-: I want to start by thanking you all for your time. 2 2
And for giving me the opportunity to present 3 3
my humble thoughts on how to give a speech. 4 4
Starting your speech with Thank You 5 5
is the most conservative and lowest risk 6 6
way to start a speech. 7 7
You want to especially thank those that travel 8 8
from far away to attend the speech, 9 9
or conference, or shareholder meeting, 10 10
or wedding speech, that's what I did in mine. 11 11
We'll talk about my wedding speech later. 12 12
This is also usually done 13 13
with more personal engagements, right? 14 14
Sometimes with professional ones you don't 15 15
thank as many people coming, unless it's a big conference. 16 16
But personal events, you always do, right? 17 17
It's your great aunt, or uncle, that traveled 18 18
from far away, and you thank them. 19 19
Okay so, and here's an example. 20 20
We want to start by thanking those of you 21 21
who traveled from far away to attend our wedding, 22 22
including people from Artentina, Brazil, Chile, 23 23
Denmark, Egypt, France, Greece, Hawaii, Ireland, 24 24
Jamaica, and the Yukon. 25 25
Okay, I don't know if you noticed there, 26 26
you might have, I actually said all those countries 27 27
in alphabetical order, right? 28 28
It is what it is so people don't get offended. 29 29
And if there's somebody that passed a huge milestone, 30 30
then mention this person in your Thank You speech. 31 31
For example, I want to thank you all for giving me 32 32
the opportunity to present today. 33 33
I also want to congratulate John Smith, 34 34
who I met last night, and I found out he is retiring 35 35
from the firm after 50 years, wow! 36 36
And everybody claps, that sort of thing, okay? 37 37
Or, oh, and you can add this on as well, 38 38
I asked John Smith, or John, for one piece 39 39
of advice on how I can stay and progress 40 40
for the next 50 years in my company. 41 41
And he gave me some incredibly inspirational advice. 42 42
He said that, and, whatever, say what he said. 43 43
But everybody will focus, you'll know they're focusing 44 44
'cause it's very quiet, you won't hear people shuffling, 45 45
trying to use their iPhone, that sort of thing. 46 46
And actually it's pretty good feedback, 47 47
when you don't hear much shuffling and stuff, 48 48
people are paying attention. 49 49
And later on in the course I'll talk about 50 50
how to read the audience, okay? 51 51
Moving on. 52 52
If the speech is speech is to a company you already work at, 53 53
then starting the speech with Thank You 54 54
might not be all that appropriate, okay? 55 55
Now, if more than say 25% of the audience has a language 56 56
other than English as their first language, 57 57
then, if it's appropriate, 58 58
learn a couple of sentences in that language, 59 59
and include that in the way you start your speech. 60 60
Your pronunciation doesn't have to be perfect, 61 61
just practice it, and try to do your best, 62 62
as the audience will really appreciate it. 63 63
And I've noticed that a lot of rock stars, 64 64
when you go to concerts, if you're overseas, or you listen, 65 65
or watch concerts from overseas, they'll say a couple words, 66 66
and sometimes they'll sing parts of their songs 67 67
in different languages, and, the pronunciation 68 68
is never perfect, but the crowd goes crazy. 69 69
They just, they appreciate it, you're trying, okay? 70 70
They really appreciate it, right? 71 71
And I actually for, for my courses on Udemy, 72 72
one of my courses, the entire MBA course, 73 73
I translated into, I don't know, 11, 12 languages, 74 74
and I go to Rev.com for my translations. 75 75
And the cost to translate is 10 cents per word, 76 76
and it's totally worth it, right? 77 77
And this is what you can do, and the minimum cost 78 78
for translation at Rev.com is 20 bucks, okay? 79 79
But I think it really helps to go a long way 80 80
if you do this, especially if it's 81 81
a life-defining business speech, right? 82 82
With big potential customers in the audience. 83 83
Alternatively, you can go to Fiverr.com, 84 84
that's www. five with two Rs. 85 85
F-I-V-E-R-R .com, where the minimum price is five bucks, 86 86
the quality's a bit lower there, 87 87
but you always get what you pay for, both are great. 88 88
And actually here's the example of a way 89 89
to start a presentation in French using 90 90
a translation from Rev.com. 91 91
My accent's not that great, I'm gonna try my best, okay? 92 92
(speaking French) 93 93
Now for those of you that speak French, 94 94
I am so sorry, about my sub-optimal butchering 95 95
of your beautiful language, okay? 96 96
And if you have many languages represented 97 97
at the event you can even simply say 98 98
Thank You in a couple different languages, 99 99
if it's appropriate, okay? 100 100
Now, if the speech your are giving, 101 101
is a make it or break it event in your life, 102 102
consider this, I've never done this, but here's an idea, 103 103
hire translators, right? 104 104
Ones that can give out headphones at the event, 105 105
and they can translate in real time and put headphones on. 106 106
Kinda like when you go to a museum and wear 107 107
those headphones, at the Louvre, or at other cool places. 108 108
And this will actually really be appreciated, 109 109
as it's not done often enough, right? 110 110
And if you take this approach then please make sure 111 111
to speak slower, right? 112 112
Don't do what I do, do what I say. 113 113
Speak slower than you normally do 114 114
so the translator can translate. 115 115
And, French, Italian, Portuguese and German 116 116
is easy to read, cause they have 117 117
the same alphabet as English. 118 118
And there's many other languages too, right? 119 119
What do you do if the languages is a different alphabet 120 120
and you want to say something in that language? 121 121
Well in this case if you use Fiverr.com for the translation, 122 122
ask the translator to write the English alphabet 123 123
form version of the translation for you as well, okay? 124 124
For example, Thank You in Japanese 125 125
will be written like this. 126 126
(speaks Japanese) 127 127
If the presentation you're giving is one that 128 128
discusses a milestone you have hit professionally 129 129
or an update on the progress of something 130 130
work-related, please thank your team profusely, 131 131
as it's the right thing to do, and everybody loves it too 132 132
when credit is shared or given to others, okay? 133 133
And you actually see this a lot at the Academy Awards 134 134
when speakers get up there and they're holding 135 135
the Academy Award, and they start with, 136 136
I want to thank the Academy, I want to thank God, 137 137
I want to thank my family, the director, 138 138
my fellow actors, producers, the name of the studio, 139 139
they say here, Universal Studios or whatever it might be, 140 140
with whom this would not be possible, all that stuff. 141 141
Just YouTube Oscar winners, and just watch how they present. 142 142
And how they thank people, and, 143 143
I want us to always learn from the best, so, 144 144
if you get a chance, please pause this 145 145
and watch this video of Cuba Gooding Jr. accepting the award 146 146
for Best Supporting Actor in Jerry Maguire. 147 147
And that was the first date my wife and I went on. 148 148
He does a great job of thanking many people, 149 149
right from the heart. 150 150
Now, I want to be as thorough as possible, 151 151
and give you every type of example as I can, 152 152
so you can choose how to thank your audience 153 153
when starting your presentation. 154 154
So, here's four more examples. 155 155
Just watch the Thank You portion, or more if you want, 156 156
of some of these videos which are quite inspiring. 157 157
Number one, we're gonna kick it off with Bill Gates. 158 158
Here is Bill Gates presenting at Harvard, 159 159
after they finally gave him his degree, he dropped out, 160 160
I don't know if you know that, he doesn't have a degree. 161 161
Neither did Steve Jobs, neither did Mark Zuckerberg, 162 162
all that sort of thing. 163 163
So, the example here of Bill Gates is 164 164
the most conservative and most formal way 165 165
to start a Thank You speech with, okay? 166 166
It's got a bit of humor, which is typical of Bill Gates. 167 167
Watch the first couple of minutes of this speech 168 168
as the Thank You portion of the speech lasted 169 169
close to two minutes, and he is self-deprecating too, 170 170
which is a very admirable trait when you're speaking. 171 171
Making fun of yourself. 172 172
And so, we're gonna come back to analyzing 173 173
Bill Gates later on, in Act four, Scene 11, 174 174
when we discuss starting a speech with a funny video. 175 175
Okay, and we'll get to that later. 176 176
So, again, watch the first couple minutes 177 177
of the Bill Gates Harvard speech if you have time, thanks. 178 178
Okay, in terms of the second example, here is Malala, 179 179
who's one of my heroes. 180 180
And she was the youngest Nobel Prize winner in history. 181 181
I mean, this woman is amazing. 182 182
She stood up to the Taliban, 183 183
and demanded equal rights for women. 184 184
And I hope you get the opportunity to do something 185 185
in your life that receives this type of audience feedback, 186 186
so you can thank them. 187 187
So anyway just check out the first couple of minutes 188 188
or so, of this speech, I think it's amazing. 189 189
She's actually very self-deprecating as well, 190 190
and quite humorous, and it's very personal, 191 191
she talks about her family, and all that stuff, as well. 192 192
My god, to be that brave at such a young age, 193 193
and to be able to communicate like that. 194 194
She's gonna go on to do great things. 195 195
More great things in life, right? 196 196
Moving on the third example 197 197
of starting a speech with Thank You. 198 198
Check out how Leonardo DiCaprio starts this speech 199 199
by thanking everyone that won this award with him. 200 200
He thanked his parents, the people he worked with, 201 201
et cetera, it's classy. 202 202
And he certainly does not take this award for granted. 203 203
Check it out. 204 204
Let's talk about number four, okay? 205 205
Thanking people from your heart, 206 206
and being natural when you do it. 207 207
You might be called upon to make an impromptu 208 208
or unplanned speech one day. 209 209
And if so, when you get up there, 210 210
just be grateful, right? 211 211
Or say you win an award and you weren't expecting to. 212 212
You're at a company, you're like, oh my god, 213 213
I won this award, just let it all out and just thank people. 214 214
And consider saying something personal about you while you 215 215
thank people, maybe something that you learned as well. 216 216
And you don't really have to plan for this 217 217
or practice this because, you're just being you anyway, 218 218
and thanking people, and just talking about your life. 219 219
Okay, please watch the first five minutes of this speech. 220 220
It's a thank you speech by Michael Jordan, 221 221
when he was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame. 222 222
And by the way, Michael Jordan was cut from his 223 223
high school basketball team when he was younger. 224 224
And when people ask him later in life why 225 225
he became successful, he had the prophetic quote, 226 226
he said, "I have failed over and over and over again, 227 227
"and that is why I succeeded." 228 228
Here's the thank you video 229 229
from Michael Jordan, please watch.