The TED commandments of public speaking – this says it all!

By: Ellen Egan

dullhunk

You all know that I love TED.com.  According to the web site:

TED is a small nonprofit devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading.It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from three worlds: Technology, Entertainment, Design. Since then its scope has become ever broader.

The annual TED conferences, in Long Beach/Palm Springs and Oxford, bring together the world’s most fascinating thinkers and doers, who are challenged to give the talk of their lives (in 18 minutes).

On TED.com, we make the best talks and performances from TED and partners available to the world, for free.

I am truly addicted to this site as it allows me to hear the ideas of some of my heroes and soon-to-be heroes.

So, you can imagine how thrilled I was to find The TED Commandments of Public Speaking.

The TED commandments of public speaking:

1. Thou Shalt Not Simply Trot Out thy Usual Shtick. Don’t just rehash an old speech or someone else’s old speech.   If the ideas you are presenting are old and tired, then why will anyone bother to listen.  Put a new spin on things – look at the problem from a new perspective or come up with an innovative  solution.
2. Thou Shalt Dream a Great Dream, or Show Forth a Wondrous New Thing, Or Share Something Thou Hast Never Shared Before. Take the time to come up with something new and interesting and specifically new and interesting for your audience.
3. Thou Shalt Reveal thy Curiosity and Thy Passion. Take a risk and show that you care.  Reveal a bit of yourself to your audience and they will get caught up in your enthusiasm.
4. Thou Shalt Tell a Story. Stories have always been a powerful way to present ideas to audiences.  They make connections between people and ideas.
5. Thou Shalt Freely Comment on the Utterances of Other Speakers for the Sake of Blessed Connection and Exquisite Controversy.  Don’t be afraid of controversy, it sparks interest and reminds people that there are different perspectives on an issue.
6. Thou Shalt Not Flaunt Thine Ego. Be Thou Vulnerable. Speak of thy Failure as well as thy Success. This speaks for itself.  You are not up on stage to speak only of yourself and your triumphs.  Audiences relate to humanity and humility in presentations.
7. Thou Shalt Not Sell from the Stage: Neither thy Company, thy Goods, thy Writings, nor thy Desperate need for Funding; Lest Thou be Cast Aside into Outer Darkness. This is a special commandment for TED talks.  many of our public speaking presentations will relate to promoting our businesses, products, writings, etc…
8. Thou Shalt Remember all the while: Laughter is Good. Laughter is the best medicine for your stress, your audience’s stress and is welcome in any public speaking environment (even if the topic is very sobering).
9. Thou Shalt Not Read thy Speech. Amen.  Show your audience the respect to look at them and not just at your notes.  The only thing worse than reading your speech is handing out copies of your PowerPoint presentation and then reading the presentation to the audience, word-by-word.
10. Thou Shalt Not Steal the Time of Them that Follow Thee. Keep to the time that you have been given.  If you “spill over” into the next person’s presentation, you are “stealing” their time.

If these commandments can be followed by “the world’s most fascinating thinkers and doers”, when they have been challenged to give the talk of their lives (in 18 minutes), then certainly we can keep them in mind as well when we are delivering a presentation.

To your success,

Ellen

How to be sure that your audience remembers your message when speaking in public

by:  Ellen Egan

Brenda Starr

One of your main goals as a public speaker is to ensure that your audience remembers your key messages.  If you audience doesn’t remember what you came to say in your presentation, then there is little point in getting up on the stage at all.  So, how do we go about ensuring that the audience remembers what we want them to remember.

Define your key messages. First of all, as you are preparing your presentation, take the time to clearly define your key messages.  What are the 3-5 ideas that you want them to walk away with?  By the way, if you can’t put this into 3-5 clear, concise sentences, then you need to focus all of your attention on this part of your presentation.

Look at it from your audience’s point of view.  Look at your key messages and think about them from your audience’s point of view.  Why are these things meaningful for them?  Does it solve a problem for them, or perhaps make their lives easier?  If you can present your messages from their viewpoint, they are more likely to 1.  pay attention, 2.  remember what you have said and 3.  take whatever action you recommend.

First things first. Studies have shown that when given a list of things to remember, people are most successful at remembering the first and last items in the list.  This is called primacy and recency.  This means that people remember the first and last messages from your presentation and the stuff in the middle is a bit of a blur.  So, what you should do is be sure to put the most important messages at the beginning and the end.  Another option is to be sure to recap at the end and include all of your key messages.

Keep it short. If people are more likely to remember what you say at the beginning and the end, then this is a great argument for keeping your presentation nice and short.  Then there is less stuff in the middle for them to forget.   I have heard some great advice to keep all presentation to no more than 20 minutes.  I think this is fabulous advice.  If your presentation is focused, interesting, lively,  framed from the audience’s needs and short, then you will be delivering successful presentations (and enjoying public speaking at the same time).

To your success,

Ellen

Powerpoint presentations – what your audience wants to see

by: Ellen Egan

Geetesh Bajaj

Death by PowerPoint.  It’s a term we have all heard before, representing the excruciating feeling of being bored to death by a too-long presentation, delivered in monotone and at its foundations is a set of PowerPoint slides containing too much text, too many ideas and too much clip art.

PowerPoint was designed as a presentation software that would aid the presenter by providing an easy way to create slides and move away from the dreadful overhead transparencies.  However, people who lacked the skill to present and the desire to create an interesting presentation began to use PowerPoint as a crutch, a flashy way to distract from the fact that they didn’t know or care enough about their topic to make an effective presentation.

Let’s talk about how to use PowerPoint (or any presentation software) properly.  After all, presentation greats like Steve Jobs  use presentation software.  They just do it well.

people want to see presentations that are:

Short:  No matter what type of presentation tool you are using or what topic is at the center of your presentation, stick to the 10- 20-30 rule that Guy Kawasaki promotes.  Your presentation should be no longer than 10 slides.  Keep it short.  If you can’t get your ideas across in 10 slides, then you need to have someone else edit it down to 10 slides.  The “20″ part of the equation is that you should speak for 20 minutes at the most.  We all get distracted after 20 minutes.  This allows time after your presentation for Q & A.

Simple: Keep the ideas focused.  This is true for the overall theme of your presentation and for each slide.  Within the general theme of your presentation, you should have about 3 main points (no more than 5).  you should be able to get 3 main points across in 10 slides.  Keep the slides simple as well.  long gone are the days when audiences will put up with slides filled with text at a 10 point font.  Keep it to a few words per slide,  that express the ideas that you are presenting.

Understandable: Here is where the “30″ part of the equation comes in. Use a 30 point font. Then, even the person at the back of the room has a chance to read the words on your slide.

Appealing: Use words that capture people’s attention, trigger their emotions, mean something to them.  As I always say, keep your audience in mind.  Think of what would mean something to them and build your presentation from that standpoint.

If you follow these rules, your audience will thank you.  You will also find that you are much more effective at presentations  and you enjoy public speaking a lot more.

To your success,

Ellen

PS.  Here is one of the best books that I know of on creating great presentations Garr Reynolds Presentation Zen: