Moe and Matt discuss the different techniques for confident, calm, and competent presenting
How to Speak Up without Freaking Out
In a terrific article he wrote for the Harvard Business Review, TED Curator, Chris Anderson opened his discussion on ‘How to Give a Killer Presentation’ with the story of a 12-year-old Masai boy named Richard Turere, he had met on a trip to Nairobi. The young man is an inventor in the making, and as courageous a twelve year-old as you’ll ever meet. He helps his family raise livestock, and as such, has had to learn how to outsmart the predators who seem to aways be lurking. His efforts maybe routine in Africa, but to Chris, it was a story worth sharing – so, he invited him to speak at TED 2013.
After enduring the rigor of the TED speaker preparation process, and despite his broken english, Turere finally took the stage in Long Beach; and in under eight minutes, walked off having left an indelible mark on the world over. As we’ve come to expect from TED speakers, he shared a story; his story – in such a way that left you hanging on his every word. Here was a boyish twelve year-old who had never left his homeland, never spoken in front of a crowd, and hardly understood his uniqueness; yet his message has attracted just short of a million views. What was his secret – never be boring. In his followup book, Speaking Up Without Freaking Out, Stanford Professor, Matt Abrahams reminds us that captivating speakers first and foremost, get out of their own way. Here’s how….