I'm always surprised by the amount of advises in rehearsal.
I like to give public speaches, but I organize myself completely differently. I spend much time making Slides that are easy to follow and logically ordered, and in each I know that I can say a little more or a little less without disrupting the message. I know that I can count on 1 slide = 1 min. Unless lots of images.
I don't rehearse as I know that I prepared well my slides. Then during the talk I add more or less informations naturally depending on the time left and on the facial expressions of the audience. I usually finish exactly on time.
Usually I read my slides and think about what exactly to say only just before the talk.
I find this way more natural, and less scripted, and I usually get compliments on my presentation and naturalness. I think rehearsing removes much of the naturalness of a talk, unless that aspect is worked extensively, but that could sound a little too scripted for my taste.
One trick that I use often if I tend to forget some information that is important to say, is to put one word that trigger the information IN the slide, but in very light Grey, and in a natural place, like close to an image. So if I ever forget what to say, I have my landmarks in each slide to guide me.
This approach can work for experienced speakers, in particular if you have spoken about the given topic before, but I'd strongly advise against not rehearsing for folks a bit newer into their speaking career. So often I have seen talks where folks either were time after half of their time slot, or they ran out of time towards the end. Or they lost track of the plot, went off on a tangent for way too long, etc.
All this is not great for the audience (who have "invested" into your session, by paying for the ticket, spending time away from work and family, not attending other concurrent sessions, etc.), and it can so easily be avoided by rehearsing.
The most common reason I have seen for folks skipping to rehearse is the awkward feeling you might have when speaking loud all by yourself. If that's the issue, it can help to do a dry run in front of colleagues. In any case, "winging it" is best reserved for later on, after having gathered quite a bit of speaking experience and having spoken about the same, or very similar, topics before.
I'd also recommend to avoid reading from slides during a talk as much as possible, it's also not a great experience for the audience. There shouldn't be much text on slides to begin with, as folks will either read that, or listen to what you say, but typically have a hard time doing both at once.
(All this is a general recommendation, not a comment on your talks which I have not seen)
After I finished my "industrial year" at university, we were all asked to give a short presentation on what we had done "in industry".
Returning to university after my industrial year, I took a very dim view of the academic environment and resented being asked to do this task that was worth no credit towards my degree.
So I didn't rehearse or even make any slides, I just stood up and talked about what I had been up to.
And although I was by any measure an extremely inexperienced speaker, it was the best talk I had ever given. It was the first time I stood in front of a room of people and felt present in the environment while giving my talk, rather than monotonously reciting the rehearsed material.
So obviously different people have different experiences, but I learnt that day that rehearsing your talk isn't always helpful.
It helped that I really enjoyed my industrial year and had loads of interesting stuff to talk about. So maybe the more important thing is to be interested in the topic.
I have to agree, if it's clear the talk is just someone mindlessly rambling about a topic, it leaves me feeling like my time isn't being valued and I don't know why I'm spending it listening to this person.
I do almost your method, except I do the presentation a few times as practice to make sure the flow works. When I give the presentation it's not scripted, but since I practiced it is much easier for me to improv. My slides are typically very sparse and simply act as a trigger for which part of the topic I'm speaking on at that time.
But, to your point, I agree that your method is the best way if you know the subject matter. When I practice it's mainly for transitions/flow and not the information.
I'm similar. I treat the slides as the skeleton to my talk and I use them to set the pace and go from there. Overly rehearsed talks always feel kind of boring; going off the cuff can have a disorganized awkwardness, but if the slides are decent and the speaker is good enough at explaining them I find them a lot more fun.
I do try and work hard enough on my slides to make sure that the stuff I'm talking about is paced well enough and I do prepare a light "outline" in my brain to remember keep points that I don't want to forget to bring up (that might not be directly in the slides), but most of the words I say are improvised. I don't know if the talks I've given are "good" or not but people generally laugh at my jokes and I've generally received positive feedback at Lambda Days.
I will say, one thing that really helped me become a better speaker was lecturing for two semesters at a local university. I tend to be a very fast talker and have been most of my life, and it's easy for people to not fully hear what I have said (especially if they don't know me very well and haven't adapted to my mannerisms). When I started lecturing, I learned how to force myself to slow down so that students could understand what I said I don't lose them in the dust.
I often tend to integrate talking passionately about a topic in my head with an imaginary interlocutor. While not directly being a rehearsal in itself, it really helps with developing ideas and chaining concepts - at least for me.
I guess everyone is different in regards to handling the pressure when talking in public, but I do agree that you can feel it, most of the time, when someone rehearsed too "scholarly".
On the one hand, I tend to not do formal rehearsals a lot of the time. On the other, I also find that if I give a live talk for the second or third time, it often is better because I find some things that worked in my head don't work as well on stage.
All that said, an overly-rehearsed talk can come across as stilted/reading from a script.
When what you’re presenting is something you have actual knowledge about, it can be easier to say what you think rather than stress about “sticking to the script.”
True of public speaking just as much as interviewing.
Many people unnecessarily stress about public speaking because they believe the script is the only thing that matters.
Though I admit there is no one size fits all when it comes to speaking.
It’s more like “plans are useless but planning is indispensable” for me. I don’t follow a script when I speak, but the rehearsal sometimes gives me the opportunity to realize when I have trouble articulating something, or it helps me pick and focus on the important pieces of anecdotes so I’m better able to land them in the actual speech.
Good advice. One of the things I suffer from is speaking too fast, and yet to find a good solution for it. I put a sticky note on my screen reminding me to slow down these days, but it only helps so much.
Another comprehensive guide for tech-speakers is https://speaking.io/ by Zach Holman.
I'm the same way, I speak super fast pretty much all the time, and it can be hard for people to understand me if they're not used to it (and I don't blame them).
What really helped for me (and I realize that this doesn't scale to everyone) was lecturing for two semesters. I had pretty good motivation to slow down when students' grades and futures depended on understanding what I'm saying.
I didn't realize how much this helped until I presented at a conference after I was finished teaching, and I realized about midway through my talk that I was speaking considerably slower than I usually did at these things, because it turns out that public speaking and lecturing aren't actually that different.
I wonder if speaking fast is a problem in and of itself. Bryan Cantrill's talks are some of the best around, and he talks very fast. For other speakers, I usually put them at 1.5x speed.
It seems to me that the problem isn't speaking fast per se, but almost speaking where you're tripping over yourself unconfidently. Bryan, for example, often does trip over his words, but he's confident in what he has to say and enunciates very clearly (he's basically yelling).
During the pandemic I made a few Youtube videos, basically public speaking without an audience. I was amazed at how hard it was, I spend hours and hours trying to speak with any confidence. Funnily enough though, at tech meetups, I'm pretty comfortable presenting in front of everyone even though I see others struggle so much. Not sure what's the difference.
Ha ha -- thanks, I think? For whatever it's worth, the most important advice I have for a speaker is: speak from the heart, not from the book. That is, don't tell people what you think they want; be true to yourself and speak your own truth, in a manner that is true to who you are.
To that end: different styles work for different people. Yes, I speak quickly (or can!), but there's a method to the madness: when I am speaking fastest (and... tripping over my words, I guess?), it is likely something that -- while interesting/weird -- is in fact only tangentially related to my main point. For me, it's really important to have my actual points written on my slide: my actual decks[0] are really important to me, and serve to make my main points -- albeit devoid of the visceral metaphors for which I've become (in)famous.
I'm glad you caught on it was supposed to be praise haha. If someone threw my speech patterns on the table and started dissecting them, I'd probably stop speaking entirely ;)
It is praise; you are my favourite speaker. A lot of what you cover in talks or on the podcast is (or was) unknown to me, but I listen because it's never made to seem uninteresting, there's a passion that comes from the heart (true of the other Oxide podcast staff too). I learn a lot of information, and the anecdotes actually stick it into my brain like thumbtacks.
As for tripping: I mean to say that in natural [non-verbetim] speech, there's natural moments where we find our footing. In a speech/talk setting, it's easy to feel like you lose that footing and fall into the volcano, if you're unsteady. You show that speed itself isn't the issue and you can actually run around the volcano without falling in (–this is still praise, I swear).
Also, I must ask: (when) will the people see the release of Netris?
I think one of the problems with speaking for video is that you're self-conscious and feel you need to be perfect. When I started doing a lot of recorded presentations during COVID, I just felt uncomfortable in a way that I didn't with an in-person audience.
Audio only is a lot easier IMO. For one thing, you're not also dealing with waving your hands around so much and thinking about where your eyes are focused. And you can't as easily refer to at least a semi-script. I learned to create videos but podcasts were definitely easier.
(I'm fine being on video but recording yourself feels a lot harder for me.)
I saw the great Canadian raconteur Stuart McLean perform a year or so before his death. He wrote and read aloud The Vinyl Cafe, a mostly-comedic radio show about a fictional Canadian family. I was at one of the live recordings, and it was surprising how animated he was. He was basically dancing around the microphone and using his hands and body for emphasis. After seeing the show, I really noticed how much it carried through in the recordings.
Mind-body techniques provide a good solution to this.
First exercise. Breathe out. Take a full breath in for a mental count of 2. Hold for a mental count of 4. Breathe out for a mental count of 6. How do you feel?
It sounds ridiculous that this does anything. But it relaxes you because your brain recognizes the rhythm of a contented sigh - then rushes to put you in that state. Do that the moment that you stand on stage. Do it again any time you need it. You'll be amazed at how much of a difference it makes.
Next exercise. Put, commas, in. The act of standing silent is an act of control that leaves you feeling in control. Trying to slow down results in, "I'mRacing,I'mRacing, SlowDown, I've slowed down, I'mRacingAgain!" But putting in a comma makes it easy to slow down.
This has a second benefit as well. If we're feeling nervous silence is hard on us. So we put in those filler "ahs" and "ums". It is very rare for people to be conscious of how much we do that. Instead we process it subconsciously, as an awareness of anxiety. And our awareness of our own anxiety, creates more anxiety, and off we go!
And so I like to say, "Put in a pause, or you'll say your ahs!" Try it. Those commas really work.
The third thing is this. When we stand in front of an audience, most of us get a shot of adrenaline. We frame it as "social anxiety". But it's really not. It's social adrenaline. If you learn to interpret it as "on a rollercoaster" instead of "there's a tiger", it goes from scary to fun.
This takes a bit of practice. But (with the mind-body skills), less than you'd expect. And it is easy to find a place to practice if you join a local Toastmasters club.
One of the things I do to slow things down, is to plan with brutal honesty around how much a human can say, clearly, in a minute. And then assume that I’ll need 150% of that time. Have 20 minutes for a slideshow? Keep it at 4 slides - five minutes each - at 100 wpm, that’s 500 words each - but I’ll need to add more pauses in, so that’s 400 words each.
I try to do this already, and I just finish my slides in half the time sometimes. It isn't that I'm stuffing too much content - I just speak fast so it rushes through.
The problem with speaking fast predates 2x speed by decades. From what I've seen it's usually the result of not rehearsing beforehand - beginners tend to panic and speak fast as a result while experienced speakers overestimate how much information an audience can retain and/or how short a minute is. Experienced speakers can tune it in real time, though, and rehearsal time is expensive so they simply don't.
People have been speaking too fast in public since the beginning of public speaking. It's just nerves making us press forward too quickly, and sometimes people are worried it will be too boring if they speak slowly. I was taught to speak far slower than is comfortable - and it will come out just right.
I've taken a few public speaking classes and I remember one made a point of remembering to pause.
I also remember a senior IBM exec who, during Q&A at analyst conferences, would make notes (or seemed to) which served a few purposes including just taking a few seconds to collect his thoughts.
You know, I think that might certainly have something to do with it, but I've also noticed that anytime I'm using tech (video call/voice call) the conversation is at a much faster pace.
It's as though the natural state of the machines and tech is so fast, that we're trying to keep the information transmission as dense as possible so we can end the call.
Side note, I was watching an interview with Cory Doctorow and because of the tv segment style, both he and the interviewer were BLASTING through their talking points.
I wonder how much of our speech is being affected by the "say as much as you can before commercial break" model.
Which is something I have zero interest in doing. If it's a good/interesting podcast, it's not about getting fed information "efficiently" for me.
That said, I have recorded some podcasts with people where I felt I really needed to go into Audacity and have it automatically cut out a bunch of pauses because there were just too many of them.
I've also found that having both video and audio of yourself is a great way to uncover both visual and audio quirks.
That might be the case for some people, but I've been speaking super fast since I was at least nine years old, well before I had ever listened to a podcast (and I'm not sure that the term even existed in ~2000). Not just public speaking, but in general.
I'm kind of unique in my family, the rest of my family speaks at a more or less normal rate, so it could be some neuroligical or spectrum thing specific to me.
In my experience, getting over the fear of public speaking is really just an exercise in exposure therapy. There are no silver bullets.
But my advice to current and future public speakers is this: never, ever add fluff to fill the engagement time. Every audience everywhere would rather you take 33 minutes instead of 50 if those 17 minutes would have been filled with, basically, garbage information designed to fill time.
It's awful how often people think giving a talk is some kind of speech class homework. It's not. You're not graded on filling the time.
For an absolute beginner in public speaking who has fear of public speaking, I'd recommend joining Toastmasters.
A Toastmasters club is like a simulated environment for public speaking where everyone is extremely supportive. I was still anxious even I knew that at the beginning... even when everyone insisted anything was okay.
After 100+ speech giving at a club in Bellevue, now I don't feel anxious anymore speaking in front of 50+ people in a real-world situation where everyone might not be supportive. I can just get up and speak.
It's funny how our minds even work. It turns out simulation is good enough for training our minds.
The quality of public speaking is a separate aspect. Toastmasters do help with that but I can't claim I am good at it yet. But, for anxiety, I now feel almost nothing.
100% agree. Additionally Toastmasters will improve: your ability to think on your feet (a portion of the meeting is impromptu speaking); your ability to provide constructive feedback (members provide feedback on speeches delivered); and your ability to lead if so desired (every club is a volunteer organization that needs leaders to operate).
I gave nearly 100 talks this calendar year ... most are repeats where I'm invited to give a talk that people have seen elsewhere. There were about 25 different talks.
Some of the advice given in this post is universal, some is very, very specific and should be taken with a huge fistful of salt.
So assess it for yourself. Does it feel like it applies to you? Then adopt it.
Does it feel odd, alien, or simply wrong? Don't dismiss it immediately. Give it some attention, try to understand why the author is suggesting it, then decide whether or not to give it a go.
It’s different for everyone. I love public speaking but tend not to over-rehearse. Also, I prefer smaller conferences and meetups than large sprawling ones.
I love to give talks but I find I only do them at science conferences where I’ve submitted things out as an invited speaker at universities. How do I find new places to give talks about my interests?
Depends on your hobbies. I'm into cybsec, there's a ton of small events where you can either be on stage (so submit a proposal), but there is often what we call "rumps" which are usually unplanned 5 minutes talks about a subject. They're a great way to practice.
Besides that, i guess schools/student groups that seek professionals. Non-profits works as well, I did that when I was younger (advocacy).
as for #6: I also like to keep my intro light-hearted, but wouldn't straight up start with a joke. Let the audience settle in a bit, actually start listening to you and make them laugh "on slide 2" so to speak.
i gave a TED talk once. endless practice and repeated testing to make sure every line was good enough. it wasn’t great but better than any talk i had done previously.
I'm always surprised by the amount of advises in rehearsal.
I like to give public speaches, but I organize myself completely differently. I spend much time making Slides that are easy to follow and logically ordered, and in each I know that I can say a little more or a little less without disrupting the message. I know that I can count on 1 slide = 1 min. Unless lots of images.
I don't rehearse as I know that I prepared well my slides. Then during the talk I add more or less informations naturally depending on the time left and on the facial expressions of the audience. I usually finish exactly on time.
Usually I read my slides and think about what exactly to say only just before the talk.
I find this way more natural, and less scripted, and I usually get compliments on my presentation and naturalness. I think rehearsing removes much of the naturalness of a talk, unless that aspect is worked extensively, but that could sound a little too scripted for my taste.
One trick that I use often if I tend to forget some information that is important to say, is to put one word that trigger the information IN the slide, but in very light Grey, and in a natural place, like close to an image. So if I ever forget what to say, I have my landmarks in each slide to guide me.
This approach can work for experienced speakers, in particular if you have spoken about the given topic before, but I'd strongly advise against not rehearsing for folks a bit newer into their speaking career. So often I have seen talks where folks either were time after half of their time slot, or they ran out of time towards the end. Or they lost track of the plot, went off on a tangent for way too long, etc.
All this is not great for the audience (who have "invested" into your session, by paying for the ticket, spending time away from work and family, not attending other concurrent sessions, etc.), and it can so easily be avoided by rehearsing.
The most common reason I have seen for folks skipping to rehearse is the awkward feeling you might have when speaking loud all by yourself. If that's the issue, it can help to do a dry run in front of colleagues. In any case, "winging it" is best reserved for later on, after having gathered quite a bit of speaking experience and having spoken about the same, or very similar, topics before.
I'd also recommend to avoid reading from slides during a talk as much as possible, it's also not a great experience for the audience. There shouldn't be much text on slides to begin with, as folks will either read that, or listen to what you say, but typically have a hard time doing both at once.
(All this is a general recommendation, not a comment on your talks which I have not seen)
After I finished my "industrial year" at university, we were all asked to give a short presentation on what we had done "in industry".
Returning to university after my industrial year, I took a very dim view of the academic environment and resented being asked to do this task that was worth no credit towards my degree.
So I didn't rehearse or even make any slides, I just stood up and talked about what I had been up to.
And although I was by any measure an extremely inexperienced speaker, it was the best talk I had ever given. It was the first time I stood in front of a room of people and felt present in the environment while giving my talk, rather than monotonously reciting the rehearsed material.
So obviously different people have different experiences, but I learnt that day that rehearsing your talk isn't always helpful.
It helped that I really enjoyed my industrial year and had loads of interesting stuff to talk about. So maybe the more important thing is to be interested in the topic.
My father, who never did any public speaking, and as much an introvert as you'll find, did this for my wedding rehearsal.
I was amazed at how naturally and well he did. All he wrote down were 6-7 topics to talk about. He got a huge applause.
I have to agree, if it's clear the talk is just someone mindlessly rambling about a topic, it leaves me feeling like my time isn't being valued and I don't know why I'm spending it listening to this person.
I do almost your method, except I do the presentation a few times as practice to make sure the flow works. When I give the presentation it's not scripted, but since I practiced it is much easier for me to improv. My slides are typically very sparse and simply act as a trigger for which part of the topic I'm speaking on at that time.
But, to your point, I agree that your method is the best way if you know the subject matter. When I practice it's mainly for transitions/flow and not the information.
I'm similar. I treat the slides as the skeleton to my talk and I use them to set the pace and go from there. Overly rehearsed talks always feel kind of boring; going off the cuff can have a disorganized awkwardness, but if the slides are decent and the speaker is good enough at explaining them I find them a lot more fun.
I do try and work hard enough on my slides to make sure that the stuff I'm talking about is paced well enough and I do prepare a light "outline" in my brain to remember keep points that I don't want to forget to bring up (that might not be directly in the slides), but most of the words I say are improvised. I don't know if the talks I've given are "good" or not but people generally laugh at my jokes and I've generally received positive feedback at Lambda Days.
I will say, one thing that really helped me become a better speaker was lecturing for two semesters at a local university. I tend to be a very fast talker and have been most of my life, and it's easy for people to not fully hear what I have said (especially if they don't know me very well and haven't adapted to my mannerisms). When I started lecturing, I learned how to force myself to slow down so that students could understand what I said I don't lose them in the dust.
I often tend to integrate talking passionately about a topic in my head with an imaginary interlocutor. While not directly being a rehearsal in itself, it really helps with developing ideas and chaining concepts - at least for me.
I guess everyone is different in regards to handling the pressure when talking in public, but I do agree that you can feel it, most of the time, when someone rehearsed too "scholarly".
On the one hand, I tend to not do formal rehearsals a lot of the time. On the other, I also find that if I give a live talk for the second or third time, it often is better because I find some things that worked in my head don't work as well on stage.
All that said, an overly-rehearsed talk can come across as stilted/reading from a script.
This is how I present as well.
When what you’re presenting is something you have actual knowledge about, it can be easier to say what you think rather than stress about “sticking to the script.”
True of public speaking just as much as interviewing.
Many people unnecessarily stress about public speaking because they believe the script is the only thing that matters.
Though I admit there is no one size fits all when it comes to speaking.
It’s more like “plans are useless but planning is indispensable” for me. I don’t follow a script when I speak, but the rehearsal sometimes gives me the opportunity to realize when I have trouble articulating something, or it helps me pick and focus on the important pieces of anecdotes so I’m better able to land them in the actual speech.
Good advice. One of the things I suffer from is speaking too fast, and yet to find a good solution for it. I put a sticky note on my screen reminding me to slow down these days, but it only helps so much.
Another comprehensive guide for tech-speakers is https://speaking.io/ by Zach Holman.
I'm the same way, I speak super fast pretty much all the time, and it can be hard for people to understand me if they're not used to it (and I don't blame them).
What really helped for me (and I realize that this doesn't scale to everyone) was lecturing for two semesters. I had pretty good motivation to slow down when students' grades and futures depended on understanding what I'm saying.
I didn't realize how much this helped until I presented at a conference after I was finished teaching, and I realized about midway through my talk that I was speaking considerably slower than I usually did at these things, because it turns out that public speaking and lecturing aren't actually that different.
I wonder if speaking fast is a problem in and of itself. Bryan Cantrill's talks are some of the best around, and he talks very fast. For other speakers, I usually put them at 1.5x speed.
It seems to me that the problem isn't speaking fast per se, but almost speaking where you're tripping over yourself unconfidently. Bryan, for example, often does trip over his words, but he's confident in what he has to say and enunciates very clearly (he's basically yelling).
During the pandemic I made a few Youtube videos, basically public speaking without an audience. I was amazed at how hard it was, I spend hours and hours trying to speak with any confidence. Funnily enough though, at tech meetups, I'm pretty comfortable presenting in front of everyone even though I see others struggle so much. Not sure what's the difference.
Ha ha -- thanks, I think? For whatever it's worth, the most important advice I have for a speaker is: speak from the heart, not from the book. That is, don't tell people what you think they want; be true to yourself and speak your own truth, in a manner that is true to who you are.
To that end: different styles work for different people. Yes, I speak quickly (or can!), but there's a method to the madness: when I am speaking fastest (and... tripping over my words, I guess?), it is likely something that -- while interesting/weird -- is in fact only tangentially related to my main point. For me, it's really important to have my actual points written on my slide: my actual decks[0] are really important to me, and serve to make my main points -- albeit devoid of the visceral metaphors for which I've become (in)famous.
[0] https://speakerdeck.com/bcantrill/
I'm glad you caught on it was supposed to be praise haha. If someone threw my speech patterns on the table and started dissecting them, I'd probably stop speaking entirely ;)
It is praise; you are my favourite speaker. A lot of what you cover in talks or on the podcast is (or was) unknown to me, but I listen because it's never made to seem uninteresting, there's a passion that comes from the heart (true of the other Oxide podcast staff too). I learn a lot of information, and the anecdotes actually stick it into my brain like thumbtacks.
As for tripping: I mean to say that in natural [non-verbetim] speech, there's natural moments where we find our footing. In a speech/talk setting, it's easy to feel like you lose that footing and fall into the volcano, if you're unsteady. You show that speed itself isn't the issue and you can actually run around the volcano without falling in (–this is still praise, I swear).
Also, I must ask: (when) will the people see the release of Netris?
:-)
I think one of the problems with speaking for video is that you're self-conscious and feel you need to be perfect. When I started doing a lot of recorded presentations during COVID, I just felt uncomfortable in a way that I didn't with an in-person audience.
I forgot to mention that it was just audio! With video, it was even harder and I never ended up releasing anything further.
Audio only is a lot easier IMO. For one thing, you're not also dealing with waving your hands around so much and thinking about where your eyes are focused. And you can't as easily refer to at least a semi-script. I learned to create videos but podcasts were definitely easier.
(I'm fine being on video but recording yourself feels a lot harder for me.)
I saw the great Canadian raconteur Stuart McLean perform a year or so before his death. He wrote and read aloud The Vinyl Cafe, a mostly-comedic radio show about a fictional Canadian family. I was at one of the live recordings, and it was surprising how animated he was. He was basically dancing around the microphone and using his hands and body for emphasis. After seeing the show, I really noticed how much it carried through in the recordings.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stuart_McLean
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Vinyl_Cafe
Mind-body techniques provide a good solution to this.
First exercise. Breathe out. Take a full breath in for a mental count of 2. Hold for a mental count of 4. Breathe out for a mental count of 6. How do you feel?
It sounds ridiculous that this does anything. But it relaxes you because your brain recognizes the rhythm of a contented sigh - then rushes to put you in that state. Do that the moment that you stand on stage. Do it again any time you need it. You'll be amazed at how much of a difference it makes.
Next exercise. Put, commas, in. The act of standing silent is an act of control that leaves you feeling in control. Trying to slow down results in, "I'mRacing,I'mRacing, SlowDown, I've slowed down, I'mRacingAgain!" But putting in a comma makes it easy to slow down.
This has a second benefit as well. If we're feeling nervous silence is hard on us. So we put in those filler "ahs" and "ums". It is very rare for people to be conscious of how much we do that. Instead we process it subconsciously, as an awareness of anxiety. And our awareness of our own anxiety, creates more anxiety, and off we go!
And so I like to say, "Put in a pause, or you'll say your ahs!" Try it. Those commas really work.
The third thing is this. When we stand in front of an audience, most of us get a shot of adrenaline. We frame it as "social anxiety". But it's really not. It's social adrenaline. If you learn to interpret it as "on a rollercoaster" instead of "there's a tiger", it goes from scary to fun.
This takes a bit of practice. But (with the mind-body skills), less than you'd expect. And it is easy to find a place to practice if you join a local Toastmasters club.
One of the things I do to slow things down, is to plan with brutal honesty around how much a human can say, clearly, in a minute. And then assume that I’ll need 150% of that time. Have 20 minutes for a slideshow? Keep it at 4 slides - five minutes each - at 100 wpm, that’s 500 words each - but I’ll need to add more pauses in, so that’s 400 words each.
I try to do this already, and I just finish my slides in half the time sometimes. It isn't that I'm stuffing too much content - I just speak fast so it rushes through.
Do you think one's tendency to speak faster originates from listening to podcasts at 2.x+ speed?
The problem with speaking fast predates 2x speed by decades. From what I've seen it's usually the result of not rehearsing beforehand - beginners tend to panic and speak fast as a result while experienced speakers overestimate how much information an audience can retain and/or how short a minute is. Experienced speakers can tune it in real time, though, and rehearsal time is expensive so they simply don't.
People have been speaking too fast in public since the beginning of public speaking. It's just nerves making us press forward too quickly, and sometimes people are worried it will be too boring if they speak slowly. I was taught to speak far slower than is comfortable - and it will come out just right.
I've taken a few public speaking classes and I remember one made a point of remembering to pause.
I also remember a senior IBM exec who, during Q&A at analyst conferences, would make notes (or seemed to) which served a few purposes including just taking a few seconds to collect his thoughts.
You know, I think that might certainly have something to do with it, but I've also noticed that anytime I'm using tech (video call/voice call) the conversation is at a much faster pace.
It's as though the natural state of the machines and tech is so fast, that we're trying to keep the information transmission as dense as possible so we can end the call.
Side note, I was watching an interview with Cory Doctorow and because of the tv segment style, both he and the interviewer were BLASTING through their talking points.
I wonder how much of our speech is being affected by the "say as much as you can before commercial break" model.
Which is something I have zero interest in doing. If it's a good/interesting podcast, it's not about getting fed information "efficiently" for me.
That said, I have recorded some podcasts with people where I felt I really needed to go into Audacity and have it automatically cut out a bunch of pauses because there were just too many of them.
I've also found that having both video and audio of yourself is a great way to uncover both visual and audio quirks.
That might be the case for some people, but I've been speaking super fast since I was at least nine years old, well before I had ever listened to a podcast (and I'm not sure that the term even existed in ~2000). Not just public speaking, but in general.
I'm kind of unique in my family, the rest of my family speaks at a more or less normal rate, so it could be some neuroligical or spectrum thing specific to me.
Not for me. I listen at 1-1.25x, and not an avid listener. I just speak fast, especially in english
In my experience, getting over the fear of public speaking is really just an exercise in exposure therapy. There are no silver bullets.
But my advice to current and future public speakers is this: never, ever add fluff to fill the engagement time. Every audience everywhere would rather you take 33 minutes instead of 50 if those 17 minutes would have been filled with, basically, garbage information designed to fill time.
It's awful how often people think giving a talk is some kind of speech class homework. It's not. You're not graded on filling the time.
How to speak from Patrick Winston at MIT is my go to. A must watch! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Unzc731iCUY
A collection of related resources: https://gist.github.com/macintux/5354837
For an absolute beginner in public speaking who has fear of public speaking, I'd recommend joining Toastmasters.
A Toastmasters club is like a simulated environment for public speaking where everyone is extremely supportive. I was still anxious even I knew that at the beginning... even when everyone insisted anything was okay.
After 100+ speech giving at a club in Bellevue, now I don't feel anxious anymore speaking in front of 50+ people in a real-world situation where everyone might not be supportive. I can just get up and speak.
It's funny how our minds even work. It turns out simulation is good enough for training our minds.
The quality of public speaking is a separate aspect. Toastmasters do help with that but I can't claim I am good at it yet. But, for anxiety, I now feel almost nothing.
100% agree. Additionally Toastmasters will improve: your ability to think on your feet (a portion of the meeting is impromptu speaking); your ability to provide constructive feedback (members provide feedback on speeches delivered); and your ability to lead if so desired (every club is a volunteer organization that needs leaders to operate).
I love public speaking, think I'm above average at it, and am aiming to do more of it. Has anyone here tried Toastmasters?
Went to my local group last week and was pleasantly surprised with the quality of speaking.
Would heartily recommend Toastmasters - get's you lots of practice, encouragement and you can learn from some excellent speakers.
They do a variety of speaking formats. Exercise!
I gave nearly 100 talks this calendar year ... most are repeats where I'm invited to give a talk that people have seen elsewhere. There were about 25 different talks.
Some of the advice given in this post is universal, some is very, very specific and should be taken with a huge fistful of salt.
So assess it for yourself. Does it feel like it applies to you? Then adopt it.
Does it feel odd, alien, or simply wrong? Don't dismiss it immediately. Give it some attention, try to understand why the author is suggesting it, then decide whether or not to give it a go.
It’s different for everyone. I love public speaking but tend not to over-rehearse. Also, I prefer smaller conferences and meetups than large sprawling ones.
My own (similar) advice from 2016: https://csswizardry.com/2016/06/speakers-checklist-before-an...
if you don't fancy toastmasters, sign up for a beginner's improv class in your area.
Seconded!
I love to give talks but I find I only do them at science conferences where I’ve submitted things out as an invited speaker at universities. How do I find new places to give talks about my interests?
Depends on your hobbies. I'm into cybsec, there's a ton of small events where you can either be on stage (so submit a proposal), but there is often what we call "rumps" which are usually unplanned 5 minutes talks about a subject. They're a great way to practice.
Besides that, i guess schools/student groups that seek professionals. Non-profits works as well, I did that when I was younger (advocacy).
as for #6: I also like to keep my intro light-hearted, but wouldn't straight up start with a joke. Let the audience settle in a bit, actually start listening to you and make them laugh "on slide 2" so to speak.
i gave a TED talk once. endless practice and repeated testing to make sure every line was good enough. it wasn’t great but better than any talk i had done previously.