I really love TED talks and I found a book on a friend’s shelf “How to deliver a TED talk”. I quickly asked to borrow it. I have always enjoyed public speaking and inspired by the book I drafted a talk about “an idea worth spreading” which is the catchphrase of TED. I’m giving a talk next week so it is perfect timing.
As I kept reading I now see many changes that need to be made, but I knew If I didn’t draft it today I would forget all the good advice from the book.
The first tip that stood out was you need a catchphrase, summarising your main idea(s) ideally short 3-12 words, action centric and include word repetition, rhythm or even poetry. Not all are possible at once but it should be repeated various times.
The second tip I really liked was that you need to catch your audience’s attention in the first 30 seconds. If not, it’s really hard later. There are extensive list of how to do this but I won’t give it all away (Jeremey Donovan wouldn’t like that)
There are lots of tips to fine tune my talk but for me this time the stakes are not as high as doing a real TED talk. But this leads to the next tip I am following already. You need lots of real life practice to get good at public speaking. Without this it is unlikely you’ll get on TED. But that said it is not about being an expert speaker, but a passionate expert in your particular area.
You can nominate yourself to be on TED but if others do, it is even better.
I am excited now to improve my public speaking skills so will continue to take opportunities to share “my idea worth sharing” (that’s another blog post).
I’d love share in your community or church group or Parkinson’s group. I’ll be in Australia from June to August. Other locations could be harder but you never know, I love to travel.
I better get back to writing my speech for World Parkinson’s Day on 11th April which will be in Spanish. This is no easy task in another language. I’ll need even longer to practice and memorise this one. I better get to work.
PS. I am attempting to move all media to name: Handstand for Parkinson’s (often without apostrophe). I am told this is better – uniformity. A work in progress as it is a bit mixed.
