Hello SCG,
yay, I am so excited to be back with video blog & in the same time, I am feeling bit scare & also much bigger responsibility towards you -> cause numbers of readers, subscribers, SCG-ers are rising every single day, but that how it goes, right? -> when you ship art, you are intentionally & voluntarily making yourself vulnerable to the judgements of the world. So, here I am with the latest vlog, which will reveal to you one & only secret to success for your public speaking gig. -> I came up with, after 20+ public speaking gigs I had within last 22 months. So, here we go!
View video it directly on Viddler.Talk ONLY about what you have walked!
World does NOT need:
- social media experts -> who have tweeted 20 times in their whole life (that is enough to get the point, they are not stupid!) or have never written a blog post (what for? -> it is easy, isn’t it?)
- presentation gurus -> who will be telling you that power-point presentation with bullet points is no go, while they have no creative presentations portfolio of their own whatsoever
- kindness preachers & motivators -> who behave like a jerks all the time apart from their “air time”
- community builders -> whose only tribe they lead is candy – bribed neighbor’s kids
- etc. etc.
I believe you have got the point!
😉
SCG,
When was the last time you were moved by a speech? Can you recognize “fake talker” from genuine authentic speaker? What separates them?
Thoughts? -> In comments, please.
i.
Inspiring Shipments (#IS) by Ivana Sendecka 
Great to see you in the video again 😉 I would say that there is much more to it (public speaking) but you hit the most important point of all – speaking about own experience. Because only then you are excited about your theme and you know your topic very well. I think that this is very brightly seen on TED talks.
Hiya Tom,
thanks for stopping by. Yeah, indeed there are tons of things which are essential to be done,mastered, rehearsed before a speech, but essential part is to be authentic and that you can be only when your talk is about things you ship.
There’s always something powerful about talking from experience.
I think passion about what your talking about is the other key. If you’re passionate about your topic and you’re talking from experience, you have a firm foundation.
Yeah, passion comes naturally once you start to talk about what you love & do, therefore the most important thing is to love what you do!;-)
I saw speakers talking about their own experience. Despite this fact, it was not very interesting. I think experience is the necessary condition for successful public speaking but it is not enough. I would add another ingredient – joy. You need to love public speaking and truly enjoy it. Example (in both cases I was very good prepared but I was enjoying only of them):
1 .There was general assembly of Ynet (non-profit student organization, http://www.ynet.sk) in 2008. I was talking for 800 people about Ynet activities in the past year and about the plans for the next year. I knew very good what I was talking about because I spent a lot of time with people in Ynet implementation team (30 people) and prepared all reports for general assembly. However, my speech was not very interesting and I saw that some people fell asleep. The critical factor was that I hadn’t slept much the last few days before the action. I was tired and didn’t enjoy the speech at all.
2. The same year in September I had motivation speech for university newcomers (300 people). I was in a good mood and really enjoying my talk. The result was that up to 60 people (from this point of view we were the most successful among 6 student organizations at university) attended Ynet’s open competition a month after. In addition some of them told me that my speech was really interesting and best of all 6 speakers.
Ahoj Radko,
thanks for sharing your experience!
@your 1st example: talking about reports and numbers and statistics is guaranteed killer of attention -> embedding numbers and facts into a story is much much better, however much lengthy process. Try it out next time. Start preparing at least one month in advance for your talk.
@your second example: remember the points from your successful speech and apply them next time, too. Trash what did not work, re-use what worked;-)
As I mentioned in above comment (reply to J.D.), being totally passionate about what you want to share with the world in your speech is a MUST! -> so, when you love what you do, you love to share your joy from it with other -> and believe me that is pretty contagious!
;=)
Ivana,
thanks for your feedback ! It’s pretty challenging to present boring facts as the stories. I’ll try when the next opportunity comes. Then I’ll tell you the story what has happened. 🙂
The last moving speech that I personally experienced was actually on one event where you were as well – Highway conference in 2010 – YOU and DEY DOS both made an incredible points that made me think…
For me the STORY is what makes the speech powerful – as you say, personal story is the best – because it gives the flow, it gives personal touch, it gives credibility.
Aw, Marek -> thanks for remembering my speech & I am glad it touched you! I trust you are already applying new findings from it or Dey’s brilliant talk in your life.
😉
Great advice.
Experience has a natural defense because is a concatenation of facts…
…and there are no arguments against facts.
Most people will only listen to that. And… some will not, but those won’t listen anyway so you don’t need to worry about them.
Hi Seb!
your comment made me smile -> especially part about who do not listen anyway;-)
yeah, there is quite a nice feeling, when moment comes, when one can say -> I told you so! 😉
Sorry Ivana, but for this time I disagree with you. For some people, public speaking, just a thought of it, is ultra-frustrating. There are people out there who would rather be hit by the bus than deliver a short presentation to a group of people.
Of course, you’re right that effective public speaking is not about where you should look or what should one do with their hands. You only understand that when you become an effective public speaker though…
These very facts, what * exactly* to do with hands, legs, body, eyes, head… are the very facts that help the beginner most at the beginning of their journey. Well, it’s really oversimplifying to say: “Just do it” – for some people, it works well. Some other still need to hear what exactly to do.
But to conclude my longer than expected comment with something positive… 🙂 I still love your site and points of view. It’s great to talk and exchange opinions – even though it’s just in the virtual world 🙂
Thanks for your comment Andrej! And thanks for sharing your point of view.
There are several reasons why I believe that the only thing we all need to do is “just do it” -> there are tons of instruction like blogs, books for dummies, how-to, step-by step manuals -> but this is not how #IS is.
I purposely encourage people not to wait for instructions -> because if you want to be remarkable you need to take risks, fail often and learn fast. You will not become anyone indispensable, when you will be doing what others told you to do.
Yes. you can get inspired, observe what those people you admire do, but after all, no one in the world knows you as you do, no one in the world has the skills, insights and story as you do.
Once you will realize your own potential, beauty and that you are worthy to stand on the stage and share what you know with your audience -> you are on the way to make difference.
😉
So, #IS is and will be cheering people to forget instructions and manuals -> instead of it -> listen to your own genius and ship your art;-)
Aaaaah….. I get it now. This sentence made it clear for me how you think about the topic: “I purposely encourage people not to wait for instructions -> because if you want to be remarkable you need to take risks, fail often and learn fast.”
It kinda reminds me of Timothy Gallwey concept of Inner Game: “In every human endeavor there are two arenas of engagement: the outer and the inner. The outer game is played on an external arena to overcome external obstacles to reach an external goal. The inner game takes place within the mind of the player and is played against such obstacles as fear, self-doubt, lapses in focus, and limiting concepts or assumptions. The inner game is played to overcome the self-imposed obstacles that prevent an individual or team from accessing their full potential.”
😉