What a Sandwich Artist, a Sportscaster, and an Accountant Taught Me About Public Speaking
I’ve discovered public speaking secrets in some strange places.
Sure, I’ve learned a lot from personally speaking in front of large groups, watching TED talks, and reading books. But I’ve also picked up public speaking tips while standing in line at a Subway, listening to an accountant explain bond amortization, and chatting with a former sportscaster about working in television.
From sources both expected and unexpected, here are seven ways to become a better public speaker.
1. Use stories as your Trojan horse
“Stories are just data with a soul.” -Brené Brown
Have you ever noticed what happens to an audience when a speaker says the phrase, “Let me tell you a story”? Audience members visibly perk up and pay attention.
We cannot resist the power of a compelling story.
Our brains are hardwired to learn through stories. After all, that’s how history was passed down through the ages before the invention of the printing press.
Because we love stories and pay attention to them, we remember information better when it’s presented in story form.
In a recent study by Stanford professor Jennifer Aaker, 63 percent of respondents remembered stories whereas only 5 percent remembered data. That is a remarkable difference.
If you want your audience to remember something, rather than throwing data points at them, use stories as vehicles for that data. A compelling story can be your Trojan horse to help the audience remember essential details.
2. Create villains for your audience to hate
“Nothing brings you together like a common enemy.” -David Foster Wallace
Everyone loves a good villain. From Cruella de Vil to Professor Moriarity, we love watching villains get their comeuppance.
After observing the power of villains in storytelling, I began looking for ways to incorporate villains into as many of my speaking opportunities as possible. I’ve even done this with company trainings about mundane topics.
An otherwise dull training about receiving feedback became “The 3 Enemies of Feedback.” A training about communication became “The 4 Villains Blocking You from Being an Effective Communicator.”
The mere presence of an antagonist helps audience members bond with you and join your cause in solidarity.
Create a common enemy, then tell your audience how to topple that enemy.
3. Beware the curse of knowledge
“If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.” -Einstein
I remember my first week at my last job. I had just entered the complex world of investment accounting and desperately needed to learn the basics of bond amortization.
I scheduled a training session with the head accountant at the firm, who spent a full hour trying to explain amortization to me. He immediately dove into the nuances of the topic.
I was hopelessly lost.
By the end of the session, I felt like an idiot — an idiot who still didn’t understand bond amortization.
The trainer suffered from “the curse of knowledge.” Authors Chip and Dan Heath say this about the curse of knowledge: “Once you know something, it’s hard to imagine not knowing it. And that, in turn, makes it harder for you to communicate clearly to a novice.”
We all suffer from the curse of knowledge in different ways. If you’re not careful, the curse will affect your keynote addresses, trainings, speeches, and classes. (Notice how I have introduced a villain into this story.)
You can slay the curse of knowledge through greater self-awareness and a few tweaks to your speaking techniques.
Thankfully, my next trainer at the accounting firm knew a few of these tricks. My new trainer tried a different approach to teach me the same topic.
Rather than immediately diving into granular details, she started with the basics and slowly walked me toward understanding. She chunked the training content into manageable concepts, used simple terminology, and drew upon my existing knowledge to build connections to the new topics I had to learn.
You need to use the same mechanisms in your public speaking.
When talking about a complex topic, start in the shallow end of the pool, then gradually lead your audience into the deep end.
4. Paint vivid mental pictures
“Concrete language helps people, especially novices, understand new concepts. Abstraction is the luxury of the expert.” -Chip and Dan Heath
In their book Made to Stick, Chip and Dan Heath tell the story of how a nonprofit nutrition group caused movie theaters nationwide to re-evaluate their popcorn recipes to reduce saturated fat.
The campaign began when the nonprofit tested movie theater popcorn and found a typical bag contained 37 grams of saturated fat — almost double the recommended daily dose.
At this point in the story, a typical nonprofit would issue a public service announcement saying, “Stop eating movie theater popcorn. It contains 37 grams of saturated fat.”
Knowing that standard messaging wouldn’t change behavior, the nonprofit tried a different approach. Here’s what they said instead:
“A medium-sized ‘butter’ popcorn at a typical neighborhood movie theater contains more artery-clogging fat than a bacon-and-eggs breakfast, a Big Mac and fries for lunch, and a steak dinner with all the trimmings — combined!”
CNN, ABC, NBC, CBS, USA Today, and WaPo picked up the story, among other media outlets.
Popcorn sales nosedived. The public response was so strong that theaters reformulated their popcorn recipes. Remarkably, an unsexy nonprofit nutrition group found a way to change consumer buying behavior and agitate the movie theater industry.
You need to adopt similar messaging in your presentations. The best speeches throughout history include vivid mental imagery that helped the audience not only understand the speaker’s point, but also see it and feel it.
One of the best examples is Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech. King didn’t say that he wanted whites and blacks to “come together” or “become friends.” Rather than using abstractions, King spoke with vivid, emotional imagery:
“I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, sons of former slaves and the sons of former slaveowners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood. I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.”
Can’t you feel the emotion in those words?
As a speaker, you must pull out your metaphorical paintbrush. You must paint tangible landscapes in the minds of your audience. In so doing, you will enlist their memories in service of your insights and their willpower in service of action.
5. Embrace the power of silence
“The more you say, the more likely you are to say something foolish.” -Robert Greene
While studying for my MBA, I was astounded by the eloquence of one of my classmates. Brandon was one year below me in the program, and no matter how many speeches I heard him give, I never heard him stammer.
One day I asked Brandon for his secret. He said he was previously a sports anchor on the local news — a role in which it was imperative to eliminate “ahs” and “ums.” He reminded himself over and again in his broadcasts that pausing is better than inserting a filler word.
Silence is better than stammers.
Brandon’s message stuck with me for years. However, I had trouble putting his advice into practice until one fateful day at a Subway.
As I walked up to the counter, the “sandwich artist” asked me what type of sandwich I would like. My reply: “Ummm…yeah…I’ll have a sweet onion chicken teriyaki on honey oat.”
Suddenly, something clicked in my brain. I realized that my default response any time I was formulating a thought was to say “um” or “ah.” Sadly, those were my “thinking words.”
I resorted to those same responses every time I was trying to express an idea in a meeting, remember a quote in a presentation, or order a sandwich.
I had to reprogram my default. You likely need to do the same.
If you can reprogram your default to silence rather than filler words, you will immediately become a stronger presenter.
6. Practice twice as much as you normally would
“Be a yardstick of quality. Some people aren’t used to an environment where excellence is expected.” -Steve Jobs
Business legend Steve Jobs rehearsed every aspect of his keynote addresses, ensuring that each spoken word, presentation slide, and nonverbal gesture conveyed the appropriate tone. He asked Apple executives to attend his practice sessions and offer feedback on how he could improve his delivery and word choice. He refused to accept anything less than excellence.
If Jobs had to practice hundreds of hours to be an effective speaker, what makes you think you can get away with less?
Not only does practice help you learn the material better, but it also gives you confidence.
Practice time increases confidence and decreases fear. You become confident in your own abilities because you’re delivering the same speech you’ve already given dozens of times. It’s no longer difficult. You expect success because you’ve proven to yourself that you know the material.
I promise you that if you double your practice time, you will sense a noticeable difference in the quality of your next speech.
7. Fly at multiple altitudes
“You may have noticed students who just try to remember and pound back what is remembered. Well, they fail in school and in life. You’ve got to hang experience on a latticework of models in your head.” -Charlie Munger
The most effective speakers strike a balance between conceptual ideas and practical examples. They zoom out, then zoom in.
Concepts without examples lead to superficial presentations. Attendees learn a fascinating theory at a 30,000-foot level but never learn what to do with it. The information doesn’t impact them because they haven’t internalized it.
Examples without concepts lead to unstructured presentations that lack purpose and direction. Attendees leave with fresh ideas at a bird’s-eye view, but no overall framework to connect them and remember them. The information is quickly forgotten.
Here’s an example. Last year I gave a talk on how to become an effective public speaker. It was the most meta speech I’ve ever given. I wanted to provide the audience with a memorable framework, so I chose the “SUCCESS” formula from Made to Stick, which states that people remember content that is Simple, Unexpected, Concrete, Credible, Emotional, and Story-based. (Yes, there’s an “s” missing in SUCCESS.) Throughout the training, I offered personal examples for each element of the SUCCESS formula and concluded by asking audience members to tell a story that hit all six elements of the formula. I connected the framework to tangible examples.
To become an effective speaker, you must fly at multiple altitudes. You must offer a 30,000-foot framework while also providing bird’s-eye view examples. Present an overarching concept, then make it practical.
Whether you’re a teacher, corporate trainer, pastor, or professional speaker, mastering these seven tips will help you become a more compelling presenter.
- Use stories as your Trojan horse
- Create villains for your audience to hate
- Beware the curse of knowledge
- Paint vivid mental pictures
- Embrace the power of silence
- Practice twice as much as you normally would
- Fly at multiple altitudes
