Every time I give a talk or a public speaking workshop, I am grateful at this conference that has millions of attendees and billions of views online.
In my opinion it has changed public speaking, a traditional boring industry, now viewed as something fresh and exciting
But how TED is going to help me? You may say
I am never going to be in front of a few thousand people. True, you may not.
But in your professional and personal life we need to communicate. You may have to talk in front of your department or just have a 121 meeting with your boss. And in both cases, you need to bring your message across.
How can TED help us? Let me give you a brief guide to help you get started
Focus on one idea
Resist the urge of trying to tell everything. Focus in just one message, think who is listening and what you really want them to take away.
Our friends at TED provide a very simple explanation. “Our idea is the core the trunk of our strong tree. A tree that represent what we want to communicate”.
This tree has a few branches that we will use to explain, clarify, give examples, demo our original and unique idea.
Start/Finish. Main Ingredients
Focus on these elements if you have little time to prepare
Create some impact with your starting statement, be brave, build some expectation of what is coming next.
The end should be memorable too, here is a few things you can do:
- tell them what your plan for the future is,
- create a call to action to your audience
- link your end to something you mentioned at the start.
Keep it short
TED talks are short. They have proved that you can communicate a powerful message and create real impact in a very short period of time.
Be brief and get to the point. Practice and time how long you are speaking. Get honest feedback from friends and colleagues if possible.
Talk to me
Please let me know if I can help you in any way or if you would like me to design a talk for your organisation.
Send me your comments to ines@letswork.today