The public speaking skill set [video]

She seems like a really nice and smart lady, and this is a topic I'm really curious about and want to get better at, but her speech/presentation itself didn't work for me at all. Completely failed to grab my attention, I started speeding up the video, and then skimming, and finally ran out of patience and closed it without having learned anything new.

Getting to the point quickly, skipping to the most valuable and insightful points, and talking in such a way that grabs people's attention and gets them excited to hear what you have to say are essential public speaking skills, but very hard to learn.

The most captivating public speakers can speak with cadence and energy that makes every sentence entertaining, makes it impossible to stop listening (for great examples, see Max Landis' Superman pitches on youtube, or Dan Harmon's Harmontown podcast, or any good stand up comedian).

I really wish I could learn to do THAT.

I find that amateur presenters need to work on delivery the most. Many times people speak too fast and as a result they're adding filler words, ahs and umms which make the presentation a lot more difficult to listen to. Using gestures, modulating cadence and volume can help make the presentation more engaging.

I have a Substack post on "Public Speaking for Engineers" all ready to go. I viewed this one with some trepidation: what if she's stolen all my thunder?

However, as lumenwrites hints: I soon relaxed.

It took a while to notice that her head, with headphones on, is in a tiny rectangle at the top right. At first it seems like a disembodied voice.

As athrowaway12 says: slide decks are a relic of the 90s. If you view your talk as "speaking from the slide deck" you've already lost.

Lastly, you can't get there all at once ("there" == being as good as the most captivating public speakers). All you can do starting out is be decent, have the audience not hate you, and get better with practice.

I learned more in high school from debate than many other classes put together. How to write and persuade, how laws work and how to read them, confidence, organization, research, the list goes on.

If most students learned even half of what I did from debate I would make it required.

The place where I struggle with public speaking is the anticipation and the first couple of minutes. Once I'm in the flow, everything is great, but before that I'm a nervous wreck.

1. Toastmasters

2. Video yourself and watch/listen

3. Some Udemy course on improving sound of voice

4. Maybe… travel to pick up extra layers of accent. I love mixed accents!