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

by Carmine Gallo

“Passion is aroused not because some entrepreneurs are inherently disposed to such feelings but, rather, because they are engaged in something that relates to a meaningful and salient self-identity for them.”

DEEP-SEA EXPLORER ROBERT BALLARD TOOK a TED audience on a 17-minute trip to explore the 72 percent of the planet that’s under the ocean because, as he said, “It’s really naïve to think that the Easter Bunny put all the resources on the continents.”1. Ballard loves the rush of exploration, especially pursuing mysteries that push human limits. He also loves challenges and told me that he enjoyed TED because he was going up against the best in storytelling.

Ballard told me that his mission in any presentation—TED or in the classroom—is to inform, educate, and inspire. “When you walk into a classroom you have two jobs: one is to teach and the other is to recruit everyone in that classroom to join the pursuit of truth,”2 Ballard says.

His 2008 TED presentation intrigues, informs, and inspires because it makes people look at the world differently—not from above, but from below.

Challenge universal truths; not on basis of fact, but challenge the paradigm.

The human brain loves novelty. An unfamiliar, unusual, or unexpected element in a presentation intrigues the audience, jolts them out of their preconceived notions, and quickly gives them a new way of looking at the world.

“Curiosity is the most important thing you own,”

Learning something new activates the same reward areas of the brain as do drugs and gambling.

Drugs and gambling are artificial triggers and lead to serious consequences. Isn’t there a less-harmful means of achieving that mental high? There sure is. According to Burns, dopamine is also released when people learn something new and exciting—a much healthier way to feel good! “For many of your students and many of us as adults, learning about new things is an adventure and very rewarding, and dopamine levels increase in the brain to help us retain that new information,”

Rosling uses software that he codeveloped to bring statistics to life—Gapminder. According to Gapminder’s own site, the software “unveils the beauty of statistics by turning boring numbers into enjoyable animations that make sense of the world.”

Sergey Brin and Larry Page, walked into the office they offered a one-sentence pitch that changed this investor’s perspective. “Google provides access to the world’s information in one click.”

You’ll become a more interesting person if you’re interested in learning and sharing ideas from fields that are much different from your own. Great innovators connect ideas from different fields.

BOMBARD THE BRAIN WITH NEW EXPERIENCES. Building novel concepts into your presentation does require some creativity and a new way of looking at the world. One technique to jump-start your creativity is to embrace new experiences. The brain takes shortcuts. Its mission, after all, is to conserve energy. Neuroscientists have found that only through bombarding the brain with new experiences do we force our minds to look at the world through a new lens. That means you need to get out of the office once in while. Experience new events, people, and places. Most important, incorporate those new experiences into your presentations.

“The brain must be provided with something that it has never before processed to force it out of predictable perceptions.”

Cognitive research has demonstrated that our brains need to see the big picture before details. John Medina once explained it to me this way: “Carmine, when primitive man ran into a tiger, he did not ask, ‘How many teeth does the tiger have?’ He asked, ‘Will it eat me?’”22 Your audience needs to see the big picture before learning the details.

Exploration fed his addiction. “I think polar expeditions are perhaps not that far removed from having a crack habit,”24 Saunders told a TED audience in London. “In my experience, there is something addictive about tasting life at the very edge of what’s humanly possible.”

You’re more likely to remember events that arouse your emotions than events that elicit a neutral response.

Todd discovered that we actually encode important events in a far richer way than ordinary events. “It’s as if the event is burned more vividly into our perceptual awareness,” she told me. “Part of the reason is that the amygdala, a brain region that is key for tagging the emotional importance of things, talks to the visual cortex—the part of the brain that allows sight—and ramps up its activity so that we are actually perceiving those events more actively.”

“One in a hundred regular people is a psychopath. So there’s 1,500 people in this room. Fifteen of you are psychopaths.” —Jon Ronson

As he spoke to his TED audience, Raghava was wearing a biofeedback headset that recorded his brain activity. The headset was connected to the computer on which he was displaying the images. The audience saw a photo of an old woman’s face that Raghava affectionately called “Mona Lisa 2.0.” The borders of the slide revealed his brain wave activity. In the live demo, Raghava said that not only could the audience see his mental state (attentive, meditative, focused), but he could actually project his mental state onto the woman’s face. “When I am calm she is calm. When I am stressed she is stressed,”13 he said. Sure enough, when his brain waves or mental state changed, so did the woman’s smile. Her frown grew more intense before turning up into a smile.

Secret #6: Lighten Up Don’t take yourself (or your topic) too seriously. The brain loves humor. Give your audience something to smile about. Why it works: Humor lowers defenses, making your audience more receptive to your message. It also makes you seem more likable, and people are more willing to do business with or support someone they like.

“By 2020 the world will have 40 zetabytes of data. That’s 57 times more data than every grain of sand in the world. Carmine, where the heck are we going to store all of that information?!”

“Use visuals to enhance words, not duplicate.”

Neuroscientists have found that the visual cortex of your brain cannot tell the difference between what’s real and what’s imagined. If you can think of something vividly—really imagine it—the same brain areas are activated as if you were actually seeing the event.

you are not your body.

King used a public-speaking device called anaphora, repeating the same word or words at the beginning of successive clauses or sentences. “I have a dream…” is repeated in eight successive sentences.

Imagine, if you will—a gift. I’d like for you to picture it in your mind. It’s not too big—about the size of a golf ball. So envision what it looks like all wrapped up. But before I show you what’s inside, I will tell you, it’s going to do incredible things for you. It will bring all of your family together. You will feel loved and appreciated like never before and reconnect with friends and acquaintances you haven’t heard from in years. Adoration and admiration will overwhelm you. It will recalibrate what’s most important in your life.22 Kramer drew out the story of the gift before revealing the startling conclusion. “By now I know you’re dying to know what it is and where you can get one. Does Amazon carry it? Does it have the Apple logo on it? Is there a waiting list? Not likely. This gift came to me about five months ago. It looked more like this when it was all wrapped up—not quite so pretty [photo of a red plastic bag with the word biohazard written on it]. And this, and then this [photos of the x-ray showing her tumor and the long scar on the back of her head where the doctors had removed it]. It was a rare gem—a brain tumor, hemangioblastoma—the gift that keeps on giving.”

Contrast to create the unexpected.

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.

An inspiring speaker should move his or her listeners to think differently about their lives, careers, or businesses. A great speaker makes you want to be a better person.