Public Speaking
The first minute
Openings are the most disproportionately valuable part of a talk and the part most often wasted on housekeeping.
Public Speaking
Nerves, structure, delivery and speaking without slides.
Public Speaking
Speaking to camera
A lens is the hardest audience there is, because it gives you absolutely nothing back.
Public Speaking
Rehearsing properly
Reading the slides through in your head is not rehearsal, and the difference shows in the room.
Public Speaking
Teaching and training a room
Training is not presenting, and the most common mistake is treating a workshop as a talk with breaks.
Public Speaking
Running a meeting people do not resent
Chairing is a speaking skill, and the failures are consistent enough to be listed.
Public Speaking
Speaking when you are the only one who disagrees
The pressure to stay quiet in a room that has already agreed is measurable, and so is the effect of one person breaking it.
Public Speaking
Presenting to senior people
Boards and executives listen differently, and the presentation that works with a team fails with them for predictable reasons.
Public Speaking
Giving a toast or a short speech
Weddings, leaving dos and birthdays have their own rules, and the main one is brevity.
Public Speaking
Reading a room while you speak
Audiences signal continuously and most speakers are too busy delivering to notice.
Public Speaking
Handling questions
The question session is where credibility is won or lost, and it is almost never rehearsed.
Public Speaking
Speaking without slides
Slides are a crutch that frequently damages the talk, and the alternative is more straightforward than it appears.
Public Speaking
Structuring a talk so people remember it
Audiences retain structure rather than detail, which means the shape of a talk matters more than its content.
Public Speaking
Nerves before speaking, and what to do with them
Being told to relax has never helped anyone, and the techniques that do work are more specific than that.