This article was taken from the July 2014 issue of Wired magazine.
Article Transcript
Speakers around the world have delivered thousands of TED and TEDx talks over the years, the most popular of which have garnered millions of online views. “TED talks have raised the bar on what it means to deliver an inspiring presentation,”says Carmine Gallo, a communications coach and author of Talk Like TED. Even if you never speak at TED, incorporating the following strategies can help you deliver a successful pitch, ace an interview or impress a room of colleagues.
Connect with the audience
Incorporate stories in order to appeal to the audience emotionally. You might feel vulnerable sharing personal feelings, but that authenticity is needed to forge a connection. In her TED talk about women leaders, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg decided to skip her data-rich presentation and instead share a story about the difficulty of saying goodbye to her screaming toddler when she left for overnight trips. Her authenticity struck a nerve: the talk went viral and led to a best-selling book. Steve Jobs, meanwhile, was famous for his hero-versus-villain approach, which pitted new Apple products against the status quo. Or the story could be about the lives your product will improve. “Ask yourself, ‘How can I touch that person on an emotional level?'” Gallo says. “Storytelling is the answer.”
Present something new
Learning releases a flood of dopamine in the brain, Gallo explains, and novelty is one of the best ways to capture a person’s attention. That novelty may come in the information itself, or the presentation of it. Bill Gates’s 2009 TED talk about malaria’s death toll in Africa was not a new subject. But when he released a jar of live mosquitoes into the audience, he shocked viewers and created “one of the most memorable moments in TED history,” says Gallo. But you can do it without the use of parasites. When Steve Jobs first showed the iPhone, he said he was introducing a few new devices: “an iPod, a phone and an internet communicator.” He repeated that phrase until the audience realised that those three products were actually a single creation. His approach made it one of the most memorable presentations in corporate history.
Help them remember
TED talks last 18 minutes for a reason. They’re long enough to deliver an insightful presentation, but short enough to hold the audience’s attention. If you have to give a longer presentation, find ways to break it up into ten- to 18-minute intervals to help your listeners retain more. Show a video, stop for Q&As or introduce audience participation. Introducing pictures helps, too: people remember up to six times as much content when paired with a photo. Finally, remember the rule of three: working memory responds best to processing up to three chunks of information at a time. Dozens of popular TED talks have used this strategy, from “The Three As of Awesome” to “Three Types of Online Attack”. “Don’t overwhelm the viewer with 22 reasons to buy your product,” says Gallo. “Give them three.”