Heard two speakers back-to-back tonite go through a fairly scripted (but without notes) program to an audience mixted with kids and their parents. Due to the attention span of sleep-deprived, sugar-laced kids (and adults), the individual points were necessarily short punctuated by changes in activity. So far so good.But between the two speakers, there were five different things that were identified as “my favorite thing!” I realize it’s intended to draw attention to something that is very important, but when a speaker draws attention to something over and over using the same mechanism, it begins to lose its luster. Do you agree?And I’ll cut them some slack, because they were a) volunteering, b) game enough to speak in front of 400 kids, and c) it was the last session of a week-long program and they had to be tired.But professionals do similar things all the time. It’s usually only through third-party observation (and attention) that such things are noticed. If you are a speaker, a video camera or a coach/consultant is an absolute must at least every dozen times you speak. At least. It’s the only way that bad habits can be recognized. Or rather, the overuse of what may well be good, just not as a habit.
Learn and discipline yourself not to overuse one particular type of emphasis, technique, or method.
