Great site with some good advice. I particularly like this part: "Talks are Entertainment - Public speaking's dirty little secret."
The best thing I learned for giving a good talk, and what I tell myself every time, is that it's story time for adults.
Think back to a young age, and how you learned all those morals with fables and stories. Want to give a good talk? Make it a good story with wit and anecdotes. Be Garrison Keillor up there, and you'll see sparkling eyes and open mouthed smiles.
We shouldn't consider this secret to be a "dirty" one. There's plenty of scientific research that shows that we remember things better when they are keyed by emotion [1].
By giving your talk a personal, emotional frame, you help the listener remember and recall it, which in turn makes better use of their attention and time.
Also, we should never feel bad for enjoying something. Life is not a zero-sum split where the more miserable something is, the more valid it is as work. As long as the entertainment of the talk does not detract from the information, it's fine. You can have both.
And what I find is that the audience wants you to do well. They are invested in your success and their enjoyment be being in those seats. Double-bonus if drinks are being served ;)
that's a tall order. And the topic requires a different approach. scientific topics require 'just the facts ma'am' with extra points for a dash of shop humor.
Anyone been able to overcome panic attacks while public speaking? Medication seems like a hassle. And most advice is just obvious tips ("know your material!") that doesn't address the physiological problem.
My first talk was in front of a many-thousands-attendees conference and I didn't have a problem. It was fun. I've for years enjoyed speaking in front of groups. Never enjoyed doing the exec presentation per se, but I'd done it before and was comfortable with it. Then at two back-to-back jobs, two managers told me I wasn't actually good at it, neither speaking in front of crowds nor communicating to execs. Basically, they said I sucked at it. Thanks a lot :-(
Now I have the pleasure of enjoying a nearly crippling fear of talking in groups. My brain blanks. I stammer and repeat the same thing over and over. I simply can't find the words, and the longer the pause extends, the more I probably look like I'm having a stroke.
Could you try to build up confidence by speaking at smaller/tiny groups that are on your side (peers, friends) and work your way upwards? Counteract the terrible feedback from those managers (ugh, sorry that happened to you) with more positive and welcoming feedback from friends before you move onto strangers.
Even when not speaking I have panic attacks and am generally a bit anxious, yet I can speak pretty well in front of an audience because I learned to think of the audience as a group of my friends that I care a lot about and whom know or understand less about my topic, which they will benefit from knowing/understanding more about, than I do, so I get to talk to/with them about it and fully share my thoughts about it.
Consider going to something like Toastmasters and practicing. Getting useful feedback and improving might get your brain out of the idea that you're not good at it.
Defensive pessimism have worked for me in the past.
Convincing yourself that the event is already over and have failed. The deal is done, you don't have to fear your failure - you have already thought through the consequences of failing, and have accepted that you will have to face them. The actual speaking will just involve going through the already determined motions.
This, I find, can give some relieve from the most debilitating effects of anxiety during speaking.
When you've spoken to a big crowd, and somebody (especially a powerful person) tells you later that you aren't good at it, remember this:
He's on trial, not you.
You know you can make yourself clear to a big audience. If he can't understand you, well then, he's sexting somebody or he doesn't have the cognitive chops to understand what you're saying. That's sad for him, but not for you.
Remember this: people really want to hear what you have to say. They want to believe you. They want you to succeed.
Have a little sheet with bullet points of your talk so if you get truly lost you can get back on track. Better than that is asking a member of the audience, just be straightforward, "I just lost my track where were we?" Most people forgive a rough-around-the-edges speaker if there's a feeling of informality and participation.
Also practicing but quality practice is the key. Record yourself and watch it. Practice in several different places. Practice in front of a friend. Practice at a Toastmasters. Skim your speech during the little spare moments you have. And if you start to get down go search through some tech talks, there's a lot worse speakers than you out there so find one and boost that esteem haha.
Therapy. Cognitive behavioral therapy in particular seems to have a good track record with anxiety and difficulty functioning in certain scenarios.
If this is really stressful and holding you back, you owe it to yourself to try to find a professional who can help you with it. There are a lot of mediocre therapists out there, but a good one can change your life.
Propanolol is a pretty harmless recommendation. Exposure. Keep in mind that the more panic attacks you have the more intractable this problem will become. So don't push yourself too hard.
I've noticed that professional speakers and actors speak very different from how I do. There is a much more dynamic use of tone and they generally speak more slowly.
I occasionally speak at conferences and have thought about recording lessons and wanted to know how to do this. I searched pretty hard for tips and there isn't much. I ended up watching a bunch of YouTube videos and making a playlist [1] of what I thought was valuable. If you're interested, check it out.
>There is a much more dynamic use of tone and they generally speak more slowly.
From what I've read on social engineering[1] and communications theory a slower speaker is generally perceived as more calm, confident, and deliberate whereas fast talkers are often perceived as being more anxious.
Also, alteration of tones is a tactic often used to add subtle influence to the delivery of key words and concepts.
One thing I heard many years ago but everyone I tell seems surprised by:
Export your slides to PDF.
You have no idea what you'll be presenting from, and PDF readers are everywhere and will so up basically the same on every screen. Most PDF readers have a full screen mode where pressing the space bar will advance you one "page", and 99 times out of 100 you don't need transitions. Just do it.
Yes, PDF is universal but PowerPoint and Keynote have "Presenter view" which adds extra functionality besides just showing you the same slide that your audience sees such as private notes for each slide as well as thumbnails of upcoming slides so you can skip slides without the audience knowing or use a timer to pace yourself [0].
I did a quick search and I could not find out whether Adobe Acrobat has this functionality.
I'm not great now, but used to be an absolutely dreadful public speaker. While I was in college I got a most of a year warning that I would have to give a technical presentation to an audience of a few hundred. At that point I could not do that. I told myself, "If you are going to stand in front of that many people and talk, you need practice". So for the next 8 months EVERY time a professor asked for a volunteer I said yes. No matter how ill prepared I was. Once I got myself into a real pickle. I volunteered to do a homework problem on the board for a homework I had not done yet on a subject I was weak in. It went ok. I had to ask the class for help, and announced what steps I thought I should do. After that I began to trust the advice that the audience wants you to succeed.
When it came time to giving the presentation I practiced a huge amount. Recorded it and watched it again and again. I also spent time thinking of every question that could be asked and prepared backup slides (with quick links) to visuals to support the top 10 questions I guessed might be asked. I got to use two of those visuals to answer questions.
Overall it was a great experience and I was able to place 4th at the national level of the competition.
Agreed, former Speech and Debate participant for several years. Did not place well. Consistently last actually. Was extremely useful in learning to care less and less about being in front of people and the center of attention. Still get massive guitar playing stage fright though.
This is the "Schaum's Outlines" of public speaking in a technical context.
When ever I give a talk, I read the entirety of speaking.io.
This style does lead to slides that make little sense outside the context of the talk. When I reviewed the slides for a talk I gave 18 months ago, I had no idea what the slides were about.
> This style does lead to slides that make little sense outside the context of the talk. When I reviewed the slides for a talk I gave 18 months ago, I had no idea what the slides were about.
That happens, but still - I think it's for the best.
The way I learned to see it, slides too often are used as crutches by people too afraid of focusing attention on themselves. But that's not how good talks are made. It takes practice to overcome this fear, but you have to. Your public talk is all about your ideas. Which you mostly deliver by speaking them[0]. Slides should have one primary purpose: to help you express your ideas in a clearer way. So e.g. do show a graph or a piece of code you intend to discuss. Do show e.g. a hierarchy of your ideas in a spatial way, if that's a good way for people to imagine the concept. Don't show the points you're going to speak word-for-word.
Also, my observation: if you intend to put a joke slide, train transitioning to it well in advance. There aren't many better ways to destroy a joke than to show it on a slide, and then awkwardly proceed to read / explain it.
--
[0] - If those ideas are better expressed as an article, just write an article. Also, there's no hurt in doing both - text and public presentations are orthogonal distribution channels.
Haven't read the entire thing, though there's good stuff in there. One disagreement I have is with the use of slides. Slides should only be used for things that cannot be described merely through words. Mostly graphs and code. Photos, inspirational quotes, and cat gifs should be insulting to the audience because they are distracting, convey no information, and are just an appeal to your senses. Even the second and third best public speakers don't use slides as a crutch, and really nobody should. Public speaking should be entertaining, but it's the speaking itself that should be entertaining. I would rather try be like one of the best public speakers than impress people with my mad web surfing skillz.
Heavily depends on the audience. If you're doing an internal presentation for a company, you can bet that everyone is mostly hoping for a slide deck in their inbox an hour after your talk is done. So it has to have lots of words and pictures.
I can here for this comment. To me, slides are like tables or diagrams in a research paper: you only use them because expressing the idea in a paragraph (i.e. speaking) would be too difficult or nonsensical.
I understand that some speakers are so slide centric because it's their presentation style or they do it for shits and giggles, but most speakers seems to do it because of ignorance and inexperience.
There are certainly speeches/talks that don't require the use of slides at all.
However, slides do often help engage an audience and keep attention focused. (Though less content is often better.)
I tend to use photos plus a relatively few words personally. Presentations that are unadorned but with some minimal text also works. But there are certainly different styles.
There's also a tension between presentations that can stand on their own and those that are solely in support of a live presentation. In an ideal world, most decks wouldn't be called on to function as a substitute for watching the actual presentation but that often isn't realistic.
I think the cat gifs can work (or other memes,) but it has to be the right speaker. If the speaker is funny then it works, but if the speaker is using it to break the ice or tension, then it does not work and it's just awkward.
One facet that I think the site could add would be "expected time investment" for many of the steps. They sound simple as one liners, because in concept they are.
However, "Record yourself" can be quite a bit of time and review and re-doing - three times for a 30 minute speech is 90 minutes. That's a lot of talking!
The layout and structure of the advice provided is quite good, and I think it's a great reference point. As somebody who has been half-naked and tied up in front of about 10 people for the sake of making a student film, it helps reset the concept of performance a little.
There are two major problems with public speaking:
1. Many do public speaking for the sake of public speaking. To prove themselves something. That they can publicly speak. This is wrong. You need to have a clear goal. Your speech is an enabler. E.g. you want to attract new clients, employees, funding, whatever. Even just to strengthen your personal brand doesn't work either. Behind this semi-goal must be again a clear and meaningful goal. E.g. increase personal brand because you want to sell x or position yourself as expert in field y.
If you have this clear gloal your speech will fly by itself. If not you will utterly fail and you feel it every second of that speech.
2) The bigger problem is that people heavily learn their speech before. Just learn the first five minutes. Then try to speak to the public like you would speak to a good friend. Don't learn sentences. Just have a rough outline of the speech in your head. The best speeches usually come when you didn't prepare at all (but this never happens).
> Then try to speak to the public like you would speak to a good friend.
I think this works better for some people than for others. When I speak to a good friend, often I'm rambling and not articulating clearly, and I often lose track of the point of my story. It happens far more often than I like that I fail to capture someone's interest, and I definitely don't want that to happen on stage.
In 1) you provided examples for talks that are meant to convince people / win you something. But the very same advice applies in the other kind of public speaking - the one in which you want to give something valuable to your audience.
You have to have a clear idea of what you're trying to explain to people. That necessarily involves first understanding it. After that - and this is a step I see some smart people struggling with - you need to think through how to structure that understanding, recursively, from the expected level of your audience upwards. Then the public speech is pretty much like executing a pre-order traversal on a tree (with root node being your talk outline).
Yes! I've found that public speaking has become almost second nature to me over the years only after becoming an absolute expert in my field to the point I generate unique research and can bring new things to the table. As a result, I may prepare a slide deck ahead of time and am usually still working on it just before I speak. The slide-deck itself are breadcrumbs. It's there to keep me on subject but in terms of preparation, I don't prepare because I don't need to thanks to how well I know the subject matter.
Definitely agree on 1. Having a clear goal makes it a much better experience by soothing the nerves esp. for someone like me who doesn't speaks often in public. The more clarity I have about my content more confident I feel while speaking.
Minor nit... Conferences have CFPs, you don't write a CFP! (unless you're organizing a conference). It's a call for papers, speakers submit papers (at least in academia, I guess in tech conferences maybe an abstract sufices)
[+] [-] binarymax|8 years ago|reply
The best thing I learned for giving a good talk, and what I tell myself every time, is that it's story time for adults.
Think back to a young age, and how you learned all those morals with fables and stories. Want to give a good talk? Make it a good story with wit and anecdotes. Be Garrison Keillor up there, and you'll see sparkling eyes and open mouthed smiles.
[+] [-] munificent|8 years ago|reply
By giving your talk a personal, emotional frame, you help the listener remember and recall it, which in turn makes better use of their attention and time.
Also, we should never feel bad for enjoying something. Life is not a zero-sum split where the more miserable something is, the more valid it is as work. As long as the entertainment of the talk does not detract from the information, it's fine. You can have both.
[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emotion_and_memory
[+] [-] cholantesh|8 years ago|reply
From your pink-cheeked and robust audience.
[+] [-] Mz|8 years ago|reply
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNKFSpJIBO0&t=212s
[+] [-] shanecleveland|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mapster|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] amygdala_panic|8 years ago|reply
My first talk was in front of a many-thousands-attendees conference and I didn't have a problem. It was fun. I've for years enjoyed speaking in front of groups. Never enjoyed doing the exec presentation per se, but I'd done it before and was comfortable with it. Then at two back-to-back jobs, two managers told me I wasn't actually good at it, neither speaking in front of crowds nor communicating to execs. Basically, they said I sucked at it. Thanks a lot :-(
Now I have the pleasure of enjoying a nearly crippling fear of talking in groups. My brain blanks. I stammer and repeat the same thing over and over. I simply can't find the words, and the longer the pause extends, the more I probably look like I'm having a stroke.
[+] [-] limedaring|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] bthallplz|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] TACIXAT|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] tokai|8 years ago|reply
This, I find, can give some relieve from the most debilitating effects of anxiety during speaking.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defensive_pessimism
[+] [-] OliverJones|8 years ago|reply
Remember this: people really want to hear what you have to say. They want to believe you. They want you to succeed.
[+] [-] arkitaip|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] frgtpsswrdlame|8 years ago|reply
Also practicing but quality practice is the key. Record yourself and watch it. Practice in several different places. Practice in front of a friend. Practice at a Toastmasters. Skim your speech during the little spare moments you have. And if you start to get down go search through some tech talks, there's a lot worse speakers than you out there so find one and boost that esteem haha.
[+] [-] munificent|8 years ago|reply
If this is really stressful and holding you back, you owe it to yourself to try to find a professional who can help you with it. There are a lot of mediocre therapists out there, but a good one can change your life.
[+] [-] 55555|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] TACIXAT|8 years ago|reply
I occasionally speak at conferences and have thought about recording lessons and wanted to know how to do this. I searched pretty hard for tips and there isn't much. I ended up watching a bunch of YouTube videos and making a playlist [1] of what I thought was valuable. If you're interested, check it out.
1. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLLanzwyndb8YV4euD0Lei...
[+] [-] wu-ikkyu|8 years ago|reply
From what I've read on social engineering[1] and communications theory a slower speaker is generally perceived as more calm, confident, and deliberate whereas fast talkers are often perceived as being more anxious.
Also, alteration of tones is a tactic often used to add subtle influence to the delivery of key words and concepts.
[1]https://www.amazon.com/Social-Engineering-Art-Human-Hacking/...
[+] [-] jedimastert|8 years ago|reply
Export your slides to PDF.
You have no idea what you'll be presenting from, and PDF readers are everywhere and will so up basically the same on every screen. Most PDF readers have a full screen mode where pressing the space bar will advance you one "page", and 99 times out of 100 you don't need transitions. Just do it.
[+] [-] _e|8 years ago|reply
I did a quick search and I could not find out whether Adobe Acrobat has this functionality.
[0] https://support.office.com/en-us/article/View-your-speaker-n...
[+] [-] Cerium|8 years ago|reply
When it came time to giving the presentation I practiced a huge amount. Recorded it and watched it again and again. I also spent time thinking of every question that could be asked and prepared backup slides (with quick links) to visuals to support the top 10 questions I guessed might be asked. I got to use two of those visuals to answer questions.
Overall it was a great experience and I was able to place 4th at the national level of the competition.
[+] [-] bbernard|8 years ago|reply
The more you practice it, the more comfortable, the more structured and the more natural you become.
I've been in Toastmasters for almost 7 years now. And it seriously changed me for the better.
[+] [-] 6stringmerc|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] yoloswagins|8 years ago|reply
When ever I give a talk, I read the entirety of speaking.io.
This style does lead to slides that make little sense outside the context of the talk. When I reviewed the slides for a talk I gave 18 months ago, I had no idea what the slides were about.
[+] [-] TeMPOraL|8 years ago|reply
That happens, but still - I think it's for the best.
The way I learned to see it, slides too often are used as crutches by people too afraid of focusing attention on themselves. But that's not how good talks are made. It takes practice to overcome this fear, but you have to. Your public talk is all about your ideas. Which you mostly deliver by speaking them[0]. Slides should have one primary purpose: to help you express your ideas in a clearer way. So e.g. do show a graph or a piece of code you intend to discuss. Do show e.g. a hierarchy of your ideas in a spatial way, if that's a good way for people to imagine the concept. Don't show the points you're going to speak word-for-word.
Also, my observation: if you intend to put a joke slide, train transitioning to it well in advance. There aren't many better ways to destroy a joke than to show it on a slide, and then awkwardly proceed to read / explain it.
--
[0] - If those ideas are better expressed as an article, just write an article. Also, there's no hurt in doing both - text and public presentations are orthogonal distribution channels.
[+] [-] snug|8 years ago|reply
Also I should be practicing and finishing my slides, not on HN right now.
[+] [-] ravenstine|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] nunez|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] arkitaip|8 years ago|reply
I understand that some speakers are so slide centric because it's their presentation style or they do it for shits and giggles, but most speakers seems to do it because of ignorance and inexperience.
[+] [-] ghaff|8 years ago|reply
However, slides do often help engage an audience and keep attention focused. (Though less content is often better.)
I tend to use photos plus a relatively few words personally. Presentations that are unadorned but with some minimal text also works. But there are certainly different styles.
There's also a tension between presentations that can stand on their own and those that are solely in support of a live presentation. In an ideal world, most decks wouldn't be called on to function as a substitute for watching the actual presentation but that often isn't realistic.
[+] [-] snug|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] 6stringmerc|8 years ago|reply
However, "Record yourself" can be quite a bit of time and review and re-doing - three times for a 30 minute speech is 90 minutes. That's a lot of talking!
The layout and structure of the advice provided is quite good, and I think it's a great reference point. As somebody who has been half-naked and tied up in front of about 10 people for the sake of making a student film, it helps reset the concept of performance a little.
[+] [-] thinbeige|8 years ago|reply
1. Many do public speaking for the sake of public speaking. To prove themselves something. That they can publicly speak. This is wrong. You need to have a clear goal. Your speech is an enabler. E.g. you want to attract new clients, employees, funding, whatever. Even just to strengthen your personal brand doesn't work either. Behind this semi-goal must be again a clear and meaningful goal. E.g. increase personal brand because you want to sell x or position yourself as expert in field y. If you have this clear gloal your speech will fly by itself. If not you will utterly fail and you feel it every second of that speech.
2) The bigger problem is that people heavily learn their speech before. Just learn the first five minutes. Then try to speak to the public like you would speak to a good friend. Don't learn sentences. Just have a rough outline of the speech in your head. The best speeches usually come when you didn't prepare at all (but this never happens).
[+] [-] Vinnl|8 years ago|reply
I think this works better for some people than for others. When I speak to a good friend, often I'm rambling and not articulating clearly, and I often lose track of the point of my story. It happens far more often than I like that I fail to capture someone's interest, and I definitely don't want that to happen on stage.
[+] [-] TeMPOraL|8 years ago|reply
In 1) you provided examples for talks that are meant to convince people / win you something. But the very same advice applies in the other kind of public speaking - the one in which you want to give something valuable to your audience.
You have to have a clear idea of what you're trying to explain to people. That necessarily involves first understanding it. After that - and this is a step I see some smart people struggling with - you need to think through how to structure that understanding, recursively, from the expected level of your audience upwards. Then the public speech is pretty much like executing a pre-order traversal on a tree (with root node being your talk outline).
[+] [-] patcheudor|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] indogooner|8 years ago|reply
I would like to try 2) and see how it goes.
[+] [-] watwut|8 years ago|reply
I don't have that long monologues in front of friends. If I would learn just outline, the audience would ended up hearing just that.
[+] [-] tincholio|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dang|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Numberwang|8 years ago|reply