Women In Tech

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 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 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…

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 05: Know Your Target Time (+Bonus Plan B)

Know how long the talk you plan to give is going to be and aim to hit it.

I’ve been doing this a while now and I do not always hit the mark to the minute, I get better with time and practice like everyone…

TALKTIPS DAY 07: Too Many Things

I almost always have way more talking points than I need by the time I’ve put together an outline. Editing can be really challenging. What goes? What stays?

Here’s a trick I learned quite by accident that, so far, has proven to be really awesome…

TALKTIPS DAY 08: Write It Like You Say It

I recall this tip from that one public speaking class I had in college. I’m not entirely sure, but I think I may have adopted this as my overall writing style, even when I’m not writing a talk. I type exactly what plays in my mind.

TALKTIPS DAY 09: Research & Examples

Once I start putting my talk together I inevitably find that certain points I’m trying to make, need a little more gravity to kick a point home. Books and songs and art, scientific facts and other information can absolutely help with that. It’s always nice to be…