Why don’t we talk more about clarity? After all, it’s the starting point for success in everything we do, especially speaking.
Getting clear on your topic, your audience, your key messages and what you want the audience to take away is essential to a successful presentation or talk. Otherwise it’s death by powerpoint or, why would you bother?
Jon Yeo, TEDxMelbourne curator has worked with hundreds of speakers to get clear on their topic and deliver an impactful presentation that their audience will remember.
In the video to the right, the second in the webinar series, Clarity, Through A Glass Brightly, you’ll hear Jon talk about what makes a great talk and why.
Jon’s three steps to master clarity in speaking
-
SIMPLIFY
Imagine you’re speaking to a room full of 12 year olds who are smart enough to understand what you’re saying, but not wise enough to understand the context of what you’re saying. Assume that the people in the room don’t know what you’re talking about or have a frame of reference, or understand the history. Keep your topic and ideas simple. If you’ve intrigued them enough they’ll ask for more information
-
PRACTISE, PRACTISE, PRACTISE
Go through it eight times to familiarise yourself, 25 times to know it, and 50 times before you’re sick of it. When you’re sick of it, you’re ready to test it with someone (not the real audience). You can’t present well until you have memorised your content back to front, because otherwise you are trying to do two things while speaking – remember what you’re saying while working through what impact you’re trying to create.
-
MANAGE THE PERSPECTIVE
Make sure your content is relevant for your audience, not for you. It’s about how it is going to serve your community. Without that perspective you’re talking at someone rather than to someone.
From Sandy: My purpose is to work with business owners one on one to get clear on their intention for being online. Then they can define their purpose, their business principles, and create an online presence which allows them to communicate coherently and with purpose to build their community. You can find out more about Clear The Fog here.
Jon Yeo, TEDxMelbourne curator
Linkedin: http://au.linkedin.com/in/jonyeo/
Email: jon@tedxmelbourne.com
You can listen to Jon Yeo’s TEDx Talk here.
Join the community . . .
Come and join the community and let’s Get It Right Online together. Everything we do is about that. Except Instagram. That’s just fun!
