Why You Don’t Need to be an Expert to Speak

Have you ever watched someone get up on stage and think to yourself, “Wow they look so confident, and sound articulate.” Then you think, “I could never do that! I’d be too nervous… They must be naturally good at speaking.”

The image above is me on stage about a month ago.

I look confident, don’t I?

You know what they say, looks can be deceiving!

The truth is, right before I went on stage, I was really nervous. Soooo nervous that I felt like someone had jammed a bunch of cotton in my mouth.

One of the assistants backstage could tell, and handed me a bottle of water. I guzzled it down in seconds!

Why was I nervous?

I had been invited to give a lightning talk at Google to 300 people, which included people like the CFO of Alphabet… The lightning talk had a strict format: a total of 5 minutes and the slides would auto advance every 15 seconds. As if that weren’t enough to make me nervous, they were also filming my talk, which meant that it would be immortalized on YouTube for others to watch!

It’s Natural to be Nervous

I’m not going to lie to you, whenever I speak on a big stage, in front of lots of people, with bright lights in my eyes, and a timer counting me down, I get nervous.

It happened when I gave my TEDx talk 2 years ago, and it happened again when I spoke at Google a month ago.

But I don’t let it stop me.

I work through the nerves because I have something to say, and I want people to hear it.

And you know what happens? People stop and listen!

That is the power of public speaking. The ability to captivate an audience, to get them to stop for a moment, and pay attention to what you’re saying.

I’ve been doing public speaking since I was 12. Yup, I was one of those speech and debate geeks in middle school and high school. During the MOST awkward years of my life, I decided to take the plunge and put myself out there…

Speaking in public from such a young age helped me come out of my shell (I was pretty shy and self-conscious). It taught me how to communicate my ideas clearly and with confidence. I attribute almost every success and happy memory I’ve had since then to being able to speak in public:

• Getting through my college interview and being accepted to Duke (woohoo 2015 NCAA champs!!)
• Nailing my first technical job interview in Silicon Valley
• Raising capital from investors
• Delivering my first TEDx talk on stage
• Officiating my best friend’s wedding two years ago (here’s the transcript)

I realize you might not have a message you want to convey right now. You might not be ready for the big stage with the bright lights and hundreds of people.

The good news is that most public speaking doesn’t take place on stage.

But I realize that you might still be on the fence about it because you’re afraid you’re not an “expert”.

You Don’t Need to be a So-Called Expert to Speak

Perhaps you’re new to a role and feel like a newbie. You’re thinking, “Why would anyone care about what I have to say? I’ve only been in this role for 2 weeks, 2 months, or 2 years.”

While you might think you are new, chances are there is someone who is just getting started and is eager to learn from YOU!

They want to hear you speak because they want to learn from your experience. They even want to hear about your struggles, all the gotcha moments you experienced, and how you overcame them. While you might be ashamed at how long it took you to overcome them, you shouldn’t be.

It doesn’t matter.

All that matters is that you share them with someone else, and help them fast-track their learnings!

One of our tried and true methods of uncovering your expertise is what we call the Inventory Method. The way that it works is that you start by taking stock of past projects from the past 3–12 months. The reason we recommend 3–12 months is because it is going to be what is freshest in your mind, and since we’re in technology and things move pretty quickly, it’s also going to be highly relevant.

As you take stock of your projects, you’ll notice themes start to emerge. Those themes can be used to craft a talk topic.

An Example of Applying the Inventory Method

Back when I was the founding engineer of Mint.com, I signed up to speak at a local code camp. It was my first ever industry talk, and I didn’t have the slightest idea of what I was going to speak about. Don’t ask me what possessed me to sign up without a talk topic, but it goes to show you how much of a noob I was when it came to speaking.

The date for the conference was approaching and the organizers began to bug me for a topic. I decided to sit down and take stock of all the projects I had completed in the past year, I realized that all I had done was build a prototype, launch it, and scale it. It didn’t seem like a big deal to me, it was just work.

I got up from my cube and walked over to my teammates, hoping they could help me through the pickle I had put myself in.

I told them about the work I had done, and they unanimously said that my experience getting the product off the ground and scaling it would be worth sharing.

They were right.

My talk resonated with my audience.

No one in the audience had built a prototype and then gone on to launch and scale it. Many people had worked on existing code bases or just built a prototype.

I shared my experience and weaved in technical elements, such as the open source libraries I used, how we scaled our database, and moved to a service-oriented architecture.

Even though I was just a couple years out of college, I had given my first talk, shared my experience, and people in the audience had found it valuable. In case you’re curious, you can look through the deck here.

Looking back at the deck, I’ll admit it’s ugly, but it doesn’t phase me because it was my first industry talk.

I even had someone come up to me earlier this year after I had given a talk, and tell me they were at that talk and it inspired them to join a startup! They thought if I could do it being a couple years out of school, they could too.

It’s Your Turn! Use the Inventory Method to Uncover Your Expertise

If you’re not speaking because you don’t think you’re a so-called expert, realize there is always someone who is just getting started and wants to learn from you, then try the Inventory Method to discover your expertise.

Let me know what themes emerge from the projects you’ve worked on in the comments.

The Inventory Method is one of many methods we’ll be covering in our upcoming Confident Communicator Course to help you uncover your expertise and feel confident when communicating and presenting.