“Here’s something for “free” but you have to leave a comment and I might or might not send it to you based on if you’re in a position to do something for me in the future and because I already gave something to you you’re more likely to do something for me now even though I originally said it was “free”.”
Posted originally on Linkedin here.
Inspired by my recent TEDx talk “The Public Speaking Lesson You Never Had” (as featured on ted.com), the guide details nearly all that I know about public speaking.
It’s loaded with personal reflections, professional experiences and insider insights on how to do that which most people fear. I’ve crammed it full of lessons from my speaker coaching career, resources and examples of best practice (which are tried and tested on me plus stolen from many others), applicable story models and frameworks, along with strategies on tackling the biggest hurdles of nerves and emotional connectivity.
Here are two teaser chapters:
1.2 SITTING
“After nourishment, shelter and companionship, stories are the thing we need most in the world.”— Phillip Pullman
As detailed in my bio, I was the licensee and producer of the TEDxWellington events for nearly ten years.
During that time I developed and delivered to all speakers for the later events a five week coaching experience to aid the development of their talks. One year we had an individual we were failing as we were busy encouraging them (along with the other speakers) to stand in their story, project out and connect with the audience in this single way.
Well this person just wasn’t comfortable with this and as the weeks passed it became apparent it wasn’t going to work. I remember the conversation with them exploring other alternatives and the answer immediately came from a simple comment she made about sitting in her office, across from her clients on two comfy sofas and how that was when she was her most authentic self.
That was it, we sat the speaker in a comfy chair and wow, instant success. The talk became intimate and focussed. Delicate as well as powerful.
This was the best version of them to deliver their story in their way, not in our expected way of standing.
It also aligns with a favourite TED talk of mine which is a deeply moving, gentle and poignant, all delivered whilst sitting in a chair (please check out BJ Miller 2015’s TED talk, What really matters at the end of life). Another case of cultivating closeness through the simple act of sitting.
You’ll learn in a later chapter (DIVA) that understanding and stipulating the best environmental factors for you to deliver a great talk is paramount. I’m hoping the above story and examples give solid reasons to think differently in this area (albeit in rare cases).
One word of caution here for those hosting and ‘sitting’ on panels at events: this is a very different domain to what is described above in terms of a solo speaker in a chair. Unless you use clever lighting it’s very hard to create the same effect as I’ve described in the other cases although much of the other stuff in the book can be applied in this scenario.
3.4 VOICE
“Anyone can make the simple complicated. Creativity is making the complicated simple.”— Charles Mingus
Not many people like the way they sound. However, I guarantee you sound just fine enough.
Accents rule. Lean into them with just a side consideration of clarity for those with thick regional ones. Over the years, due to my international work plus living overseas for over a decade, my Welsh accent has softened. I still roll my “r’s” heavily and when I get excited it comes out wonderfully. I just make sure I enunciate correctly and it’s never been an issue.
I’d like you to consider how cadence, the way you modulate your voice and add stresses to what’s being said, are the inflections that can assist the audience to consider the importance of certain aspects of the story. Important for those who have a quiet ‘flat’ tone and what’s needed for this is to consider elevating the stresses with emotion.
Just like the cadence, the rhythm is another aspect for consideration. Varying the speed throughout any talk can be an effective way to add some ‘colour’ to an orators style. Although, don’t have too much of a difference here as it will sound awful plus confusing, just like someone is playing with a speed dial in your brain.
It’s best to play around with just subtle shifts in both cadence and rhythm which match the emotional range of the subject being discussed, like a little faster when it’s an exciting element of the story with a higher register and then slowing down again to enunciate for the poignant aspects which allows for reflection.
By the way if you want to create tension or make the listeners understand the importance of a statement, just take a second and pause.
A pause is like an underline in writing.
It emphasises what came before.
Now the other way to do this is to repeat something. However this can only be used sparingly, like cumin in cooking.
Repeating something, even twice in a talk, gets noticed and I would suggest using this trick just once. Focus it on your biggest point or statement or piece of information which is truly arresting. Like a statistic which generates a ‘wow’ from when you share it, or a summarising line or two to distiLl a big topic which you’ve been introducing, or a revealing insight from a lived experience or even report. Again, make sure to be careful with this beyond a one time use.
In this bundle deal you not only get the ebook but also the audiobook as well, read by me. Again, here’s the SITTING chapter above in verbal form:
And here’s the ‘Table of Contents’ for the guide as well:
0.0 PROLOGUE
0.1 AIM
0.2 ME
0.3 MISCONCEPTION
0.4 EDUCATION
0.5 ELEMENTS
1.0 GRACE
1.1 FEET
1.2 SITTING
1.3 HANDS
1.4 BODY
1.5 FACE
1.6 SCRIPTS
1.7 SPEECH
1.8 MICS
2.0 CREDIBILITY
2.1 STARTING
2.2 DIVA
2.3 STORIES
2.4 MODELS
2.5 SLIDES
2.6 BREVITY
3.0 RESONANCE
3.1 SUCCESS
3.2 DESIGNING
3.3 LISTENING
3.4 VOICE
3.5 SPECTRUM
3.6 MISTAKES
3.7 BREATHING
3.8 JEDI
4.1 OUTRO
4.2 RESOURCES
4.3 OFFER
4.4 THANKS
4.5 LEGAL
ABOUT THE AUTHOR (AGAIN)
If you’re new here, a little about my pedigree:
As a Creative Producer, DK works with a wide range of clients ‘crafting delicious learning experiences’ either online, in-studio or in person events. He is the 9yr-ex-TEDxWellington / TEDxWellingtonWomen licensee plus founder of the unique video podcast Creative Welly and the annual Creative Leadership NZ conference.
He’s also a Speaker Coach, working with CEO’s and senior executives plus a random ex-All Black and Dame thrown into the mix plus delivers internal masterclasses on the topics of ‘purposeful storytelling’ to small leadership groups.
Previously, DK established Collider, a city-wide programme focussed on transforming Wellington into an internationally recognised Smart Capital (with 200 events in 14 months with over 5000 attendees).
He also founded Mediasnackers in 2006 and through it has over a decade of working in the social media space consulting / delivering training & consulting on five continents and to a cross-sector range of clients from UNICEF, Gates Foundation, BBC, Ubisoft, Hasbro plus spent time as a social media manager for a national education company in NZ.
And the TEDx talk which inspired this:
This has been 20 years in the making and I do hope it ignites creative action plus aids your future public speaking endeavors:
The superb and erudite Jaron Lanier schooling us all on what AI means.
An in-depth article detailing how Block Inc., formerly known as Square Inc., operated by praised tech bros fraudulently created wealth beyond belief.
We can only hope that treaties such as these at the UN can protect international waters finally.
Still use RSS myself (like all of you should) but check out this great How to Take Back Control of What You Read on the Internet article on why it’s important to control your media menu.
New paper from StanfordVR peeps on the mechanisms responsible for Zoom (and other video conferencing) Fatigue and who suffers most from it.
This should be in every country / city in the world: Kyoto to introduce Japan’s first empty homes tax.
Tour this amazingly detailed 3D scan of the Tomb of Ramesses II via this ace website.
10 links in 10 minutes (my mate’s wonderfully curated weekly newsletter you should subscribe to).
A friend introduced me to this track over twenty years ago. An example of prefacing a performance which amplifies and cascades it’s way into the tune. An embellishment of the highest order. Stick your headphones on and turn off the lights for this one.
Imagine the whole story of the first Star Wars film STAR WARS IV, A New Hope in a single scrolling computer graphic… well imagine no more, check out the immense infographic of SWANH which has it all there. It took over 1000 hours to complete and is 123 meters-long or 1024 x 465152 px or 27 x 12307 cm or 10.6 x 4845.3-inch. Created by graphic novelist Martin Panchaud.
Blast from the past with this one as remember seeing it doing the rounds a decade ago when it came out. Still one of the sweetest ways to creatively embellish a piece of audio from a young human telling the best story on the planet (with some great life advice at the end as well for us all).
All offered up to inspire, teach and make you smile / think.
Check out all the ‘For Those Who Want To Tell Better Stories’ posts.
For only $10NZD this bundle deal featured an ebook with a juicy 37 chapters, nearly 14,000 words across 89 pages plus a 1hour34mins audiobook version (read by me).
Read the blog post announcement or purchase below:
I remembered chatting to a friend before the above TEDx talk went live and saying how happy I would be if it hit five figures in views. Well, in just three months to the day of it going live it x10 that!
During the Christmas and New Year break I’ve been tapping away writing a companion guide to the talk which broadens out the things discussed. What it manifested into though is a series of monographs relating to the three elements of what makes a great presentation, the basis of my coaching system with clients and what I deliver in my masterclasses.
It’s currently being proofed by trusted peers under the title of “Speaking With Purpose : A guide to delivering impressive presentations!“
There are currently 30+ chapters and over 13k words detailing all that I know about public speaking, coaching this challenging skill-set plus tackling the biggest hurdles of nerves, emotional connection and storytelling models. And just as way of a teaser, here are three random un-proofed chapters:
Welcome—this book is for those who have to speak in public, present to small and large groups of people, and who want to master their nerves. It’s also for individuals looking to hone their physical and vocal nuances to deliver insightful content in a way which creates emotive action from their audiences.
These monographs detail the three elements of effective public speaking and will outline practical advice you can start applying during your next talk; whether you be a student delivering your final thesis, a confident leader having to deliver a closing keynote to a large conference crowd or a Chief Executive pitching the next 20 year plan to the board.
I trust you as an adult to take what you need and dismiss what you don’t.
This is not a ‘you should’ but more like a ‘you could’ guide based on everything I’ve learned in this arena (although these are tried and tested approaches which achieve re
After nourishment, shelter and companionship, stories are the thing we need most in the world.”
Phillip Pullman
As detailed in my bio I was the licensee and producer of the TEDxWellington events for nearly ten years and one thing we provided was a five week coaching experience to aid the development of the talks. One year we had an individual we were failing in this sense as we were busy encouraging them (along with the other speakers) to stand in their story, project out and connect with the audience that way.
Well this person just wasn’t comfortable with this and as the weeks passed it became apparent it wasn’t going to work. I remember the conversation with them exploring other alternatives and the answer came from a comment she made about sitting in her office, across from her clients on two comfy sofas and how that was her most authentic self.
So, we put the speaker in a comfy chair and wow, instant success. The talk became intimate and focussed. Soft as well as powerful.
This was the best version of them to deliver their story in their way, not in our expected way of standing.
It also aligns with a favourite TED talk of mine which is a deeply moving, gentle and poignant, all delivered whilst sitting in a chair (please check out BJ Miller 2015’s talk: What really matters at the end of life). Another case of cultivating closeness through the simple act of sitting.
You’ll learn in a later chapter (DIVA) that understanding and stipulating the best environmental factors for you to deliver a great talk is paramount. And hoping the above story and examples give solid reasons to think differently in this area (albeit in rare cases).
One word of caution here for those hosting and ‘sitting’ on panels at events: this is a very different domain that what is described above in terms of a solo speaker in a chair. Unless you use clever lighting it’s very hard to create the same effect as what I’ve described in the other cases although much of the other stuff in the book can be applied in this scenario.
So lets get back to presenting and the body by focussing on the…
Anyone can make the simple complicated. Creativity is making the complicated simple.”
Charles Mingus
Nobody likes the way they sound. That’s a given, therefore, get over it. I guarantee you sound just fine enough.
Accents rule. Lean into them with just a side consideration of clarity for those with thick regional ones. Over the years, due to my international work plus living overseas for over a decade, my Welsh accent has softened. Then again, I still roll my “r’s” heavily and when I get excited it comes out wonderfully. I just make sure I articulate correctly and it’s never been an issue.
Cadence is how you modulate your voice and add stresses to what’s being said. These inflections can assist the audience to consider the importance of certain aspects of the story.
Just like the cadence, the rhythm is another aspect to consider. Varying the speed throughout any talk can be an effective way to add some ‘colour’ to an orators style. Although, don’t have too much of a difference here as it will sound awful.
Play around with subtle shifts in both cadence and rhythm which match the emotional range, like a little faster when it’s an exciting element of the story with a higher register and then slowing down again to annunciate for the poignant aspects which allows for reflection.
By the way if you want to create tension or make the listeners understand of the important of a statement, just pause.
A pause is like an underline is writing. It emphasises what came before.
Now the other way to do this is to repeat something. However this can only be used sparingly, like cumin in cooking.
Repeating something, even twice in a talk, gets noticed and I would suggest using this trick just once. Focus it on your biggest point or statement or piece of information which is truly arresting. Like a statistic which generates a ‘wow’ from when you share it, or a summarising line or two to distill a big topic which you’ve been introducing, or a revealing insight from a lived experience or even report. Just be careful with this one beyond that one time use.
The ebook and audiobook will be available on sale from end of March 2023 although making this pre-order live in celebration of the 100,000 views mark. Half-price. If you purchase I’ll send it through a couple of days before going live to the public (pre-order sales closed).
‘Speaking With Purpose’ is my second book, my first being ‘Zen And the Heart Of Social Media’ (see books), written back in when I was delivering in the social media space. This book is now free if you want it (all you have to do is ask).
Again, HUGE thanks to the TEDxNelson team, the other speakers and organisers plus licensee & producer Kara for the original invitation.
How to visit a Disney theme park and still keep your privacy.
There was a secret cross-party summit held to confront failings of Brexit by those who created it (licking wounds & admitting the failure but not in public).
An open source seeds project because “a 2012 Oxfam study found that four companies dominate more than 60 percent of the global trade with grains.”
Why Total Eclipse of the Heart is the most epic song ever written.
How the James Webb Space Telescope is creating awe.
Scribble Diffusion: turn your sketch into a refined image using AI.
Peel.fm: a drum machine in your browser.
Openverse: An extensive library of free stock photos, images, & audio, available for free use from WordPress.
This page generates nonsense words based on a frequency list of phonemes as they occur in legitimate English words.
Poline: an enigmatic color palette generator.
Dan produces a very impressive podcast with an eyebrow-raising amount of featured talent (like Daniel Pink, Tom Peters, Arianna Huffington etc.). Was lucky enough to spend some time rapping about what I’ve been up to in the past few years and hope you enjoy!
Here’s all the places you can subscribe for further episodes: Apple | Spotify | Amazon | Google | YouTube Channel Video Interview | Forbes Column
Thanks again Dan for your interest and invitation to share some stories on your esteemed platform.
Different things are now being considered about the cause of depression (beyond the low levels of serotonin in the brain).
Written in 1998 but nothing has changed: How to Kill Creativity.
This will make you rethink a few things: Don’t Treat Your Life as a Project.
My fav geoglyph is this one: Archaeologists Uncover Nearly 170 Nazca Lines Dating Back About 2,000 Years in Peru.
What has come into the Public Domain Day from 1st January 2023.
My Youtube earnings from the very popular ‘Brick Experiment Channel’ which is a superbly honest breakdown of monies / states / data from a very successful creator.
The Zuck is doubling-down on the failed / failing metaverse plan: Meta is facing the test of its lifetime + read also (& shudder): Meta faces $1.6bn lawsuit over Facebook posts inciting violence in Tigray war.
Urgh: Musk’s Neuralink faces federal inquiry after killing 1,500 animals in testing.
Later is an open source Mac menu bar app that clears and restores your workspace with ease (great for presenters / workshop takers like me).
APITable an API-oriented, open source and easy-to-use visual database for everyone.
Remove noise from voice recordings with this speech enhancement tool from Adobe. Have tried. Is very cool.
This YouTube transcript creator.
If you need a Matrix web-based green code rain screen.
lightyear.fm show how radio broadcasts leave Earth at the speed of light. Scroll away from Earth and hear how far the biggest hits of the past have travelled. The farther away you get, the longer the waves take to travel there—and the older the music you’ll hear.
Nineteen minutes of pure improvisation between beatboxer/looper/producer Beardyman and the freestyle rapper Harry Mack. With random words from the audience as a starting point in which to weave and overlay off-the-cuff stories with impressive lyrical and musical aplomb.
Revealing the development and process behind the thinking, testing and final solution of showing a coding workflow. What is revealed is the depth of thinking behind the production side of presenting technical aspects of computer work whilst retaining the human element of guidance. A job well done Outlier.
Wonderfully spoken, the enticing letters between literary lovers of ilk given voice by tremendous beings in this Letters Live piece. Steamy and erotic. Recitals are hard to do as the tread the line between verbatim reading out loud and nuanced emotive expression which is needed to bring the writers intentions alive. A perfect example of the latter in play here.
All offered up to inspire, teach and make you smile / think.
Check out all the ‘For Those Who Want To Tell Better Stories’ posts.
As with last years review, here’s my assessment of 2022:
A hearty year coming out of 2020/2021 even though COVID devastated my event activity income stream. So very grateful for the variety of clients which contracted me to collaborate this year.
I crunched the numbers on how many gigs fell into which category (‘speaking’ includes talks as well as my ‘purposeful storytelling’ beginners and advanced full-and-half-day masterclasses for leadership groups) and here’s the results:
Also did the same for how much income each category pulled in as well:
So speaking is coming out as the top earner and as promised last year my in-person MCing is finally closed out as a service I offer.
Here’s what some of the clients said about what I delivered for them:
“DK delivered a brilliant session for my team, giving us all accessible, understandable and effective advice on how to present engagingly. The training worked for those with extensive presenting experience as well as those with little exposure to public speaking. It was also very practical and encouraged us to embed our learning by doing. Highly recommended!”
Emma McLean, Engagement Lead, Engagement Lead, Accenture The Dock (Dublin)
“Engaging, smooth and professional. DK delivered his ‘Presenting Engagingly Online’ session to some of the sport sector in Wales. He keeps you locked in with his presentation, exhibiting exactly what he’s preaching with all the best tips and tricks for online delivery in the age of working from home. A top man who I highly recommend. Diolch, DK!”
Matthew Davies, Digital Marketing Lead, Sport Wales
“I cannot recommend DK highly enough – we just had our second very well attended event with him “Presenting Engagingly Online”, which has received fantastic feedback from all the participants. After the first event on “presenting with purpose” with DK last year, our whole team gained a new level of confidence and know how, and it was so popular we just had to offer another session with DK. From the perspective of events organisation, the whole thing couldn’t have been easier – Having all the content and information provided in advance, easy set up made our jobs so much easier.”
Julia Hahn, Wellington Branch Manager, German New Zealand Chambers of Commerce
So nice!
I launched my own online course under the ‘Presenting Wisdom’ banner (accounting for a little over 10% of my income this year).
Developed from an offer I had been delivering from the previous year as so many clients transitioned to the online medium to speak at conferences globally and I noticed nearly everyone do it so badly.
I had two other ideas to add to the offers which I still might do but for now, if you’re still sharing your screen and reading from a script to present online, first of all, don’t, it’s so bad for the folks watching, and secondly take my course and you will never present that way again plus engage with the participants in ways which excite and ignite emotional reactions.
As evident in the #47, #46, #45, #44, #43, #42, #41, #40, #39, #38, #37 digital breadcrumbs offerings—the good stuff I tweet collected into cohesive and more snackable monthly blog posts—my curiosity is still raging.
Had also a strong offering of blog posts this year also which included:
I also started a new series ‘for those who want to tell better stories: few chosen narrative examples, to uncover forms, inspire the soul and stir the creative spirits’:
On a more human scale, I continue to gather humans in conversations via Creative Welly, which is now up to 39 episodes—read the recent blog post benchmark review—it offers fuel for my spirit and stretches my cognition into new realms whilst satisfying my desire to learn in analogue form.
I did a TEDx talk. A distillation of my 16 years as a paid speaker, 10 years as a facilitator through the TEDx licenses I held and the past 6 years paying my rent as a bona fide speaker coach. I’m now trying to write a companion guide based on this talk to publish early next year.
Till then, if you got an important presentation or pitch coming up and struggling to prepare, this will help (or your money back) and please share on if you find it of use.
It received over 10,000 views in just under a week of going live!
My little creativity conference for leaders never made a return after COVID (did mention it last year as a potential project to reignite). Am thinking someone needs to take it on if there’s someone who wants to…
…but what we make.
Or more eloquently put: Amor Fati / the love of ones fate.
Especially if framed through a proactive lens of defining ones path and embracing the journey of discovery through intention.
Half the battle here is knowing thyself so recently invested in a couple of coaching sessions and spent time talking to wiser souls than I, to uncover the characteristics which I can’t see of myself (thanks Shazia, Neil, Tim, Mary)—what’s interesting is that they all came to similar conclusions of where I should be devoting my time.
This was further reinforced via the CliftonStrengths Assessment (thank you Antonia) which really helped to both define and validate the elements to amplify along with giving me the language in which to craft a path forward. These are my top 5 strengths from the assessment:
On a more personal level I keep coming back to: Can I choose gratitude in this moment? Can’t remember where I came across someone saying it although they had ‘happiness’ rather than gratitude in their question. When asked it activates a depth of connection with the world which I haven’t felt for a very long time.
Simply, pages are being turned.
New unexplored paths are being pursued with hope and vigour.
I feel energetic, focused, full of potential and aspiration. And as I put in my Intersecting Influences | Looking For Collaborating Opportunities blog post, am hungry to build, to collaborate, to put my unique-action-biased skills to use.
For now I will continue to offer my speaker coaching and creative producing services, however, will start to transition with a more calculated strategy for my future so watch this space.
So, how was your year, what are you feeling grateful for and what do you have lined up for your fate in 2023?
