and you don't make lots of choices until you find the one that you want to keep so really what right now you're just imagine you're sitting at the table and you're reading it now it doesn't mean that you don't emphasize you do you're trying to find the operative words you're trying to find the beets but you're not trying to put on a show for these folks okay so we're going to need to be able to see the world in different ways and fresher ways and more fluid ways and constantly changing ways ok so right there you have a list right it's a list up here the ways we need to be able to see the world yes so you're he has them all underlined as operative which is great go back to the concept of list where it's going to build two so rather than saying it could be like this like this like this like this play with it it's just for the purposes of play here with having them actually built okay so we're going to need to be able to see the world in different ways fresher weighs more fluid ways constantly changing wait so that's different yes do you see that this is the work that's why it's so important michael just said it but I want to reiterate it is why it's so important to sit and do the work with a script at a table before you get up and go whole hog and these operative words are leading him to the beat and so he has the smooth flow of different ways fresher weighs more papa papa papa papa and then it transitions into something else because if he gets up here there's nowhere else to go we can't go higher so now he has to come back to something else and you start to find the musicality in the language did you hear how he listened to the note as it was given to him and did it exactly that's a skill to be learned to he's already got it on how to receive a note how to take a note you know sometimes we coach people go oh no I did it that way because I wanted to hit the operative words and I'm like I know we got that there's more to it now right now and you just took it and went with it that's beautiful okay great let's go to the next line and one of the most important things we can do to see the world in these new ways is too see ourselves as we actually are I could go back and do it again and don't worry about looking a state with a cage so that you don't have to find the words alright justcause again it's rehearsal not performance okay okay and one of the most important things we can do to see the world in these new ways is to see ourselves as we actually are good now it sounds a little monotone even though you're hitting operative words so we need to drive it forward okay? Because you're trying to get to the operative word all the other words or just getting you there and that's what drives you to it so you hurt operative was drive and to it, everything else just gets me to those words so you want to move through it and then you start to, uh, really land your points, okay? And one of the most important things we can do to see ourselves in these new way new ways is to see ourselves as we actually are good I'm goingto give you somethingto out here I'm going to see what you got for your operative works let's see, where is it? Were you reading? Okay, so and one of the most important things we can do to see the world in these this way. So I want you to you see, is the operative word okay, see the world in these and I want you, teo use the word knew as an operative word ok, ok is to see ourselves as we actually are. Okay, all right. And I'm going to take this one away from you, you know I'm good so you can see what you got that c nu and are you taking away that one? Right you important? Fine, but I'm not on any of these I'm taking away this one all right, get out, try and you know, put some passion into it and one of the most important things we can do it see the world in these new ways and one of the most important things we can do to see the world in these new ways in these new ways is to see ourselves as we actually are good I want you to do it again and try to move fluidly to each one of those operative words and then pick it up and keep going. Okay? And one of the most important things we can do to see the world in these new ways is to see ourselves as we actually our is better right much back communicates meaning that communicates meaning and of course that's the point how do we use the words to communicate them? Meaning one of the most important things we can do to see the world in these new wave just because it's not report doesn't mean you hit it in the same way or equally so one of the most of things you can do to see the world in these new ways you see, I still hit new it's still new but it's just a different way of hitting the operative word because if every time you hit the operative word it is the same they're no longer operative or because they're all the same contract thank exactly so you can hit an operative word with volume you can hit it with pitch you can hit it with a little different pace to it they're different wasted to make the operative word pop out but that's the point how do you make it top good have a seat thanks but let me put another section since you just did that somebody from section two please he was section two oh great sorry okay great we can try to avoid growing it might feel easy at first but I think it's kind of sad anyway it turns out that both growing and learning are inevitable good so let's let's see what you chose as your operative words here ok ok so he chose waken try to avoid growing it might even feel easy at first but I think it's kind of said okay so no open over there but I think it's kind of sad anyway it turns out that both growing and learning are inevitable good so did you hear growing easy and inevitable I want you to look for these ok give it another try we can try to avoid growing it might it even might feel easy at first but I think it's kind of sad anyway it turns out that both growing and learning our inevitable okay, so did you hear inevitable is an operative word at the end a little bit in part because he finished there so actually it was a huge beat afterwards because it was done, but if he had gone on, it may not have felt that way. Okay, so now what happens? You start to put a little bit of meaning into it and you find it you get to that operative word more authentically so if you say we can try to avoid growing but you might also say we can try to avoid growing or you contract, we can try to avoid growing she used in different ways their different ways to do that, but I might suggest to use try okay, right? And you really move it up so you go put it up here when you're doing it say we might try there's a higher part of your range just do that for me we can try to avoid growing we can try to avoid growing, you see, even though he didn't he didn't expand his his pitch that much the way he said the word started to change he extended the word he used the y sound we can try to avoid growing you see okay let's, try that again we can try to avoid life we can try to avoid growing deck you good it might even feel easy at first but I think it's kind of sad do you feel the difference? You see a difference right there are they seeing a difference in what what they're doing at home I want them to write that in to see the difference and how quickly you can make a change just by understanding how to do content mapping great give a round of applause thank you so much I want to just reiterate quickly that this is part of rehearsal right that when you come when you get up to give your speech as performance you're not thinking about your operative words anymore right you're not coming up going okay I got a hit on my list and I've got to bring in vocal variants you do it in rehearsal so that if there is an under layer for you is there a support when you come out? Does that make sense and this is exactly why I wasn't ready to do this presentation because to do a presentation on thinking big requires that I stand up here in front of you live and to be willing to get even mohr riel that I did in the book so let's go back into it from the beginning it was a little noise because they were switching to the third page just to watch it with you but let's give it another shot again and I'm gonna make a signal when she has when she gets to the word that she is underlined as an operative work, she won't see me make a signal but you'll see me make a signal that she has chosen that word as an operative work okay, this is exactly why I wasn't ready to do this presentation because to do a presentation on thinking big requires that I stand up here in front of you live and to be willing to get even more real than I did in the book good so when I made a little I don't know why this is the operative word symbol thiss was in yeah, did you feel a lot of emphasis on all of those operative words? Did it did it across the board? Did you feel some of them? Okay, so let's let some let's do it one line by one line and let's see how we feel, okay? And that is exactly why I wasn't ready to do this presentation, do you? Do you feel the operative word? Did it hit? You know? So if you're gonna choose and that is exactly why I wasn't ready, that is exactly why I wasn't ready to do this presentation. Yes, because now because now you can do it is your is your contrast ing do against exact see, that is exactly why I wasn't ready to do this presentation that's what you're doing here because to do a presentation on thinking big requires that I stand up here in front of you live and to be willing to get even mohr riel than I did in the book great you hear a big difference huge they're thinking really nicely done way I want to make sure that we're any questions that are coming in from the home audience are getting answers so police bring them to me now yeah, I mean, people are loving this story does says it's been pretty amazing the difference is so here a ble right away much, much better and j t h says this session absolutely demonstrates the importance of rehearsing over and over again as these people are using this text that they're not even familiar with but they're getting better each time they read it exactly I want you to guess how many hours of rehearsal and writing because for me the process of rehearsal includes writing if I'm writing the script because I've rehearsed I find when I make a change I go right I come back that's part of the rehearsal process so many hours in total do you think it took me to prepare to be ready to do the thing big revolution as a fifty five minute keynote eighty hours do I have ninety a hundred doing three hundred one thousand one hundred thousand a thousand thousand yes soul mr awesome it was about eight hundred it wasn't figures about eight hundred, probably I had never attractive, so I would have guessed about five hundred it might have felt like a hundred amy because she had a watch, I was there over, but but somewhere in that range he worked. It was his primary project for about five months it's just like writing a book, I sold a new book and it's going to come out in, uh, fall of two thousand fifteen, and I'll write it in eight months and it will take me a thousand hours at least, to write the book. So why is a speech not as significant? Do you know why? Because if you're going to write a book you have to actually hand in the pages, if you're going to give a speech, you could just show up and do it. You don't have to show anybody anything you just show up and talk so we can get out of doing the work on it because we don't actually have to show anything now. Of course, what happens is when you're actually doing it now you're showing the work and it either works or it doesn't work. Oh, and I'm not suggesting it everybody needs eight hundred, five hundred even a thousand hours on the speech, but you need more than you're doing now. Raise your hand if you think you need to rehearse more than you are rehearsing now great here's a nice thing that we can do now if you're doing video we can use teleprompters inexpensively but tell it using a teleprompter takes practice it takes a lot of practice they have you goto v n h photo or probably a number of other places and you could get a teleprompter apparatus that you can put in front of your camera virtually any kind of camera not an ipad not not not an iphone can put an actual camera and then you put your ipad on it and it displays you know your script on the screen is brilliant but if you're doing short video segments you can use those don't have to memorize and you often will look a lot better but you need a lot of practice to get good at actually using a teleprompter but even if you use a teleprompter you're still practicing yeah, but here's the thing we try not to use the word practice we use the word rehearse because you practice a sport and you rehearse something theatrical and why the differences it just semantics maybe however when you actually compete in a sport you're getting ready to compete and you have no idea what's going to happen in that game no idea you're just practicing the different things you might need to know how to do in order to compete however when you're rehearsing you're rehearsing something thatyou will specifically perform on that day you're not rehearsing to then improv on the stage when you're giving a speech unnecessarily although many speeches have a lot of improv if you are using a curriculum based type of speech but you are rehearsing over and over and over that story even if you use some improv on the day you're not rehearsing one story in case maybe you need to use that story you see you're rehearsing the stories that you actually use that's why that's how I've tried tio articulate the difference between the two like why was in the theater we call it rehearsal and musicians call it rehearsal in the world of professional speaking or amateur public speaking they call the practice and I try to encourage people to use the word rehearsal so that they think about it in a different way rehearsal has a sense I think of going okay I'm going to explore this fast at this time this time I'm working on my content mapping this time I'm working on emotional connection this time I'm working on connecting with the audience now that I finally have people here you can work on different layers of it at different times and then when you perform it it's bringing it's bringing together all of the liars for me that's a crucial difference in thinking of it as rehearsing good so let's get another person up here from uh this group in the middle here group from two from two there's a mike or whatever your number is yep come on up do we want to do the second paragraph or you prepped on the first I ever won I crept on the first that I learned a lot in the last three do the do the ceo mark it up I'm gonna grab my pen thank you. All right, so what does comfort do you need to get comfortable with because to do big things in the world it gives us the opportunity to exploit our talents hold on another uh another thing that teo that as a presenter or speaker we need to be aware of is what's going on in the room so they're shuffling they're not listening they can't hear you and whatever you said just gets lost now you're rehearsing but let's say you were giving a presentation if you start and the honest is ready you lost so we wait if someone if one person in the room is taking out their candies and start shuffling them around and making that noise and they're very quickly realise we're all waiting for them the audience loves to know that you are in charge yeah, thank you so what does comfort do you need to get comfortable with because to do big things in the world gives us this opportunity to exploit our talents and to learn a whole bunch of new skills. No way in the first sentence. If you say so. What discomfort do you need to get comfortable with? It sounds like you need the discomfort. Uh, do you guys hear that? So what discomfort do you need to get comfortable with? It actually conveys something different than what you're trying to say so instead, I want you to try. So what discomfort do you need to get comfortable with, dr toward the get comfortable with that's the point of sense? Okay, what were you gonna say the same same same same same exact thing that I would also suggest in addition, I would say here's an operative word. Okay? And here's an operative work. Just those two okay happened his? Remember, also, this is question you're asking a question, make it a question. All right, so you chew on the word, you know, on that offered a word? Sure. So what discomfort do you need to get comfortable with? You see it's different? Isn't it now keep going? Because to do big things in the world gives us this opportunity to exploit our talents and to learn a whole bunch of new skills because now doesn't sound like they're all starting to run together, yeah, so let me see what we got here okay, so but I doubt here, so because do big things in the world that gives us this opportunity to explain our talents and there's a whole bunch of new skills because what we're doing, we'll always have new elements as we grow into each new phase of our life. That's one sentence. So you see why breathing is really important? Finding the beats where you can get a catch breath is really important, and sometimes the music and the poetry are in long sentences, so here we go because to do what kind of things? Big things, big things to do, big things in the world, it gives us this opportunity to exploit our talents and to learn a whole bunch of new skills try that, okay? Because to do big things in the world, it gives us this opportunity to exploit our talents and to learn a whole bunch of new skills. You hear a difference? Yeah. Now, again, remember it's rehearsal so she doesn't have a new emotional drive behind it, like she would when she is ready to perform it on she's still trying to remember what comes next because she doesn't know it, but as she gets better and she does it again and again, angelika to drive through it. To get to those put so let's try to get going to make one suggestion would you just as an experiment because that's what we do in rehearsal would you just hit the word skills rather than the word new okay to learn a whole bunch of new skills rather new skills okay, so start with this so what discomfort to start with me. All right, so what discomfort do you need to get comfortable with? Because to do big things in the world it gives us this opportunity to exploit our talents and to learn a whole bunch of new skills because what we're doing we'll always have new elements as we grow into each new phase of our life is this clearer? So sometimes you go ok, I picked my operative word and you may be working with people and that's the beauty of having a community of people that you're working with right is they can go like may I kind of got it you're fine and that's not enough right? So just so feel feel free I teach speech and voices I feel three teo experiment with that if it's not working you go cable here's let's try this instead. Good do you want um I want to give her a round of applause? Yeah was there one particular word that you heard often in that one short sentence section, which is two sentences do you remember and they only heard it just a couple times new correct knew that whole part of the presentation is about knew all of the things you'll deal with it when you're doing new things and what will change if you try this new thing so you keep hearing noo noo noo and sometimes you emphasize and sometimes you throw it away it sometimes you emphasize it sometimes you throw it away there's a way we use that term or phrase in acting this way I did throwing something away you throw that line away to throw away line doesn't mean it's not important but the way you deliver it is as a throwaway and sometimes it lands even harder so if I make a statement and I say this stage is wooden that's not a throwaway line but I might say the stages wouldn't and that's why it's strong you see I'm throwing away the first part because it's getting me too what is the important statement the stage is wooden but it's strong and you'll notice we use our hands a lot when we're rehearsing because they help us move our voice to different places it helps us throw a line out here throw a line over there and then eventually becomes very natural when you're actually performing good so for those of you at home what you can do if you haven't yet written something that you want to perform you khun take thee a story that you started to work on, you have the situation, the structure and it's usually the situation of conflict and the resolution, and you can start to write that out and maybe it's a three minute story, maybe it's a four minute story, you write it out, and then you go through and you start to content now and then you get up, you read it at the table using the operative words that you selected, the beats that you've identified and you feel like, okay, those those feel like they're pretty good and I feel pretty grounded here, then you put it up on its feet and you try again on its feet and doesn't feel the same way doesn't feel different because sometimes when you get up on the feet, all of a sudden you see it differently because you feel it differently and you find all that's, not the operative word here. This is the operative word here because it goes from being an intellectual experience to a physical experience and what many of us would be well served by working on moving from the intellectual into the physical because a lot of you guys are working in fields that are very intellectual, your work is intellectual concepts or intellectual, but how do you move that intellectual idea into something physical? So if you're pitching a venture capitalist, how do you take this intellectual idea of the start up and moving into something that is physical that they feel that's powerful that's what I want you to do at home is to write out your story then content map it then put it on his feet and make sure you go to her role public speaking dot com so that you tell us you want to hear more from us so we'll let you know when there is a total immersion course so that you can continue to work with us on this let's take some questions and comments from the home audience would love to do that now so why don't you get those ready to go and I'll go to the audience here and say, what are you taking away from this particular work that is very powerful for you that you know will make a difference if you in the back you have a mic please stand up and remember after you're finished, who wants the mike and then stand up I want the mike good well, I'm really impressed by how we could choose operative words to tie back to that making the story personal in the very first sentence for instance I could say we could try to avoid growing or I could say we could try to avoid growing and that could really my personal story exactly just so you see how there isn't always one way of delivering but you figure out the operative word based on what you're trying to say so it's not it's not some sort of technical intellectual experiment it's what am I trying to say and that's how you choose what to emphasize good who wants to mike pass it down stand up please sir so I realize that we all need especially me need a lot more rehearsal and I think that I did oh great great actually who wants the mike? I also feel that takes you into the whole idea that you're telling a story and you're becoming an actor in a way rather than I feel like the emphasis goes away from you which is really healthy absolutely and I looked at you said after because I would love you guys to think of yourselves as actors we often don't use that term a lot because people who aren't actress thing I could never be an actor so we use the word performer because if you're up here you are performing but if you start to think wait a minute I could perform like an actor just I'm playing a character that is very close to me yeah good who wants you like you have probably two mikes in your guys um I just liked how you could make it really simple shifts to change the story to have more impact by just changing you know the annunciation of a word or how you use your voice and it's just really easy to do from someone who's not really familiar with creating or making a speech and you know, having a presentation to getting up there and making an impact by just simple movements your voice really nicely said yes go ahead I love the idea of flexibility because a lot of times when you're rehearsing you just memorize and spew things out without paying attention to doing this and so this takes you away from being so mechanical that isn't it interesting how technique takes you away from being mechanical because oftentimes people will say this to me and I do believe it's an excuse well if I work on it a lot and I either memorize it or just rehearsing a lot then I will feel mechanical really you know I don't want to know it so well that if it doesn't work like that, the better you know what the better you are as an athlete if you want to compete in the olympics, you don't say well, I don't want to train too much in that particular activity so that when I do that particular activity I could be most spontaneous doesn't know it so well that you can play in it know it so well that you can throw old things out the window and bring new things and in the moment no it's so well that when a waiter is dropping plays is and break something in the room, you're at ease enough to know that you can handle it, address it, be real in the moment and picked right up where you left off. The other thing that happens is when you know it very well, you can get you can go on to another track and still get back to exactly where you were. This is something that makes you feel very powerful. You're giving a webinar giving it telecenters, giving a speech in a room, and you have your structure and your going through it bit by bit and for whatever reason, maybe the host of the interviewer or someone asks a question, or you just get off track into something else, you're able to come right back to exactly where you left off and people how they do that, it's, because you know your material so well. This is also a great tool for parents of small children who interrupt you all the time with various think six you have to be able to pull yourself back good, so just one more question and then we'll start toe wrap up. So so I'm one of those people who had a lot of resistance because I didn't know how to do these things I really want to say thank you for teaching me how to rehearse because I couldn't do it and you talked a little bit about video and one of the things I loved was the movement which I have tried to do but starting the movement and I wonder how you do that for video where you're not in front of an audience? Sure, so it's does start to change and defensive you're sitting or you're standing I prefer to stand when I do it because I feel like my energy is more engaged also because I feel I feel freer we're not standing up doesn't mean you can't do it down can't do it sitting or you won't do a good job and I just like it notice how my body is right now see how moving forward the camera generally isn't all the way to the floor to your head it's generally like this so they don't see what I'm doing with my legs, but I'm moving forward so I'm talking to them now there's a forward there's a forward act there's a forward motion I'm not back on my heels look see the difference I'm talking back here, it feels very different we use this expression, you're on the back of your heels when I'm coaching phil, you're on the bacteria it's not always that you're actually on the back of your heels but you are laying back we want you forward and it doesn't mean you have to be in this stance like your about the runner but it is a state of readiness it is like I'm here and I am available and I'm engaged and I'm going to be able to respond to whatever happens out here were the tennis exam yeah like in the olden days where I'm from you went in tennis you would start here right? So that you could go readily wherever you needed to go whatever direction you were ready and they would call it like already stands at least they called it a ready stance so that you could go wherever from there if you're back on your heels and if it's more like this kind of a posture, then if something arises in the room or internally for me a thought a new idea I'm not prepared to move in response to it so you're not getting stuck is what we're saying so there are times where you will come and you will plant yourself just like this and it's powerful but see how up and I still have a forward movement with my body I'm not back, I'm on the balls of my feet forward, but then I'm ready to move I don't just stand here the whole time another thing just a quick note given the centuries that the other thing that you see often and I'll say it now just in case it doesn't come up later so now we will start a speech at the opening this is what happens they get introduced and then they come like this so high minded you know you're seeing this yes so they can see you walk up walk on it's actually started you don't need to come to center stage and then start so when you walk on stage you're actually walking engaged already to them remember how it started before the bio it's certainly if you don't think it started before the buy it certainly started when they saw you on stage so this I'm happy to be here that's that's not it so we're going to wrap up this morning session do you want to take us out? We I think we have a minute here just do a question or two that came in now this one comes from manama nama and you mentioned earlier about having a teleprompter when you were doing some video segments but they want to know can you please explain how to engage and interact with the audience if you're doing a pre recorded webinar or if you're doing a youtube presentation? I use something where there isn't really time interaction and he tips for that it depends what they mean by engage when there's one kind of engagement which is getting them to pay attention and listen and that's in your eyes when videos movie actors theatrical actors don't always transfer well to film or tv because they're so expressive they're so big that it's overwhelming for the small screen sometimes tv actors don't transfer well to the stage because they're so small that they can't fill the space the greatest actors can move back and forth between those two mediums very easily so it's all in the eyes when you're on camera it's all here so what you're seeing is in the eyes it's all here in the face in the eyes and so you're trying to engage with them you're actually seeing them seeing them right through that camera that's what you're looking for so that's one kind of engagement another kind of engagement is just like we're doing here, okay, so take out your pen, write this down filling this I'm going just wait a couple seconds while you write that down all the techniques for audience interaction that we've been doing here and building in contrast and of course if you're if you're doing youtube and you want people to write comments, you have them actually right in their comments or their questions in that section on youtube and they could do it while they're watching your video director called action okay, let's do one more question here and this one this user wants to know if people don't respond much to your presentation from the start I've seen speaker sometimes shame people into responding, saying things like oh, you made me feel bad or wow, that was pathetic didn't you have your copy this morning? Let's try it again is this an acceptable acceptable practice? How do you go about yes, so shaming? No, not so I would not recommend it, but I have seen that a lot. Have you seen that a lot? I have said from time to time if I if I at the beginning of a presentation if I say okay, say yes if bubba blonde they're like yes like oh no there's, no, you know? And so you're not shaming them when you're saying, oh no, come on, even you could even say all that was pathetic without shaming them. It all depends on how you deliver that, but yelling at eyes is not a great idea, so oftentimes audiences won't give you that interaction at the beginning until they feel safe with you uncomfortable with you, they don't want to make that commitment because then they may have to do it through the whole thing and they may not know that they want to do it yet, so why will often do if I'm doing keynote where I do lots of that interaction because sometimes I'll do things like how many things three things good one two three and we all throughout we do this number game and we play this number game I'll start to do it and if it it doesn't work really well right away okay here's the reason I do this I tell them I'm not doing this because I think it's some sort of clever trick you know it's not trying to be tony robbins or something what I'm trying to do here is I'm trying to keep you engaged because when you use your arms this way when you use your voice you're breathing you're moving and that keeps you maura wake keeps you uh section and we talk about why they okay that makes sense to me the why is often very important why's he asking me to do this why does she want me to do this otherwise it just feels like some trick or some speaker thing okay all right, well yeah let's wrap things up now I know we're all excited about the masterclass sessions that's what? We're going to be a way yeah so that's going to be great before we do go to our break though I want to read some more comments that people have had on twitter ashley t says michael port is a force thank you for your wisdom using that hashtag heroic speaking and our warrior says, I cannot believe how funny this is thoroughly enjoying myself, especially referring to the improv stories that we were doing earlier. They really enjoyed those, dwight says. I love the communication coming from michael and amy transformational toe watch the audience members grow as skilled communicators. And then jane says, I'm loving this it's all about being really vulnerable and doing it in a way that's, impactful and delivered to listeners in a way that holds their interest.