Nervous about speaking in public? Don’t be, here are some tips from a keynote speaker
It was comedian Jerry Seinfeld who observed that public speaking is the number one fear in most minds, beating out death. "It’s therefore safe to assume that most would rather be in the casket than giving the eulogy," he joked.
Public speaking was a significant fear prior to the pandemic, and it is likely to be exacerbated when we find ourselves standing in front of a crowd for the first time in two years. Think of college freshmen and sophomores who have yet to enjoy the experience of presenting a project – live – in front of their 400-person lecture. The same goes for our colleagues at work, some of whom may be new to the organization.
During the pandemic, relegated to our home offices, we at most had to speak in front of a computer screen. Conferences were cancelled around the globe and in-person company events were temporarily shelved. The closest we got to an audience was lecturing in our bathrobes before a cohort of disinterested pets or bored toddlers. But thankfully, we’re beginning to emerge from our Covid bubbles and public professional events, including company gatherings or small team meetings, are slowly making a comeback.
Whenever I give a keynote address to an organization or conference or TEDx event, I try to follow a few key tricks of the trade. The next time you’re asked to speak in front of your team, or your perplexed dog, see if any of the following come in handy:
Start at the end – do you know those mazes that are on children’s menus at restaurants? When I was a kid, my mom taught me that sometimes it can be helpful to solve the maze backwards. (Try it next time you’re out to dinner with young kids, it’s amazing how well it works.) The idea is that you start from the destination and then work your way back. Well, when planning a talk in front of an audience, this is a helpful exercise. Figure out the one sentence you want your audience to walk away remembering, the destination of your talk. Then, build your talk backwards from this endpoint.
Construct a narrative – all stories have three main parts, a beginning, a middle, and an end. No good speech or talk is strictly a speech, it’s a story that is being told to a group of listeners. Figure out what your narrative arc is. What is the story you are telling the room? Our brains are wired to tune in when presented with a story, so your audience will thank you for keeping them engaged.
Eliminate fog – have you ever listened to an incredibly smart person talk about a topic they know 1,000,000,000 things about but they then ramble in such a way that you have no idea what their point is? Clarity is key when speaking to a crowd. If what you’re saying is unclear to you in advance – which leads to rambling – then you can’t expect your audience to be clear on what your message is either. Be clear in your mind about what you want to say. If your brain is foggy, so too will be the room.
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Co-authored by David Brendel and Ryan Stelzer, Think Talk Create: Building Workplaces Fit for Humans was published by the Hachette Book Group under the PublicAffairs imprint on September 21, 2021. Now available to order!