How to Deliver a Great TED Talk: Presentation Secrets of the World's Best Speakers (How to Give a TED Talk) (6 page)

The late Steve Jobs was a master at this. For example, during the unveiling of the Safari browser, Jobs wanted to make the point that Safari was much faster than Internet Explorer. Instead of simply saying this, Jobs gave a product demonstration. He launched both Safari and Internet Explorer on two separate big screens, typed in a web address and hit the button to load both pages at the same time. The result? Safari loaded the page within seconds while Internet Explorer was still fetching the data.

A memorable demonstration firmly ties the point to the audience’s memories. Plus, it’s tangible proof – no one can dispute the claim since they just witnessed the live demonstration.

If you’re presenting or pitching a product, consider including a product demonstration as part of your presentation.

9. CUSTOMER TESTIMONIALS

If you’re presenting to a prospective client with the hope of being hired, using customer testimonials is a great way to anchor your points and prove your worth.

For example, let’s say you work for a company that produces computer chips for computer manufacturers. Now, let’s say you’re scheduled to give a presentation to a prospective computer manufacturer with the aim of getting their account. What might you include in a presentation such as this? What could you say that would persuade them to hire you?

If you’re saying that your company produces widgets cheaper and faster than anyone else, then you might want to tell a story about a client who approached you because he needed computer chips produced very quickly, within a few days, because his last chip manufacturer had gone out of business. Next, you could showcase a testimonial by this client stating how pleased he was with your service. There are several ways to showcase the testimonial. You could include this testimonial in your PowerPoint or on your handout, or simply read the testimonial to your audience.

Since we are talking about testimonials, there are several things to keep in mind when using testimonials.

• Video Testimonials are best
  . Testimonials of clients speaking on video are the best because they are the most credible. Audiences trust video testimonials more than anything else because written testimonials are easy to fake. If you have a video testimonial, you can embed it as part of your PowerPoint presentation.
  
• Use Photos of Clients.
  If you can get hold of only a written testimonial, then try to include photos of your client. Including a photo as part of your testimonial gives it more credibility.
  
• Include Names
  . Include both the client’s first and last names. Nameless testimonials are worthless because they lack credibility. They could easily have been faked. If you can, include where your client works and his/her position at the firm.
  
• Use Testimonials that are specific.
  While testimonials such as “Your company was great. I was thrilled with the service you provided!” are pleasing to receive, they are too general and vague to receive much credibility from your audience. Vague testimonials give very little detail about you or your company’s specific benefits and strengths, which is why they’re not valuable. Instead, consider asking your clients for specific testimonials such as: “Using your company’s products helped me increase revenue by 45%. The product was easy to use and only took me one hour to learn. I anticipate that using your product will help me earn over $200,000 extra over the coming year.”
  

10. QUOTES

Finally, you can use quotes to back up your main points and to make your message more memorable.

For example, during one of my speeches, I make the point that negative people can’t affect you unless you let them. I then anchor my point with a quote. I say:

I realized that she wasn’t the one making me feel inferior. I was the one making myself feel inferior because, like Eleanor Roosevelt once said, “No one make you feel inferior without your consent!”

A couple of months after I made my speech, I ran into a lady who’d been in my audience. She said, “I still remember what you told us. I remember your quote by Eleanor Roosevelt.” To prove it to me, she proceeded to recite the quote for me.

In his TED talk,
Sir Ken Robinson
used a quote by Picasso to help support his main point that education kills creativity:

Picasso once said this — he said that “All children are born artists. The problem is to remain an artist as we grow up.” I believe this passionately, that we don’t grow into creativity, we grow out of it. Or rather, we get educated out if it. So why is this?

Quotes not only can be a great way to borrow credibility from a third-party source, they also can act as anchors that make your speech memorable.

IN A NUTSHELL

Use the following anchors to build the body of your presentation:

• Anecdotes
  
• Acronyms
  
• Analogies, Similes or Metaphors
  
• Activities
  
• Academic research
  
• Statistics
  
• Case studies
  
• Product demonstrations
  
• Customer testimonials
  
• Quotes
  

CHAPTER SIX

Crafting a Compelling Closing

THE RECENCY EFFECT

Recency Effect: “Given a list of items to remember, we will tend to remember the last few things more than those things in the middle
.
We also tend to assume that items at the end of the list are of greater importance or significance” –
ChangingMinds.org

Because of the recency effect, the ending of your speech is just as important as the beginning. People will remember the last thing that you say, so you want to make sure that you spend ample time crafting a great ending to your speech/presentation. Here are a couple of techniques that will help you craft a compelling and memorable closing.

SIGNAL THAT YOU’RE CLOSING

Studies show that when presenters use the words, “in conclusion,” people become more alert. This is because the words “in conclusion” signal that the speech is coming to an end. Audience members know that the presenter will summarize the speech and that there may be some important follow-up tasks, so they start paying more attention to what’s being said.

You don’t necessarily have to use the phrase “in conclusion” to grab your audience’s attention. You can use any other phrase to signal that you are coming to the end of your presentation. You can use phrases such as: “Let’s wrap up,” “To summarize” and “Before I leave the stage, let me leave you with this.” Feel free to get creative with your closing signals as long as you make it obvious that you are closing.

SUMMARIZE YOUR MAIN POINTS

Use your closing to reemphasize your main points. The closing of your speech is your opportunity to call-back to your major points throughout the speech in order to reinforce them. The summary of your points should take, at most, two to three minutes. Here’s an example from
Dan Pink’s TED talk:

“Let me wrap up.

There is a mismatch between what science knows and what business does. And here is what science knows. One: Those 20th century rewards, those motivators we think are a natural part of business, do work, but only in a surprisingly narrow band of circumstances. Two: Those if-then rewards often destroy creativity. Three: The secret to high performance isn’t rewards and punishments, but that unseen intrinsic drive — the drive to do things for their own sake. The drive to do things cause they matter”

PROVIDE HOPE FOR A BETTER FUTURE

Not only should you summarize your main points, you also should provide hope for a better future. If you’ve presented a problem that needs to be conquered, you need to give your audience hope that it is possible to conquer it. End your speech on an uplifting note and leave your audience feeling empowered. To continue using our previous example, after Dan Pink summarized his main points, he ended his speech with the following:

“And here’s the best part. Here’s the best part. We already know this. The science confirms what we know in our hearts. So, if we repair this mismatch between what science knows and what business does, if we bring our motivation, notions of motivation into the 21st century, if we get past this lazy, dangerous, ideology of carrots and sticks, we can strengthen our businesses, we can solve a lot of those candle problems, and maybe, maybe, maybe we can change the world. I rest my case.”

Here’s another example.
Leslie Morgan Steiner
ended her TED talk on domestic violence by providing hope that they could solve the problem:

“Recognize the early signs of violence and conscientiously intervene, deescalate it, show victims a safe way out. Together we can make our beds, our dinner tables and our families the safe and peaceful oases they should be. Thank you”

LINK YOUR CONCLUSION TO THE CONFERENCE

Sir Ken Robinson not only ended his speech by providing hope for a better future, he also linked his conclusion to the TED conference. He said:

“What TED celebrates is the gift of the human imagination. We have to be careful that we use this gift wisely and that we avert some of the scenarios we’ve talked about. And the only way we’ll do it is by seeing our creative capacities for the richness they are and seeing our children for the hope that they are. And our task is to educate their whole being, so they can face the future. By the way - we may not see this future, but they will. And our job is to help them make something of it. Thank you very much.”

Robinson not only manages to summarize the main arguments of his speech during his conclusion, he also manages to link it to the TED conference where he is speaking. This gives his speech a personalized feel and grabs audience attention.

During her TED talk,
Dr. Jill Taylor
also managed to end her speech by including TED’s mission statement (“ideas worth spreading”) in her closing. She said:

“I believe that the more time we spend choosing to run the deep inner-peace circuitry of our right hemispheres, the more peace we will project into the world, and the more peaceful our planet will be. And I thought that was an idea worth spreading.”

If you can find a way to link your conclusion to the event where you are speaking, you will be miles ahead of most speakers. You can be assured that you’ll have left a lasting impression on your audience.

CALL TO ACTION

What do you want your audience members to do differently as a result of listening to your speech?

Include a clear and compelling call to action in the closing of your speech. Tell your audience members exactly what you want them to do. If you’re presenting a business proposal to a group of senior managers and you want them to set up a second meeting with you, tell them:

“As we’ve seen, this untapped market about is worth $40 million every year. We’ve seen that the rewards far outweigh the costs and that the best time to start catering to this market is now. Having discussed this, I would like to request a second meeting so that we can discuss how to go forward from here.”

What action do you want your audience to take after listening to your presentation?

Here are a couple of things to keep in mind when crafting your call to action:

• Be realistic about what you can expect from them.
  If you’re pitching a business idea to a group of potential investors, then it’s unrealistic to expect that they will invest a million dollars into your business immediately. Perhaps a more realistic call to action might be to ask them to set up a second meeting so you can talk about funding. Or you might ask them to invest in 10% of your company so that your company can get off the ground and they can monitor the progress before they decide to fully invest in you. In any case, make sure you have a realistic call to action.
  
• Include only one call to action.
  Don’t paralyze your audience by giving them too many choices. Include only one clear and compelling call to action. For example, at the end of my workshops, instead of burdening my audience with a list of 20 things I want them to do, I just give them call to action, which is to head over to my website so that they can subscribe to my free newsletter. I can then keep in constant contact with them via my
  newsletter
  .
  

Normally, the first presentation is part of a series of more emails, meetings and presentations. For example, your sales presentation might lead to a second and third meeting before the client eventually buys from you. However, instead of burdening your prospects with a huge list of next steps, give them only one next step they can take so that you can lead them to the next phase of the process.

In her
TED talk on body language
, Amy Cuddy wraps up her speech by encouraging her audience to try power-posing. She also gives her audience a clear next step, which is to “spread the science”:

“So I want to ask you first, you know, both to try power posing, and also I want to ask you to share the science, because this is simple. I don’t have ego involved in this. (Laughter) Give it away. Share it with people, because the people who can use it the most are the ones with no resources and no technology and no status and no power. Give it to them because they can do it in private. They need their bodies, privacy and two minutes, and it can significantly change the outcomes of their life. Thank you.”

What’s the clear next step of your speech?

SELL THE BENEFITS

What benefits do audience members get as a result of acting on the wisdom received from your speech?

In his TED talk,
Andy Puddicombe
encourages audience members to practice 10 minutes of mindfulness. He ends his talk by reinforcing the benefits audience members will receive if they take just 10 minutes to focus on the present moment:

“All you need to do is to take ten minutes out a day to step back, to familiarize yourself with the present moment so that you get to experience a greater sense of focus, calm and clarity in your life.”

Consider closing your speech by summarizing the benefits your audience will get if they act on what they have learned in your speech.

IN A NUTSHELL

Close your talk with an impact by:

• Signaling you are closing
  
• Summarizing your main points
  
• Linking it to the conference
  
• Providing hope for a better future
  
• Providing a clear call to action
  
• Selling the benefits