You may have been there before; halfway through your talk or lecture and you realize… I’VE LOST THEM! Glazed eyes. Glancing at watches. Big yawns. Oh crap. While there are ways to get your audience back if you’ve lost them, it’s a difficult thing to pull off. It’s best to create a vivid topic while crafting your speech to avoid boredom. Here are three mistakes to avoid while creating a topic for a TED speech (or a TED-style speech):
- Don’t use your TED Talk as a way to plug your business – I’m shocked at how many people think that their TED speech is really just an opportunity to sell themselves. Great TED talkers find a unique , original, spin on a topic , and delve into with great detai l. Often they are professors, educators, or tech wizards. You will not be able to hold your audience if you are merely trying to plug your company. Think about what you know well, what is arcane in that subject matter, and get curious!
- Keep things personal – The quickest, easiest way to win an audience is to add your story, your life, to your topic. Don’t get me wrong, your topic needs to be thoroughly researched, have an intellectual spin, and be highly unique (see #1), but you can use your life as a way of shaping the material. Jill Bolte Taylor’s speech “My Stroke of Insight ” is a great example of this. She uses her story of a health crisis to illuminate fascinating details about the working of the brain.
- Test it out – Challenge yourself to write your topic down. Use active verbs and focus on what you would like your audience to DO after hearing the speech. Call them to action. Then test it out. Run your topic by co-workers, peers, and friends. Run it by strangers at Starbucks. Run it by your in-laws (ok maybe just SOME of your in-laws). Run it by everyone you meet. Get FEEDBACK. See if there is interest in what you have to say BEFORE you say it. The applause will make it worth the while.
