6 Great Approaches to Public Speaking

Written by Dana Oshiro / February 1, 2010 7:03 PM / 9 Comments

This post is part of our ReadWriteStart channel, which is a resource and guide for first-time entrepreneurs and startups. The channel is sponsored by Microsoft BizSpark. To sign up for BizSpark, click here.

If you want to be a great public speaker, your preparation has to be more than just blasting gangsta rap and shadow boxing in front of the mirror. Whether you have to videotape yourself speaking, join a presentation club, or rewrite your PowerPoint deck 40 times, it's important to be able to tell your own story. Few of us are born with the gift of public speaking but with a little preparation we can learn to persuade, sell and inspire.

1. How Not to Suck at a Group Presentation: LA-based investor Mark Suster teaches startup companies how to present on stage with some great suggestions. In addition to excellent points on structure and the importance of practice, he suggests entrepreneurs join Toastmasters or take an acting class to become more comfortable in front of an audience.

2. 10/20/30: Guy Kawasaki wrote the 10/20/30 rule where presenters create a PowerPoint of no more than ten slides, in a 20 minute time frame, with a minimum font size of 30. While Kawasaki's rules are meant for VC presentations, the fact that each slide has a purpose and covers only key points can carry over to larger presentations.

3. How to Present While People are Twittering: Presentation trainer Olivia Mitchell has a great guest post on Laura Fitton's Pistachio blog where she teaches presenters to incorporate Twitter and feedback loops into their presentations. Although this adds a layer of complication to the presentation experience, it does have the advantage of offering cues to the speaker in addition to creating a long tail of social media pointing back to your words. You can download Mitchell's book entitled, "How to present with Twitter (and other backchannels)" here.

4. Uncovering Steve Jobs' Presentation Secrets: BusinessWeek columnist Carmine Gallo wrote a great article dissecting Steve Jobs' MacBook Air presentation. What I find interesting about this advice is the fact that Gallo points out that part of the Apple narrative requires a binary opposition or an "us versus them" scenario. Gallo writes "in every classic story, the hero fights the villain." If you as a startup founder can position yourself as fixing an industry evil or vanquishing a lackluster market leader, then you're more likely to have a compelling story.

5. The Lessig Method: Upon first arriving in San Francisco I had the pleasure of seeing lawyer and activist Lawrence Lessig speak on copyright and remix culture. In echoing David Hornik's post, we cannot agree more with the statement that Lessig's presentations are a "fantastic combination of content, art and brand." The former Stanford professor weaves a narrative of higher purpose while his staccato imagery injects a freshness into what is often considered dry subject matter. Presentation Zen offers a great breakdown of the many methods inspired by Dr. Lessig's style.

6. Joseph Campbell's The Hero with a Thousand Faces: This may seem like an abstract resource, but reading about archetypes is a great way to learn the components of a great story. It is well-documented that George Lucas' Star Wars was heaving influenced by Campbell's work. Luke Skywalker went on an epic journey, was mentored by Obi Wan, overcame Darth Vader and returned with control of the force. Which of your mentors is your Obi Wan? What is your greatest obstacle? And what is the skill or lesson you've learned in starting this company?

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Comments

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Good post! I like it.

Posted by: Joko Susilo | February 1, 2010 7:27 PM

Thanks Dana for this post. But let me say that presentations aren't the problem at conferences. It's dull panel sessions. I would say 1 in 100 are well prepared and presented. I offer this article I wrote, "More Schmooze, Less Snooze: How to Deliver 'The Most Talked About' Panel Session." (6-page PDF available) http://bit.ly/a7Ev7T

Posted by: David | February 1, 2010 8:50 PM

You can also check out http://SpeakerSite.com for hundreds of other tips from professional speakers.

Posted by: robemrich | February 1, 2010 10:15 PM

Hi,
Great post.I main approach I believe is an audience-centered approach towards public speaking.It requires that you connect with your audience, appearing natural. You'll know you are well on your way to mastery when you can get the audience to nod their heads as an acknowledgement of what you are trying to convey. Do not breeze through your speech. Instead, pause for a while or for a brief moment, especially at those points you want to emphasize. You should also avail yourself of this opportunity to establish eye contact with your attendees as well as to catch that much needed breath.

Posted by: cheap r4i kaart | February 1, 2010 11:58 PM

Approach 2 (10/20/30) is a good start for Powerpoint basics.
There is a lot more to it, though, as we all know but never adhere to.

On a second thought: perhaps it is time to replace Powerpoint. Presenters just don't seem to get it right

Posted by: Leo Hamminger | February 2, 2010 2:01 AM

I hate to be *that* guy but this was a pretty shoddy article.

An itemized critique:

1. Could be shortened to simply read "Practice in front of people."

2. None needed as this is the only approach that actually gives a useful tip to the reader.

3. Nothing useful other than a link to another URL that may or may not be useful.

4. A discordant diatribe that name drops (as has been done with previous approaches) unnecessarily with no actually useful information provided.

5. More name dropping - no actual information provided.

6. You could say it would be helpful to read all of Campbell's works (they were amazing). But is that any different than Tolkien? And yes, with the obvious name-drop critique aside, what are you as the author trying to convey? Are you trying to say that it would be helpful to have a well written script? That a good public speaker has immersed himself into a fantasy world prior to making the public presentation?

Alas, this was a poorly written article. One out of 6 helpful tips (and to be frank, you simply plagiarized Kawaski's idea). And the helpful tip related to powerpoint. I hate to split hairs but you titled your article regarding "public speaking" ...

Posted by: Zak | February 2, 2010 7:06 AM

Great resources!

Thanks for sharing.

Posted by: Tim Ackerman | February 4, 2010 9:01 PM

A Very resourceful article that I enjoyed.

Posted by: kdpgrahi | February 5, 2010 5:40 PM

You seem to have gotten some mixed reviews here, but I wasn't familiar with all the links you provided so I definitely got something good out of this article. Thanks.

Posted by: Abe Kaplan | February 9, 2010 9:52 AM