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

Public speaking and body language

by: Ellen Egan

Steve Punter

Body language is an integral part of public speaking.  Research has found that people will develop their first impressions of you in 7 seconds.    During presentations, you may not even be speaking during these first few seconds.  So, a lot of the audience members’  first impression of you will depend on your body language.

Further research has indicated that as much as 93 % of communication between people is nonverbal. Body language includes how you stand and move, your facial expressions, where you are positioned in relation to other people and even what you are wearing.  All of these things can send messages to other people about you.  A classic example is how hair length can send a message about a person’s politics.

There has been extensive research into body language.  it would be worthwhile to study body language in order to better understand the powerful messages that you may be sending your audience. Realize that you are using your body to get your message across in public speaking and sometimes it sends a stronger message than your words.

A few things to keep in mind about body language and public speaking (especially the critical first impressions):

1.  Facial expression:  Smile, smile, smile.  As people enter the room be sure to smile at them.  They will then know that they are welcome and will assume that you are friendly, relaxed and confident.

2.  Eye contact:  We all know that it is critical to make eye contact with your audience during your presentation.  it shows that you are confident, helps people to perceive you as an expert and gives the audience the impression tha tyou are interested in them and honest.  it is also important before your presentation to make eye contact with your audience.  If you are staring at your nots, avoiding your audinece, out of the room, or speaking with only one participant you may be giving the wrong message.  This can be interpreted as signs of a lack of confidence, dishonesty or lack of caring.

3.  Positioning:  I would always recommend standing as this sends a message of confidence.  You will also want to consider coming out from behind the podium as the podium can put a barrier between you and your audience.

4.  Gestures:  When you a practicing your presentation, watch your gestures.  Pay attention to using gestures that are open and making a connection with your audience.  Try to avoid crossing your arms, both hands in your pockets, jingling keys and change in your pockets, etc.  As these send messages of impatience and closing yourself off from your audience.  Another big thing to remember is please, never check your watch during your presentation.  This sends a message to your audience that you want to be somewhere else and are impatient to get there.

5.  Attire:  I would rather not give a long list of what not to wear.  Here are some quick rules for your attire.  Be sure everything is clean and pressed (if appropriate).  Try to dress just a little more formally than your audience.  Also, think of comfort when you are choosing your attire.  It doesn’t help your confidence if you are uncomfortable.  Pay attention to your personal hygiene as this sends a message about your self respect.

As I mentioned earlier, you should consider learning more about body language as this will improve all of your communications, not just in public speaking situations.

I would highly recommend Kevin Hogan’s courses on Body Language.

Here are some books I can recommend from Allan Pease, Tonya Reiman and Mark Bowden:

It’s a fascinating subject, don’t be surprised when you get hooked.
To your success,
Ellen

Mindreading and public speaking – using images to project meaning

By: Ellen Egan

Are you a mind reader? Do you know what people are actually thinking when they are talking with you? Have you ever been surprised after having a conversation with someone that the “pictures” in their mind about the topic were completely different from the words that you were hearing?

An important thing to remember when you are preparing your presentation is that your audience cannot read your mind. They may hear the words that you are speaking very clearly, but they may not get your message completely. If you want to help ensure that your audience gets your message, give them some images to link with your words.

Studies have shown that when we get information through several sensory avenues, we are more likely to retain the information. So, If someone describes the yearly sales figures for us AND shows us a graph of the figures, we are more likely to understand and retain the information. Now, if we take this a step further, and actually attach meaning to the words and images, we have a huge increase in the chance that our audience will retain the information. By attaching meaning, I mean that we appeal to the audiences interests, concerns, dreams, etc through our words and images. When images are attached to information, it can actually tap into our emotions.

There is an excellent video from a TED University talk by Tom Wujec about how the brain attached meaning to images. He actually shows you how the brain processes images and makes them meaningful by
1. Making ideas clear by visualixing them
2. Making them interactive
3. Making them persistent
TED University – Tom Wujec

It is clear that we will be much more successful in getting our message across if we use both words and images. And, if we then attach meaning to the words and images, our message will come across even more powerfully.

Public speaking is at its heart all about communication. We can be much more effective communicators if we include images along with our words.

How will you incorporate images into your next presentation?

To your success,
Ellen

No more tricks to improve your public speaking skills

by:  Ellen Egan

DoubleM2

We have all seen the books and courses on public speaking that tell you of the “Top ten tricks for public speaking brilliance”. When we open up the book or the course, it is filled with advice on removing the “umms” and “ahhs” from your speech. Or, we are told to practice voice techniques and eye contact. While all of this is good advice to polish your public speaking, it does little to deal with the core issues of public speaking fear or the person who wants to seriously develop their public speaking skills.

Training in public speaking is not just a matter of externals like voice, body language and eye contact. It’s not about conforming to standards or imitating the skills of someone you admire. Public speaking is about you speaking in public. I know, that’s pretty obvious but many people miss this critical point. The first thing we must understand is that we have to have something of value to share, to speak about in public. If there is nothing of value to share, then no tricks or training will make the talker anything more than a person taking up space and time.

So, the starting point is here.

1. What do you have of value to share with your audience? Do you have an idea, a product, a service, some information, etc. that will improve their lives and/or solve a problem?

Take a pen right now and write down at least five things of value that you have to share with an audience. You will probably find that have more than five when you begin listing all your experiences, ideas, information, etc.

2. How do you know it is of value to your audience? Take the time to find out as much as you can about your audience so that you can tailor your message so that it is clear to them that it is of value.

Take a pen right now and write as much as you can about your audience. Who are they? What do they already know about your topic wnd what do they want to know? Why are they going to listen to you?

Once you clearly have something of value to say and you know enough about your audience to see how it is of value to them, then you can begin crafting the presentation. At this point we can bring in the important aspects of writing a powerful speech, practicing techniques to deliver a strong presentation and using tricks to capture and hold attention.

Make a great cake (that you know your audience will like) and then add the frosting.