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Memorandum

To: Mrs. Renee Pay

From: Elizabeth Allred

Date: November 5, 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 tittle of the conference was STEP UP: Fighting
the Fear; Finding Your Voice. Matt Townsend was the keynote speaker in the conference. He
was an amazing speaker. He was very exuberant about speaking and he had that kind of air
around him that just lit up the room. I went into that conference in the worst of moods and by
the end of his speech, it had cheered me up immensely. I was able to enjoy the rest of the
conference thanks to his speech and I absolutely loved his stories.

Organization

During his speech, Matt Townsend gave many stories of the silly things he had done in the past
that made him feel bad about himself. The first story was about him being in the spelling bee.
He was in the fifth grade at the time and a really good speller. The first round went by without a
hitch. Then it was the second round and his turn to spell. The teacher gave him the word lion
and without thinking he spells the word loin. Thats where he got the title of loin boy. The
moral of this stories that it doesnt matter who you are, it only matters what you do. . His next
story was about him knowing a girl from another country; this girls name was Yoda. He decided
to tease this poor girl about her name, until the principal stepped in. The moral to this story is
you really shouldnt make fun of people. Especially for things they cant control like their name.
His third story involved him and his math teacher. He took a test and didnt do so well so his
teacher gave him another chance. For the whole weekend he worried about not doing well
until his mom told him that he is a Townsend and Townsends dont do math. He then went to
his teacher the Monday of his test and told his teacher that he doesnt do math but his teacher
still had him do the test. I think the moral to this story is that you can do hard things which is
what we are learning in Company.

His fourth story, one of my personal favorites, was about him being at camp. He and all his
friends were sitting around the campfire eating dinner. Since he couldnt open the can of jam,
he had this great idea to throw it into the campfire. Of course, a few seconds after, the can
explodes and covers everyone in jam, thus he earned the nickname, Jam Bomber. The moral I
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got from this story was ask before you do something because it might just blow up in your face.
After that, his fifth story was about when he was in middle school. He always used to go to
dances with this girl, but they decided to stop going to dances with each other so he had to find
someone new. He knew this really sweet girl that was in a wheelchair and he decided that he
wanted to take her to this dance. Now when he told everyone about wanting to take her,
especially her dad, everyone was wondered what his true motive was. After talking to her dad
for several hours, he let them go and it was one of the best dances he had been to. The moral
of this story I think was that you can do whatever you set your mind too. Lastly, his sixth story
was about a friend he had, who had a seizure at school. Matt knew he had to go and see him,
but he didnt know what to say. Eventually, he decided to go and they ended up talking about
what it was like to have a seizure. His friend did not care about talking about seizures because
what mattered to him was that Matt had come. This last moral was that sometimes the best
thing that you can do for people, is to just simply be there. His point to all these stories was
about how we get so critical on ourselves for the silly things we do when there is no reason too
because, ultimately, it doesnt matter what we do, only who we are.

The organizational pattern he used was Problem and Solution. The problem is that we get so
down on ourselves for the silly things we do. His solution to this problem was to remember that
it doesnt matter what you do, it matters who you are. Also in his speech, Matt Townsend used
inductive reasoning. I know this because inductive reasoning is defined as reasoning from
detailed facts to general principals. The six stories that he told about himself were the detailed
facts and he used them to tell us that it doesnt matter what we do, it matters who we are.
Since this was kind of a reoccurring theme, it made the audience connect very well because his
stories were relatable as we have all been Loin Boy in our lives. Because of how easy it was to
connect, it led to a very positive feeling coming from the audience.

Supporting Material

Ethos

Ethos is defined as a speakers credibly. Matt Townsend demonstrated Ethos with all the
accomplishments he has achieved, and all the things he does. These accomplishments are
earning his Bachelors and Masters degrees in Communication and also his Masters Degree in
Human Development. Just recently he also earned a Ph.D. in Human Development. Along with
all his accomplishments, Matt is also the founder and president of the Townsend Relationship
Center, trained for nine years with training industry leader Franklin Covey. He hosts talk shows
on KSL News Radio and on Sirius XM 143.Lastly; he is a weekly contributor to KSL TVs morning
show Studio 5. He combines his talents as a coach, teacher and speaker to empower people
and companies to connect and communicate more effectively. He also teaches life changing
skills that will help improve our most important relationships through humor and
entertainment. His humorous speaking style helps him impact a wide range of people in various
church and corporate events. Lastly he is happily married to his wife, Mardi. They have been
married for Twenty-two years and have six children: one girl and five boys, ranging in ages from
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eight to nineteen. With how successful he is, Im sure he will go on to do many more things
adding to his credibility.

Pathos

Pathos is defined as emotional appeal. Matt Townsend demonstrated Pathos through the many
stories he told about the things he had done as a kid. Some examples consist of when he
spelled lion as loin, or when he threw his jam into the fire at camp. Another good one is
when he made fun of that girl for having Yoda as a name. His Pathos, or emotional appeal, was
great for the audience. It was so easy to connect because we have all been in similar situations
as he was in. In a sense, we have all been Loin Boy in at least one part of our life. Another
reason his stories were so relatable is because we have all done something stupid that has
made us think critically on ourselves. Lastly, the story that really hit home, at least for me, was
his story about his friend who had the seizure. It hit home for me because a lot of times I have
been in a situation where I dont know what to do or say but I know I need to do something.
This is why he had very good Pathos, because all of his stories were very easy to relate to.

Logos

Logos is defined as logic or using logical things in a speech or paper. Matt Townsend
demonstrated Logos with the stories he told and the four quotes he stated throughout the
speech. Sadly, I dont remember the direct wording of the quotes but I do remember one in
particular and what it was about. The first was about how the light inside of us is really our
biggest fear. It is not about what we cant do but what we can do. Most people dont perform
at their peak level because they are afraid of what they can do. I remember this one the most
because I think its the truth. People choose to do things that are simple and easy, even though
they can do more. The only thing I remember about the other quotes is one was from Gandhi,
one was from Les Miserables and the last was about a tiger. As I listened to his whole speech, I
found no logical fallacies with his logic because the quotes he said logically fit with the stories
he shared.

Delivery

Matt Townsend was a very prepared public speaker. He had his visual aids right at his fingertips
and I dont remember any ums or pauses in his speech. Also during his speech, he gave a lot
of good nonverbal cues and movements, which are just as important as the words he said.
Throughout the speech he stood very straight and only moved to emphasize his main points. He
had a great vocal variety where his voice got louder or softer. An example when he told his
story about taking Amanda to the dance. When he first asked her to the dance, he was thinking
about Loin Boy and when he said this, his voice got louder to emphasize that he was
remembering that time he spelt lion wrong. Another nonverbal that he gave is he would
make he would make this weird noises when like gahhh or Ahh when he thought he was
being stupid, which I think made the audience want to laugh even more. He had good eye
contact by looking at all sections of the audience. Lastly, he dressed in a nice suit and acted very
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calm while he gave his speech as if he had been practicing for months or as if public speaking
just came naturally to him.

During the speech, he only used a few visual aids which were slides from a PowerPoint. These
slides consisted of just a picture and a few key words. In total he only used about five to seven
slides. These slides were used to enhance his main point. Matt Townsend used very few visual
aids because he wanted the speech to be focused on him, which is what any good speech is
focused on. Although it wasnt hard to focus with how funny he was and how good his stories
were.

Motivation

Motivation is a critical element of any speech. Without good motivation your audience is not
going to listen and you will lose them within a few minutes of your speech. Matt Townsend was
very motivational in his speech. He showed this by getting the audience to feel better about
themselves. He did this by asking the audience question and getting visibly excited with his
audience. After asking a question or two, or getting the audience to agree/disagree with him,
he would jump right into one of his great stories. You could tell he was excited to share his
stories with us because he would get louder with the things he wanted to emphasize about his
stories. He would also laugh with us when he said something funny which really showed just
how excited and involved he was in his speech.

Matt Townsend was very successful in motivating the audience because as he laughed, the
audience laughed. Also when he asked his questions, you could tell the audience was motivated
by the speech. This was because instead of empty silence, the audience would answer back
enthusiastically and everyone was listening. They were all really taking what he said about not
thinking critically on ourselves to heart. The audience behaved this way through his whole
entire speech and you could tell the audience was actively listening. When he wasnt asking
questions or laughing, the audience was dead silent. All around me I heard no side
conversations. I think you could really just tell that the audience was just waiting for more of
Matt Townsends great speech. I am really glad that I was able to be among the audience for
this great speech.