Notes on Speak like Churchill, Stand like Lincoln by James C. Humes

I just finished reading Speak like Churchill, Stand like Lincoln: 21 Powerful Secrets of History's Greatest Speakers by James C. Humes, and while I felt it was a bit folksy at times, it had a number of useful lessons and nice personal examples from the author, who wrote speeches for five American presidents. My favorites: power pause, power poetry, and power dollar. All the stories of Benjamin Franklin were awesome too.

​​Intro
Leadership is selling and selling is talking
Power of personality

1 power pause
Generating audience anticipation 
Stand silent for a min before beginning speech
Stand and stare at audience and formulate words
Repeat opening words in mind as you wait silently
Stand stare and command audience

2 power opener
Don't start with boring trivial common stuff

3 power presence
Careful selection of clothing
Stance erect
Star style
Have own star suit, tailored
Create own signature style element, small accessory
Keep style simple and same so people identity it with u
Clean shoes and clothes

4 power point
Bottom line message
Figure out the power point first
Stop think and plan

5 power brief
Keep it brief
Less is more
Tell a story, not a speech
Surprise audience with brevity when expecting long speech
Short statement that can replace content of speech

6 power quote
Be comfortable with author and quote
Keep quote brief
Frame it and stage it: reading off card after putting on glasses even if fake
Cross quotes from opponents enhance credibility 
Dramatize and emphasize the quote
Use only 1 per speech 

7 power stat
A statistic should tell a story
Cite only 1 statistic dramatically off a card and after putting on glasses
Reduce number of stats given
Round off number to be more memorable. Prefer basic fractions out of 5 or 10 instead of exact percentage 
Relate statistic to a story
Use an odd number
Figures lie and liars figure

8 power outage
Can't yield leadership to slides
Slides not substitute for speaking
Slides as prop not crutch
Use only 1 visual at a time
Keep slides simple
Remove as soon as not needed anymore
If u have to spend a while explaining the slide, don't use it
Make slide captions slogans
Large font
Big illustration

9 power wit
Don't tack on or begin with jokes
Incorporate jokes into speech
Realistic humor
Relevant humor 
Don't read humor
Turn concepts into concretes through parable
Tell stories about yourselves

11 power gesture
Sincerity of tone
Body language signals
Concentrate on just one gesture

12 Power reading
Memorize then conversationalize
Never let words come out when not looking at audience
See stop say

13 power poetry
Internal rhymes
Parallelism
Alliteration
Rhythm
Use proper layout of speech like poem
Break line at comma
Long halt after period
Dashes instead of semicolon
Not about reading article

14 power line
Memorable lines
Contrast between beginning and end of sentence
Rhyme
Rhyming nine
Air
Aim
Ite
Ate
Oh
Ay 
Ake
Eam
Ain
Echo effect: repeat key words, nouns
Alliterate and activate
Series of b or p most powerful

15 power of question
Use once
Keep it simple
Rhetorical 

16 power word
Emphasizing one word by putting pause before it
Deliberate pause before unfamiliar word

17 power active
Avoid passive voice 
Look for to be words and remove them if passive voice

18 power dollar
Fundraising
Defiance: believe u r doing the investor a favor. 
Design: paint a picture
Donation: double the most u think u can ask for; consider ur costs not how much u can raise; know your number
Duel: wait until investor answers before saying anything else. Wait and stand like statue and stare. 
Ask prospect for advice first. 
Personal visits best
Call back at lunch to leave message as reminder to follow up on investment

19 power button
Phrase that illuminates the line that follows and prepares listeners to pay attention
The secret in X is simple. It can summed up this way: 
Let me repeat again what I always say about X:
Let me again assert my firm belief that
Just one per speech

20 power closer
Tear jerking stories

21 power audacity 
Surprise audience
Interesting stories
Stage the scene
Act out scene
Do unexpected

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