Four Speaker Archetypes, One Giant Stage Presence

To arms, friends!

It can often feel like going in to battle when you have to speak to people. What status to adopt? How much space to take up? It’s a minefield.

Get it wrong and you’ll look like you’re out of step with everyone.

Get it right, however, and you’ll have the room eating out of your hand.

We’ve made it easy for you. How? With a simple trick: the word ‘S.W.a.L.K.’ (that ol’ ‘Sealed With a Loving Kiss’ acronym Gen-Xers would put on snail mail and school notes. Cute!).

Why? Because that’s the effect of using S.W.a.L.K: you have the audience’s full attention and, if you’re doing it right, even feeling a bit giddy and loved.

S.W.a.L.K. is:

Sage: the wise one, dropping gentle truth bombs

Warrior: a Braveheart, leading their forces into battle

Lover: the one who’ll lean in and make you feel special

Kidder: a jester, always skewering suspicion on sight

These four character archetypes, deployed meaningfully and with care, will raise your speaker game and keep your audience on their toes and hanging on your every word.

Four Speaker Archetypes, One Giant Stage Presence

Without a clear message, your talk becomes a blur of disconnected points

TRY IT OUT! 💘 Our weekly tip, from applied improv to you.

S.W.a.L.K.

Objective: Have a range of ‘characters’ when you address the room.

How It Works: You’ll cycle between the Sage, the Warrior, the Lover and the Kidder. Think about what those archetype titles evoke and what you could do to emote them for an audience. Exaggerate all you want!

Reflection: Which one are you most comfortable with? Which one is the biggest stretch? How did each archetype change the way you use language?

Download: S.W.a.L.K.

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Something switched...

We ran a little S.W.a.L.K session this week and it was so successful. Participants were giving it everything; switching energies and archetypes like nimble gazelles at sun-up on the savannah.

 What’s really noticeable is how subtle the changes can be and still be noticeable. It doesn’t take much to keep an audience involved and invested. A little practise goes a long way.

We got such great feedback, including: “The use of tonality is a whole world to explore!” and “It’s making me think more about vocabulary and body language and how much more I can play with it”.

Vic and Paul

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