In the 7½-minute video, Thomas Frank (who has over 2 million YouTube subscribers) explains the 4 aspects of your talk that he recommends you focus on…
To save you time, this clip skips the first 60 seconds (and the last 90) of the original video (when he sets up his topic and promotes some courses).
If you like, you can watch the full 10-minute version on YouTube.
Let’s look at each of the 4 aspects Thomas believes can make your talk great. You can click any of these links to skip ahead, or, just scroll down…
If you’ve read my last post, you’ll know I was inspired by Aaron Beverly (World Champion of Public Speaking 2019) to write a self-critique of one of my talks.
In this 3-minute video by Kelly Decker, you’ll see a quick way to form an extremely high-level view of your talk or presentation:
And read below for tips to fix the problem that Kelly describes.
Kelly’s the president of Decker Communications, whose content I’ve featured before. (Years ago I shared a post of theirs about pausing when you present, and last year I published a video from them about speaking on a panel.)
I love the way Kelly’s “roadmap” makes you think of your talk in 2 dimensions: Continue reading →
Have you seen Pat Flynn’s great video about making slides? Right now, it’s had almost 1½ million views, and it’s called:
How to Create an Awesome Slide Presentation
(for Keynote or PowerPoint)
In his video, Pat shares pro tips to make your slideshows more engaging. So I highly recommend you watch it. (You’ll find it at the bottom of this post.)
My how-to video
Meanwhile, in the 1st of the videos below, you’ll see the precise steps you can use to implement one of Pat’s tips. That is, to add what he calls a “roadmap” to your slides.
So, watch my 6-minute, hands-on video to see what’s meant by a roadmap, and learn exactly how you can add one in PowerPoint:
When you present at work (or at a conference or other speaking event), do you aim to make people feel something specific?
If you do, you’ll have a far higher chance of engaging people, and therefore of achieving your talk’s goal. But if you don’t, your talk’s likely to be quickly forgotten – in less time than it took you to present!
Not convinced? Well, many speaking professionals suggest using emotional elements. For instance, in his book The Naked Presenter, Garr Reynolds writes:
“Content alone is never sufficient.
We need an emotional connection…” Garr Reynolds
“You’ve got to start where they are, and you’ve
got to give them a reason to come with you” Chris Anderson
Phil’s TEDx talk gives you a neat technique that lets you do exactly that. So, want to see his talk?
To save you time, the clip below’s just 4 minutes long, because it jumps straight to Phil’s main point (skipping both the first 5 minutes and last 5 minutes of his talk).
But if you want, you can always click the progress bar to jump to other parts of the full 15-minute video. (For instance, he goes on to finish the example he started.)
I came across Hugh’s video a while ago, and was really impressed with how audience-focused the structure is that he presents. I also like that he uses just 4 steps to map out the writing process: