Props in Public Speaking

Video Transcript

"Now as we have discussed how to basically make a speech, the basic fundamentals and how to start thinking about how to put one together in an impromptu fashion, there are some things that can help you to really deliver something that communicates a very personal message. Now I'll just give you an example. Let's suppose that I am standing here in front of a group of people. Maybe we have our club together and we are discussing again the question about falling in to the swimming pool. And I take a look around me and I am looking for what you might call in the film lingo as a prop. Something that I can use to help demonstrate my message. So I'll look around and as I'm speaking I will say, hmm, well maybe I can use something like, a ha, well here is an incense burner. And I say to myself, well it has some pictures of some horses and it has a little dish on it like this for burning the incense. Then I would say, well all three of these horses might, boom! fall in to that swimming pool. What I have just done with you is I have used a prop to try to create a visual image. And in my left hand I have this dish. And I say to you, you know what. Although this is on top, maybe what we need to do with our swimming pool is to put something underneath to make sure that our horses don't fall under. And that's all that I'm saying. Let's make sure that we have something underneath to hold up the horses. So why don't we put some sort of a non-slip surface on to this swimming pool on the surrounding area where people walk. And then we can reduce the number of people who get drowned in our swimming pool. And hopefully we can also reduce the number of horses that drown in our water."