How to Deliver a Great TED Talk: Presentation Secrets of the World's Best Speakers (How to Give a TED Talk)
Authors: Akash Karia
HOW TO DELIVER A GREAT TED TALK
Presentation Secrets of the World’s Best Speakers
(Previously published as: How to Deliver the Perfect TED Talk)
AKASH KARIA
best-selling author of
“Speak Like a Winner”
© 2013 by Akash Karia
All rights reserved.
Copyeditor: Marcia C. Abramson
eBook Creator:
Neeraj Chandra
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form by any means without the expressed permission of the author. This includes reprints, excerpts, photocopying, recording, or any future means of reproducing text. If you would like to do any of the above, please seek permission first by contacting us at
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Also by the Author
How Successful People Think Differently
How to Deliver a Great TED Talk
How to Design TED Worthy Presentation Slides
Storytelling Techniques for Powerful Presentations
RAVE REVIEWS FOR AKASH’S BOOKS:
“Excellent, practical guide.”
Gillian Findlay
“Simple advice anyone can implement.”
Karen W
“Buy this book - you won’t be disappointed - it will change your life.”
Allan Kaufman
, DTM, author of the NoSweat Speaking
“Very well written and very useful.”
Rajnish Ranjan Prasad
“World class speaking tips that you can start using today.”
Michael Davis
, Certified World Class Speaking Coach
“Maybe one of the clearest books on presentations I’ve ever read”
Javier
, Amazon.com Verified Reviewer
“Simple easy advice for reaching your goals.”
Ryan Nerd
“Clear, simple strategies for success.”
Mandy Hoffeldt
“pithyand perfect
... consumable (usable right away) and valuable!”
Eric Laughton
, Certified John Maxwell Trainer
Table of Contents
CHAPTER ONE
How to Find Your Core Message
CHAPTER TWO
Creating a Repeatable Power Phrase
CHAPTER THREE
The ABC-C Formula for Powerful Presentations
CHAPTER FOUR
Creating an Attention-Grabbing Opening
CHAPTER FIVE
Building the Body of Your Presentation
CHAPTER SIX
Crafting a Compelling Closing
CHAPTER SEVEN
Using Statistics to Grab Attention
CHAPTER EIGHT
Offer the Audience Something New
CHAPTER NINE
Create a Wow-Moment
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Bring Your Characters to Life by Providing Details
CHAPTER TWELVE
Turning Your Stories into Mental Movies
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Analogies, Metaphors and Similes
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Building Credibility with Your Introduction
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Adding Internal Credibility to Your Messages
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Building an Emotional Connection with Your Audience
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Use Compelling Visuals
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Arouse Their Curiosity
CHAPTER NINETEEN
How to Add Humor to Your Speech
CHAPTER TWENTY
Rhetorical Questions
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
How Subway Used a Story to Increase Sales by 20%
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Five C’s of Great Stories
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Delivery Techniques for Dynamic Storytelling
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
8 Ways to Prepare for Your TED Talk
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Wrap-Up: How to Deliver the Perfect TED Talk
INTRODUCTION
SUCCESS Principles for TED Talks
(or any other speech or presentation)
If you’ve watched
TED videos
before, you’ve no doubt been inspired and enchanted by speeches by figures such as Sir Ken Robinson, Jill Bolte Taylor, Simon Sinek and Dan Pink.
What makes these TED talks so inspiring? What is the secret formula for creating a successful TED talk? And how can you use this formula to deliver your own powerful TED talk (or any other presentation or speech, for that matter)?
If you follow the guidelines and tools in this book, I guarantee that your audience will have no choice but to be wrapped up in your speeches and presentations.
I studied more than 200 of the most inspiring TED talks, analyzed each one line by line and discovered the common elements that make them successful. This book is the result of my rigorous research. In it, you’ll discover tools that will help make you twice the speaker you are today in half the time.
This book is also based on the work of bestselling authors Chip and Dan Heath. In their groundbreaking book,
Made to Stick,
Chip and Dan Heath revealed six simple principles for creating memorable messages. In this book, I have taken Chip and Dan’s work and applied it to creating powerfully persuasive presentations. I use their SUCCESS framework and draw on examples from TED talks to show how the success principles can be applied to public speaking.
You do not need to have read
Made to Stick
in order to get maximum value from this book (although I do recommend picking up a copy of the book). If you have already read Chip and Dan’s book, you’ll find this book a valuable addition to your library to help you create powerfully persuasive presentations and speeches.
According to Chip and Dan Heath, the SUCCESS formula for creating powerfully effective and memorable messages, which forms the foundation for the rest of the book, is:
SIMPLE
Any type of message – whether it’s delivered in the form of an advertisement or a presentation – needs to be simple and clear to understand.
How do we apply this to presentations?
How do you know if your message is simple enough?
How do you make your message simple without dumbing it down?
Boil your presentation or speech down to one simple, core message. What one thing do you want your audience to remember by the end of the speech? You should be able to summarize this point in one sentence – and in words that even a child could understand. If you can do this, then your message meets the requirement for Simplicity.
Later on in this book, you will discover tools for making your message simple without dumbing it down.
UNEXPECTED
The best messages are shocking and say something unexpected.
In your presentations, the best way to grab your audience’s attention is to do or say something unexpected. However, don’t make this gimmicky (i.e., just for the sake of being unexpected). Make sure your “twist” is part of your message. One way of doing this is to provide shocking facts/statistics. For example, if you were giving a presentation on healthy eating choices, instead of saying, “Popcorn is very unhealthy!” you could say, “One bag of popcorn is as unhealthy as
a whole day’s worth of fatty foods!”
This latter statement would shock your listeners and would be more memorable than the general statement about popcorn being unhealthy.
But what if you are delivering presentations that are boring in nature and contain absolutely zero shocking facts or twists?
Later in the book, you will learn how to take boring messages – even the ones that seem as though they have nothing shocking or unexpected – and turn them into powerful messages that contain the element of “unexpectedness.”
CONCRETE
According to
Made to Stick
, the best messages are concrete rather than vague.
What does this mean for your presentations?
It means that you should avoid vague language. Provide specific, clear details. Instead of saying “a few months ago,” say, “On March 19, 2011.” Instead of saying, “eat healthy,” say, “make a commitment to never eat at McDonald’s.”
Later in the book, you will pick up more techniques on how to make your presentation more concrete.
CREDIBLE
The most effective messages are credible and believable.
So, how do you create credible presentations?
How do you build your credibility without seeming as though you’re flaunting your achievements?
One strategy is to talk about things where you have an expertise. In other words, if you’re speaking about “How to Be a Millionaire in 10 Days,” make sure you’re not broke. Make sure you live the message you preach.
Later on in the book, you’ll learn how to borrow credibility from third-party sources.
EMOTIONAL
Advertisements and presentations that engage people’s emotions will be memorable and effective.
How can you engage people’s emotions even when giving boring, technical presentations?
One way is to engage people’s emotions by telling them a story. In Chapter 21, you’ll discover the five elements of great stories and how to use stories to engage people’s emotions … even when delivering standard, boring business presentations. You will also learn three very specific tools for adding humor into your speech.
STORY
The best messages use stories. Stories are a very powerful way of engaging people’s emotions. You’ll learn about the role of stories in presentations and you’ll discover ways to add stories to make your presentations irresistible to your audience!
IN A NUTSHELL
There you have it, the SUCCESs checklist for sticky presentations:
- Simple
- Unexpected
- Concrete
- Credible
- Stories
Those are the six elements of great presentations, and by the end of this book, you’ll have picked up over 100 very specific tools on presentation structure, delivery and content that you can use in your very next presentation to make it a roaring SUCCESS!
