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July 4 - July 24, 2020
a key part of the appeal of a great talk is its freshness.
But with the right mindset, you can use your fear as an incredible asset. It can be the driver that will persuade you to prepare for a talk properly.
Your goal is not to be Winston Churchill or Nelson Mandela. It’s to be you.
You don’t have to raise a crowd to its feet with a thunderous oration. Conversational sharing can work just as well.
If you commit to being the authentic you, I am certain that you will be capable of tapping into the ancient art that is wired inside us. You simply have to pluck up the courage to try.
Your number-one mission as a speaker is to take something that matters deeply to you and to rebuild it inside the minds of your listeners. We’ll call that something an idea.
The only thing that truly matters in public speaking is not confidence, stage presence, or smooth talking. It’s having something worth saying.
An idea is anything that can change how people see the world. If you can conjure up a compelling idea in people’s minds, you have done something wondrous.
language works its magic only to the extent that it is shared by speaker and listener. And there’s the key clue to how to achieve the miracle of re-creating your idea in someone else’s brain. You can only use the tools that your audience has access to.
focusing on what you will give to your audience is the perfect foundation for preparing your talk.
The key principle is to remember that the speaker’s job is to give to the audience, not take from them.
Here’s the thing about inspiration: It has to be earned. Someone is inspiring not because they look at you with big eyes and ask you to find it in your heart to believe in their dream. It’s because they actually have a dream that’s worth getting excited about. And those dreams don’t come lightly. They come from blood, sweat, and tears.
Dream of something much bigger than you are.
Inspiration can’t be performed. It’s an audience response to authenticity, courage, selfless work, and genuine wisdom.
An issue exposes a problem. An idea proposes a solution.
It’s much easier to pull in an audience by framing the talk as an attempt to solve an intriguing riddle rather than as a plea for them to care.
Knowledge can’t be pushed into a brain. It has to be pulled in.
Humans are good at forming instant judgments about other humans. Friend or foe. Likable or unlikable. Wise or dull. Confident or tentative.
When you laugh with someone, you both feel you’re on the same side. It’s a fantastic tool for building a connection.
Laughter blows open someone’s defenses, and suddenly you have a chance to truly communicate with them.
Humor is a skilled art, and not everyone can do it. Ineffective humor is worse than no humor at all.
We’re born to love stories. They are instant generators of interest, empathy, emotion, and intrigue.
Stories resonate deeply in every human.
overcoming the curse of knowledge may be the single most important requirement in becoming a clear writer.
You can’t give a powerful new idea to an audience unless you can learn how to explain.
Persuasion can alter someone’s outlook forever.
Practice doesn’t make perfect. Practice makes imperfection livable.
We don’t seek the painful experiences that hew our identities, but we seek our identities in the wake of painful experiences. We cannot bear a pointless torment, but we can endure great pain if we believe that it’s purposeful.
A gorgeous image captures attention. But the full impact often comes in revealing something surprising about it.
The single most important one is to breathe.
Our giant opportunity for tomorrow is to rise.
