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Memorandum

To: Mrs. Renee Pay

From: Connor Pulsipher

Date: November 13, 2013

Re: Professional Speaker Analysis


I had the opportunity to attend the 14
th
Annual Leadership Conference at Utah Valley
University on Monday, October 21, 2013. The title of the conference was STEP UP: Fighting the
Fear; Finding Your Voice. Matt Townsend was the keynote speaker in the conference. He was
an excellent orator and an entertaining person to watch and listen to. I enjoyed his speech
because it was funny, upbeat, and interesting. He was able to keep the attention of his
audience throughout the speech by using nonverbals, telling stories, and relating real-life
examples that pertained directly to the listeners.

Organization

Matt Townsend demonstrated that it doesnt matter who you are; what matters is who you
choose to be. He said that as humans we are beings of infinite worth and that our potential is
unlimited. To display this proposition he shared stories from his own life from which he had
learned valuable lessons. The audience was fully engaged the entire length of the speech which
was surprising considering their demographics. Its not easy to hold an audience made up
primarily of teenagers. He told funny stories about his childhood and adolescence and then
seamlessly transitioned into a serious one about his friend Craig and another about a young
handicapped woman he took to a dance. Like Mr. Townsend said, all fears come from thoughts.
Children are not afraid of anything until they learn fear. This is a concept that was introduced to
me first by Brian Tracy during a Maximum Achievement seminar. Once we overcome fear,
Matt Townsend taught, we are able to unleash our divine potential and become who we have
always wanted to be. He shared a quote from a poem by Marianne Williamson that goes as
follows: Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are
powerful beyond measure. It is our light not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask
ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous? Actually, who are you not
to be? The profound meaning of those words can be found in everything around us. I know
that I personally have felt inadequate at times in my life, and Im sure others have as well. Its
not easy to overcome our fears, but as we do, we are able to achieve far more than we could
have imagined possible. We merely needed a reminder from Mr. Townsend to recognize it.
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The organizational pattern Matt Townsend used was Cause-and-Effect. He spoke about events
from his life that all led to where he is today. Specifically, the causes were experiences from his
life like when he was made fun of, when he helped a friend, and when he made a young
womans day by taking her to a school dance. The effect was the theme that he shared with us
that we are more than our mistakes and that we can move on after failure. From each
experience he taught a lesson that applied directly to the audience of high school students. He
used deductive reasoning to bring many unique and separate examples to one overall
conclusion. When he was young, he spelled the word lion wrong in a spelling bee. He
accidentally spelled it l-o-i-n. From then on, to his humiliation, he was called loin boy. Later,
he gained another nickname: jam bomber. It originated when he threw an unopened can of
jam into the fire at his first campout as a Boy Scout. The can exploded and sprayed hot jam all
over everybody earning him the nickname, jam bomber. Lastly, he shared an experience
about taking a beautiful young woman in a wheelchair to a school dance. It ended up being one
his best high school memories. The story was touching and it led to his conclusion that each and
every one of us has the potential to be great.

Supporting Material
Ethos

Ethos is defined as the credibility of the speaker. Mr. Townsend definitely had a significant
amount of Ethos. Most of it was presented during his introduction but it became more
apparent as the speech progressed. On paper, he is an educated business owner with a lot of
experience working with people. He is the owner and president of the Townsend Research
Center. He has received a PhD in Human Development and both a Bachelors and a Masters
degree in Communications. He also has his own radio show which airs weekly, and he has spent
nine years working with Franklin Covey. Obviously, Matt Townsend has devoted a significant
portion of his life to education and experience. In addition to these accomplishments, he is the
proud father of six children. That may mean more than all of his college degrees combined. He
works very well with people and he was able to connect with the audience in a special way.
However, its tough to understand how genuine and good-natured he really is unless you listen
to him speak in person.

Pathos

Pathos is defined as the emotion used by the speaker to connect with the audience. This is one
of my favorite appeals because Pathos is usually what moves a listener to action, which is the
point of all public speaking. Mr. Townsend demonstrated Pathos through many different
emotions. He started out with his own depression. He talked about how his parents were
divorced and he thought maybe he was just jacked up. In other words, he had low self-
esteem. He then moved into how tough it was to be made fun of. He was called loin boy and
jam bomber but he was able to overcome that. He told the story about taking the young
woman in a wheelchair to the school dance. That feeling of redemption taught him more than
all those years of being made fun of. His story of improvement was inspiring and it made his
message more personal and more meaningful.
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Logos

Logos is defined as the logic used by a speaker to convey a purpose or validate a claim. Mr.
Townsend used Logos throughout his speech mixed in with Pathos to connect his ideas.
Logically, he said, you cannot control anyone else. Its not your fault if someone else sees you a
certain way, and it certainly doesnt matter what they think. You can always change who you
are even if others dont see it. He shared a biking story about how we can get further if we
work as a team. It is much easier to do things with help than it is to do things on our own. Also,
Matt Townsend talked about how our fears do not define us. That came across as Logos to me
because it makes logical sense. If you want to reach your full potential, you cant get caught up
in the smoke as he put it. You cant let the little things that dont last long such as popularity
and amount of friends get you down.

Delivery

Matt Townsend was a very prepared public speaker and it was evident that he has given many
speeches in his career. He used both nonverbals and visual aids to keep the attention of the
audience. He used hand gestures to emphasize key points and he moved around the stage
rather than sitting in one spot. He also raised his voice at times. Mr. Townsend is very good at
vocal imitations. He made funny impressions of Yoda and of other people. It made his stories
more realistic and interesting. He also paused for effect at the best times, especially when
switching from humorous to serious and vice versa.

A few visual aids were used during the speech, but they were definitely not the focus of it. He
showed a picture of a biker, a dolphin and a cow in the water, and a diagram of fire. He said
that he was the cow in the picture. At first, that seemed like a negative animal to compare
himself to especially in comparison to the dolphin; however, it was actually quite remarkable
when I thought about it. I have never seen a cow jumping in and out of the water like in the
picture. Although it was fake, it taught me to find the positive in every situation and focus on
that rather than on the negative.

Motivation

Motivation is a critical element of any speech because its the whole reason the speaker
decides to talk. Matt Townsend was a very motivated speaker because he was speaking about a
very important topic. Teenagers all over the world struggle with self-esteem and its not a very
easy thing to talk about, but it cant be ignored. Mr. Townsend was bold enough to speak
openly and share personal experiences from his own life. He knows that our generation is the
future of this country, but many of us wont make it far without a serious attitude adjustment.
In my estimation, he succeeded in motivating the audience. His message reached me and Im
fairly certain it reached many others as well. I believe he chose the perfect topic for the
audience and he did a great job delivering that message because of his motivation.