HOW TO GIVE A BETTER SPEECH THAN OBAMA and change your world - (The Iron Lady v The Heckler) Darren Kelly, Kellcomm, Blog - Day 42

Hi,

At the 1980 Tory Party Conference, a heckler entered the arena and shouted abuse at Margaret Thatcher as she gave her keynote address. ‘The Iron Lady’ responded in a way that showed how great communicators deal with interruptions. When somebody interrupts your speech, there is no point avoiding the issue. You are better off incorporating their words or actions into your speech. However, you must display some humour or understanding that does not belittle your heckler. ‘The Iron Lady’ responded by saying, “Never mind, it’s wet outside. I expect they want to come in. You can’t blame them; it’s always better where the Tory’s are.” ‘The Iron Lady’ acknowledged the interruption but chose to use it to motivate her party instead of belittling the heckler. It showed her speed of thought, her sense of humour, and her ability to move on quickly from the incident.

You must expect interruptions from people in your audience who have a different agenda to you. How you respond to it, says a great deal about you as a speaker.

Tomorrow, I will analyse what I believe was the Labour Party’s greatest speech against ‘The Iron Lady’.

Take care,

Darren.

PS: 'HOW TO GIVE A BETTER SPEECH THAN OBAMA and change your world' - is available on iTunes and Amazon NOW!
Audio Version only.
Text version out January 31st.


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