The Ideal Communicator

Evan Williams is one of the co-founders of Twitter. As a result, he’s probably invited to speak to tell his story and share his insights to all sorts of audiences. So how did he do in this 7-minute speech at TED?  Let’s take a quick look at what was good, and what needs to be improved the next time he takes the stage.
  

WHAT HE DID WELL:

Introduction: He wasted no time, and went straight into the speech with a personal story about the origins of Twitter.  The story was interesting enough, and was an effective way to start the speech.
 
Transitions and photos: He made an obvious transition out of the introduction and into the ‘body’ of the speech with the facts of what Twitter is and how it’s used.  The photos and images used backed up his points and the accompanying stories extremely well. 
 
WHAT CAN BE IMPROVED: Read the rest of this entry »

This 20-minute speech was forwarded to me by a very valued reader, who prefaced it with a simple “Wow! Check this!” And what I saw did not disappoint. Eve Ensler is known as the original creator of the Vagina Monologues and V-Day, a movement to stop violence against women and girls, which has so far raised $70 million to prevent violence and protect abused women. And after watching this video, now we can also get to know her as a passionate, intense speaker with a somewhat unconventional speaking style.

I’m going to assume that for many of the astute readers of this newsletter, you likely remarked on the same two issues that I did within the first minute of the speech: First, she’s sitting. Second, she’s got notes in her lap, which she refers to fairly often in the first 2 minutes, then minimally for the rest of the speech. This breaks some of the public speaking “rules” that we’re so familiar with: Stand up and move around, and don’t use notes (especially large papers stapled together). But what was also evident in the first minute of her speech was an intensity that caught my attention immediately, and made me want to hear more. Read the rest of this entry »

For an air-tight example of an excellent speech introduction, look no further than Seth Godin’s speech about sliced bread at www.ted.com. In a little over two minutes (from minute 0.25 to 2.35 on the video), he not only tells the audience exactly what he’s going to talk about in an concise, interesting, and engaging way, but he includes the all-important WIIFM (What’s In It For Me?) factor to really draw in his listeners.

How does he do it?  Watch the first 2 minutes of this speech for clues…

1. He immediately introduces the four specific examples that he’s going to talk about, including one of his own failures (Seth Godin failed at something?  I don’t believe it…) Read the rest of this entry »