Episode 31: How to become a better speaker

Last week, I gave a lightning talk on salary negotiation. In 10 minutes, I covered a) why you should negotiate, b) tips for your next negotiation, and c) how I can help you negotiate.

I asked a few folks for feedback after and most people said some version of “I don’t know…the way you delivered was awesome. You’re such a great speaker”.

As much as I appreciated that feedback, it is no accident. I’ve been refining my presentation style for the last 10 years. I learned the most as a tour guide for my university where I gave ~570 tours to ~19,950 guests (over 5 years); I had to figure out how to be informative, funny, charming, and engaging no matter how I felt at that moment.

Here are my top 3 tips to uplevel your presentations:

Practice your craft

Even though I am comfortable with public speaking, I never stop practicing. Before each presentation, I practice at least once in a video or mirror so I can watch my body language. As cringe as it is looking/hearing myself talk, watching myself is how I’ve improved fastest.

I consistently seek out a variety of public speaking opportunities. Sometimes it’s to the sales team at work, doing podcasts, keynote speakers, conferences, or lightning talks like last week.

Each format and audience is slightly different and while I still get nervous before the big day, I know how I need to practice to show up as the best version of myself and trust that process.

I know that the difference in how the presentation lands for my audience is directly based on how confidently I know exactly what I want to say. This doesn’t mean I have a script or memorize anything verbatim; it means I’ve prepped to the point where I don’t have to read anything to deliver the presentation.

Knowledge-share with other experts

You’ll improve a skill much faster if you find others who are better than you at that skill today. Granted, even today, I have to remind myself that these are mutually beneficial conversations and that I shouldn’t be intimidated by reaching out. What you believe are obvious truths are not so obvious to others, and vice versa.

If you’re starting and looking for expertise, I recommend joining your local Toastmasters. Even if you don’t join, you can always connect with people who have participated/are participating and knowledge-share with them.

For example - one Toastmasters participant shared a tip to reduce the amount of filler words you use:

Find the tip that resonates with you

There are tons of suggestions out there, but you know what you need to work on and how to improve best. Finding expertise usually isn’t the issue; it’s figuring out which expertise is relevant to your context.

Here are my top 10 tips I use when presenting:

1. Volume: Find someone at the back of the room and pretend like you’re speaking to them.

2. Speed: You always talk faster with the adrenaline of the day, so if you need to time yourself it’s okay if you’re ~1-2 min over in practice.

3. Humor: Different jokes resonate with different people, but the simpler the better. Choose a joke that you feel best matches your personality and can be delivered in 1-2 lines.

4. Topic: If can choose your own topic, choose to teach someone something you have expertise in. The best presentations are the ones where the audience gets to know you / how you got your expertise.

5. Tone: If you are excited about your topic, the audience will be excited to learn. They mirror you.

6. Context: Always assume the audience has little to no context. Avoid jargon words or define them ahead of time for the group.

7. Space: Use the stage (if you can). Walk to different sides every few minutes.

8. Eye contact: Make eye contact with 1 person for every sentence. For virtual, look into the camera (not the screen).

9. Agenda: (don’t need a slide for this) Structure of every presentation - tell them what you’re going to tell them, tell them, and then tell them what you just told them.

10. Engagement: For longer talks, engage the audience by asking them questions. Take live polls for people to share their experience with the topic to get people comfortable to ask questions.

As always, feedback is a gift, and I welcome any/all feedback on this episode. See ya next week 👋.

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✨ Special thank you to Gigi Marquez who suggested I start this newsletter 🙏