This was a post written by a Forbes.com contributor Cheryl Connor about Talk Like TED.
What do Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and Richard Branson have in common, in addition to their historic careers? All three were once awkward speakers. All are executives who learned to hone their ability to captivate and inspire audiences. And all three have given highly successful presentations for TED.
Why has this happened, and more importantly, what do you need to know about the TED phenomenon as entrepreneurs?
Carmine Gallo teaches entrepreneurs to present more effectively in his bestselling book “Talk Like TED.” (Image courtesy of Gallo Communications.)
You see, as author Daniel Pink so succinctly puts it, “we’re all in sales now.” Our ability to communicate is vital. More importantly, our ability to communicate in a way that ignites and inspires others is the currency that makes the business world go round. For that purpose the TED format is magic: it is crisp, it is concise, and it is delightful as a means of allowing new ideas to catch fire, often without the use of PowerPoint and sometimes even without props, in the space of 18 minutes or less.
To that end, Forbes contributor Carmine Gallo recently released a book I recommend for every person with a desire to be successful in business: “Talk Like TED.” It has become a Wall Street Journal bestseller. I purchased Gallo’s book in December, but it came to my attention again this month as I prepared with friend and client Bryan Brandenburg, Salt Lake Comic Con, for a presentation we will be giving jointly this week at the Utah Governor’s Economic Summit in Salt Lake. “Let’s read Talk Like TED,” he said. “Two killer 18 minute presentations, back to back, and then we’ll let the audience jump in and respond.”
- Emotional. The elements of a successful TED talk touch our hearts.
- Novel. The TED talks teach something new.
- Memorable. The talks present their content in ways the viewer and listener will never forget.
For example, in 2012, civil rights attorney Bryan Stevenson delivered a presentation to 1,000 viewers in Long Beach, California that received the longest standing ovation in TED history. He used no PowerPoint, but left the audience spellbound by appealing to both their heads and their hearts. Attendees contributed more than $1M to his nonprofit organization, the Equal Justice Initiative—more than $55,000 for each minute he spoke.
In another case, neuroanatomist Jill Bolte Taylor (Dr. Jill) a spokesperson for the Harvard Brain Tissue Resource Center, uses her own experience as a stroke victim to explain how having a “front seat to her own stroke” allowed her to study the growth of the human brain. She explains in her TED presentation how the quieting of her “left-brain” chatter opened up a new world that allowed her to connect to others and to the universe in ways she had never imagined before. Her presentation, “My Stroke of Genius,” has been viewed more than 10 million times and led to her being selected as one of TIME Magazine’s 100 most influential people in 2008.
Passion is contagious, Gallo teaches his readers. Humor is magic. And storytelling is an art. There is a science to the pace of speaking that compels the listening audience as well. Pacing may vary by the unique tone and style of the speaker, but the average TED presentation is only 2,500 words. It is also clear that TED presenters are no strangers to practice: It is not unusual for a successful speaker to rehearse a winning TED presentation as many as 200 times.
So how do the TED principles apply to entrepreneurs? As a trial run, I used the Gallo-suggested TED principles in the preparation of the two workshops on communications I presented at the CEO Space conference in Las Vegas last week. These were hour-long sessions; however, I can attest that using the TED principles as their basis left them each much improved.
Imagine the power the TED talk principles could lend to a founder’s pitch for funding. Imagine the power they could give a CEO as he or she presents to employees and executives, or speaks to the company’s investors. Whether or not your topic of interest provides you with any desire to make an eventual presentation at TED, I recommend Gallo’s book as a must read for every individual in business. Passion, a novel idea and the delivery of a memorable presentation. These are foundational skills for becoming a successful entrepreneur.
How will the TED principles translate to a presentation at a Governor’s Economic Summit? Perhaps Brandenburg and I will be able to tell you next week.