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STEPS TO DELIVERING A MIND-BLOWING TED TALK.
The TED 10 commandments.
1. Thou Shalt Not Simply Trot Out thy Usual Shtick.
2. Thou Shalt Dream a Great Dream, or Show Forth a Wondrous New Thing, Or Share Something Thou Hast Never Shared Before.
3. Thou Shalt Reveal thy Curiosity and Thy Passion.
4. Thou Shalt Tell a Story.
5. Thou Shalt Freely Comment on the Utterances of Other Speakers for the Sake of Blessed Connection and Exquisite Controversy.
6. Thou Shalt Not Flaunt thine Ego. Be Thou Vulnerable. Speak of thy Failure as well as thy Success.
7. Thou Shalt Not Sell from the Stage: Neither thy Company, thy Goods, thy Writings, nor thy Desperate need for Funding; Lest Thou be Cast Aside into Outer Darkness.
8. Thou Shalt Remember all the while: Laughter is Good.
9. Thou Shalt Not Read thy Speech.
10. Thou Shalt Not Steal the Time of Them that Follow Thee.
Read – How To be a Successful Motivational Speaker > Motivational Speech Tips
Frame Your Story.
There’s no way you can give a good talk unless you have something worth talking about. Conceptualizing and framing what you want to say is the most vital part of preparation.
Keeping it Real.
The best presentations seem spontaneous, even if they are highly scripted. Here are tips for staying cool onstage
Keep it short.
TEDTalks are 18 minutes for a reason. If it can’t be conveyed in this amount of time, you have too much material for a single presentation. The time limit will impose filters that accelerate the culling of information from top lined to subsidiary for your audience.
Find the perfect mix of data and narrative.
Don’t cram in everything you know, but include specific examples to flesh out your ideas and go deeper.
Why 18 minutes?
Long enough to be serious and short enough to hold people’s attention.TED’s chief Chris Anderson.
Share your passion.
You cannot inspire unless you’re inspired yourself. Dig deep to identify your deep, meaningful connection to the topic and don’t be afraid of expressing your enthusiasm to your audience.
You stand a much greater chance of persuading and inspiring your listeners if you express your passionate and meaningful connection to your topic.
Stories Connect.
Tell 3 stories to reach people’s hearts and minds. Brain scans reveal that stories stimulate and engage the human brain, helping the speaker connect with the audience and making it much more likely that the audience will agree with the speaker’s point of view.
Be Emotionally Messy .
Brutal honesty – the kind that we rarely share even with friends – is required. Just like Doug, you must answer, “How did it make me feel, and what did I take away from that experience?” Share the experience, even when it doesn’t show you in the best light.
Those moments open us, and the audience, up so we can learn. Allow yourself to be human. Threaded throughout TED talks are those personal failings, wins and losses. It forges a deep connection with the audience.
Laughter is Good.
Be funny, even if you aren’t particularly funny. Be lighthearted and friendly. Don’t take yourself and your topic so seriously. Stay on your toes. Be witty and be fun. You’ll likely make a better impression from the beginning.
Work The Crowd.
Before your speech, chat with conference attendees during breaks. The small talk will give you a better sense of your audience. Even better, you’ll see a few friendly faces in the crowd when you take the stage.
Try using the following tips:
– Tell your story in a highly descriptive and detailed manner .
– Keep your story simple and to the point, instead of talking in abstract terms .
– Do or say something unexpected to draw attention of the audience.
Use your voice.
Your voice is also a powerful tool. Great speakers use their voice to guide you through their story without boring you. How do they do this?
- Use variations in volume .
- Use variations in pace.
- Use silence.
Design simple slides.
Speaker slides for TED talks are strikingly simple. Talented and confident speakers know that the more complex the topic, the more important that it be easy to understand.
Make your presentation memorable by doing the following:
- Use pictures instead of text on their slides whenever possible (picture superiority).
- Rely on the rule of three to deliver their content (three stories, three parts, etc.)
- Focus on one key theme, the “one thing” they want the audience to know.
When applicable, engage your audience with questions. If you’re presenting with an iPad, try using an app like SlideIdea. SlideIdea is a free presentation app that allows you to present slides and get real-time audience feedback. The audience uses their own mobile device to participate in polls, ask questions, or even follow slides.
It’s not enough to be the best at what you do; you must be perceived to be the only one who does what you do.” Once you have a clear, compelling, current, consistent, congruent, commercially viable idea, Google it to see if anyone else has gotten there first. If they have, it doesn’t necessarily mean you should abandon the idea; it just means you should design a provocative premise around it that hasn’t been shared before.
According to the head TED, are some common mistakes that TED advises its speakers to avoid.
1. Take a really long time to explain what your talk is about.
2. Speak slowly and dramatically. Why talk when you can orate?
3. Make sure you subtly let everyone know how important you are.
4. Refer to your book repeatedly. Even better, quote yourself from it.
5. Cram your slides with numerous text bullet points and multiple fonts.
6. Use lots of unexplained technical jargon to make yourself sound smart.
7. Speak at great length about the history of your organization and its glorious achievements.
8. Don’t bother rehearsing to check how long your talk is running.
9. Sound as if you’re reciting your talk from memory.
10. Never, ever make eye contact with anyone in the audience. (This one is controversial, not 100% agree on this)
Practice these tips for your next presentation and you’ll be sure to leave a positive impact.
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*Image Source: Ted.com
