

How to Give a Talk - mikeknoop
https://zapier.com/blog/how-give-talk/

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zmmmmm
I guess this will come off as snarky given the huge amount of time that
obviously went into this. But what kind of person states up front that this is
basically the first time he has ever given a talk - and then writes a several
thousand word treatise on how to give talks? Again, I don't mean to sound
snobbish or grumpy (but I'm sure I do), but there must be something really
interesting about the psychology of someone who does something once for the
first time ever and then sets about writing a comprehensive guide on it.

I've given quite a number of talks to decent size audiences and there are some
giant smoking turds of BS in here that I hope nobody giving a talk ever reads.
Take for example this:

 _" Depending on the length of your talk, the memorization needed, and your
speaking time, you can either start practicing the day before or the day of
your engagement."_

What the hell are you smoking? Practising a talk for the first time the day
before you deliver it (let alone the actual day) is just about the worst
advice I ever heard. Unless you are a certified egomaniac, this will probably
destroy your confidence as you realise you can barely stutter your way through
even the first two slides in the time alotted.

I guess I have to apologise to the author for sounding negative about
something he has clearly put huge amounts of work into in an attempt to be
helpful, but this kind of post just rubs me the wrong way.

~~~
elwell
I think there is a place for this kind of article. Someone who has just given
their first talk may be able to relate to the needs of other soon-to-be first-
timers more closely than an experienced speaker. Also, I think an article like
this serves the author by forcing self-analysis of his or her procedure and
discovering the ways of improving the process for future speaking engagements.

~~~
visakanv
Agreed, but the title should be "Post-mortem of my first talk" or "What I
learned from my first talk" rather than "How to give a talk", imho. Otherwise
it's just misleading and disrespectful to readers. Maybe I'm oversensitive
about these things.

------
cschmidt
I'm not sure I agree with the advice to write out your talk in complete
sentences. I think you'd be tempted to memorize the talk. In grad school, we
gave lots of technical talks. There was one guy who wrote everything out, and
he gave by far the worst talks in the department. He sounded like he was
reciting something, rather than just speaking. He would pause awkwardly when
he forgot where he was in spewing out his text. It was just painful to watch.

I think it is far better to know what you're going to say by practicing your
talk out loud, a number of times. You have your main points in your head, but
your delivery will be a bit different each time. That way you can sound loose
and natural.

~~~
nlawalker
The trick is to write out the entire speech, word for word, but don't force
yourself to stay 100% on script when you actually give the talk.

All through school as I was growing up, I was always instructed never to write
out a speech or presentation in complete sentences, only to plan an outline,
write down the main points on notecards, and then practice, practice,
practice. The idea was that this strategy would result in a more natural talk.

The result, for me, was basically a recitation of the main points written on
the notecards interspersed with some mumbling and fumbling. Every time I would
practice, I'd find myself very consciously thinking "ok, now what do I say to
get to the next main point?" It would be different every time, and the result
was always a stuttery mess. My problem was that, with practice, the main
points were the _easiest_ part to memorize. It's the stuff in between that I
would forget and stumble over.

Now, I write a presentation as I would write an essay: plan, outline, draft
and iterate, and read out lout repeatedly. Writing out the entire talk forces
me to think about every supporting detail and every transition. It helps me to
analyze the entire talk: I can easily pick out portions that don't flow well
or don't make sense - or avoid writing them altogether, since every word of
the speech is undergoing a drafting and editing process. I can identify
phrases that are confusing and rewrite them, or even better, find phrases that
particularly stand out and highlight them for emphasis. I can time the speech
to within a very narrow window and find opportunities to expand or reduce the
content, both on the paper and on the fly.

Finally, I practice - not until I've memorized it (unless it's relatively
short), but until it sounds natural. I take notes on the bits I stumble over
repeatedly, and those become my notecards.

This strategy probably isn't effective if you have to give a different talk
every day or if you have minimal time to plan. But in my experience, it
results in the most well-planned, natural talks with the highest content
quality.

~~~
irremediable
Exactly this. Learning things word-by-word is pointless and unrewarding. Being
familiar with them, however, is a great idea.

------
YZF
People interested in improving their public speaking skills should really
consider joining their local Toastmasters club. Becoming a good public speaker
takes a lot of learning, practice and good feedback..

Editing to expand on this: Toastmasters is a non-profit organization. In
Toastmasters you follow a structured program to improve your public speaking
skills, initially working through some canned speaking assignments to focus on
specific skills, and over time working on more complex projects. As an
example, you may work on structure in one project and something like vocal
variety in another.

A big part of Toastmasters is feedback so you will get good feedback on how
you're doing and where you can improve and you will also learn how to give
others feedback.

Since the local clubs are run by the members there are also many general
leadership training opportunities in a Toastmasters club. Someone will be in
charge of doing PR (VP PR) or taking care of many other things that are
required to have a healthy club (which is not unlike running a mini-business).

There is a minor "cultish" feel to it and a few semi-weird customs (e.g.
clapping at the end of a speech) but all in all it's good fun and a great way
to improve many skills a lot of us don't get to practice in our day to day
engineering life...

~~~
taybin
Clapping at the end of a speech doesn't sound weird at all.

~~~
YZF
This may be cultural and context dependent but we had a company club and we
had our meetings in this open seminar area. I know people looking on us from
the outside considered the clapping to be a little weird. It works well though
as positive feedback to speakers...

------
pedalpete
I gave my first talk this year, and I find this very backward.

I gave a talk because I had something to talk about that I thought other
people would be interested int. I chose the venue/event those people would be
at as they would benefit most from my talk.

The 'Learn from your talk' segement is great, but what I wanted to 'learn'
from my talk, was not only 'how to give a better talk', but I wanted to know
from the audience what they're thoughts were on the topic. That one might be
specific to different subjects, but the first two I'd hope would be obvious
for any presentation.

~~~
mikeknoop
This is a good way to think about it! I suspect most people get invited to
talk and say yes (versus trying to find a venue) because that's what the venue
model supports.

Learning how to give a better talk is just a proxy for: how can I better
communicate my ideas to the audience so they remember them?

In 2 months no-one is going to remember any of the details about your talk but
they'll remember the experience and if you have resources online, they'll seek
those out.

------
Bulkington
Get drunk. Write it, and be complete. Go to bed. Sleep poorly. Get up before
alarm. Caffeinate. Move your rousing conclusion to the top and try again,
picking off your darlings. You're finished when you can't stand yourself
anymore and it's time to shower. Think of something much better during steam.
Dragon dictate while dressing. Rehearse en route -- a problem if you're just
upstairs in the conference hotel. Email text to friendly teleprompter girl as
sulky technician hooks up your mic. Wing it. Humbly accept false adoration.
Cash the check. Add line to CV. Iterate.

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LukeWalsh
> Learn from your talk

This is probably the easiest and most underutilized technique to improve at
public speaking.

~~~
jcolman
Spot-on. As someone who speaks a lot, I still find this to be the most
challenging (and worthwhile) part of the presentation lifecycle. Kudos for
recognizing that and including it in your post!

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mikeknoop
This is a resource I put together after giving a talk at IowaConf this year
([http://mikeknoop.com/iowaconf-road-to-
zapier/](http://mikeknoop.com/iowaconf-road-to-zapier/))

It's huge (4,000+ words) but if you ever give a talk it could be really
useful.

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kfk
What’s with memorization? I give mostly short presentations, but usually I
just need few bullet points on a slide and some solid eye brain control to
calm down my nerves. Remember to talk slow, don’t wave too much, don’t stand
too still, make it about few core ideas, nobody will get more than few ideas
from your speech anyway.

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johnohara
Thank you for posting this Mike. Preparation is indeed an act of respect
towards the audience.

Patrick Winston's video "How to Speak," available through isites.harvard.edu,
emphasizes the same philosophy and promotes similar techniques for
effectiveness.

Lot of work. Well done.

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carrja99
I think you'll do good as long as you don't do what I typically do... put
together the talk + code samples + slides two hours before the talk is
scheduled to start! :)

~~~
fekberg
That works for some people, not being prepared that is. For others it doesn't.
Whatever works for you and makes your audience happy is great :)

