A look at five simple things you can do to enhance the impact of your next piece of public speaking
Most people fear public speaking and believe you can either do it or you can’t. Yet, simple things can make a big difference and it’s easy to learn what these are and apply them in your own talks.
Here are five pro-speaker secrets you can use immediately:
1. Plan with the audience in mind
‘Designing a presentation without an audience in mind is like writing a love letter and addressing it: “To whom it may concern”’
Ken Haemer, former Presentation Research Manager at AT&T
Before planning your content, put yourself in the minds of your audience. Ask; ‘Who will be in the audience?’ Why are they attending?’ ‘What are their expectations?’ ‘What might they be thinking?’ Your answers will help you plan an engaging talk.
2. Answer ‘why?’ ‘what?’ ‘how?’ and ‘what if?’
These questions are almost certain to be on the minds of any audience. Appeal to everyone by making sure you cover them all:
- Why? – why should people listen? Why is this topic important?
- What? – what is your key message? Introduce your idea.
- How? – explain how it works. Give supporting evidence and examples.
- What if? (problems) – highlight risks or problems and how to deal with them.
- What if? (benefits) – show the difference your ideas will make.
This system should also help ensure that your talk will be logical and easy-to-follow.
3. Appeal to the head and the heart
In the 4th century BC, Aristotle wrote that a logical argument alone is seldom sufficient if you want to convince people. While it is important to use logic, facts and evidence to appeal to the head, it is also vital to appeal to the heart because people are often persuaded by how they feel. You can do this by telling stories that trigger emotions. A medical professional may appeal to the head by giving statistics about the effectiveness of treatment, yet also appeal to the heart by telling the story of a patient who made a remarkable recovery.
4. Add a little sparkle and drama
If you want your message to be memorable, you need to grab attention and create curiosity. People remember what is different. Here are a couple of proven methods:
Give them a startling fact: here’s a passage from the start from journalist David Epstein’s talk at TED2014 – ‘The winner of the 2012 Olympic marathon ran two hours and eight minutes. Had he been racing against the winner of the 1904 Olympic marathon, he would have won by nearly an hour and a half.”Tip: make your fact a jaw-dropper.
Deliver a ‘wow’ moment: your ‘wow’ moment can shake beliefs and cause an audience to see things differently. A great example comes from a 1999 research paper entitled ‘Gorillas in our midst’ by Daniel J Simons and Christopher F Chabris. In it, people were asked to watch a video of a group of people passing a basketball and to count the number of passes. After watching it, they were asked if they had noticed the gorilla. Most people hadn’t, even though a person in a gorilla suit had clearly wandered among the group. When I saw this video shown, most of the audience missed the gorilla too. This demonstrates that we often see only what we are looking for, a phenomenon known as ‘inattentional blindness.’ You can still watch this video on YouTube. Think about what you could say, show or do to make your audience sit up and listen.
5. End on a high and make a call to action
Many talks end in a whimper. Phrases like: ‘Well, that’s all we’ve got time for, so thank you very much’ are all too common.
Instead, end on a high by doing three things:
- Summarise your key message. You might show it on the screen and have a powerful picture to go with it.
- Make your call to action. Be specific and increase the chances of the audience taking that action by making the first step as easy as possible.
- Paint a picture of the future. Highlight the positive effects of the audience taking the action you suggest.
Put the secrets into practice
Next time you speak to a group, use the five secrets above to deliver a convincing talk. You may be surprised at how a few simple tips can enhance your impact.
Graham Shaw is the author of The Speaker’s Coach: 60 secrets to make your talk, speech or presentation amazing.
