speaker – Terence Eden’s Blog

Tell the audience what you want them to do

@edent — Tue, 16 Jul 2019 07:08:05 +0000

I do lots of public speaking as part of my job. I'd like to share one of my tips for giving engaging and impactful talks.

Two caveats:

This is a sort-of work post. In that, I'll be discussing something I did for my employer - but they haven't asked me to write this, nor have they reviewed it.
Just because this works for me, doesn't mean it is right for you. Sometimes you have to find your own path.

Here it is...

Tell the audience what you want them to do.

It's that simple. I quite often say "Stick your hands up if you..." or "Give me a cheer if you've ever..." it's a cheap and effective way of getting the audience to engage with you. They think about what you're saying and get a little dopamine boost from sticking their hand up (I know the answer!) or vocalising (I'm part of the team!)

Recently, I tried something new.

During a talk I stuck up a simple slide and said:

Take a photo of that. Tweet It. Print it on a T-Shirt. Send it to your CEO and your developers.

And, do you know what happened? People did!

A few more points to note:

The slide was designed with the room in mind. Large text, so even people at the back could read it. (Huge thanks to Matt Stibbs for his work designing the slides).
The message was intended to be empowering and specifically aimed at the right audience.
Some people love Tweeting from conferences. It makes them feel connected with a wider audience - and shows their boss that they're not wasting time being out of the office.

A sound-bite in PowerPoint form.

It doesn't always work

I'll let you into another secret. This only works some of the time. I've been in front of audiences who refuse to stick their hands up, or participate with anything going on.

Some people are grumpy. Some just don't want to do anything but stay slumped in a chair and passively listen. Other people strongly dislike audience participation. That's OK. You don't need to force people into mandatory-funtime, and you don't need to be embarrassed by your enthusiasm.

So ask the audience to play along, tell them what you want them to do, and find ways to help them be part of something brilliant.

Preparing For A TEDˣ Talk

@edent — Fri, 26 Sep 2014 09:05:08 +0000

Yesterday, I gave my first TEDˣ Talk. It was organised by my employers, Telefonica in order to showcase innovative thinking throughout the business (usual work/personal disclaimers apply).

I don't want to go into too much detail about how amazing the day was - or the incredible talks that I heard my colleagues give. I'd like to talk a little about preparation. What I think goes in to making a great talk.

I'm not going to claim that I know everything there is to know about public speaking - nor that my talk was measurably better than anyone else's. I simply want to list what I do in order to feel comfortable up on stage. I hope that this will be of some use to you - whether you're preparing for a TEDˣ or some other public engagement.

Understand The Event

What is a TEDˣ Talk? What is the message of the event? What are people expecting to hear?

If you're talking at a shelter for stray dogs - don't talk about stray cats.

What did people say last year? There's no shame in watching other people's talks and "borrowing" their successes. I'm not saying that you should steal material - but that you should study their inflection, body language, mannerisms, and work out ways that you can incorporate them into your style.

Talk, Don't Write

The first thing to realise is that the written word is very different from the spoken word. It's called a "Talk" for a reason!

If you start by writing down what you want to say and then reading it aloud, you'll find that it sounds stiff, mannered, and entirely unconvincing.

Set up a voice recorder on your phone and start talking. Imagine that you're talking to a friend, what would you say? How would you emphasise your point? Where would you pause?

Play it back and listen to yourself. You'll hate the sound of your own voice, that's perfectly normal!

Start writing down the phrases and sentences you like. Keep repeating them out loud. See what connections your brain makes to string points together. Record, listen, write, talk, repeat.

Once Upon A Time

There are many different ways to craft a talk. Ultimately, though, you're telling a story. You're around a camp-fire spinning a yarn - just like your forebears. You need to make the story compelling - I was always told that "acting is the art of stopping people from coughing." In today's world, "giving a good talk is the art of stopping people from staring at their smartphones."

Think about the journey you want to take the audience on.

The beginning - your audience knows nothing. How do you introduce them to the characters and the situation?
Drama is conflict. Who are the "goodies" in your tale? What adversity are they facing?
Resolution is satisfying. What was done to defeat the baddies? How did justice prevail?
Knowledge is power. What practical steps can the audience take away? What's their call to action?
Finish. Don't abruptly end your talk. Bring the audience to a definite conclusion. Let them know you've finished, and let them know it's time to applause.

Get To Carnegie Hall 🔗

Practice.

I cannot stress this enough. Learn your material. Know it off by heart. Know exactly where the pauses are, which words to stress, when you are going to have time to take a breath.

Practice in your car, on the loo, in the shower, wherever you can. But remember this - practice out loud.

Running through lines in your head is cheating! Anyone can fool themselves into thinking they know something. Talking aloud is the only way to prove that you can do it.

Let the words flow through your mouth. Let your tongue get used to the way one word morphs into the next.

Practice with real people. It's easy to talk to a crowd of 200 strangers - it's hard to talk to one friend.

Have a couple of people listen to you talk. Let them tell you where you're going wrong - both in content and delivery. Trust them. Adjust your talk.

Then go practice it again.

Warm Up

You can't go from zero to hundred-percent instantly. No one can. A few minutes before your talk, warm up your voice and body. Stretch, chat tongue twisters, jump up and down, hum scales, and take several deep breaths.

Passion

There's no really good way to fake this. Are you excited by what you're saying? If so - show it! Let the audience be infected with your passion - be it joy or rage.

If you're not particularly interested in what you're saying, the audience won't be interested either.

If you can't find anything to talk about which genuinely enthuses you, it may be time to reconsider whether you should be speaking.

Tweets

My blog, my rules. Here are some nice tweets and photos from the event.

Hugely inspirational talk from @edent on code clubs for kids #TEDxTelefonicaLondon pic.twitter.com/2NMJp2Sn78

— Matt Flood (@mattflood) September 25, 2014

Fantastic @CodeClub presentation from @edent at #TEDxTelefonicaLondon. Superb.

— Tom Chant (@Thomas_Chant) September 25, 2014

Be A Better Speaker

@edent — Fri, 04 Jan 2013 15:00:39 +0000

I've taken a bit of a break from the conference circuit. With my previous job at InMobi I was attending 10 different events per month (on average). Some were merely hosting, others were presenting.

It got really tiring after a while. As much as I love the UK tech scene, it can be a bit repetitive to see the same faces and answer the same questions over and over again. It also took a toll on my personal and social life. It's rare that you take someone on a date to a mobile conference :-)

So I gave myself an enforced break. I have almost completely withdrawn from meetups, launch parties, conferences, or workshops for the last few months. The ones I have been to, I attended as a spectator rather than a speaker. That's much less stressful.

That said, I think it's time to start getting back in the saddle! I've created a profile on dex.io which lists some of my more recent public speaking gigs.

I have noticed that some people are really intimidated by public speaking. This blog post is an aide-mémoire for a BarCamp session I want to run on how to be a better public speaker.

So, here are my top tips:

Warm Up

Perhaps the most important. Before any talk I warm up my voice. There's nothing worse than hearing someone's voice break, or listen to them trip over a sentence. I do tongue twisters, humming, sing scales (badly). Anything so that my voice is clear for the audience.

Learn Your Material

You need to be confident in what you're saying. Knowing the general gist of what you want to say isn't enough - you must know your material backwards. If the slides break down, you still have to present.

I can't stand it when people say "errr... now... errr the next slide is about dogs" click "errr... I mean cats!"

You have to respect your audience - they want to hear a talk from someone who knows what they're talking about.

Don't Disparage Yourself

My number one pet peeve is speakers who start their presentations by saying:

I'm not a very good public speaker.

I'm really nervous.

Thanks for having me - I hate public speaking so this probably won't be any good.

How many times have you heard similar sentiments expressed at the start of a talk?

Essentially, you're telling the audience that they're wasting their time by listening to you. If you don't respect yourself, the audience won't respect you either.

Stand Still

People who rock back and forth.... ARGH! It's so distracting watching you sway like a metronome! Plant your feet shoulder-width apart, back straight, stand STILL!

If there's a podium, cling on to it. Anything to make you stopping looking like a daisy in the breeze!

Move About

If you have the space - and are confident - move around. The audience are looking at you and it can get pretty dull watching someone in one spot. This is especially true if you're on a large stage.

You need to fill up the space with your presence and one of the easiest ways is to move to the centre of the stage, talk, pause, move to the side, repeat.

You don't need to dance, skip, or hop. Own the space.

Don't Read From Slides

Everyone in your audience can read. You're doing them no favours by reading densely packed slides. Each of your slides should illustrate an idea - preferably with an image or chart.

It's fine to explain what's going on in the image and how it relates to your talk. If you have a really important Einstein quote - stick it up, but don't just read it aloud; talk about what it means.

Resolution

Before going on stage, set your laptop to 800*600 resolution. Make sure you know how to set the screen output. Don't be afraid to ask for help.

For some reason, people with MacBooks are incapable of doing this. They always end up with a ridiculously high resolution, spend 10 minutes fiddling around with adapters, and then can't fit all their slides on screen.

Make sure your laptop is set to the correct resolution and you have your "display pre-preference" setting open and ready to use.

Microphone

If you're lucky, you'll get a clip on microphone. That way, you won't have to worry about it.

If you get a microphone on a podium - speak in to it. Don't turn your head away, don't lean back, don't assume that it can pick you up.

More likely you'll get a hand held microphone. Hold this like you would an ice cream. Talk at your normal volume - don't whisper or shout. Don't hold the mic at chest height or by your side. The mic needs to get a clear signal from your mouth.

Never Turn Your Back

You know how they say that if you're afraid of public speaking, imagine your audience is naked? I want you to imagine that they're armed to the teeth. Never turn your back on them.

Humans can tell a lot about a person from their face - when you turn around, you cut off 90% of the audience's access to your body language.

Don't turn and look at your slides - you know what's on them, don't you? You are talking to an audience - not the projector screen.

Be Enthusiastic

You audience has either paid to see you or they've given up some time to learn from you. They don't want to see someone who is bored with their own material.

I don't mean fake smiles, an over abundance of insincere joy, or jumping around like a sugared up tween! Show your passion and share your enthusiasm. Let people know why they should be excited about what you're talking about.

If you aren't interested in your subject - why should your audience be interested in it?

Timing

If you have a three minute slot, don't you dare go over 180 seconds. Everyone hates the presenter who can't fit their demo into the allotted time and begs for special dispensation. You have to respect the audience and the other speakers. Your phone has a stop watch app on it, right? Use that to make sure you can fit everything in without running over.

Conversely, don't worry about being short. No one minds a short talk and - if you were interesting enough - a shortfall can easily be filled by asking "any questions?".

Make A Note Of Everyone's Mistakes

Whenever you watch a presentation - see what you don't like about it. Figure out what turns you off and make sure that you don't do it.

Here's the hard part - do that with your own talks. Video every presentation you give. Then watch it back.

You will hate it. It's the hardest thing to do - your voice sounds funny, you have that annoying tic, you do that thing which reminds you of your parents.... ARGH!

But, sadly, it's the best way to learn.

Practice

Finally, practice. Go to BarCamps, put yourself forward for speaking roles, get a webcam and upload a talk to YouTube, give a small demo to people you work with, practice practice, practice.

Practice your words, practice your timing, practice your pauses, practice your slide order, practice practice practice!

Speaking in public can be hard. As with anything, the more you practice, the easier it will get.

And, in the end...

I don't claim to be the world's best public speaker. But I have been doing it for a while and my talks generally gather good feedback.

If you're interested in speaking in public for the first time, or if you want to improve how you present, drop me a line or come and see me at the next BarCamp I do.

speaker – Terence Eden’s Blog

Tell the audience what you want them to do

Preparing For A TEDˣ Talk

Get To Carnegie Hall🔗

Be A Better Speaker

Get To Carnegie Hall 🔗