Presentation Persona Spotlight: Ellen DeGeneres

In 2009, Ellen DeGeneres gave the commencement speech at Tulane University. The speech was filled with humor, personal stories and inspiration. She needs no introduction because of her massive success and popularity. Her presentation persona is one that many public speakers envy.

She’s relatable, compassionate and fun. These qualities make Ellen a truly great presenter.

Which is why I would score Ellen as the Captivator. Based on this speech, she scores high in three of the four quadrants, including Exploration, Sharing, Response and Durability.

Presentation Persona Spotlight: Ellen DeGeneres

Here’s my breakdown:

This is Ellen’s lowest score. It simply means there’s not any research or data to back up her claims. She relies on personal experience and her confidence to make her point about struggling with coming out and losing her career. This works well for this speech, but she could have also made a deeper impact by including some numbers to represent the amount of people who struggle with their sexuality or try to take their own lives because of it.

Ellen is a natural on stage. She shows no fear or discomfort caused by speaking in front of a crowd. And she enjoys making people laugh and dance. Her speech is filled with humor and ends with her favorite activity – dancing. Her personality is one of her strongest persona traits.

The audience loves Ellen. Who couldn’t? The crowd laughs and cheers throughout her speech. Ellen’s positive energy shines, even when talking about difficult times in her life. She is a natural crowd pleaser that the audience loves.

This is another high score for Ellen. Her speech is filled with inspiration and calls to action. And her message is simple and easy to remember – stay true to yourself. This makes this speech one that will go down in memory as a great commencement speech.

“So to conclude my conclusion, follow your passion, stay true to yourself. Never follow anyone else’s path, unless you’re in the woods and you’re lost and you see a path and by all means you should follow that. Don’t give advice, it will come back and bite you in the ass. Don’t take anyone’s advice. So, my advice to you is to be true to yourself and everything will be fine.”

Ellen is hilarious, charming, and motivational which makes her a great Captivator.

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