Preparation: from plan to questions
Lesson 15 of 16 in the course “Speak with Confidence”. Free, with animations and a quiz.
Start with the audience
A talk isn’t written about a topic but for specific people. The same idea lands differently with classmates, investors and your grandma. Before you write a word, answer four questions: who they are, what they already know, what’s on their mind, and what they should do afterwards. At Mira’s demo day the room has students, teachers and a couple of investors, and she wants people to come to her stand after the pitch.
Rehearsal means out loud
Reading your talk silently isn’t rehearsal. Mouth, breath and memory only work when you speak out loud. Learn the plan, not the text: word for word only the first 30 seconds and the closing line; the rest in your own words from a card. Say it standing up at least five times, record and replay it at least once, then tell it to one real person. That last step is the scariest and the most useful.
A slide isn’t a teleprompter
Psychologist Richard Mayer has spent decades studying how people learn from slides and video. One finding: when the screen shows the same text you’re saying, people understand less than when the screen shows a picture and the words come from your voice. The brain tries to read and listen at once. So a slide gets a picture, a number or a few words, and you do the talking. And never read the slide with your back to the room.
On the day
The night before is for sleeping, not rewriting: memory consolidates during sleep, and a tired voice sounds duller. Eat light a couple of hours before and keep water nearby. Arrive early, check the sound, clicker and slides, and stand where you’ll speak. Five minutes before you go on, do the trainer’s warm-up: breath, “mmm”, siren, tongue twister and your opening lines.
Questions from the audience
Questions scare people more than the talk itself, but they have an order too. Hear the question out without interrupting. Pause and breathe. Repeat it in your own words: the whole room hears it, and you gain a couple of seconds. Answer briefly with PREP. Don’t know? Say so: “I don’t know; I’ll check and get back to you.” That sounds more confident than making things up.
Check yourself
- What’s the right way to rehearse a talk?
Correct answer: Out loud, standing, several times, with a recording and in front of a real person. Mouth, breath and memory only train out loud, and a recording and a live listener show what you can’t see from inside. - What’s best to put on a slide?
Correct answer: A picture, a number or a few words, and explain out loud. Per Mayer, the same text on screen and in your voice hurts understanding: the brain tries to read and listen at once. - Someone asks a question you can’t answer. What’s best?
Correct answer: Say honestly: “I don’t know; I’ll check and get back to you”. An honest “I don’t know” with a promise to follow up keeps trust; a made-up answer can get caught.