TALKTIPS DAY 28: Be Like Eleanor

Some months ago I was having a conversation with a conference organizer. We were talking about my future talk catalogue, and what may work for some of their upcoming events when we got on the topic of feedback. I asked how the feedback from my talks had been so far, and…

TALKTIPS DAY 26: The Mic and its Magical Amplifying Abilities

I always feel super awkward taking a drink during a talk. I’ve made a practice of keenly watching for the moment a speaker takes that pause for a sip of water because it’s something I still haven’t figured out how to feel…

TalkTips-Day 01: Know Your Audience

I tend to speak at a lot of developer conferences, and a few design conferences. As I’ve shifted into more “inspirational/motivational” territory, I’m asked to bring some of my talks to present in-house at companies, everything from “mom” groups to financial…

TALKTIPS DAY 06: Organize into an Outline

Once I’ve done #talktips 1–5 (Who I’m talking to, What I’m talking about, How long I should be talking) I begin breaking all my thoughts and notes into an outline. Since, to date, most of my talks have had accompanying slides, I create my outline in a…

TALKTIPS DAY 14: Close on a High Note

I’ve read, and heard, many times that the gist of a talk’s structure is:

• tell ’em what you’re going to tell ‘em
• [stuff you came to tell ‘em]
• tell ’em what you told ‘em

TalkTips-Day 02: Choose Your Topic

“I want to do a talk, but I have no idea what to talk about” might be one of the things I hear the most from people looking to break into public speaking.
Topics for me come from my own experiences and how I’ve answered my own questions in…

TALKTIPS DAY 16: Who Said/Wrote/Shot it?

We all know it’s really important to offer credit where credit is due. In speaking at a lot of conferences, I also end up watching a lot of speakers give talks and I’ve seen quite a few ways folks include credits. Some do a bibliography slide (or two) at the…

TalkTips-Day 04: Write an Extract

An extract is a brief paragraph that sets expectations around the value of your talk, and what the audience can expect to take away. (literal definition below.)

This often changes for me after the talk is fully written, but I do an extract early…

TALKTIPS DAY 29: A Talk Of Your Own

All the practice, all the talks, revisions, edits, methods, tips, tricks, heart-panics, nerves… All the things I do and go through to make my message one that hopefully moves at least one person — I do what works for me. I share my process in hopes that it may help…

TalkTips-Day 03: Make Notes of Main Ideas

Once I’ve got my topics narrowed down to two or three that I’m sure I want to run with, I start making notes about each one. My method for this changes occasionally. I’ve done this on 5x7 cards (which I use for many life tasks), sticky notes, something…