Whether you have five minutes to convince your boss, or twenty to pitch in front of a panel of investors: speaking in public, without stammering, and winning the bet, remains a high-flying exercise. Obtaining success too, whether it involves validating a project, opening a position, defending an annual report or raising funds. “Be natural,” our friends would surely encourage us before entering the stage – or our manager’s office. This is precisely the issue: how to manage to be as natural as possible when the time comes, despite stress, stares from the audience and memory lapses?
Accept yourself
“By getting rid of certain shackles which have undoubtedly formed and shaped us, but which we must transform in order to no longer endure,” responds eloquently the coach Martine Guillaud. Voice, actress and director, trained at HEC, she now accompanies Cac40 leaders, ministers, deputies or mayors of large cities, senior civil servants, journalists... She also provides courses at Paris-Saclay University in as part of a Lab'Oratoire and collaborates with Hec Executive Coaching, traveling the planet to train leaders. Every year, finally, she guides the finalists of the Madame Figaro Business with Attitude prize in preparing their pitch.
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From her experience, Martine Guillaud retains a cardinal value: to speak successfully is to assume that you are yourself. “Without being a psychologist, I would say that eloquence touches on the person's privacy and their difficulty not to flagellate themselves,” she continues. I therefore work on assertiveness, singularity and the way in which, in our society, we manage to take our place. Engaging in oratory work means confronting the child we were, our journey, and all our labels. The challenge is to get rid of it, if necessary, to firmly anchor your adult identity and become an actor in yourself. Communicating involves accepting who we are, whoever we are.”
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Which amounts to embracing and valuing one's personality, one's syntax, one's lexicon... In short, not trying to put on a costume or disguise oneself, but to seek ways to sublimate and showcase what makes us identify. “The challenge is to admit that what we have within ourselves is enough,” insists Martine Guillaud, “and to accept imperfection. Seeking perfect speech means watching yourself do it, remaining in control and taking the wrong path. On the contrary, it’s about embodying its message.” And, for this, a few keys prove precious.
Get to the point
Writing your pitch in advance is essential, assures the coach. With two fundamental questions in mind: what do you want to say to yourself? And to whom? “A good starting point can be to think about your interlocutor, to try to understand what will interest them, challenge them,” suggests Martine Guillaud. Who is he ? What is he sensitive to? What will convince him of the interest of what I say? An investor will of course not have the same expectations as a client or a manager. To refine your angle of attack, it may be a good idea to take stock of what you know about him. Remembering our past conversations or information gleaned from colleagues or acquaintances. Finding out about the big project he is leading, the financial constraints he is subject to or even his personal passions: all this can help guide his pitch. “Little by little, we are looking for the right window, the one through which our audience will understand our project and its originality.”
Another source of impact: conciseness. Martine Guillaud talks about “stripping down your ideas”. “We tend to use a lot of words to express our thoughts, at the risk of drowning out those who listen to us. We are more impactful if we prioritize the information to get to the essentials.” In writing, this also involves using simple, short sentences, avoiding twists and turns to state your arguments, and putting forward clear figures. A way to ensure that information gets across and imprints in the audience's mind.
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Use emotions well
The pitfall to avoid: reciting a cold and monotonous text, devoid of emotion. It starts with the catchphrase. “A good start to a pitch immediately sets the tone,” emphasizes Martine Guillaud. It is good to decide in advance what emotion we want to convey, what energy we are trying to release. What do we want the audience to remember about us? Our sympathy? Our intellectual dexterity? Our caustic humor? It’s decided. Then, we can work on our pitch to move towards that.”
There are no absolute rules: everyone knows their subject and knows themselves
Martine Guillaud
Then begins a clever composition exercise. If emotion plays a key role in the transmission of information, it is difficult to say everything in the same tone. Being funny or, on the contrary, solemn from start to finish would be exhausting for both the speaker and the listener. Hence the importance of instilling variations, of using several language registers and tones to give rhythm and breath to one's speech. Summon a little nostalgia to evoke a memory – personal or involving our colleagues –, a touch of humor to keep the audience's attention, or seriousness when the time comes for the figures... “The pitch is made up of several bundles of ideas, illustrates Martine Guillaud. To each of these packages, we can associate a color, a tone. This sequence creates variations and, if the whole is balanced, gives coherence to our discourse.
But then, should you feign emotion, force yourself to laugh or frown in an exaggerated way? “No, because there is no absolute rule or miracle recipe. Everyone knows their subject and knows themselves. The ideal is therefore to stick as closely as possible to the emotions that we know how to embody, to use the same language as usual.” A priori, we defend a project in which we believe. So it's not about pretending or lying, but about saying what you really think... then putting it into action to have an impact.
All this is like music: we seek to create a landscape
Martine Guillaud
Embody your story
And, in this matter, stammering or getting lost in your text can completely distract the attention of your audience or, worse, make us panic and lose our means. It is safer to repeat your text by reading it out loud. It's also an effective way to spot words you're stumbling over or passages that drag on. “To avoid diction traps, therefore, but also to feel the general effect of your pitch,” continues Martine Guillaud. To the ear, a text may seem indigestible or a little heavy. Hearing it allows you to make it your own and, sometimes, to realize that it lacks poetry, breadth. All of this is like music: we are trying to create a landscape.”
And above all, to embody it. The whole body comes into play in a successful presentation. First there are the hands, which we often don't know what to do with. How to avoid dangling arms and hands flailing in all directions? “Through practice,” replies the coach. By training, you can modulate your gestural choreography.” You can also work on your posture in general. The hands will move more naturally if you stand straight, or if you “unblock your pelvis” to avoid back tension.
The posture that changes everything
“It’s about gaining verticality,” explains Martine Guillaud. “We try to have our feet firmly anchored in the ground, like the roots of a tree, and we imagine that a string is attached to the top of our head. " We stretch delicately, we straighten up almost imperceptibly to lengthen our necks, relax our shoulders and look far away.
“What matters is having an open and flexible posture. If something unexpected happens during your pitch, we will be much more able to react because we are not set in stone.” It also gives stature, a convincing appearance, and above all helps to clear the solar plexus, the diaphragm and the entire respiratory system.
Breathe
Control tower of our emotions, the stomach contains 200 million neurons which capture, among other things, serotonin, this neurotransmitter which brings a feeling of calm and relief. “Breathing impacts the flow and fluidity of speech, but also all the signs of stress,” emphasizes Martine Guillaud. When we speak in public without breathing properly, our heart races, our hands are sweaty, our eyes droop, our arms are frozen or, on the contrary, very agitated... In short, we lose control over our non-verbal expression.”
A simple and effective breathing exercise
Martine Guillaud recommends a cycle of three phases. First, we inhale while inflating the stomach, we pause for a while, and we exhale. Same thing with the thorax: we inhale by opening the chest, we block, we breathe. Finally, we place our hands on our floating ribs - the lowest, in the lower back, we try to stretch this area. All this by breathing through the mouth to mobilize the entire vocal apparatus, from the larynx to the lips.
Smile
Smiling also makes all the difference. “This gives a clearer, brighter voice because it avoids pressing on the vocal cords,” explains Martine Guillaud. Except that stage fright or stress prevents you from smiling.” Here too, everything is a story of naturalness well staged. To avoid appearing paralyzed in front of your audience, the coach advises forcing yourself to smile as widely as possible before going on stage - or in a meeting. An exaggerated smile that you will naturally relax a little, but not completely, when you start speaking. “It’s like a spring stretched to its maximum, which doesn’t immediately return to its initial shape.” And which helps us to speak slowly, to establish real contact with those who listen to us. A prerequisite to capture their attention.