This is Charlie from Charisma on Command and
today I'm going to be giving you some presentation tips and tricks. Now, the guide that we are
working off of today is actually the Toastmasters 2015 World Champion of Public Speaking. This
does, though, apply to a presentation that you would give in any setting, whether it's
in work, or elsewhere, because when you stand in front of a group of people, whether you're
talking about macroeconomics, or the forecasted revenue, or you're telling a story, like this
guy, you must captivate their attention first. And that's one of the things that we're going
to focus on today. So let's get started. What? So, this is so huge. How does he start off
this speech? There are two big things going on here. One, he starts with a prop, and sometimes
I can feel hokey and you're like, "Well, how do I do that in a business setting?" The truth is,
anything that is a physical object that people do not understand why you're doing it, whether you're
holding some sort of piece of fruit as a metaphor, I've seen people do that, whatever it is,
if you have a physical object, that helps to capture people's attention, and you're
going to see that this is the most critical thing at the start of a speech. He does it
in multiple ways, because when you get up there and start to speak in front of people,
you have about 10 seconds to capture their attention and captivate them before they tune
out completely, so you must do something interesting. Secondly, impeccable timing. This guy is so
deliberate, so slow, he commands the stage. That's just something to look out for for
the rest of this video. All of you think smoking kills? So, another quick thing, and I'm going to
play this back, again, just so you can see it altogether. You need to get audience interaction
absolutely within the first minute. You see a lot of speakers do this. It can feel hackneyed,
but they ask people that, you know, "Show a hand, whose seen this before?" "Show a hand, who's
heard of something." You must get the audience moving and speaking and responding to you if you
want them to listen and to engage with what you are saying. He does it very cleverly by
asking a provocative question. So, I'm just going to go back and play that all over again
so we can see it together. What? All of you think smoking kills? So, now, they're interested, and hooked, and
he can begin his-- he can begin to get into it. Let me tell you something. Do you know that
there are many people dying from diabetes as three times as many people dying from smoking?
Yet, if I pulled a Snicker bar, nobody will say anything. Again, two more great examples. He's dedicating,
basically, the first minute of his speech to engaging with the audience, and he does
that a number of ways we've covered, but, also, humor. He makes sure that there are
jokes in that first minute. So he's got another belly laugh here, and then, that provocative
question that he's asking you, "You think this? Well, guess what?" And, now, he's going
to reveal something else. Do you know that the leading cause of lung
cancer is not actually a cigarette. Prop again, captivates attention It's your DNA. You could smoke for years and
nothing will ever happen to you. This whole war against smoking is just to restrict the
farming of tobacco. Mr. _, _ and guests, I use these arguments even though I just made
them up So, you see, this is kind of an abbreviated
version of this talk. But, right now, we're going to go to the body of the talk. So that's
how you need to and must. The first part of whatever your presentation you're giving,
has to captivate attention. You've got humor. You've got provocative questions. You've got
props; lots of ways to do that, but the first minute, do not get right into what you're
saying. Don't tell them what you're going to talk about. Capture their attention. So, here, now we're more in the body of his
speech, and the body of his presentation, and one thing that you're going to want to
have, no matter how dry the subject that you're talking about, is stories, because, people,
the human brain did not evolve to digest and connect with statistics, right? You can talk
about global warming, or world hunger, and how many millions and billions, and hundreds
of thousands, but the human brain is not persuaded by that. What is persuasive is individual
anecdotes, and even though it's a logical fallacy, if you want to move people emotionally,
you need to tell the stories of individuals, and this is what he does right here. Choice of word can make a difference between
someone accepting or denying your message. You can have a very beautiful thing to say,
but say it in the wrong words and it's gone. So, here, he makes his point, and now he's
about to launch into a story. That's a great way, bounce back and forth between a general
point demonstrating a story, or even start with demonstrating a story, what's the point? My friend, Nasser, he loved his father, idealized
his father. He would do anything to make him happy. But his father was the kind of person
who's not easy to impress, and year after year, Nasser tried, and his father was like,
"Nyah." First year in college, Nasser got straight A's, and he thought to himself, "This
is it. This will finally make my dad proud." He picked up the phone So notice this. This is very critical. When
you are telling stories, again, even in dry enviroments, you have to realize that when
you're in front of a group of people, you are performing, so you need to get out from
behind the lectern. You need to move your body, but you also need to embody characters.
If you can take people into the present tense of any story, any moment, that is going to
be far more powerful than summarizing it. And if you can go beyond the present tense,
and act it out, make it vivid and real play character, that is going to be something that
people can connect with much more, and will ultimately be moved to act upon, because,
really, when you get in front of people, your goal is not just to say some words, your goal
is for them to walk away, having had something inside them change, so that they behave differently.
And this is just a great example of how you can do that. So, see what he does here. He called his dad, "Dad, I got straight A's,
are you proud? Please, tell me you're proud, father. "Yeah, listen, son, I have to call you back,
I'm busy." So, you see, this is actually abbreviated
in the end. I highly, highly recommend watching the whole thing. It's much to get. It's much
better in its whole piece, but I wanted to pull out some of the most fascinating pieces.
So, moving on, now, towards the end of the speech, he sort of wraps it up. What you want
to do when you get to the end of any presentation. In the middle, you know, you'll have told
your stories, your anecdotes. At the beginning, you'll have captured attention. It's the end
when people are wide open from being sucked into your stories, from you hooking their
attention, that you can drop whatever insight or nugget that you want them to take away,
because if you captivate people with stories, the truth is, they're wide open to you telling
them the moral, and this is kind of what he does here. Words have power. Words are power. Words could
be your power. You can change a life, inspire a nation, and make this world a beautiful
place. Isn't that what we all wanted? Isn't that why we are all in this world? Your mouth
can spit venom or it can mend a broken soul. Ladies and gentlemen, let that be our goal. So, you see there, at the end, he goes back
full circle with the prop. He pulls out the cigarette and crushes it at the end. This
is something that is very, very, very popular. I personally find it a little bit cliche,
in this case, but what a lot of people like to do is come full circle, or start with a
metaphor, and then, come back to it at the end. Again, very, very popular thing. You
don't need to force it as I felt is the case in this speech, but something that you can
do. If you want to see more on this channel, go ahead and subscribe. And, of course, if there's anybody
that you'd like to see me break down, any topics that you would like to see me do, feel
free to go ahead and put those in the comments. I hope that you've liked this and I will see
you on the next video.
This was awesome! This reminded me of toastmakers way back a couple of years when i first discovered it but i never got through to actually checking one out, but I definitely will have to this summer.
Thanks for posting this! I actually have a speech coming up this weekend so this is really helpful!