Introduction: Ideas Are the Currency of the Twenty-first Century
“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma—which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become.” - Steve Jobs
TED = Technology, Education, Design
Keep your talks short.
Stories are powerful ways of connecting emotionally with your audience.
Use rhetorical devices such as metaphors and analogies.
Enthusiasm, practice, and strong delivery move people.
“Like it or not, we’re all in sales now.” - Daniel Pink
If you can’t inspire anyone else with your ideas, it won’t matter how great those ideas are. Ideas are only as good as the actions that follow the communication of those ideas.
The most engaging presentations are:
1. Emotional - They touch my heart
Passion is the key to mastering a skill like public speaking.
Stories help your listeners get emotionally attached to your topic.
Stories actually “sync” your mind to those of your audience, allowing you to create far deeper and more- meaningful connections than you’ve ever experienced.
2. Novel - They teach me something new
Novelty is the single most effective way to capture a person’s attention.
The brain cannot ignore novelty.
3. Memorable - They present content in ways I’ll never forget
The 18-minute TED presentation is the ideal length of time to get your point across.
Staying in your own lane is the ultimate key to being a genuine, authentic speaker whom people feel they can trust.
We have access to information and knowledge that past masters could only dream about.
You’re still alive. That means your life has purpose. You were meant for greatness. Don’t sabotage your potential because you can’t communicate your ideas.
Part I: Emotional
'The key part of the TED format is that we have humans connecting to humans in a direct and almost vulnerable way. You’re on stage naked, so to speak. The talks that work best are the ones where people can really sense that humanity. The emotions, dreams, imagination.' - Chris Anderson
Chapter 1: Unleash the Master Within
'Passion is the thing that will help you create the highest expression of your talent.' - Larry Smith
Science shows that passion is contagious.
You cannot inspire others unless you are inspired yourself.
You stand a much greater chance of persuading and inspiring your listeners if you express an enthusiastic, passionate, and meaningful connection to your topic.
The most popular TED speakers share something in common with the most engaging communicators in any field—a passion, an obsession they must share with others. The most popular TED speakers don’t have a “job.” They have a passion, an obsession, a vocation, but not a job. These people are called to share their ideas.
“In our culture we tend to equate thinking and intellectual powers with success and achievement. In many ways, however, it is an emotional quality that separates those who master a field from the many who simply work at a job. Our levels of desire, patience, persistence and confidence end up playing a much larger role in success than sheer reasoning powers. Feeling motivated and energized, we can overcome almost anything. Feeling bored and restless, our minds shut off and we become increasingly passive.” - Robert Greene
Motivated and energized speakers are always more interesting and engaging than bored and passive ones.
What are you passionate about?
Helping people learn about themselves and reach their full potential.
Starbuck's Howard Schultz was passionate about “building a third place between work and home, a place where employees would be treated with respect and offer exceptional customer service.”
What makes your heart sing? Identify it and share it with others.
☆ 'Anyone can find happiness if he or she looks for it in the right place. Authentic happiness can only come from the long- term cultivation of wisdom, altruism, and compassion, and from the complete eradication of mental toxins, such as hatred, grasping, and ignorance.' - Matthieu Richard
Is my motivation selfish or altruistic? Is my benevolence aimed at just a few or at the great number? For their short-term or their long-term good?’ Once we have a clear motivation, then communication flows easily.
Amazingly, if your motivation is to share your passion with your audience, it’s likely that you’ll feel less nervous about speaking in public or delivering that all-important presentation in front of your boss.
If your only goal is to make a sale or to elevate your stature, you might fail to connect with your audience (and you’ll place a lot of pressure on yourself). If, however, your goal is more altruistic—giving your audience information to help them live better lives—you’ll make a deeper connection and feel more comfortable in your role.
Most college students will pursue specific careers for the wrong reasons. The only way to have a great career is to do what you love.
“You’ve got to follow your passion. You’ve got to figure out what it is you love—who you really are. And have the courage to do that. I believe that the only courage anybody ever needs is the courage to follow your own dreams.” - Oprah Winfrey
“Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don’t settle.” - Steve Jobs
“Only passions, great passions, can elevate the soul to great things.” - Denis Diderot
“People who are genuinely passionate about their topic make better speakers. They inspire their audiences in ways that nonpassionate, low-energy people fail to do. When you are passionate about something you can’t help yourself from thinking about it, acting on it, and talking about it with other people.” - Melissa Cardon
Passionate business leaders are more creative, set higher goals, exhibit greater persistence, and record better company performance.
It is a mistake to believe that you can influence and inspire others by speaking about a topic that you don’t love.
We all get better at what we do if we do it repeatedly.” - Dr. Pascale Michelon
“Nothing great has ever been achieved without enthusiasm.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson
It’s been said that success doesn’t lead to happiness; happiness creates success.
Richard Branson hires people with the Virgin attitude: they smile a lot, are positive and enthusiastic.
It’s not enough to be passionate yourself. You must also surround yourself with people who are passionate about your organization and the field in which they’re working.
The passion that man has for his own personal growth is the most important thing. And then we help them to go and find the knowledge because nobody in the world can succeed alone. The person with the idea may not have the knowledge, but the knowledge is available.
Chapter 2: Master the Art of Storytelling
“Stories are just data with a soul.” -Brené Brown
3 recommendations:
1. Love your mom
2. Do the right thing even when it is the hard thing
3. Never drink alcohol
Tell stories to reach people’s hearts and minds.
You have to get folks to trust you. If you start with something too esoteric and disconnected from the lives of everyday people, it’s harder for people to engage. I often talk about family members because most of us have family members that we have a relationship to. I talk about kids and people who are vulnerable or struggling. All of those narratives are designed to help understand the issues.
Keep your eyes on the prize, hold on.
Brands, as well as individuals, who tell stories—emotional and genuine stories—connect with their customers and audiences in far deeper and more-meaningful ways than do their competitors.
Persuasion occurs when three components are represented: ethos, logos, and pathos. Ethos is credibility. We tend to agree with people whom we respect for their achievements, title, experience, etc. Logos is the means of persuasion through logic, data, and statistics. Pathos is the act of appealing to emotions.
If you’re going to tell a “personal” story, make it personal. Take the audience on a journey. Make it so descriptive and rich with imagery that they imagine themselves with you at the time of the event.
If you want to be quoted, tell a story, and the more personal the better.
'When God puts a dream in your heart, you know you’re going to succeed. Every ‘no’ means you’re one step closer to ‘yes.’' - Joel Osteen
Empathy is the capacity to recognize and feel emotions experienced by somebody else.
“The truthful, inside story of almost any man’s life—if told modestly and without offending egotism—is most entertaining. It is almost sure-fire speech material.”—Dale Carnegie
Smart marketers promote their products differently; ordinary is boring.
The riskiest thing to do is “be safe,” or average.
The success of almost everything we’ve been talking about is not always about what the patent is like, or what the factory is like—it’s about can you get your idea to spread, or not.
Larger companies are discovering that stories put a human face on an otherwise faceless conglomerate. Tostitos, Taco Bell, Domino’s Pizza, Kashi, McDonald’s, and Starbucks are turning to commercials that highlight farmers who grow the ingredients behind their products. People are more engaged with products when they know where those products come from and if they get to know the real people behind those products. The Lush chain of soap stores puts a small picture of a real employee on each product—the faces are those of people who actually made the product. Lush believes that every product has a story. There’s a reason why many successful brands spend millions on advertising that includes real faces, real people, and real stories. It works.
Every brand, every product, has a story. Find it and tell it.
What is a story? Stories are a particular type of human communication designed to persuade an audience of a storyteller’s worldview. The storyteller does this by placing characters, real or fictional, onto a stage and showing what happens to these characters over a period of time. Each character pursues some type of goal in accordance with his or her values, facing difficulty along the way, and either succeeds or fails according to the storyteller’s view of how the world works.
Contemporary audiences are so bombarded by messages that they are more resistant and more skeptical than at any other time in history. However, these same audiences, when inspired, are willing and able to spread their favorite messages, creating a massive viral effect for those who win their love.
People don’t know what they want and, if they do, they have a hard time articulating what they truly desire.
Your audience wants someone or something to cheer for. They want to be inspired. Give them a hero. Captivate their imagination with stories about yourself, other people, or successful brands.
“To succeed, you have to persuade others to support your vision, dream, or cause. Whether you want to motivate your executives, organize your shareholders, shape your media, engage your customers, win over your investors, or land a job, you have to deliver a clare call that will get your listeners’ attention, emotionalize your goal as theirs, and move them to act in your favor. You have to reach their hearts as well as their minds—and this is just what storytelling does.” - Peter Guber
Avoid overused buzzwords and clichés. Marketers love to use words such as leading, solutions, and ecosystem. These words are empty, meaningless, and used so often they’ve lost whatever punch they may once have had.
When you tell a story, by all means use metaphors, analogies, and vivid language, but eliminate clichés, buzzwords, and jargon. Your audience will tune out phrases they’ve heard a million times.
Kurt Vonnegut's successful stories—those that connect emotionally with most people—have simple shapes. On the y-axis he wrote I for “Ill Fortune” and the letter G for “Good Fortune.” On the x-axis he wrote the letter B for “Beginning” and the letter E for “End.” Man in a Hole. Boy Gets Girl.
Embrace a personal story that has meaning to you and to your topic, own it, and share it.
Every great story has a hero and a villain. A spokesperson reveals a challenge (villain) facing a business or industry. The protagonist (brand hero) rises to meet the challenge. Finally, the townspeople (customers) are freed from the villain, the struggle is over, and everyone lives happily ever after.
In some cases the villain can be an actual person or competitor, but tread carefully in these cases. Above all, make sure the hero—your product, your brand, or your idea—comes in to save the day.
Potential villains: forgetting, choas, bad emotions.
“Nice people with common sense do not make interesting characters. They only make good former spouses. Passion lives here. Heart is what drives us and determines our fate. That is what I need for my characters in my books: a passionate heart. I need mavericks, dissidents, adventurers, outsiders and rebels, who ask questions, bend the rules and take risks. People like all of you in this room.” - Isabele Allende
Ideas are the currency of the twenty-first century and stories facilitate the exchange of that currency.
Stories illustrate, illuminate, and inspire.
Chapter 3: Have a Conversation
'Don’t fake it till you make it. Fake it till you become it.' - Amy Cuddy
It takes practice to appear natural.
Practice relentlessly and internalize your content so that you can deliver the presentation as comfortably as having a conversation with a close friend.
Be totally authentic.
Authenticity doesn’t happen naturally.
Practice in front of people, record it, and watch it back.
Steve Jobs built a reputation for practicing relentlessly for a presentation—many, many hours over many, many weeks. Eventually, Jobs was considered among the most charismatic business leaders on the world stage. What many people fail to realize is that Jobs made it look effortless because he worked at it.
The four elements of verbal delivery are:
Rate: Speed at which you speak
Volume: Loudness or softness
Pitch: High or low inflections
Pauses: Short pauses to punch key words
You must believe in what you are saying or your movements will be awkward and not natural.
Truthful and confident people have command presence.
People are making judgments about you all the time— based largely on the way you walk, talk, and look.
A TED talk can be the presentation a lifetime for many people, but your daily business presentations are often just as important for your career or company.
The way you carry yourself actually changes the way you feel when you’re delivering a presentation.
Command presence is a military term used to describe someone who presents himself or herself as a person with authority, someone who is to be respected and followed.
If you want to make a positive impression in your next meeting, sales pitch, or job interview, pay attention to what your body is saying. Walk, talk, and look like a leader whom people want to follow.
Four tips you can use today to improve the way you use your hands:
Use gestures
Don’t be afraid to use your hands in the first place.
Don’t keep your hands bound when you present.
They want to be free.
Use gestures sparingly
Be careful not to go overboard.
Your gestures should be natural.
Avoid canned gestures.
Don’t think about what gestures to use.
Your story will guide them.
Use gestures at key moments.
Save your most expansive gestures for key moments in the presentation.
Reinforce your key messages with purposeful gestures
Keep your gestures within the power sphere.
Picture your power sphere as a circle that runs from the top of your eyes, out to the tips of your outstretched hands, down to your belly button, and back up to your eyes again.
Try to keep your gestures (and eye gaze) in this zone.
Hands that hang below your navel lack energy and “confidence.”
Using complex gestures above the waist will give the audience a sense of confidence about you as a leader, help you communicate your thoughts more effortlessly, and enhance your overall presence.
The “eager nonverbal” style proved most effective sales strategy includes three elements: very animated, broad, open movements; hand movements openly projected outward; and forward-leaning body positions.
Sit up. It will help you feel more self-confident.
Fidgeting, Tapping, and Jingling: These are annoying habits that many of us exhibit during our presentations and conversations. Fidgeting makes you look unsure, nervous, and unprepared. Mannerisms such as tapping your fingers on the table or playing with your pen serve no purpose.
Move with purpose.
Great presenters have animated body movements; they do not stay in one spot or look motionless. Standing absolutely still makes you appear rigid, boring, and disengaged.
Walk, move, and work the room.
Most people keep their hands in their pockets when they’re standing in front of a group. It makes them appear uninterested or bored, uncommitted, and sometimes nervous.
“Our bodies change our minds and our minds can change our behavior, and our behavior can change our outcomes.” - Amy Cuddy
“Power posing” increases testosterone and lowers cortisol levels in the brain, which will make you feel more confident and commanding. A “tiny tweak” can lead to big changes.
The power pose works like this—stretch out your arms as far as they’ll go and hold that pose for two minutes.
Our “nerves” are the result of our biological need to be accepted.
Energized movement can change your state of mind.
Your delivery and gestures, mastered through hours and hours of practice, will enhance your overall message, but without passion and practice, your presence will be severely diminished. Your strength as a speaker comes from the inside.
Part 2: Novel
'Novelty recognition is a hard-wired survival tool all humans share. Our brains are trained to look for something brilliant and new, something that stands out, something that looks delicious.' - Dr. A. K. Pradeep
Chapter 4: Teach Me Something New
“When you walk into a classroom you have two jobs: one is to teach and the other is to recruit everyone in that classroom to join the pursuit of truth.” - Robert Ballard
NASA’s budget for one year would fund the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) budget for 1,600 years.
Reveal information that’s completely new to your audience, packaged differently, or offers a fresh and novel way to solve an old problem.
Why it works: The human brain loves novelty. An unfamiliar, unusual, or unexpected element in a presentation intrigues the audience, jolts them out of their preconceived notions, and quickly gives them a new way of looking at the world.
Your audience craves knowledge, even if they have only a mild interest in the topic. As long as you relate your topic to the audience by teaching them something new they can use in their daily lives, you’ll hook them, too.
The smarter they are, the wealthier they are, the more likely they are to be persuaded if you give them a new lens through which to see the world.
The “Google guys” pitched their company more effectively and won the early funding that helped launch the brand.
“Google provides access to the world’s information in one click.”
The preceding sentence could very well be the most lucrative 10 words in corporate history.
Google was not the world’s first search engine, but it was a better system because it ranked sites based on relevance and not just on search terms.
Building novel concepts into your presentation does require some creativity and a new way of looking at the world. Neuroscientists have found that only through bombarding the brain with new experiences do we force our minds to look at the world through a new lens.
Great conversations or presentations take you to ideas you’d never considered.
'The thing that’s going to decide what gets talked about, what gets done, what gets changed, what gets purchased, what gets built, is: is it remarkable? And “remarkable” is a really cool word because we think it just means neat, but it also means—worth making a remark about' - Seth Godin
Pay attention to the stories of your life. If they teach you something new and valuable, there’s a good chance other people will want to hear about it.
People are more curious about what they don’t know than they are about what they know for sure.
Our IQs are growing and people crave a mental workout.
If you can’t explain your big idea in 140 characters or less, keep working on your message.
“Before a presentation I ask myself, ‘What’s the one thing I want people to take away?’ After someone listens to your presentation the real test is when they leave and someone asks, ‘What did that person talk about?’ I want to be good enough that they have a clear answer to that question.” - Daniel Pink
What is the one thing I want my audience to know about my company, product, service, or idea?
People want to experience, to engage, to endeavor ... that’s where the real meat of life is to be found.
Reveal information that’s completely new to your audience, is packaged differently, or offers a fresh and novel way to solve an old problem.
“Every superhero has an origin story. So do you. Don’t follow someone else’s. Create your own masterpiece.” - Oliver Uberti
Chapter 5: Deliver Jaw-Dropping Moments
Jaw-dropping moments create what neuroscientists call an emotionally charged event, a heightened state of emotion that makes it more likely your audience will remember your message and act on it.
Think about your content and identify the most important points you need to make. Then find a novel and memorable way to communicate those messages. Sometimes you need to surprise your audience in order to get them to care.
Plan your story first.
Tap into several senses when planning the story—seeing, touching, feeling.
If you connect to an audience’s emotional responses then they will perceive the information more vividly, be less distracted, and will be more likely to remember it. Use very concrete and meaningful examples to illustrate abstract points.
The clearest messages require specific, tangible explanations. You can’t “wow” your audience if they don’t understand you.
We have the ability to choose our thoughts, which trigger a positive or negative physiological response.
“This is your brain. This is your instrument. This is your tool. And this is your power.” - Dr. Jill
Five ways to create a holy smokes moment in your presentation:
1. Props and demos
2. Unexpected and shocking statistics
Persuasion occurs when you reach a person’s heart and head— logic and emotion.
You’ll need evidence, data, and statistics to back up your argument.
Make numbers meaningful, memorable, and jaw-dropping by placing them in a context that the audience can relate to.
Never leave data dangling. Context matters.
3. Pictures, images, and videos
Visuals have punch. An evocative slide, a funny or insightful video clip, a thrilling demonstration—all are novel elements that could really move the needle with your audience.
4. Memorable headlines
A sound bite—a short, provocative, repeatable phrase that is likely to be retweeted, posted on Facebook, and repeated in the news cycle.
The sound bite is critical to getting the story across in newspapers and television news.
The key to being a great spokesperson is also to craft a succinct message that conveys your big idea.
Hook people. Craft and deliver repeatable quotes. Your ideas deserve to be remembered.
“If you’re not prepared to be wrong, you’ll never come up with anything original.” —Sir Ken Robinson
“There’s zero correlation between being the best talker and having the best ideas.” —Susan Cain
“Don’t fake it till you make it. Fake it till you become it.” —Amy Cuddy
“Behind most Afghan girls who succeed is a father who recognizes that her success is his success.” —Shabana Basij-Rasikh
5. Personal stories
“What you children do this day will have an impact on children who have not been born.” - Dr. Martin Luther King
Let your guard down, to break down the barrier between yourself and the audience, and to teach us something about yourself that will help the audiences see you in a different light.
Nothing is more complicated than nuclear technology. So, don’t ever make the excuse that your content is too complex or technical to be explained simply.
Chapter 6: Lighten Up
'Over the past century a sense of humor has become a highly prized personality characteristic.' - Rod Martin
Our brains cannot ignore novelty. The brain also loves humor. Combine humor and novelty and you’ve got presentation gold.
Humor lowers defenses, making your audience more receptive to your message. It also makes you seem more likable, and people are more willing to do business with or support someone they like.
A joke poorly told or, worse, a well-delivered but tactless joke can diminish your reputation with your audience very quickly.
Sexist jokes are not acceptable in any professional business presentation
People use humor to “reinforce their own status in a group hierarchy. For example, you are more likely to crack jokes and amuse others in a group in which you are the leader or have a position of dominance than in a group in which you have lower status and less power than others.” - Rod Martin
The humor we use in presentations and how we deliver that humor should be carefully crafted and considered.
5 ways to add humor to your speech or presentation:
1. Anecdotes, Observations, and Personal Stories
If something happened to you and you found the humor in it, there’s a good chance others will, too.
2. Analogies and Metaphors
3. Quotes
Creatively adding quotes to your presentation breaks up the slides nicely and gives your audience a mental break.
Try to avoid quotes that are common and overused.
Grabbing a famous quote would be easier, but not nearly as creative or effective. Do your homework.
4. Video
5. Photos
Incorporate a humorous photograph or video clip to lighten the mood.
Empowered employees create memorable moments for their customers.
“There’s this mental delight that’s followed by the physical response of laughter, which, not coincidentally, releases endorphins in the brain. And just like that, you’ve been seduced into a different way of looking at something because the endorphins have brought down your defenses. This is the exact opposite of the way that anger and fear and panic, all of the flight-or-fight responses, operate. Flight-or-fight releases adrenaline, which throws our walls up sky-high. And the comedy comes along, dealing with a lot of the same areas where our defenses are the strongest—race, religion, politics, sexuality— only by approaching them through humor instead of adrenaline, we get endorphins and the alchemy of laughter turns our walls into windows, revealing a fresh and unexpected point of view.” - Chris Bliss
Humor, shock, statistics. Statistics alone would put people to sleep. An overly shocking presentation would turn people off. Too much humor would take away from the serious implications of the topic.
Humor involves some risk and most people don’t have the courage for it, which is why most business presentations are awfully dry and boring. It takes courage to be vulnerable, to poke some good-natured fun at yourself and your topic. The key is to be authentic. Don’t try to be someone you’re not. But if something makes you laugh, there’s a good chance it will make someone else laugh, too.
Studies show that humor is good for your health. Laughter lowers blood pressure, strengthens the immune system, improves breathing, increases your energy, and just makes you feel good. If you feel good, you’ll deliver a better presentation, and that’s something to smile about.
Part 3: Memorable
'You have to really be courageous about your instincts and your ideas. Otherwise you’ll just knuckle under, and things that might have been memorable will be lost' - Francis Ford Coppola
Chapter 7: Stick to the 18-Minute Rule
Dr. Paul King at Texas Christian University discovered that audience members feel anxiety if the speaker is anxious.
The rule of three simply means that people can remember three pieces of information really well; add more items and retention falls off considerably.
Three-step process for using a message map to build a winning pitch:
1. Create a Twitter-Friendly Headline
The headline is the one single overarching message that you want your customers to know at the end of your presentation.
“What is the single most important thing I want my listener to know about my [product, service, brand, idea]?”
Remember to make sure your headline fits in a Twitter post (no more than 140 characters).
2. Support the Headline with Three Key Messages
When you’re designing a presentation outline, include the three supporting messages that support the overall theme.
3. Reinforce the Three Messages with Stories, Statistics, and Examples
Add bullet points to each of the three supporting messages.
Write a few words that will prompt you to deliver the story.
Chapter 8: Paint a Mental Picture with Multisensory Experiences
'It is better to present an explanation in words and pictures than solely in words.' - Dr. Richard Mayer
Deliver presentations with components that touch more than one of the senses: sight, sound, touch, taste, and smell.
Remember, the brain does not pay attention to boring things.
Aren’t we adding an impossible load on our audience when we ask them to listen intently to our words and read a lengthy PowerPoint slide at the same time? They can’t do both!
If you hear information, you are likely to remember about 10 percent of that information three days later. Add a picture, however, and your recall rate will soar to 65 percent. To put that into context, a picture will help you remember six times more information than listening to the words alone.
The general tendency of the universe is to move from order and structure to lack of order, lack of structure—in fact, to mush.
“Use visuals to enhance words, not duplicate.” - TED Commandment
The way you want to deliver data: one statistic (or theme) per slide, followed by photographs or images to give the brain a break from the monotony of the graphs, tables, and charts.
“People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” - Maya Angelou
If a statistic needed to be highlighted, the data point was the only number on the slide, accompanied by a photograph of the LinkedIn site or some other relevant image.
How you say something (pitch, rate, volume, intensity, articulation) can touch your listener’s soul.
“We remember pictures better than words, so when I talk if I help you create visual images, you will remember that information much better than if I just use abstract words.” - Dr. Pascale Michelon
“Visualization is the way to trigger memory ... even just this one second allows me to remember everything else I did that day.” - Cesar Kuriyama
When we really see each other we want to help each other.
“The next time you’re faced with something that’s unexpected, unwanted and uncertain, consider that it just may be a gift.” - Stacey Kramer
Help the audience to “feel” your presentation. Step outside the slides every once in a while. Build in demonstrations, show products, ask the audience to participate.
It takes courage to make your story so simple that a seventh-grader can understand it. It takes courage to build a slide with one word on it, as Bono did. It takes courage to show photographs instead of filling your slides with bullets points and text. Courage stands out. Courage gets noticed. Courage wins hearts and minds. Courage is what you need to deliver the talk of your life. I know you have courage. Find it, celebrate it, and revel in it. Courageous public speaking will transform your life and the lives of the people who listen to you. You have ideas that were meant to be seen, felt, and heard. Use your voice to astonish people, inspire them, and to change the world.
Chapter 9: Stay in Your Lane
'I don’t think of work as work and play as play. It’s all living' — Sir Richard Branson
Most people can spot a phony. If you try to be something or someone you’re not, you’ll fail to gain the trust of your audience.
Hold the space means being vulnerable, expressing your raw emotion of the stroke and what it taught you.
An inspiring speaker should move his or her listeners to think differently about their lives, careers, or businesses. A great speaker makes you want to be a better person.
Richard Branson doesn’t put on an act. He’s real. He’s the same person on and off camera. Work is not separate from play and play is not separate from work. “It’s all living,” Branson feels.
When you deliver a presentation, your goal should not be to “deliver a presentation.” It should be to inspire your audience, to move them, and to encourage them to dream bigger. You cannot move people if they don’t think you’re real. You’ll never convince your audience of anything if they don’t trust, admire, and genuinely like you.
“Good speakers aren’t just lucky or talented—they work hard.” - Richard Branson
“To be an impressive public speaker, you have to believe in what you are saying. And if you speak with conviction and you’re passionate about your subject, your audience will be far more forgiving of your mistakes because they’ll have faith that you are telling the truth. Prepare, then take your time and relax. Speak from the heart.” - Richard Branson
“You’ve got to be able to communicate in life and it’s enormously important. Schools, to some extent, underemphasize that. If you can’t communicate and talk to other people and get across your ideas, you’re giving up your potential.” - Warren Buffet
Repetition frees your mind to tell your “story” in a way that is interesting, dynamic, and, more important—authentic.
Author's Note
If you’re like most people, you’re capable of so much more than you’ve imagined for your life. You have the capacity to move people, to inspire them, to provide hope to the despondent and direction to the lost. You have the ability to educate and electrify, inform and inspire, but only if you believe in your ability to do so.
Don’t let negative labels hold you back from achieving your destiny.
Often the worst labels are those we place on ourselves.
You can’t control what other people say about you but you can control how you frame those comments and you can most certainly control the things you tell yourself.
Remember, ideas are the currency of the twenty-first century. Your ideas will change the direction of your life and potentially change the world. Don’t let anything—including negative labels—stand in your way.
“I wish you success.” - Larry Smith
Smith doesn’t say “Good luck” because luck has little to do with your success. You don’t need luck to be an inspiring speaker. You need examples, techniques, passion, and practice. You also need courage—the courage to follow your passion, articulate your ideas simply, and express what makes your heart sing.
#SharedFromTwos ✌️