The most creative person to ever scam me was a gnarly looking old man I bumped into on 16th street in Baton Rouge. I was 19 at the time, freshly homeschooled, deeply naive, and very, very easy to separate from my money. Over the next half hour, this old man explained to me the sad situation that he was supposedly in.
“I work for that art shop.” He said, pointing to a nearby building. “This afternoon I was working from home. I was on the BRINK of finishing a big charcoal portrait for an elderly lady who’s dying of cancer, but then I ran out of charcoal! Can you believe that?” I could believe that! I DID believe that! He went on. “This poor, dying lady has a daughter, and this daughter’s birthday is tomorrow! The dying lady wants to give my portrait to her daughter as a birthday present, but I can’t finish it in time unless you help me buy some more charcoal! Can you spare a few bucks?” I eyed him somewhat suspiciously. “Why can’t you get the supplies from the shop you work at?” I said pointing to the building. The man’s face fell as he said “I tried. But my car broke down and by the time I made it to the shop on foot, the owner had locked up and left town on vacation. If you don’t help me, this lady may die before I can finish this portrait.” And with that, he held out his convincingly soot stained hand and I opened my wallet. We went back and forth on just how much money charcoal cost, and by the end of our haggling, we settled on a number we were all happy with: a cool, calm 90 dollars.
The next week, I happened to see the owner of the art shop. I asked him about the old man who worked at the shop. His reply? “We’ve never had an old man working at this shop.” I didn’t mention the particulars of WHY I was asking about the old man.
What did I learn from this experience? Well… I learned to NOT give copious amounts of money to anyone and everyone who asks. But perhaps more importantly, I learned that creativity is the key to reaching your goals as a communicator. I’ve been shaken down for 5 or 10 bucks by a common street hustler before, but it took a story of REAL CREATIVITY to pry 90 whole dollars from my hand! NOW THAT’S RESULTS! If you want results as a public speaker, you too will need to get very creative; although, I do advise that you skip the whole lying about your entire backstory technique. Stick to the facts! But GET CREATIVE! Here’s how:
First thing’s first, you need to identify what is holding you back. The problem is closer than you likely realize! It’s YOU! You are holding yourself back. More specifically, your brain is holding you back! Human brains are hardwired to “fit in”. Think about it, if we’re too different from the group we find ourselves in, what happens? We get bullied or even completely shunned from the group. We all know this on a subconscious level, and so, we develop a subconscious belief that guides almost every decision we make. That belief goes something like this, “In order to succeed, I need to walk like, talk like and BE LIKE everyone else in my group.” While this will win you a certain level of favor with the group, it often will not have the world-shattering results that you’re hoping for when it comes to public speaking. Why? Because public speaking is not about “fitting in”, it’s about “standing out”! When you’re writing, editing and performing your speeches, your brain is going to do everything in its power to make you “fit in”, to be like everyone else! But no one will remember your speech if it reminds them of every other speech they’ve ever seen.
So, how do you be creative if your brain is working against you? Well, the solution is simple. You have to BREAK your brain. Here’s one technique that I use to help me break my brain.
Step one, identify an area you’re stuck in as a public speaker, an area where you really need a GREEEAAAT idea! Maybe you can’t think of a good topic for your speech. Maybe you’re struggling to come up with fresh hand gestures. Or maybe, you just can’t decide what kind of voice your interpretation character needs to really get the audience laughing. Once you’ve identified the area you’re stuck in, ask yourself the following questions about it.
1. “What is something I could do here that I’ve never seen done before?” This prompt will begin to push your brain off of the familiar paths it’s used to trodding. Remember, you’re not trying to “fit in” through mimicry, you’re trying to “STAND OUT” through creativity!
2. Ask yourself “What is something I could do here that makes no sense, but I just like it?” This question forces your brain to think non-logically about the solution for a moment. This will further push your thoughts away from the beaten path in hopes of discovering new ideas never before considered. As my mom always says “You won’t find your lost item in the place you’ve already looked 10 times.”
Ask yourself those two questions over and over again until you come up with at least one idea that you like, an idea that you could actually use! Write it down. Now, using that idea as inspiration, come up with 2-3 more ideas that either improve upon the original idea, make it more clever, more unique, more CREATIVE, or just different in some way.
If you follow these simple steps, you can often come up with an idea that is substantially better than the first idea that pops into your head. And don’t be surprised if you usually have to come up with 10 ideas before you settle on one that’s truly creative and worthy of being presented to an audience! Your brain is a powerful tool if you can make it work for you instead of against you. Have fun breaking your brain!
Thanks for reading my article! My name is Cody Dedon and I’m now offering private, virtual coaching through Lasting Impact. I coach interpretation and platform speeches for all ages. I competed in speech and debate for 5 years in high school where I claimed over 25 first place titles including 5 national championship titles. I’ve instructed well over 1500 students and would LOVE to be your coach! Whether you’re a beginner or an advanced speaker, I can help you reach that next level you’ve been striving for. Schedule a Coaching Call with Cody (or any of our FANTASTIC coaches today)!
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