An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis
Personality. There seems to be this idea out in the world that it’s better to blend in, not stick out. But if you’re busy blending in, you won’t be able to get the attention you’re looking for to get your message out. You don’t need to dress like a clown, but find a way to show off your personality enough to generate interest from your audience.
At some point in our lives, many of us will have to give a talk to a large group of people. What does it take to be a highly effective public speaker? How can you improve your public speaking skills? How can you overcome a fear of speaking in public? What does it take to give a very interesting and engaging public talk? In this interview series called “5 Things You Need To Be A Highly Effective Public Speaker” we are talking to successful and effective public speakers to share insights and stories from their experience. As a part of this series, we had the pleasure of interviewing David Tyler.
David Tyler is a communication hacker, speaker, and coach based in Montreal, Canada. He writes and speaks about the Art of Communicating Ideas. Speaking from 30+ years in TV & radio broadcasting, his mantra of ‘Stop Communicating and Start Connecting’ is his counsel to anyone attempting to use media, old or new, broadcast, or online.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Our readers would love to get to know you a bit better. Can you tell us the story of how you grew up?
I spent my early years in Hartford, Connecticut, but moved to Montreal with my family at nine years old after my father accepted a teaching job at McGill University.
I studied and performed music from an early age, and began dabbling in acting in my teens, so I was never shy about getting on a stage; in fact, I reveled in it!
By my early twenties, I realized that music wasn’t my path, and after studying communications at Concordia University, I began my career in broadcasting. I spent most of that time as an on-air radio personality, a writer, and producer and dabbled in television as an on-camera weather presenter. I still work in broadcasting but behind the scenes.
Education and learning was very important while growing up and still are. My parents, both teachers, instilled a thirst for knowledge that helped me excel in broadcasting and now as a public speaker.
Researching, writing, and performing is who I am because of the environment where I grew up.
Can you share a story with us about what brought you to this specific career path?
One of my side hustles is voice acting, using my voice for commercials, documentaries, TV series, and cartoons. About ten years ago, I began coaching other actors to be better performers and think of themselves as voice-over entrepreneurs. It seemed like a natural progression to start organizing and putting on full-day seminars and workshops as part of that venture.
When I realized I had more to give to an even wider audience, I branched off into staging marketing seminars for small business owners and now communication lectures for professionals of all kinds.
I come from a family of teachers and see this stage of my professional career as simply joining the family business.
Can you tell us the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?
To say that my broadcasting career has been “interesting” would be a severe understatement. Broadcasting is a very dynamic career that makes every day uniquely interesting.
If I had to choose one specific moment, it would be the time I received a phone call at the radio station from my boss while I was writing a script for that night’s show. He told me I had an unexpected guest interview — with Ozzy Osborne, who would be arriving in 10-minutes. Usually, interviews are set up days, sometimes weeks in advance, so this was an unusual request. To add to the challenge, it was the early days of the internet, and preparing for an interview was a lot more than a quick Google search.
I welcomed Ozzy Osborne to the radio station with a couple of questions scribbled on a pad of paper. He was in town performing at a small club and decided to take some time out to talk about one of his charities. He was a generous interviewee, and the few questions I’d gathered were more than enough for a full 35-minute interview!
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
It was my first large seminar, and I had a larger than usual stage to work from, so I decided to use a wireless clicker to advance my slides. Up until then, I just leaned over and clicked the forward button on my Mac’s keyboard, so the clicker was a new step. However, the clicker I was using was that white one they delivered with all Macs in those days, and I had never tested the range, which, as it turns out, was only about 2-feet! So there I was, trying to walk around and talk with a useless clicker.
Luckily my photographer had a Bluetooth mouse with a wider range that we hooked up to my laptop.
The next day, I bought the August clicker I still use today. It has a rubber, non-slip grip with a red laser pointer even! It comes in a small carrying case that stores two fully charged backup batteries. Pro tip: Always have backup batteries.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
In the early 90s, while I was starting in radio, I befriended a young journalist who was writing and publishing a music magazine called Arena Rock on a home computer, something that few people did in those days. He generously offered his computer and printing expertise to help with some of the marketing I was doing for my company. We remained friends over the years as our families and careers grew.
By 2008 when I stepped away from radio, not only had Mitch Joel established himself as a tech expert but also as a sought-after public speaker. When I approached him for help understanding the world of speaking, he was as generous with his time as he had always been. That 90-minute conversation over Starbucks coffee set me on the path I’m on today.
You have been blessed with great success in a career path that can be challenging and intimidating. Do you have any words of advice for others who may want to embark on this career path, but seem daunted by the prospect of failure?
The truth is that it’s all scary until you just do it, and I’m not just talking about public speaking. I’m talking about life. I’ve taught my sons that if you learn from a failure, it wasn’t a failure at all but just another step toward success.
If you approach public speaking with a sense of curiosity and wonder, where everything is a learning experience, you will have a reliable foundation to build a career.
What drives you to get up everyday and give your talks? What is the main empowering message that you aim to share with the world?
We live in an overcommunicated world, and despite having better technology than we’ve ever had before, we are not better communicators. If anything, the technology simply amplifies how bad we are at communicating with each other.
My hope is that by learning to be better communicators, we can make this a better world — a world of understanding, a world where connection is effortless, and empathy toward each other is a foregone conclusion.
Am I imagining the impossible? Maybe. But even if I can help just a few people create more meaningful connections, I feel I would have made a difference.
You have such impressive work. What are some of the most interesting or exciting projects you are working on now? Where do you see yourself heading from here?
I’ve recently put together a new talk where I’m combining my voice acting skills with my continued efforts to help professionals become better communicators. It’s a talk called: “Speak To Influence: Unlock the Power of the Human Voice to Motivate, and Inspire Change.”
It’s a course for C-Suite executives, managers, and business owners who want to inspire and motivate the people who work for them. We all talk, but it’s a rare skill when we can move others to the point of action.
I hope to introduce at least one new talk centered around heart-based communications every six months.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
Three years ago, I started a series called #tylertruths on Facebook. It’s a collection of about 100 life lesson quotes so far. Sometimes I’m inspired by an event or conversation — sometimes by something I read.
About 2-months into the pandemic, I came across the Khalil Gibran poem called Fear, where he tells the story of a river going toward the ocean and its fear of the unknown. He urges the river not to be afraid that by entering the ocean, fear will disappear.
It was very timely. At the time, we were all feeling the same apprehension about the situation in the world. I distilled my thought down to, “The more you let go, the freer you’ll feel.” As we slid deeper into the new pandemic world, I kept reminding myself of that.
It might have been easier to hold on to the shore, so to speak, but by letting go, I could continue doing what I was doing and perhaps inspire others to follow the flow.
Ok, thank you for all that. Here is the main question of our interview. What are your “5 Things You Need To Be A Highly Effective Public Speaker?” Please share a story or example for each.
There are more than five things to be a highly effective public speaker, but if I had to whittle it down to just 5, I’d say:
1. Have passion and purpose
Nothing says boring, like the lack of passion. If you believe in what you’re saying or are passionate about what drives you to get up in the morning, say it with enthusiasm. If you can’t be enthusiastic about what you have to say, how do you expect your audience to buy into your message? Decide what your purpose is before you stand up to speak, and then let the passion fly!
2. Personality
There seems to be this idea out in the world that it’s better to blend in, not stick out. But if you’re busy blending in, you won’t be able to get the attention you’re looking for to get your message out. You don’t need to dress like a clown, but find a way to show off your personality enough to generate interest from your audience.
3. A sense of humor
Don’t get me wrong, you don’t need to be a standup comedian to be a highly effective speaker, not at all. Sometimes, a little self-deprecating humor is enough. Just showing that you can see the funny side of life and that you’re not always dry and serious will help make the audience relax around you and, as a result, will be open to what you’re saying.
4. Have stories to tell
Storytelling is the world’s oldest profession. It’s what makes us human! We learn our most valuable lessons from stories. Aesops Fables is a classic example of that. So be sure to include stories that support your message. People don’t want to hear about that time the valet lost your keys if the moral of the story has nothing to do with your talk. We learn through relevant stories.
5. Have an expressive voice
Voice is my forte. One of my talks for professionals is directly about this, called: “Speak to Influence: Unlock the Power of the Human Voice to Motivate and Inspire Action,” where I talk about the 3-pillars of the voice and how understanding the way your voice works can have a profound, positive effect on the people around you.
Express yourself and your intention by changing your pitch, pace, register, volume, and while you’re at it, explore prosody to engage with your audience.
As you know, many people are terrified of speaking in public. Can you give some of your advice about how to overcome this fear?
One of the exercises I teach is Box Breathing, a technique taught to the US Marines, who often operate in very stressful situations. Box breathing helps heighten performance and concentration and is a powerful stress reliever.
You can do this exercise anywhere right before you speak by breathing in through your nose, counting slowly to four. Hold your breath for 4 seconds, then slowly exhale through your mouth for 4 seconds. Repeat those steps until you start to feel the stress slip away.
Box breathing is a practice I do before I speak anywhere and use in stressful situations to keep my focus.
Another piece of advice is that it’s essential to memorize the first 2 minutes of any talk you give. By the time you get through those first 2 minutes, you will have settled in, and you will be getting positive reinforcement from your audience. Don’t let the dreaded imposter syndrome get you. All audiences want you to succeed; they’re rooting for you.
And finally, smile! Smiling is clinically proven to release dopamine and serotonin, which increase your feelings of happiness and reduces stress.
You are a person of huge influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be?
If I could inspire a movement, it would be to create an army of master communicators who would spread out across the planet and teach the ways of heart-based communication so we can all understand each other and get along.
True leaders don’t create followers; they create other leaders. That’s how the movement would grow.
But let me ask though, if this is going to be a bonafide movement, could we have a secret handshake?
Is there a person in the world whom you would love to have lunch with, and why? Maybe we can tag them and see what happens!
Bill Clinton. It’s not political; it’s personal. He’s one of the greatest living communicators of our time. His ability to deliver a point and create an emotional connection with his audience is undeniable. I want to understand how he does what he does in such a natural, easy-going way.
Plus, I’m hoping for a few cooking suggestions — have you seen how in shape he is?
Are you on social media? How can our readers follow you online?
I’m primarily on Facebook, and Instagram, as @davidtylerspeaks and on LinkedIn, too.
This was so informative, thank you so much! We wish you continued success!
I appreciate the opportunity to share my story! I sincerely believe that the more we can connect our stories, the better off the world will be. Meaningful connections create abundance in business and our personal lives.
David Tyler On The 5 Things You Need To Be A Highly Effective Public Speaker was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
