Talk Like TED: The 9 Public Speaking Secrets of the World's Top Minds

by Carmine Gallo

retention falls off considerably. It’s one of the most powerful concepts in writing and communication.

The Book of Awesome,

The Three A’s of Awesome that Pasricha shared with the TEDx audience that day were: attitude, awareness, authenticity. He spoke briefly about each one. On attitude, Pasricha said we are all going to have bumps in the road, but we have two choices on how to face them. “One, you can swirl and twirl and gloom and doom forever, or two, you can grieve and then face the future with newly sober eyes. Having a great attitude is about choosing option number two, and choosing, no matter how difficult it is, no matter what pain hits you, choosing to move forward and move on and take baby steps into the future.” On awareness, Pasricha encouraged his listeners to embrace their inner three-year-old. “That three-year-old boy is still part of you. That three-year-old girl is still part of you. They’re in there. And being aware is just about remembering that you saw everything you’ve seen for the first time once, too.” On authenticity: “It’s just about being you and being cool with that. And I think when you’re authentic, you end up following your heart, and you put yourself in places and

situations and in conversations that you love and that you enjoy. You meet people that you like talking to. You go places you’ve dreamt about. And you end up foll...

In writing and speaking, three is more satisfying than any other number. It’s no accident that threes are all around us. It worked for Jefferson, it worked for the world’s greatest writers, and it works for many TED speakers.

I wrote the popular Forbes column “How to Pitch Anything in 15 Seconds.”

Step One: Create a Twitter-Friendly Headline As you’ll recall from chapter 4, the headline is the one single overarching message that you want your customers to know at the end of your presentation. Ask yourself, “What is the single most important thing I want my listener to know about my [product, service, brand, idea]?” Draw a circle at the top of the message map (or page) and insert the answer to this question—this is your headline. Remember to make sure your headline fits in a Twitter post (no more than 140 characters). If you cannot explain your product or idea in 140 characters or less, go back to the drawing board.

TO ILLUSTRATE THE PROCESS, FIGURE 7.1 is what a message map would look like for Steve Jobs’s famous commencement speech at Stanford University in 2005. The speech comes in a very TED-friendly 15 minutes. It has one theme, the Twitter-friendly headline: DO WHAT YOU LOVE. It’s divided into three parts (connect the dots, love and loss, and death) with three supporting points for each part. The result is a clear view of what the listener needs to know in one glance. Creating a message map for your presentation content is an efficient and effective way to ensure your presentation isn’t too long or unorganized.

Deliver presentations with components that touch more than one of the senses: sight, sound, touch, taste, and smell.

“But an idea is powerless if it stays inside of you . . . if you communicate an idea in a way that resonates, change will happen.”

“Use visuals to enhance words, not duplicate.”

“As you get all the way back, you see 32,000 Barbie dolls, which represents the number of breast augmentation surgeries that are performed in the U.S. each month. The vast majority of those are on women under the age of 21,”13 said Jordan. “It’s rapidly becoming the most popular high school graduation gift given to young girls who are about to go off to college.” Jordan is another master of packaging data in visually appealing ways.

Maya Angelou once said, “People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” Don’t think just about what you want people to know; think about how you want them to feel.

VISUALIZE CONTENT. Add images or include background pictures to pie charts, tables, and graphs. I recommend striving for no more than 40 words in the first 10 slides. This will force you to think creatively about telling a memorable and engaging story instead of filling the slide with needless and distracting text. Kill bullet points on most of your slides. The most popular TED presenters deliver slides with no bullet points. Text and bullet points are the least memorable way of transferring information to your audience. You might not be able to achieve this goal with every slide, but it’s a good exercise. Once you force yourself to eliminate wordy slides, you’ll realize how much more fun you can have with your presentation. The best part—your audience will love it!

“How do we let people pay for music?”

Courage stands out. Courage gets noticed. Courage wins hearts and minds. Courage is what you need to deliver the talk of your life. I know you have courage. Find it, celebrate it, and revel in it. Courageous public speaking will transform your life and the lives of the people who listen to you. You have ideas that were meant to be seen, felt, and heard. Use your voice to astonish people, inspire them, and to change the world.

Be authentic, open, and transparent. Why it works: Most people can spot a phony. If you try to be something or someone you’re not, you’ll fail to gain the trust of your audience.

YOU CAN LEARN FROM OTHERS and how they achieved success in public speaking, but you’ll never make a lasting impression on people unless you leave your own mark.

Stay in your lane. Hold the space. Be true to your authentic self—the best representation of yourself that you can possibly be.

You have the capacity to move people, to inspire them, to provide hope to the despondent and direction to the lost. You have the ability to educate and electrify, inform and inspire, but only if you believe in your ability to do so.