Transcripts
1. Presentation Emergency Promo: okay. I know you're panicked. You've got to give a speech tomorrow. You haven't prepared it all. You don't know where to start. I'm gonna walk you through the steps. This is a very quick course. You're gonna be able to go through this course in 30 minutes. Do the exercises actually prepare and practice your speech in another 30 minutes. So if you give me 60 minutes total, you are going to be ready to give your presentation. No one will know. You wait until the last minute.
2. What do you want your audience to do: The first thing I want you to do is to write down. What is the one thing that you actually want people to do? Who listen to this presentation? Are you trying to get them to purchase something from you? Recommend something, approve a budget. You need to have a clear, clear laser focus on the outcome. Don't get lost in all the weeds. Don't get worried about all the charts of quarterly earnings for the last 10 years. Focus. Right now on the one thing that you want your audience to do after you give your presentation, write it down now.
3. Stuff to avoid doing: So before we go any further, I've got to give you some top tips on what Not to dio. I want to save you time, not waste to time. And it's a whole bunch of ways to waste time if it's the night before a big speech. For one thing, stop gathering more data. You already have enough data to present to your audience. You probably already have enough here. So at this point, it's not about gathering or data. You got to figure out how to shape it, how to put a spotlight on what's most important. Next thing. Don't write the speech out word for word and don't try to memorize it. That's incredibly time consuming. It's tedious, and it's usually not very successful with audiences. Because if you write it all out and you got to give the speech tomorrow morning, there's gonna be this tendency to try to read it, cause that will seem safe and stop a minute and think, How do you feel when someone reads speech to you? You're probably thinking, Wow, this guy is really boring and insulting. He's assuming I don't know how to read it. He's just got to read he could have you email that to me. We could have all stayed home. So don't write your speech out. Don't try to memorize your speech. And, for goodness sake, don't try to print it all out in text. Bullet points on a power point thinking. Well, this will be great. I'll just read the power point and use that as my people hate that. Don't even use power Point unless you have great visuals that are not based on text. And if you waited until the night before, let's forget the powerful. Let's give people a good presentation based on the ideas you care about. So let's summarize the things to not do. Don't gather more and more and more data. Don't be emailing 20 colleagues trying to get 50 more pages in Don't write your speech. Don't try to memorize your speech. And don't try to use Power Point as the poor man's. The poor woman's teleprompter put all that stuff away, and now we can get back to what's really important in the next lesson.
4. What are the three most important ideas: I know the panic is setting in. You've got to give this speech tomorrow, or maybe even later today. All these ideas air swirling around. Just stop, Just stop for a minute. I have been testing audiences around the world for years and years and years, and I've never had an audience remember more than five ideas from the best speaker they've seen in the last year. And that may be a two hour speech, something that's been built up for a long time. If you can get your audience to remember anything, you're ahead of the game. If you can get them to remember three ideas by my own estimate, you would be in the top 95% of all public speakers. So let's just cut to the chase instead of listing every single bullet point about your company or your quarterly results are your cause. I want you on a single sheet of paper or single computer screen right down just three ideas that you want your audience to know, understand and remember and potentially act upon three ideas. I don't mean three big themes with 27 different little sub points and Roman numeral No, I mean three ideas. 10 words or less for each one. So number 1 10 words or less Number 2 10 words or less and number three. 10 words or less. Let's focus on the big picture of a few little things or our missing. That's not what people remember. Your speeches don't have to be perfect as long as you convey. Ah, few good ideas. You'll be OK. Most people don't care about the other stuff. You make a little mistake. It doesn't matter if you get the big things right. For example, just scared me. I forgot to take my glasses off before I take this. But it also realized that what do you care if I have glasses on? So I'm not gonna redo this. I'm simply going to speak and make it my best
5. What is your story: in a future lesson. I'm gonna tell you specifically about how you practice on video, but I'll never forget why it rings so true to me and why it's so important. Many years ago, I was training a prime minister over in Eastern Europe my first time in that part of the world, and the prime minister said, Well, T j d mind if I give it in my native language? It was an Eastern European language. I didn't understand so well, sure, fine, when we're in this former dictator Summer Palace. This was a democracy now surrounded by bodyguards with machine guns. And the prime minister stands up proceeds to read his speech, head down in his foreign language. We then watch the tape. He turns to me and says, Well, T j, what did you think of the presentation? I was, frankly, a little bit nervous because I thought he was awful. He was so boring. It was just monotone head down. No expression, no eye contact. I was also thinking I'm in this for in part of the world. I'm surrounded by people with machine guns. This was a long time ago. Do I tell him the truth? Or do I sort of make him happy? And I finally said, You know what? He's paying me a bunch of money to tell him the truth. I'll just tell him the truth. I said, With all due respect, Mr Prime Minister, I have no idea what you said. But you bore the hell out of me. He looked at May. He looked at his armed guards. He looked back in the video. I thought for a second said teaching. You're right. It was boring as hell. So what do we dio? We took his speech toward up, came up with a new simple outline where he spoke looking up, giving examples, telling stories, looked at the video and he loved it. Okay, So what did I just do that I told a story? Is it a brilliant story now? So gonna win awards? No, it happens to be true. All I was trying to do was to communicate one point the importance of practicing on video because it becomes obvious to you how awful and boring you can piece out dies. Anybody can learn. Doesn't matter if your prime minister or a seven year old giving a show and tell presentation in a classroom. Anybody can benefit by practicing on video. Now it only takes two seconds to say Practice your speech on video. Instead, I told a story. It only took a little more than a minute, but it had characters. It had dialogue. It had a setting. It had a problem. It had my feelings. I was nervous about it. It had a point. It had a resolution. So you might not consider yourself the world's greatest storyteller. That's OK, but I want you to pick one of your points the most important point in your presentation. And I want you to tell a story. To make that point come alive. Doesn't have to be a dramatic is being in a strange part of the world surrounded by machine guns. It can you? It could be used simply retelling a conversation you had with a real customer, a real client, a real prospect on a fellow employee about a real problem where you were, how you felt, how it was resolved and how that relates to an issue of importance to your audience. So I want you to think of a story you don't have to write it all out. You can just write a few words. Henderson Client and Ash bro. Whatever it is that's going to remind you of a conversation that you can then give in the presentation, it's the single biggest difference between great communicators and awful communicators. Great communicators illustrate every single important point in their presentation with a story. Awful communicators consistently go through the data. Do a big data dump. No stories. If you have a great story that's relevant to your audience, makes an important point. They are going to think you are a far better speaker than one of your colleagues who's been writing and rewriting and practicing and rehearsing this speech for six months. So here's your chance to really leapfrog above all the others and to do it quickly and easily. So think of that story right now.
6. Creating a one page outline: The next thing I want you to do quickly is to come up with a simple and I mean simple one page outline for your presentation and you're gonna need the whole page, but right in big fun. I just hand wrote this speech. You see Number one, number two, number three and put story. Give you a couple of words underneath the one point that you're going to have a store, you need to have an outline. Do not I beg you, I beg you. As I mentioned in the first lecture, Don't try to write out the whole speech. You'll be up till four in the morning. You'll be so tired. You have bags under your eyes. That's what people will notice. Not the fact that you've memorized or reading a great speech. So don't stay up late. Writing the speech instead have a very simple outline, three points and a few words to remind you of your story. Your one story to flesh out your main point. And that's gonna be the road map for your presentation and write it out big enough so you don't have to hold it up. You don't have to sort of stop and put your glasses on and fiddle with it. Since it's only one page, you're not gonna have to be turning pages. It's gonna be simple, clean, efficient. In this way, you're gonna full people into thinking you've been practicing rehearsing for a long time because you're just talking to them. You're not reading paper notes, and you're not reading a power point. So please, one page, three bullet points, very large 10 words or less rich bullet point and underneath one of them a few words to remind you of your story. And that is gonna be a road map. That is gonna be your security blanket for this speech coming up in just a few hours.
7. Quickly rehearse: Okay, we're making progress. But now is the point. You're not gonna like. Nobody likes this part. But I'm telling you, if all the advice I'm going to give you in this emergency class is the number one thing that will really help you. And that is you've got to practice just once, just once on video. And what I mean by that is not going and hiring a big TV production crew. You don't even have to go to the bottom of your closet and dig out the big, handy cam and handheld recorder and big tripod that you've taken on vacations. Now, just pull out your cell phone, your smartphone or a tablet, or if you have to your webcam and record your speech. Have your one page of notes give your speech once and then watch. That's all I'm asking you to do now, After you watch it, make notes of what you like and what you don't like. This is far and away the most important part of this process. Now, I knew I told you that this was gonna be a 30 minute class. Guess what? You already know all the really important stuff. So If you're really in a huge, huge mind, stop looking at the rest of the lectures and just go right into this. Have your notes in front of you. Practice your speech, and if it's a 10 minute, 15 minute speech, you practice it wants you watch it once you make notes of what you like and don't like. And if you want to make some adjustments on your out like do it. But don't be fussing around and don't lengthen it. Don't start putting in whole paragraphs because then you'll be tempted to read it, and that makes any speaker awful. Do this one tip. I'm not asking you to rehearse 50 times 100 times. I'm not asking you to email it to 50 people and get critics. Those were all good things to do. Normal circumstances. But you've got to give a speech tomorrow or in a few hours. You don't have time just doing this one practice. Watching it once is gonna help you tremendously, because if you don't actually practice it in watching on video, then when you're giving your speech in a few hours or tomorrow, it's coming out of your mouth. The first time. It's really going through your brain the first time. It's the rough draft, the rough drafts that most things are by definition rough. Not very good. That's why we do. Second at their drafts of important memos, e mails of position papers but with speeches, even people have been working on their speech for months quite often the first time they're saying it is in front of the live crowd. So things come out rough, you can pie pass. Those people have been working on their speech for weeks. If you do this one thing I know it's not pleasant. If you're not used to looking at yourself on video. Hey, I don't love everything about how I look on video. I can look at a video, dashing my getting a triple chin again is more hair falling out. But guess what If I don't look at that on video, anyone I speak to conceal see that. So me not looking at it on video doesn't help. You aren't going to help anything by not looking at yourself. Speak on video. You're gonna help a tremendous amount just by practicing ones, watching it and then getting ready to go in having seen yourself. So you're a big bind. Don't look at any more the course right now. Just do this. Practice your speech. Watch it and you'll be good to go.
8. More notes on notes: to give a good speech. You need a good road map now. The problem many people have is the road map is so detailed it gets them lost because they put every single word of their speech in a bullet point on a power point that they have to then sort of turn their backs on or their heads down reading, though it's too much stuff that's not going to help you at all. That's not an outline. That's the whole speech. Now you can email that to people in advance. You can hand it out after the presentation, but that can't be what is in front of you, even people who streamline it somewhat. If you see their head down there reading full paragraphs, they're flipping pages there, having toe stop and sort of do this stuff. It just destroys the magic of the presentation. It's though they're not with you anymore. They're in their own little world of paper. You've heard me mention it before, narrow your presentation down to five points, then come up with an example with a story for each one. If you actually do that, then your outline can fit on a single sheet of paper. Let me show you what I mean. Here's a recent one hour speech that I gave in Geneva. This is what I used. It has five key points, and I realize you can't see all of that. And then I have an example or two for each one and some of the points. I have more than two examples because I am talking for an hour, but it's still it's five key points. Every one of these things is just a few words. It's not a run on sentence. It's on a single sheet of paper and back. It's on less than 1/2 a sheet of paper. So because I had on 1/2 a sheet of paper, I didn't have to be flipping pages around, and I took the time to make the fought larger. It's much, much larger fought, then the default on my printer, my computer. But because it's larger fought, I can see it walking around the room 345 feet away. I don't have to stop and do this every few seconds now, since it's a single sheet of paper and I wanted to do a good job of the presentation I printed out three copies. So I had this outline in three different locations around the room, one on top of the electorate in the normal spot, but turn. So I never had to stand behind the left, Turn one on a table next to a glass of water and 1/3 further over the room just on another chair table. So what that did is it allowed me to walk around the room toe, look at different people to appear as though I were just speaking to people, naturally the whole time. Now the reality is, I really hadn't spent any time preparing. I hadn't spent time rehearsing it, in part because I've given speeches like this so many times. All I did was come up with the outline because I have spoken all these concepts before. Once I had the outline on a single simple sheet of paper. It was easy. And you know what? It freed up my mind, my memory. I didn't have to worry about memorizing stuff. I didn't have to spend hours and hours and hours forcing myself to remember, because it's all right here. So that is your homework assignment is to really make sure the outline for your presentation fits on one page now. So here, like, Well, I know how to do that. I'll just change the front 24 No, you've got to make the fought really large so that you can see it from 4567 feet away without having to put your glasses on. This is 18 point on my computer printer. You need to make it if not this large, pretty large. The key to the outline is you shouldn't have more than three or four words across. You want to be ableto stoop down your I scoop, just see one line and looked up and start talking. The second year I has to finish Allah and go back to the beginning of the page. That's where there's trouble. That's where your going down. And there's no real recovery from that unless you're just doing a one quote out of the whole presentation. But this system will dramatically simplify your life. It takes all the pressure away. It simplifies things, and people will think you're a genius. They'll say, Oh my gosh, did you see her speak to us for our And she didn't even use notes because here's the thing , because it's a single page. I never have to touch it. I don't walk up, stand behind a lectern and full this out of my jacket. I make sure it's placed around the room before I ever start. My hands are free of paper. My hands never touch it because I don't have to pick it up to make it closer to me. I want to pick it up to change the pages. Ah, it's It's amazing in that we live in this world where there's so much technology and people are so enamored by computers and video cameras and TV screens and power point projectors. And I love technology. Don't get me wrong. But this little piece of paper, this technology has never failed me yet. It's never asked for electricity. It's never complained about a bold burning at It's never complained about compatibility issues, so this one tip will just reduce so much stress in your life. When it comes to speaking, don't I? Repeat, don't use your power point slides as your notes. PowerPoint slides are for your audience. They're not for you. Don't use your computer screen as your notes And for goodness, don't use your iPad is your notes because you're holding up your iPad. Half the audience is thinking I've got the newer version. The other half is thinking, Wow, that's cool. I got to get an iPad. I'm really behind the times. You don't want to call attention to your technology again. That's the beauty of paper that you never touch. So do your outline right now.
9. Presentation Emergency If Fear is Holding You Back: OK, folks, this is the part of the course where we separate those who actually want to get over their fear of public speaking versus those who just want to sit around and wine and cry and be baby, I don't mean to sound like I'm insensitive, but I have a very, very specific exercise for you to dio. And I feel so strongly about it that I guarantee you this will work and you will get over your fear of public speaking. If you do what I ask you to dio. In fact, I feel so strongly I will give you your money back for this course I will make sure you get your money back from this course. Plus, I'll even send you a copy of my book. This was the number one USA Today bestseller Business Week Bestseller Secret to foolproof presentations in a digital format Out sanity free of charge. If you try what I'm doing and you say you still have a fear of public speaking, this is the part where people quit the course and so I don't like T J anymore. I kind of like to before, but I don't like him anymore. Here's what I'm asking you to do. I need you to practice your speech, pull out of your pocket, a cell phone or any camera, and you've got a record your speech and you've got to watch it. I know some of your teach, and I like the sound of my own voice or I don't like the way look or, you know, my hair is falling out or I'm getting Giles or my eyes Or be I've heard it all before. I've felt it before, too. Okay, but here's the thing. Everyone in your audience, whether it's a classroom or 1000 people, a trade association convention, they're all gonna have to hear your voice. They're all going to have to watch you. So if they're gonna have to, you might as well know what they're seeing and hearing. That's why it's critically important for you to practice on video. I can tell you very few people do this. It's emotionally hard to, but it's not hard to do. If this were a course on how to dunk a basketball or become a world class violinist, or how to hit a hole in what those things were legitimately hard to Dio and I promised you I could have you do that in a day. I'd be lying. But this is different anyway. If you have the ability to move your mouth and have sounds come out and someone else perceives it is language you can do. What I'm asking you to do doesn't even matter if you have your limbs or could walk around as long as you can talk. You can do what I'm talking about. So I need you to practice your speech. You can lock yourself in a closet. Doesn't have to be in public in front of 1000 people. Practice your speech again. Just pull out your cell phone, use a webcam and talk to it and record it. Now, if you stop there, you haven't done any good whatsoever. You have tow watch the video. When you watch the video, you have to take careful notes on what you like and what you don't like. I can tell you right now if you're like most people, you're gonna hate most of it. Join the club. Most people can't stand the sound of their own voice. Don't like the way they look. I had a client once she started watching and listening to her own video and she started to cry. Now is about to say what I normally do in those situations. Hey, relaxed. Nobody's 21 anymore. You know, My hair is falling out. I'm getting wrinkles relaxed. I was about to say that to her, but then I realized I couldn't because she, in fact, was 21. And you know what she was? Miss Universe at the time had a fabulous voice beyond belief and was gorgeous. Extraordinarily gorgeous. She didn't like the way she sounded. She'd like the way she Loach claims she'd never seen herself on video before. So if you don't like everything about how you sound our everything about how you look, you are in good company, I can look at the video. Oh, my gosh, Mawr my hairs falling out. I'm getting more. What happened to my chin? I mean, we can all point the things we don't like on video doesn't matter. You have to do it in the same way you have to proof, read and spell. Check a memo before you send somebody an email. If it's important business document, you're going to have to refine and edit your presentation years. Presentation is not the power point slides. It's not the type were script your presentation, your talk. Your speech is you literally speaking. So if you want to refine it or improve it, there is Onley. One way to do it. You have to record it on video. Now, When I got into this business 30 years ago, video cameras were big. They were expensive, A few people had them and you arguably had an excuse to not video re herders. Every single speech, those excuses air gone. Everyone, at least in developed nations, is completely surrounded by video cameras. Every cell phone, every tablet, every iPad. Every laptop has a video camera. So when you say I didn't get to it yet, I didn't get around to it. What you're really doing is saying I'm very happy being nervous and fearful of public speaking. And I don't want to get better. That's what you're saying. So I'm not letting you off the hook. Don't kid yourself. You've got to practice on video. Now, if you practice on video once and take notes of what you like and don't like and stop. It's not gonna help you at all. It's actually going to make you worse, because that last image of yourself is going to be of this video where all you can do is think of the 33 things you hate about yourself. You have to. Then quickly right away. As soon as you finish watching it stand up. Or you could sit down, speak again and record it again. Don't try to solve every single problem focused on one or two things you don't like and do less of it this time. So if you saw yourself fidgeting a great deal the whole time with the ring on your finger, try to give your same speech and not touch your ring finger. Focus on one or two things at a time. Watch the video rated again. All the things in one com You didn't like all the things in another column you did like and ideally, the likes the likes get higher that dislikes go lower until you get to the point where you actually like your speech and you're confident that this is the way you want to come across . This is the best you can be get Think of it. As I mentioned in an earlier lesson, you're getting ready to go to the office. You? It's a big meeting that day. You're dressed exactly the way you want. You've looked in the mirror. You've shaved, you put on your makeup. At that point, you're confident you look the best you can. Look, you're no longer worried that, uh oh, my hair stiff had Here is my hair standing up eyes my tie crook. You know how you look. So you're not nervous? The exact same thing happens when it comes to practicing your speech on video. You keep practicing and keep practicing until you can point to the screen and say, Wow, if I could be as good as that guy or that woman, I can sound like that. It looked like that. I'll be happy. I'll be the start of my company or my industry or my school. You know, you might be able to do that in one take. It might take ah, 100 takes. Guess what? Your audience doesn't care. I don't really care either. I mean, I'd like it to happen as quickly as possible, but all I care about is that you get to the point where you know you look your best. You know your sound your best. At that point, it becomes incredibly difficult to be nervous because you know how you're coming across. I'm not nervous speaking to you right now. This is a form of public speaking. Thousands of people are likely to see this. I'm not nervous. Not because I'm convinced that I'm the absolute best speaker in the world or the best looking person in the world. That's not it. It's just everything I'm saying to you now. I've said before on video, and I've watched it. So I know I can't come across any better than this. I know how I look. I know how I sound. I know the speed of my voice. So I'm not filled with any nervousness or anxiety and not second guessing myself. And that's what makes me relaxed. And that's what makes this fun. Now you might not ever get to the point where you think of public speaking is fun. But if you eliminate all the uncertainty, the wondering about how you're coming across it makes it so much less stressful, so can you get ignore every single thing I say. This whole course. If you follow this one tip, practice your speech on video until you like it. If you do that, I guarantee your nerves will be gone. Your fear of public speaking will be going. If you don't do that, you're on your own.
10. Presentation Emergency Fear of Public Speaking Speak Often: if I asked you, How did you meet your spouse or your significant other? Do you think you could be nervous if I asked you? What's your favorite TV show, your favorite food or what your parents do? Do you even think you could be nervous? Chances are no, because you've answered all those questions many, many times. You know what the answer is? You know what to say. You know how to say it. You're so familiar with it. If you're really hard to be nervous, if you're just talking one on one to somewhat well, speaking is like anything else. The more you do it, the more familiar it becomes. The harder it is to be nerve. You could be nervous was the older folks who are married can relate to this. You could be nervous on a first date, but if you're sitting home alone on a Saturday night with someone you've been married to for 30 years, you're probably not going to be nervous. You might be feeling other thing. You may be blissfully happy, but you're probably not going to be filled with nervousness about the idea being alone with this person because you're familiar with it. It's something you're used to now. If you only speak once every five years, you're gonna be nervous. But here's the thing about speaking. Every single day you're surrounded by opportunities to speak. Now don't get caught up in this distinction between a formal speech, a Power Point speech in front of 10,000 people versus a talk or anything else. I really mean just any time you're talking in front of more than one person. Let's call that public speaking because it's not just a intimate, friendly conversation with one person. All of us have opportunities all the time to speak. If you are at a meeting, it could be a Monday morning staff meeting with 30 people present, and you normally never say anything. Simply asking a question is a type of public speaking, and for most people, if you're nervous, just raising your hand in a meeting creates some anxiety. What I'm suggesting force yourself to do it. Make one comment. One question. Any time you're in a meeting and it'll be easier the next time. If you're at a conference and you see a keynote speaker, Famous speaker perhaps, and there's 500 people in the room they may allow for questions will typically only seven people get up. Be one of those seven people. If you have a question for your boss and there's a stepping, don't wait till the end and asked privately, Ask in front of everyone. Maybe you wanted to be in a leadership position for your child's scouting troop or some other civic activity, but you're afraid of the speaking aspect. Force yourself to do that. The more you speak, the better. You may have an opportunity with your business or a civic group to create a YouTube video. That's the perfect time to practice because you have complete control. You can speak on that video. Look at If you don't like it, hit, delete. Just don't upload it. But if, for example, you have a passion for raising money for the cancer society or the A. L s Foundation, then speak out. It could be just in a video that you put on your own website, your own block, your own Facebook page, but it's more speaking. The more you speak, the better you get. Number one. Number two harder. It is to be nervous. It's very difficult to be nervous about something you do on a regular basis, so practice doesn't necessarily make perfect, but practice does dramatically reduce anxiety.
11. You are good to go: So I hope you're feeling a little more relaxed about that speech or presentation you have to give tomorrow or later today. It's not as big a problem as you think about to conclude here, but I do want to mention there is some bonus material here that you can look at. But do it later. Do it after you get this speech. I don't want to give you an excuse not to do the most important part of this whole lesson, which is practice once on video, using a single sheet of paper with three bullet points so often it's easy. It's lazy to say, Well, let me just read more than me. Just gather more information. Let me watch another training to tour. You've got the points right now again to summarize, brainstorm on your messages, Come up with the top three, figure out. What is it you actually want this audience to do? Come up with a story that illustrates your most important point. So if someone's only half listening, they can still remember what you're talking about and get your point and finally practice on video in practice, using your little cheat sheet and use that cheat sheet. When you're giving your speech practice, watch it. Make final adjustments to your notes and you are ready to go. Good luck with your presentation. I'm sure you'll do fine.
TJ Walker, Public Speaking and Media Training Expert
