Public Speaking: How to make your message matter | Laura Penn | TEDxHSG

[Music] [Music] one of my favorite words in the English language is the word presentation this word just pops with meaning if you think about the root of the word it says present as in being present being in the here and now being in the moment one of the most important aspects of effective public speaking is to be 100% on to be conscious and tuned in to what you're doing and to your surroundings this oness makes you sharp as a speaker alert and it makes you totally available to the audience another meaning of present in the word presentation is of course that it is a gift something that a speaker gives the audience a piece of yourself that pours out of you in to them I love the way that sounds but sadly very few speakers have this point of view in my opinion very few of them see their presentations as gifts that they are giving the audience when this happens when you don't see your presentation as a gift you don't take care of it the same way you don't shape it and polish it and fine-tune it so that it Sparkles you don't maintain it and nourish it and love it like the treasure that it is we've all seen speakers where they're guilty of this kind of neglect where they haven't taken care of their presentations I call these types of presentations bad which for me stands for broken and dysfunctional bad but I also call them something else I call them stinky fish you see like a smelly old fish a bad presentation leaves something unpleasant in the room that lingers people are usually not really willing to hold on to it for very long and a lot of people are quick to throw it out in the trash I was watching a presentation just like this the other day the speaker was a middle-aged man man and the skinny and pale side and he was ticking off just about every box of what not to do while speaking in public for starters he spent most of his presentation with his arms crossed like this this is a no no in public speaking you're not supposed to cut the audience off this is a deadend street nothing is coming in and nothing is going going out as a speaker your job is to have the opposite of this energy which is open available ready another thing that this speaker did was he used Too Many filler sounds and filler words you all know these These are the ums A's you know sort ofs and likes our brain inserts these types of sounds and words when it needs a moment to catch up with what our mouths are doing but it has the negative effect of making your speech seem unpolished and unprepared and frankly it's annoying this particular speaker had 61 ums I counted them that's what I do in a 15 yeah in a 15 minute presentation that's too many what you should do instead of inserting all that messiness is insert nothing just a pause just some white space and it changes everything one more thing that the speaker did was he apologized too much I'm sorry he said for the small font size on my PowerPoint slide I hope you can still read it I'm sorry that I'm not as good as a speaker who just went I'm sorry that I'm sitting in the audience watching this guy talking about how he's sorry never apologize it undermines your credibility overall his speech left me feeling numb disengaged and totally uninspired I'm willing to Guess that just about every single person in this room has experienced a stinky fish presentation before raise your hand if you have yes look around just about everybody go ahead and put your hands down yeah it's an epidemic we've all experienced these types of presentations because they are everywhere and they're happening all the time and most of the time we as the audience just sit there politely watching and waiting and wanting more right longing for movement and laughter and human connection why do we accept such a low standard for public speaking why is it okay to deliver stinky fish presentations do you ever ask yourself these questions do you ever consider the consequences of what might happen if we continue down this road of accepting this low bar status quo for public speaking I do I think about it all the time especially when I'm watching someone with a big idea that could change the world deliver a presentation that leaves me wanting where instead of energizing and charging up the room the speaker sucks the life out of the place and switches off the proverbial lights of the audience all because of bad content or bad delivery or even worse a com combination of both this speaker did not take care of their presentation and it's such a waste but it doesn't have to be this way because you see as speakers we have a choice we can choose the blue pill or we could choose what color is this pill Matrix fans the red thank you pill think about the average presentation out there lots of stinky fish that's the blue pill this red pill however is something completely different this pill changes your mindset it makes you see the m i mean public speaking for what it really is which is that it is a performing art like theater and dance and music a speaker's art is the effective delivery of the spoken word in order to be successful a speaker has to both create compelling content and perform that content in front of an audience performance is what makes your presentation interesting so that people pay attention to what's going on performance is what makes your presentation memorable so that people inhale and absorb your message and performance is what makes your presentation stirring so that people care in short performance is what makes the difference between a presentation that is ordinary and one that is extraordinary it's what makes your message matter and by the way I'm not talking about the kind of performance where you get up on stage and puff yourself up and act like someone you're not no I'm talking about the kind of performance where you stay authentic to who you are but you have polished and honed and finetuned those Elements which comprise which are the performance of public speaking and there are four such things four such elements in my opinion the first one is appearance and this is all about what you look like from the outfit that you are wearing because your outfit is a part of your performance to what presence you radiate number two is your voice your voice is an instrument and your job is to play it so that people want to listen to it number three is body you are speaking body language and you need to be fluent in the vocabulary of what gestures and positions mean so that you can make sure that you are using the right gestures not the wrong ones finally number four is audience connection and this is all about what you are doing as a speaker to create a relationship with a connection to the audience so that you're on the same page there we are those are the four elements which I believe constitute the performance of public speaking appearance voice body and audience connection and it is by learning the skills and the techniques inside of these elements that you then have the tools that you need in order to shape and polish and fine-tune your presentations so that they sparkle It Is by knowing these things that you can maintain and nourish and love your presentations like the presents that they are as I'm sure that you can imagine it takes time and lots of practice to learn the Magnificent art of effective public speaking but when you put in the elbow grease the sweat and yeah sometimes even tears because it's hard work to learn the things that I'm talking about you will reap the rewards yes your message will be something that lingers in the room but in the most positive sense pulsing [Applause] meaning your message will be something that the audience wants to hold on to and maybe even take home with them and share with friends and family unlike a stinky fish and most importantly your message will matter so what's it going to be are you going to take the blue pill or will it be the red the choice is yours thank you [Applause]

Channel: TEDx Talks

Views: 120,724

Keywords: TEDxTalks, English, Switzerland, Education, Drama, Entertainment, Language, Passion, Purpose, Speech, Teaching

Id: DGqBv5_wCRA

Length: 14min 31sec (871 seconds)

Published: Mon Jan 23 2017