Confessions of a Public Speaker

by Scott Berkun

The solution is to use what’s called a confidence monitor. It’s put up at the front of the stage and shows me exactly what’s on the screen, which is an enormous advantage

PowerPoint and Keynote both have presenter mode features that allow the confidence monitor to show not only the current slide, but also a small version of the next, or even any notes you’ve prepared.

Occasionally, you’ll see a speaker so unaware of the value of a remote that he runs back and forth from center stage to the lectern, only for the sake of advancing slides. This is called the “circle of slide death,” the circle being made by the speaker on every roundtrip.

I hated remotes because I thought only pompous, phony salesman-types used them. But I realized over the years that working without a remote was just stupid. Without one, I had to find the mouse or keyboard every single time I wanted my slides to do something, and during that time, my focus switched from the audience to my gear.

Any time I have to focus on gear and not my message, I’m...

Having control in your hand gives you complete freedom. You can do whatever you want at any time — roam the stage, go into the crowd, stand behind the lectern, or make a few points from the last row (but always check with the tech crew, as wireless microphones can create feedback if you leave the stage). Even if you don’t do any of those things, your body knows you can and has one less restriction to worry about.

The best model I know of is the one recommended by Guy Kawasaki, the Logitech Cordless Presenter (Figure A-2). Its only downside is it’s so big it’s hard to hide even in my large hands, but everything else is done right. It has a built-in timer that will vibrate as an alarm, letting you know when you’re running out of time.

I often bring books to give away during Q&A, but if the front is empty, I offer a free book to anyone who is willing to move to the front. It always works, usually entertains those who are too lazy to move, and makes the audience seem much less threatening to me. (The toughest, scariest people seem harmless when they are chasing after free things.) The more worried I am about a talk, the more likely it is I’ll bring books

If you don’t have books of your own, nothing stops you from buying good books someone else wrote on the topic you’re speaking about and giving those away ($100 is money well spent if it cuts your nerves and loosens up the crowd).

I’m not a fan of fancy clothes for lectures (there are better ways of showing respect for audiences), but dress shirts are the best, most reliable way to clip on these microphones.

To help with this, you should always run the wire for the microphone under your shirt, instead of letting it dangle over. There are two reasons for this. First, leaving it out looks bad and is distracting. Second, if you talk with your hands as I do, that dangling cable is just asking for trouble.

A badge is distracting and can get caught in your hands like the microphone wire. Good hosts catch this before speakers go on and remind them to take off the name tag.

It’s a gripe among theater types, but the podium is what you stand on. The lectern is what you stand behind.

If you’re smart, you will treat your cameramen well. They can do all kinds of things to make you look or sound stupid, so get on their good side. Ask their names, ask their advice, and treat them like people, not servants.

Often, people watching online have no sense of how good or bad things were live (the sense of dead air or a tough crowd gets lost on video, which means sometimes you can bomb in real time, but do very well online). When Stephen Colbert presented at former president Bush’s press dinner, it was a disaster (it’s also a notoriously tough crowd). The room hated him. But the talk was a huge hit on the Web.

After hours of encounters, I recognized three ways people made their cases: United Airlines is wrong. I am special and deserve a seat. I am angry, and you should appease me.

Back in the day this was called rhetoric: the ability, in each particular case, to see the available means of persuasion.

But it turns out the Greeks outlined all the tactics used today by courtroom lawyers, infomercial pitchmen, Sunday preachers, and just about any other person trying to make a point to someone else. In rhetorical terms, the previous list is described as: Logos: Logic Ethos: Character Pathos: Emotion

Most nights, as we ate our meal, we’d argue about the Cold War, the Yankees, the meanings of various words, and where the safest place in the world would be during a nuclear war.

My dad loved to argue so much he’d rarely ever admit he was wrong, using various rhetorical tactics to save himself, provoking long debates late into the night. This drove my family crazy but also gave me amazingly thorough lessons on practical rhetoric.

Tricks like saying, “Are you that stupid?”, where you shift the focus away from the argument and challenge the character of the person making the argument are called Ad hominem, which translates to attack the person.

This is how people often speak when they’re nervous — everything is flat and monotone. Even if they’re loud, every word is equally loud. They could be talking about the surprise ending of a movie or revealing the secret recipe for Coca-Cola, but their natural energy for the topic is not conveyed in how they’re saying what they’re saying.

Many speakers bury their emphasis. Or they’re sloppy, throwing it around like dirty laundry on the floor of a teenager’s bedroom.

Good speakers have a range of emphasis methods, which are easy to spot if you look for them, that improves everything else about their presentations.

Being overly dramatic often kills the goal of connecting with an audience.

Nothing kills your power over a room as much as a lack of silence.

If you constantly fill the air with sounds, the audience members’ ears and minds never get a break.

If you listen to stand-up comedians, about 20–30% of their time on the microphone is spent in silence, often just to let the audience laugh and enjoy the last thing said, or to provide a pacing break to set up the next thing they want to say.

And when they are trying to think through what you just said in point B, and you’re still pretending to talk by saying “ummmm,” they don’t get the signal that point B has been made and they can digest it.

Learning to stop saying “umm” requires only one thing: practice. People who speak without saying “umm” weren’t born that way. They used to do it and have worked their way out of the habit. If you’re not sure whether or not you do it, you most likely do. And you’re probably in good company. Many famous politicians, celebrities, and executives are hard to listen to because of their annoying filler sounds. It’s an easy problem to have, since fixing it is a simple, fail-safe way to make all of your presentations better.

Solution: Practice until it feels good. Anything you plan to do in your talk must be practiced. If you get a new laptop, remote, or presentation software, give those things trial runs well in advance.

You are a turtle on crack Turtles are slow. Turtles on crack are still slow, but they’re also unpredictable. They stumble, they stop, and they no longer move in a straight line. Trying to follow a turtle on crack is extremely frustrating.

Solution: Provide a rhythm the audience can follow. Have a well-defined, simple, uniform pace. Divide your time into the number of points you want to make and spend an equal amount of time on each one.

And when intimidated by an audience, as many professors and experts clearly are, superiority seems to be the best defense.

There are 10 million bad, obscure ways to say something for every clear, direct one. If you choose one of the 10 million, no matter how proud it makes you feel to be obscure, you are inviting your audience to start daydreaming. The presentation is now about your fear of making a clear point, rather than about the audience’s experience.

You are up there to share, persuade, or teach, and that means you have to drop the defenses, think clearly, and be ...

If you are not excited and energetic about your message, how can you expect your audience to be?

Solution: Take an interesting angle from the beginning. If you choose your topic and opinion, pick something interesting. Take a stand. Force a point of view into the title, and let it grow into the points you make.

Solution: Do not start in PowerPoint; start by thinking about and understanding your audience. Use visuals and pictures to support the points you want to make. If you put notes in your slides so you don’t feel scared, do it in a way that does not annoy your audience. Or instead, have an outline that surfaces in your talk, or bring simple notes on stage with you (see Chapter 5).

I always give out my email address so everyone in the room has an outlet to say things they’re not sure are appropriate during the lecture.

Address whoever spoke and ask him to hold his comments or questions until the end.

Even if someone makes a joke at your expense, don’t make it into an argument; politely ask him to wait until your presentation is over.

Sometimes people are just taking notes or sharing what you say with other people, which is good for you, but other times they’re playing Solitaire or wandering the Web, which isn’t good. People in the audience should be free to choose how they want to listen, but you are also free to influence how they make that choice.

But you can tell them you think you’ll do a better job if you have the room’s undivided attention.

Sometimes I say the following: “Here’s a deal. I’d like you to give me your undivided attention for five minutes. If after five minutes you’re bored, you think I’m an idiot, or you’d rather browse the Web than listen, you’re free to do so.

Keep in mind that some people take notes on their laptops. They might be live blogging or tweeting what you’re saying, vastly increasing your audience beyond the room. An open laptop doesn’t always mean you’re being ignored.

Recommend they cut a break short, or ask several speakers to make up a few minutes each rather than force you to pick up the slack for the entire day.

Get there early. If you are early, you can introduce yourself and talk to people who will be in your audience. You’ll get a feel for what they’re like; it may change how you approach the larger group.

Go on with the show enthusiastically for the sake of the handful of people who might hate you less than you think.

The sooner you get to Q&A, the faster you can diagnose what’s going on. And at worst, the sooner your talk will be over.