What is the best way to make an acceptance speech for a business award?
I caught up with speech coach extraordinaire Patricia Fripp, the first female president of the 3,400-member National Speakers Association (NSA), at the association’s Influence 2018 conference in Dallas. How does she coach clients on the proper way to accept an award?
Rule number one: Fripp advises award recipients to include a memorable vignette or incident, something entertaining or touching about your connection.
“People will not remember all the details you share,” says Fripp. “They will remember the stories you tell.”
Kiplinger's Personal Finance magazine wrote one of the best investments in your career is to learn presentation skills from Patricia Fripp. Companies hire Fripp when they want to gain a competitive edge by mastering conversations and presentations.
Fripp has won the NSA Hall of Fame keynote speaker award and the Cavett Award (considered the Oscar of speaking).
Fripp is a big fan of the movies. She advocates studying movies to improve your storytelling. She also advises you study movie star acceptance speeches.
“The Oscars have very few memorable examples of great acceptance speeches,” says Fripp. “When Russell Crowe won an Oscar for Gladiator in 2000, he dedicated it to everyone who has seen the downside of disadvantage. When he got the 2002 Golden Globe award for A Beautiful Mind, he first gave credit to the characters in the film, offering special thanks to John and Alicia Nash for living such an inspirational love story.”
In his acceptance speech Crowe said, "A Beautiful Mind is just a movie, folks, but hopefully it will help us open our hearts to believe that something extraordinary can always happen in our lives."
Rule number two: prepare, prepare, prepare. “As you prepare for your three-, five-, or seven-minute masterpiece, consider these questions: Who nominated you? Who invited you to join this group or encouraged you to get involved with this project or event? What is your connection to this group? How do you feel about the people and the organization's goals? Why are they giving you this award? When did you attend a meeting for the first time? What have your experiences been? Have you seen anybody else accept this same award?”
This is no time to try to be funny.
“Be wary of self-deprecating humor,” advises Fripp. “One gentleman I was coaching was receiving the Member of the Year award. He was getting it from an organization with over 100,000 members. About 2,000 people would be in the audience.”
He told Fripp, "I want to be funny, so I'll start by saying how desperate they must be to give me this award."
Fripp said: “I emphatically told him, ‘No. That would be an insult to every winner who came before you, to those who will follow you, and to those who wish they had won the award themselves.’”
Another Fripp client was being honored for his success in the construction industry by Chico State University. They were celebrating the impact of their construction management course, and her client had attended their very first course.
Fripp said his opening was, "What a privilege to be considered part of the success of Chico's construction management courses." He talked about the amazing clients he had because of what he had learned.
“After the five other honorees had spoken, his wife, his number one biggest critic, leaned over and whispered, ‘You can tell the others didn't work with a speech coach. Good investment,’” recalled Fripp.
Not everyone can afford to work one-on-one with a coach like Fripp. For that reason, she created a virtual training that is a state-of-the-art, web-based training platform that emulates live training and coaching (more info at fripp.com).
