What They Don't Tell You About Public Speaking
zachholman.com
What They Don't Tell You About Public Speaking
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Re: What They Don't Tell You About Public Speaking
#2Be excited about what you're presenting is key. You have to engage people through your excitement and by cuing off what they react to.
Many times I find myself including the audience feedback into the presentation in terms of spending time on certain points that get the most reaction.
The author is dead on about the questions, though they don't have to be after the presentation is over.
Re: What They Don't Tell You About Public Speaking
#3My breakthrough in being comfortable with public speaking came from a quote:
"...though it cannot hope to be useful or informative on all matters, it does make the reassuring claim that where it is inaccurate, it is at least _definitively_ inaccurate." - Douglas Adams
If I am to make a mistake while presenting, then by gum I'm going to make that mistake with the most confidence and gusto I can muster. I will own up to being wrong, I will turn that into a "teaching moment" for the audience, I will plow forward confident in the spirit of Kipling's "If" knowing that while I may have screwed up I did so in a good-faith effort at taking the lead and making things happen for an audience that chose to follow. If I am wrong, then I shall be definitively wrong!
That's pretty good for an awkward introvert.
Re: What They Don't Tell You About Public Speaking
#4"Talks should always be reactionary rather than anticipatory: they’re going to come off as more natural, more interesting, and above all, more valuable."
I think that's not true at all. There is room for both. I would say do not mix them. Talks can either share what's been done or share what can be from a visionary perspective.
Re: What They Don't Tell You About Public Speaking
#5Steven Wright's stage presence should be a github repo.
Re: What They Don't Tell You About Public Speaking
#6"Talks should always be reactionary rather than anticipatory: they’re going to come off as more natural, more interesting, and above all, more valuable." I think that's not true at all. There is room for both. I would say do not mix them. Talks can either share what's been done or share what can be from a visionary perspective.
Admittedly I slipped an "always" in there when I shouldn't have; I agree that anticipatory talks can be great, too.
Let's put it this way, though: for a beginning or first-time speaker, I'll maintain that talks should be reactionary. There are more than enough other things to worry about going into your first talk that it's really comforting to talk about your past experiences than try to prepare a new project or a "what-if" for an arbitrary conference date. That's more the target market I meant with that (admittedly broad) statement.
Re: What They Don't Tell You About Public Speaking
#7My breakthrough in being comfortable with public speaking came from a quote: "...though it cannot hope to be useful or informative on all matters, it does make the reassuring claim that where it is inaccurate, it is at least _definitively_ inaccurate." - Douglas Adams If I am to make a mistake while presenting, then by gum I'm going to make that mistake with the most confidence and gusto I can muster. I will own up t…
Not only can you get away with mistakes by moving past them with gusto, but your entire speech can be a mistake if you pull it off with confidence.
The Dr. Fox effect:
> Forty years ago, a singularly interesting lecture was held at the University of Southern California School of Medicine. The subject was "Mathematical Game Theory as Applied to Physician Education." The speaker was Dr. Myron L. Fox from Albert Einstein College of Medicine, a pupil of von Neumann and an authority on the application of mathematics to human behavior.
> The attendees were psychiatrists and psychologists (MDs and PhDs) who were gathered for a training conference. They listened to the lecturer with great interest, asked many questions and were satisfied with speaker's replies.
> They gave him flying grades in the satisfaction questionnaire. Nobody suspected anything wrong. In reality the speaker was an actor and knew nothing on the subject of his lecture.
http://www.significancemagazine.org/details/webexclusive/123... http://www.er.uqam.ca/nobel/r30034/PSY4180/Pages/Naftulin.ht...
Re: What They Don't Tell You About Public Speaking
#8My breakthrough in being comfortable with public speaking came from a quote: "...though it cannot hope to be useful or informative on all matters, it does make the reassuring claim that where it is inaccurate, it is at least _definitively_ inaccurate." - Douglas Adams If I am to make a mistake while presenting, then by gum I'm going to make that mistake with the most confidence and gusto I can muster. I will own up t…
Not only can you get away with mistakes by moving past them with gusto, but your entire speech can be a mistake if you pull it off with confidence. The Dr. Fox effect: > Forty years ago, a singularly interesting lecture was held at the University of Southern California School of Medicine. The subject was "Mathematical Game Theory as Applied to Physician Education." The speaker was Dr. Myron L. Fox from Albert Einstei…
Explains 90% of what is taught in college nowadays.
Re: What They Don't Tell You About Public Speaking
#9I had a laptop hard lock in the middle of a talk once. That was fun. For the record, I handled it by immediately swapping out my laptop for the session runner's (can't risk it happening 2x during the talk), my slides were online and I just re-downloaded them and tried to go forward losing as little time as possible.
Re: What They Don't Tell You About Public Speaking
#10I like this a lot. I'll add a few of my own points too (though I think Zach's are great):
1. Practice, practice, practice. Now, I'm a hypocrite for saying this because I do tons of speaking engagements with little or no practice (which is a combination of hubris and the fact that I'm often pegged to do stuff at the last minute). Still, if you aren't comfortable speaking off the cuff or in front of a crowd, practice makes perfect.
Something I've often done is to do screen recordings like Zach says -- but instead of doing them of the talk live, I do them before the presentation. The advantage here is that I can practice what I want to say, listen back to my cadence and then adjust and readjust if necessary. By the third or fourth time, I'm usually golden and I have a great master copy that I can try to mimic live on stage.
2. The better you get. -- This is true of almost anything, but it's especially true of speaking in public. You'll become more comfortable and natural on stage (or on camera) and have a much better sense of how to steer a talk, how to keep your energy up and how to come across as assured.
3. Record yourself in advance. For beginning public speakers, it's important that you record what you sound like so that you can adjust your speed (slow down or speed up) and cadence. It can be odd to hear yourself speak at first, but once you get used to it, you can adjust what you look and sound like. This is especially important if you are doing any media appearances.
4. Watch Yourself After -- If your speech or conference is being recorded (or if you are recording yourself) -- watch it back after. Again, it can be disconcerting but it's a great time to learn how you can improve next time. It's also a great way to see how you progress over time. If I look at my first CNN appearance in April of 2011 and my most recent appearance, it's like night and day. That helps me when I get up to present at an event, keynote a conference or do another media appearance.