You too can be a kickass public speaker
Use computers so you don't sound like a robot
Apologies to anyone who missed my regular Friday 6AM Tech Tales email. I was out of town this week with only small screens and I needed a bigger one to find the Wirepine Geek Squad picture you’ll soon be treated too.
It's been a heady couple of weeks on TV. First the Olympics and then the democratic convention. Do you watch the Olympics and imagine yourself competing? I do but I'm always nah, I can't do that, could never do that. Replace the word that with any Olympic sport.
The athletes are amazing, doing things I’m just not capable of. That’s not even how I play ping pong. He’s been playing since he was 6? I have not. When I swim, I don’t look like that. No world exists where I’m competitive in any of these sports - respect for all the athletes; even that poor breakdancing woman from Australia.
Now the Democratic National Convention … it’s just politicians … talking. I can do that! Could I? Could you? Probably not.
On the one hand, I have been working on speaking since I was 6 and I’m pretty good at it now. You couldn't ask for a friendlier crowd than the DNC, and there’s even a machine that tells you what to say - all you have to do is read it and reading is another thing I am good at.
On the other hand, most of us get anxious doing the toast at a wedding. I figure about 20,000 people were at the United Center in Chicago with another 30 million or so watching the broadcast of that one shot at glory. That’s intense.
Like Olympians, these are peak politicians and they know what they’re doing and they’ve been at it for awhile. Michelle Obama makes you feel things. She’s not just talking, she’s not just reading lines.
I got the heebie jeebies for months before a speaking tour I signed up for. I couldn’t sleep the night before my sessions, practicing my schtick. I’m not a natural, but I got pretty ok and eventually I even slept better.
The biggest trick I figured out was make it entertaining. Entertainment trumps education. Get your points across, but first entertain. Tell a story, show a video, make it personal, make it engaging. My first big stage presentation I had a joke ready from my daughter. Something about a centipede putting it’s shoes on. Rachel was around 8; solid daughter joke. It got a laugh and now the crowd was on my side and I relaxed a bit.
Another time I created a Spotify playlist of Macklemore songs when he was big. I timed it so Ceiling Cant Hold Us was our lead in as we transitioned into some of the driest geek content you’d never want to listen too. We got top marks on that session. Credit the music for setting the vibe and getting people into the room and excited before the talk.1
Have a beginning a middle and an end just like every story ever written. Repeat your points, but in different ways. Examples, visuals. Something for all the different types of learners out there. Oh and demo. In tech its all about the demo and that is the most infuriating part because invariably something goes wrong so for chrissakes have a video backup so your audience doesn’t have to cringe and get sad with you while you try it again and again. That never happened to me.
So maybe you don’t make the big stage at the DNC but with a little practice you can nail that wedding toast or slay whatever crowd you find yourself in front of.
Technology can help you. There was a story out of the DNC that Tim Walz had never used a teleprompter so they secretly installed one in the Minnesota governors mansion for him to practice on. I saw him speak before and I think he would’ve done just fine but practice gives you confidence and you want that on the big stage.
Check out this speech Ronald ‘The Great Communicator’ Reagan gave in Berlin before teleprompters were a thing. You can see him looking down at his notes:
See what happened after Reagan’s ad-libbed ‘missed me’ moment when the balloon pops. The crowd goes nuts! After that he could say just about anything.
At the DNC you not only get the fancy teleprompter with the magic one way glass but the whole podium + teleprompter pod magically emerged from the stage for some serious stage-craft.
While you may not have a DNC tier stage or a magic teleprompter, the technology is now easily accessible. Get a teleprompter app for your PC or tablet. Or if you are doing a talk with slides - write down your talk track and use the presenter view showing your notes to read alongside your content. If you’re speaking in front of a screen to a remote audience then pshaw steal a peak at your second screen or window.
The problem with reading from a script without a teleprompter is eye gaze. If you’re reading off screen, people can tell because you’re not looking at them or at the camera. There’s an AI for that. Here’s a note from another Substack author
. He applied AI Eye Gaze Correction to his video and put them side by side so you can see the magic:Watch your intonation to avoid Robot Voice. AI coaches are in a lot of recording products now so you can watch your pauses and tone to work on speaking more naturally. Also beware that your natural speaking patterns won’t match your writing so reading verbatim will sound awkward. Practice first; it’s better to throw an umm or err in and sound natural than read the script and sound weird.
My favorite tech speaking assistants are the simple Green/Yellow/Red lights on the podium that tell you when you’re coming up on the end of your time. Running out of time is awful and you have to work on the verbal tendency to ramble.
I leave you with a poor teleprompter trying to get one rambler off the stage for another:2
best, Andrew
A trick a seasoned tech presenter taught me and you too can have that poster Skype Call Quality Methodology
Kari Lake a week ago at an Arizona rally