Carmine did a Q and A with Teresa Novellino, Upstart Business Journal Entrepreneurs & Enterprises Editor.
Q and A Transcript:
The UpTake: How many times have you watched a TED talk on a topic you didn’t think you cared about at all and found yourself riveted? Carmine Gallo, a popular keynote speaker and author of the new book Talk like TED says the conference and its speakers holds plenty of lessons for entrepreneurs.
As the TED conference turns 30, it’s gone from a small cult event that attracted a young Bill Gates to a global phenomenon known for thought-provoking speakers whose discussions can generate millions of YouTube visits. Can a business leader deploy the oratory magic of a TED speaker when discussing his or her company?
To find out, we turned to Carmine Gallo, a popular keynote speaker and communication coach who has studied and interviewed some of the world’s most riveting speakers. His new book, Talk Like TED: 9 Public Speaking Secrets of the World’s Top Minds follows his 2009 bestseller, The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs. To try to translate some of the power behind TED, Gallo studied 500 TED Talks, more than 150 hours in all, and interviewed TED speakers to try to demystify their powerful speeches.
Among Gallo’s tips for businesses, in particular is to use storytelling. “In a business presentation, telling stories is the virtual equivalent of taking people on a field trip, helping them to experience the content at a much more profound level,” he writes.
Here are the responses Gallo gave for our email Q and A:
Who are some of the most notable TED speakers from the business world who spoke to great effect?
Tony Robbins, Sheryl Sandberg, and Bill Gates have all delivered TED talks and all were powerfully persuasive. In fact I would argue that Sheryl Sandberg’s movement, “Lean In,” would never have happened had it not been for her 18-minute TED talk on why there are so few women leaders. Sandberg said she was prepared to give a talk “chock-ful of data and no personal stories.” Instead, her friend convinced Sandberg to tell personal stories about being a working mother. The talk went viral and led to a bestselling book, which sparked the movement. Stories and storytelling make up 65 to 70 percent of the content of the best TED talks.
How do business speakers deploy the Talk like TED advice you discuss in your book and not sound like they’re doing a giant sales pitch?
If you deliver a presentation effectively, you don’t sound like a giant sales pitch. Your conversation must be emotional, novel, and memorable. Here’s a technique that any salesperson or entrepreneur can use to make their presentation more memorable: stick to the rule of three. The rule of three simply means that in short term memory people can only recall about three chunks of information. Don’t overwhelm your prospect with 18 reasons why they should buy your product or service. Give them three!
Can you discuss a bit the power of statistics in TED talks? How do you choose numbers that won’t bore people, and how do you present them?
Brene Brown is a researcher who had her career transformed after she gave a TED talk. Oprah saw it and loved it and now Brown is a regular contributor to Oprah’s OWN network and magazine. “Stories are statistics with a soul,” Brown said. Never leave a statistic dangling. Always place the statistic into a broader context. In fact you might want to use this sentence to bridge from the statistic to the context: “To put that into perspective….”
I recall working with the president of a multinational company headquartered in South America. He was visiting New York City and had to deliver an important presentation to investors and stakeholders. He was very excited to report that his company had planted 1.8 million trees. It sounded like a lot, but I asked him to put it into context for his listeners. He said, “to put 1.8 million into perspective, that’s the equivalent of 90 Central Parks!”