Your only real job in giving a talk is to have something valuable to say, and to say it authentically in your own unique way. (Location 68)
fourth R: reading, ’riting, ’rithmetic … and rhetoric. (Location 98)
Your number-one mission as a speaker is to take something that matters deeply to you and to rebuild it inside the minds of your listeners. We’ll (Location 259)
The only thing that truly matters in public speaking is not confidence, stage presence, or smooth talking. It’s having something worth saying. (Location 269)
An idea is anything that can change how people see the world. If you can conjure up a compelling idea in people’s minds, you have done something wondrous. You have given them a gift of incalculable value. In a very real sense, a little piece of you has become part of them. (Location 273)
In fact, the same questions you ask as you do your research can help provide the blueprint for your talk. What are the issues that matter most? How are they related? How can they be easily explained? What are the riddles that people don’t yet have good answers for? What are the key controversies? You can use your own journey of discovery to suggest your talk’s key moments of revelation. (Location 311)
language works its magic only to the extent that it is shared by speaker and listener. (Location 346)
You can only use the tools that your audience has access to. (Location 348)
If you start only with your language, your concepts, your assumptions, your values, you will fail. (Location 348)
Whether the journey is one of exploration, explanation, or persuasion, the net result is to have brought the audience to a beautiful new place. And that too is a gift. Whichever metaphor you use, focusing on what you will give to your audience is the perfect foundation for preparing your talk. (Location 385)
Inspiration can’t be performed. It’s an audience response to authenticity, courage, selfless work, and genuine wisdom. Bring those qualities to your talk, and you may be amazed at what happens. (Location 491)
good exercise is to try to encapsulate your throughline in no more than fifteen words. And those fifteen words need to provide robust content. It’s not enough to think of your goal as, “I want to inspire the audience” or “I want to win support for my work.” It has to be more focused than that. What is the precise idea you want to build inside your listeners? What is their takeaway? (Location 512)
Let’s think once again of a talk as a journey, a journey that the speaker and the audience take together, with the speaker as the guide. But if you, the speaker, want the audience to come with you, you probably need to give them a hint of where you’re going. (Location 543)
To say something interesting you have to take the time to do at least two things: Show why it matters … what’s the question you’re trying to answer, the problem you’re trying to solve, the experience you’re trying to share? Flesh out each point you make with real examples, stories, facts. (Location 577)
To provide an effective talk, you must slash back the range of topics you will cover to a single, connected thread — a throughline that can be properly developed. (Location 582)
Richard Bach said, “Great writing is all about the power of the deleted word.” (Location 584)
You will only cover as much ground as you can dive into in sufficient depth to be compelling. (Location 625)
So a throughline requires you first to identify an idea that can be properly unpacked in the time you have available. You should then build a structure so that every element in your talk is somehow linked to this idea. (Location 630)
The most viewed TED speaker at the time of writing this book is Sir Ken Robinson. He told me that most of his talks follow this simple structure: Introduction — getting settled, what will be covered Context — why this issue matters Main Concepts Practical Implications Conclusion (Location 643)
THE CHECKLIST As you work on developing your throughline, here’s a simple checklist: Is this a topic I’m passionate about? Does it inspire curiosity? Will it make a difference to the audience to have this knowledge? Is my talk a gift or an ask? Is the information fresh, or is it already out there? Can I truly explain the topic in the time slot allocated, complete with necessary examples? Do I know enough about this to make a talk worth the audience’s time? Do I have the credibility to take on this topic? What are the fifteen words that encapsulate my talk? Would those fifteen words persuade someone they’d be interested in hearing my talk? (Location 663)