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Memorandum
To: Mrs. Renee Pay
From: Sabrina Lowder
Date: October 22, 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 a very appropriate
speaker for the audience humor at just the right times and serious when necessary. Overall, he
was able to make us laugh and keep everyone interested.

Organization

Matt Townsends overall purpose was to motivate all of us to choose to be the best person we can
be and to really aim to make the most of our potential. The speech was focused around six stories
about events that had happened in his life. The first one was about a spelling bee that Matt had
participated in when he was in elementary school. Matt was a stud in his school and was
anticipating a big win from this spelling bee, but instead messed up on the second word, lion, and
spelled it as loin. The second story was about him making fun of a girl named Yoda, and the
point of this one was to point out that he had basically been a jerk. The third one was about when
he was in scouts and was left by his troop leader during an extremely difficult and long hike; he
made a few mistakes throughout, but was eventually able to lead his scouts to victory at Lake
Blanch. The fourth story was about when one of Matts friends had been diagnosed with multiple
sclerosis and was having seizures. When Matt found out, he decided to go see his friend. The fifth
story was when Matt was in high school and decided to ask a girl, who was in a wheelchair, to a
dance. He had a pretty hard time in the beginning; he had to talk to the girls brother, her dad, and
then had to learn all her equipment. At the dance, he picked her up and carried her around so he
could dance with her. After all of this, Matt knew he would have to take a picture even though he
absolutely loathed them, but he told himself that he had to do it for her, and its that thought that
lead him to the best dance picture of his high school career. The last story was about a little
problem that he had when he was on vacation with his wife. She had packed him a new pair of
cargo shorts, and Matt, being the trendy and inventive man he was, thought that you were
supposed to tie the strings around your knees, but when he walked out to his wife he realized that
knee tying was not a thing.

In all of these stories, Matt talked about something that he wasnt too proud of happening to him
or him doing. He used these stories to relate to the audience. They were common things that could

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have happened to anyone, and that is what made it so easy for him to relate to everyone. After
telling the humorous stories and making the audience laugh until their sides hurt, Towsend ended
his speech with more than enough motivational quotes and phrases. He was able to turn his stories
from funny and light to serious and motivating.

The organizational pattern used by Matt Townsend was Cause and Effect. He would tell us one of
the embarrassing stories, and then went on to tell us how it affected his life after. He used inductive
reasoning in his speech with all of his stories as precise details that lead up to his general purpose,
which was simply to motivate and inspire us. Matt Townsend had to speak to a pretty tough crowd:
teenagers who were still half asleep. He didnt fail to captivate the audience though. I looked
around every once in a while and didnt see anyones eyes closed. Everyone was actively listening;
you could see it in their faces and in their lack of cell phones. The organizational pattern that he
used was appropriate for the audience because he used stories that everyone was able to relate to
in some sort of way. The great thing about cause and effect is that its timeless, everyone has
experienced it in their own life - do something, receive an outcome.

Supporting Material
Ethos
Ethos is defined as a speakers credibility, which Matt Townsend has a considerable amount of. First,
he was the keynote speaker for the conference, which says something about his credibility. In his
bio, it tells us that he is the founder and president of the Townsend Relationship Center. He
combines his talents as a coach, teacher, and speaker to empower people and companies to
connect and communicate more effectively. Additionally, Matt has an extensive list of degrees -
Bachelors and Masters Degree in Communications, a second Masters degree in Human
Development, and a PhD in Human Development. He also has his own radio talk show that
broadcasts on KSL News Radio and on the BYU radio. He trained with Franklin Covey for nine years,
which was especially impressive because I was spending $100 on a Franklin Covey planner only a
week before. Because Matts main focus point is on relationships, its important to also look at his
relationships - hes happily married and has been for 22 years! The fact that Matt Townsend has
such a strong marriage in the age of divorce, adds so much to his credibility
Pathos
Pathos is defined as the emotional appeal that a speaker has. Matt Townsend used Pathos
throughout the entirety of his speech, but a part where it was especially prominent was in the story
about his friend with multiple sclerosis. Matt explained the urge that he had to go visit his friend,
and the doubts that he had in himself. Youll blow it, youre stupid, Matt said of how he felt
before deciding to go to the boys house. Matt went to his house, talked to his dad, and waited for
an hour until he woke up. When he woke up, Matt continues, he looks right at me and he says,
Dude, dude. Though its not obvious through just the words, it was obvious in the tone of Matts
voice and his facial expression, that his friend was more than pleased to see a friend. Another
example of Pathos was when Matt talked about relationships between people, especially when he
focused in on his relationship with the handicapped girl he took to the dance. Or I could get so
caught up in Amanda, and serve, and take care, and make her feel safe and appreciated. When I lost
myself and got out of myself, and got into the space with Amanda, we created something magical

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together. Throughout this entire part of the speech, there were almost tears in my eyes because of
the power that Matt had in his voice when he talked about them. It was the passion and emotion
that Matt focused on in his speech, and that is what I think made it so successful. Overall, I think
that Matt Townsend had very strong Pathos.
Logos
Logos is defined as how logical something is. The only example of Logos that I was able to identify
was when Townsend talked about synergy and how it works. He started off talking about a bike
race. How a two man team, opposed to an individual, shaved 18 seconds off the world record of a
certain race. He then went into talking about the equation of synergy, and how teamwork has
proved to be better than individual work. He explained how a pull horse should be able to pull its
weight of a thousand pounds, and how if you connect two pull horses together, they should be able
to pull two thousand pounds. Two good pull horses that are trained well together can actually pull
4,000 pounds together Its called synergy. Synergy is where the sum of its whole is greater than
the sum of its parts. Though there werent many other examples of Logos that I could find in his
speech, this is a strong enough example, and has enough support, that it makes up for the lack of
Logos throughout the rest of the speech.
Delivery
Matt Townsend was a very prepared public speaker. He was wearing professional dress, and there
was not a hair out of place. It was evident that this was not his first time giving a speech to a large
audience; he was comfortable and pulled together. I never saw him look down at his feet, and he
was making eye contact with the audience the entire time. He didnt overuse his hands and didnt
do anything that distracted away from his speech. He only used movement to emphasize his points.
For instance, when talking about Yoda, he clenched his fist, or when saying the tetherball champ,
he made finger quotes. His overall persona and tone was casual and conversational. He was leaning
on the podium, using the space, and making the audience feel comfortable and relaxed while also
keeping them captivated.
Matt Townsend kept his use of visual aids to a minimum, but tied them into his speech when
needed. There was no excess of pictures, and I was always able to listen to what he was saying even
when a slide was up. One of the visual aids he used that I found particularly funny was a picture of a
dolphin and a cow jumping out of water to represent how a person can feel awkward at times. He
brought this slide back up at the perfect moments and made it coexist flawlessly with his speech.
He also had a slide about the Benefits of a Team in Pursuit, and had a bike race picture to represent
it along with stats. All of the visual aids he used coexisted with his speech perfectly.
Motivation
Motivation is a critical element of any speech. Little motivational bits were found at all times of the
speech, but a line that I liked a lot was when he was talking about how he took the picture with
Amanda. Just do it for her. Just take a picture for her I shifted my thinking from me, to what I call
thee, thee is the honorable thou. Thou its a term of respect, of reverence. Another one of my
favorite lines from the speech was when he said, Who you are isnt what you can do. A third one,
is one of the visual aids he used - the picture of the cow and the dolphin and what it represented.
Of this, he said, Were all going to sit in that cow relationship, and if you think youre just a cow,

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you know what? Youre setting yourself up. You may be just a cow, but for heavens sake, look what
youre doing. Thats amazing. Id love to see the dolphin grazing in the grass. There are many,
many more, but all in all, he focused on getting over fear, taking control of your thoughts, your
relationships, and learning from experience.
In my opinion, Matt Townsend successfully motivated the audience, at least he motivated me. Just
listening to his stories and his lessons are enough to make anyone want to be a better person. I
found this especially significant when he talked about relationships and the importance that they
play in your life. It doesnt matter what you say, just that youre there. He said when talking about
his friend who had started having seizures. What I understood from the speech is that the
relationships that you build and the effort that you put into them, will link up with the rest of your
life. One cannot be a good leader all by himself; he or she needs to surround themselves with
people who better their life. Not only does one need to have people who better their lives, but they
need to benefit others lives as well.