How to Speak
How to Speak
Tips for people who want to tell their story
About the Book
How to Speak shares my tips and stories that help me create talks that rock. I want you to be able to do the same, and probably take yourself even higher. 20 years of public speaking has been distilled into an irreverent treatment of the honourable subject of oratory. Or is that rhetoric? Probably both...
This book is for people who want to share their stories as powerfully and effectively as possible. From lightning talk bit-part to center stage keynote, the highs and the lows, the pleasures and the pitfalls, this book aims to share the no-holds-barred journey so that you can make the most of your moments in the limelight.
For readers who want to connect with other readers to share their own experiences and tips, there are groups on Facebook and LinkedIn, as well as the forums here.
About the Author
Table of Contents
-
-
1 Preface: A Letter from the Author
- Tips and Tidbits to start your own Journey
- Applying the secret sauce to everything!
- TL; DRs and No Dumb Questions
- Something you think I’ve missed?
- Good luck and Enjoy!
-
1 Preface: A Letter from the Author
-
I Setting the Stage
-
2 Chapter 1: Honest Lying for a Living
- The Dirt on Public Speaking
- You are “The One and Only”
- An “Odd” and “Strange” Craft and Practice
- From “Why am I doing this?” to “Keeping Sane” and even “Enjoying it”
- It’s how I Practice
- “Engage…”
- TL; DRs
- (There are) No Dumb Questions
-
3 I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe…
- Never sit at the front
- You have to be able to speak, so Speak
- The Worst Crime?
- The Good News
- TL; DRs
- (There are) No Dumb Questions
-
4 “I’m going to die!”
- Messing with a Chimp’s Mind
- Dealing with your Inner Chimp
- TL; DRs
- (There are) No Dumb Questions
-
2 Chapter 1: Honest Lying for a Living
-
II Preparing your Story
-
5 It all lives or dies in preparation
- What do they care about?
- How to kill an audience, with boredom
- Getting to know the audience before you meet them
- Adjust, refine and keep
- TL; DRs
- (There are) No Dumb Questions
-
6 Introducing your Enemy: The Brain’s Crap Filter
- A Crap Filter?
- “Am I going to procreate?”
- Worse… it’s the Brain that learns
- Breaking into the audience’s brain, legally
- TL; DRs
-
7 Tell me a Story
- Your talk is a Journey
- You won’t know your talk’s story at the beginning
- A Talk’s Story is its Framework
- TL; DRs
- (There are) No Dumb Questions
- 8 Exercise: Practice being a Meta-Watcher
-
9 Starting to cook up a talk
- But I don’t think I have anything to say…
- How to start collecting ingredients
- Get it all down
- Mixing it up
- It’s not about you…
- Say less, and kick the ego out
- Simmer and Reduce to Taste: Less really is more
- Create your TL;DRs first
- TL; DRs
- (There are) No Dumb Questions
- 10 Exercise: Write your Future Review
-
11 Dreaming up an Early & Winning Title & Synopsis
- One talk proposal, three audiences
- Tempting, Vague and… Controversial
- Tempt Me!
- You don’t want to miss this!
- With a Title and Synopsis comes Feedback
- The Ossifying Effect of a Talk’s Acceptance
- TL; DRs
- (There are) No Dumb Questions
-
12 Building your first narrative
- “The first draft of anything is shit” - Ernest Hemingway
- Playing + Working = Plorking
- Why don’t you… Go Out And Do Something Less Boring Instead?
- It’s only for you
- How do I know I’m finished?
- TL; DRs
- (There are) No Dumb Questions
-
13 Making it Powerful, Memorable… Effective
- The Stodge
- Key Stodge Ingredient: The Title
- Secondary, Tertiary and Miscellaneous Stodge: Titles with Pause
- Adding Seasoning
- The Special Case of the Spice of Humour
- Building your Spice Cupboard
- Read Wildly!
- It’s not just about reading…
- TL; DRs
- (There are) No Dumb Questions
-
14 Bouncing Narrative Arcs
- Don’t let your talk be like tinnitus
- Arcs are not optional
- “Oh crap!” to “I rule!”
- “Oh crap!” is an opportunity
- Close your arc with “I rule!”
- Close with a hint of “crap”
- Rinse and Reinforce (not Repeat)
- The importance of …. (silence)
- TL; DRs
- (There are) No Dumb Questions
- The Power and Danger of Garden Paths
- You’re Wrong! Oh crap, to OH CRAP!
- Use garden paths with care, or not at all
- Losing trust
- TL; DRs
- (There are) No Dumb Questions
-
15 Applying the Meme Amplifier
- Engineering a meme
- Catchy enough?
- Short enough?
- Turning it up to ‘11’?
- TL; DRs
-
16 Rehearsal to Refine, Reduce, and Dodge Boredom
- My Mechanics of Rehearsal to Refine
- Rehearsal as the Great Reducer
- There’s a Right Amount of Rehearsal for You
- I need rehearsal
- The Parable of the Obviously Bored Speaker
- Rehearsal is a dance with your own Crap Filter
- Working with your own Boredom Curve
- Keep your Boredom to Yourself
- Find your own Boredom Curve
- TL; DRs
- 17 Exercise: Build your own Rehearsal Chart
-
18 We need to talk about Slides
- Bad slides can be the Crap Filter’s Friend
- Slides must complement the talk
- When slides work
- Make your slides emphasise
- Minimise slides
- Watching Comedians
- But I need slides!
- TL; DRs
- (There are) No Dumb Questions
-
19 Compete for your Audience
- Start attracting your audience immediately
- You market your talk
- Don’t ask for my slides early, please
- 20 Exercise: Build a Talk Promotion Plan
-
21 Questions anyone?
- Avoid the Rhetorical
- Prepare for Questions!
- Keep your ear to the ground
-
22 It’s your Style
- You’d never know I am an introvert
- I consider my clothes. No, really, I do!
- Where’s your guitar?
- Your Style, Your Audience’s Expectations
- 23 Exercise: Plan some Style Experiments
-
5 It all lives or dies in preparation
-
III Performance: How was it for them?
-
24 Nerves and the Night Before your Talk
- Evil Temptations
- Develop your routine for the “Night Before”
- Rehearse once and early
- I eat a regular meal
- Do some (any) exercise
- Lastly, meditate
- How I sleep the night before
- The morning after the night before
- Moments before you take the stage
- TL; DRs
- (There are) No Dumb Questions
-
25 Exercise: Develop and Evolve your NBR and PPR
- Pre-Performance Routine (Sample)
- Night Before Routine (Sample)
- Adjust and Evolve
-
24 Nerves and the Night Before your Talk
- Notes
The Leanpub 45-day 100% Happiness Guarantee
Within 45 days of purchase you can get a 100% refund on any Leanpub purchase, in two clicks.
See full terms
Do Well. Do Good.
Authors have earned$10,779,002writing, publishing and selling on Leanpub, earning 80% royalties while saving up to 25 million pounds of CO2 and up to 46,000 trees.
Learn more about writing on Leanpub
Free Updates. DRM Free.
If you buy a Leanpub book, you get free updates for as long as the author updates the book! Many authors use Leanpub to publish their books in-progress, while they are writing them. All readers get free updates, regardless of when they bought the book or how much they paid (including free).
Most Leanpub books are available in PDF (for computers), EPUB (for phones and tablets) and MOBI (for Kindle). The formats that a book includes are shown at the top right corner of this page.
Finally, Leanpub books don't have any DRM copy-protection nonsense, so you can easily read them on any supported device.
Learn more about Leanpub's ebook formats and where to read them
Top Books
- #1
Aprendiendo Git
Miguel Angel Durán GarcíaGit no es complicado... ¡Si lo entiendes! 😜
¿Sientes que sabes usarlo porque has memorizado todos los comandos que necesitas? ¡Pero no entiendes qué hace cada cosa y por qué! Así es normal que, cuando exista un problema, te cueste resolverlo.
¡Con este libro vas a entender de una vez por todas todo lo que es Git y cómo sacarle provecho!
- #2
Open Source Network Management
Josh VanDeraaLooking to get into modern network management tools that are in the open source? This is the place for you. This will get you up and running quickly with modern tools such as Nautobot, Grafana, Prometheus, and Hashicorp Vault. This is the modern stack that is being deployed by many of the largest companies!
- #3
Rector - The Power of Automated Refactoring
Matthias Noback and Tomas VotrubaLearn how to automatically and continuously upgrade and improve your PHP code base
- #4
Atomic Kotlin
Bruce Eckel and Svetlana IsakovaFor both beginning and experienced programmers! From the author of the multi-award-winning Thinking in C++ and Thinking in Java and a Kotlin team member comes a book that breaks concepts into small, easy-to-digest "atoms," along with exercises supported by hints and solutions directly inside IntelliJ IDEA! Full support at www.AtomicKotlin.com.
- #5
OpenIntro Statistics
David Diez, Christopher Barr, Mine Cetinkaya-Rundel, and OpenIntroA complete foundation for Statistics, also serving as a foundation for Data Science.
Leanpub revenue supports OpenIntro (US-based nonprofit) so we can provide free desk copies to teachers interested in using OpenIntro Statistics in the classroom and expand the project to support free textbooks in other subjects.
More resources: openintro.org.
- #6
Jetpack Compose internals
Jorge CastilloJetpack Compose is the future of Android UI. Master how it works internally and become a more efficient developer with it. You'll also find it valuable if you are not an Android dev. This book provides all the details to understand how the Compose compiler & runtime work, and how to create a client library using them.
- #7
C++20
Rainer GrimmC++20 is the next big C++ standard after C++11. As C++11 did it, C++20 changes the way we program modern C++. This change is, in particular, due to the big four of C++20: ranges, coroutines, concepts, and modules.
- #8
Functional Programming Made Easier
Charles ScalfaniA Functional Programming book from beginner to advanced without skipping a single step along the way.
In my 40 years of programming, I've felt that programming books always let me down, especially Functional Programming books. So, I wrote the book I wish I had 5 years ago.
Functional Programming will never be easy, but it can be easier.
- #9
Introducing EventStorming
Alberto BrandoliniThe deepest tutorial and explanation about EventStorming, straight from the inventor.
- #10
On Java 8
Bruce EckelBy the author of "Thinking in Java," covering version 8 of the Java programming language. This book is intended for “dedicated beginners.” It doesn’t assume you know anything about programming and takes you through the material step-by-step. However, I assume you are able to figure things out. It’s not a “dummies” or “idiot’s” guide.
Top Bundles
- #1
CCIE Service Provider Ultimate Study Bundle
2 Books
Piotr Jablonski, Lukasz Bromirski, and Nick Russo have joined forces to deliver the only CCIE Service Provider training resource you'll ever need. This bundle contains a detailed and challenging collection of workbook labs, plus an extensively detailed technical reference guide. All of us have earned the CCIE Service Provider certification... - #2
Software Architecture for Developers: Volumes 1 & 2 - Technical leadership and communication
2 Books
"Software Architecture for Developers" is a practical and pragmatic guide to modern, lightweight software architecture, specifically aimed at developers. You'll learn:The essence of software architecture.Why the software architecture role should include coding, coaching and collaboration.The things that you really need to think about before... - #3
Modern C++ Collection
3 Books
Get All about Modern C++C++ Standard Library, including C++20Concurrency with Modern C++, including C++20C++20Each book has about 200 complete code examples. Updates are included. When I update one of the books, you immediately get the updated bundle. You can expect significant updates to each new C++ standard (C++23, C++26, .. ) and also... - #5
"The C++ Standard Library" and "Concurrency with Modern C++"
2 Books
Get my books "The C++ Standard Library" and "Concurrency with Modern C++" in a bundle. The first book gives you the details you should know about the C++ standard library; the second one dives deeper into concurrency with modern C++. In sum, you get more than 600 pages full of modern C++ and about 250 source files presenting the standard library... - #7
10 Books Bundle - A New Career in Tech 🚀
10 Books
Do you want to create yourself a new and profitable skillset - in one year or less? Do you want to position yourself on the right side of change finally? Do you want to work from home and set your own work schedule while choosing fun and interesting coding projects? Software developers and freelance developersearn six figuresin the US, according... - #8
The Python Craftsman
3 Books
The Python Craftsman series comprises The Python Apprentice, The Python Journeyman, and The Python Master. The first book is primarily suitable for for programmers with some experience of programming in another language. If you don't have any experience with programming this book may be a bit daunting. You'll be learning not just a programming... - #10
Pattern-Oriented Memory Forensics and Malware Detection
2 Books
This training bundle for security engineers and researchers, malware and memory forensics analysts includes two accelerated training courses for Windows memory dump analysis using WinDbg. It is also useful for technical support and escalation engineers who analyze memory dumps from complex software environments and need to check for possible...
