10 Ways to Prepare for a TED Style Talk
The creation of a high-stakes, beautifully staged TED style talk often proves to be especially difficult. It takes work to craft the talk, and then even more to make the delivery sound natural. And while all presentations take an investment to make them effective, the creation of such a talk is particularly difficult.
What Makes Preparing for a TED Talk So Tough?
A TED Talk is 18 minutes long-a length that was chosen by TED organizers based on neuroscience and strategy.
- 18 minutes was long enough for a speaker to flesh out an idea, but short enough that a listener could take in, digest, and understand all of the important information.
Practice with clock counting up
If you go over, know how much you’re over
- Finish your entire talk and have your coach tell you how much time you need to trim
- Keep practicing until you’re consistently within 18 minutes
- Your coach should be able to tell you to trim 30 seconds here or add 15 seconds there
Be noteworthy
Coach will jot down what you say well and what you don’t
Do one more FULL timed rehearsal right before you walk on stage.
Right before you go onstage (we’re talking day-of), do one more timed rehearsal. This will ensure that you know the speech and that you are well aware of where you might need to slow down or speed up.
Rehearse with a great (honest) communicator
Choose someone you trust and also that understands how to give a TED Talk, and rehearse with them
- Be honest with them, and let them know what they’re saying and how you’re thinking
- They’ll have to change with you
Have two natural ending points
If you’re running way over, you can stop at your first ending point, and while your audience may miss out on some inspirational or emotional ending, they’ll have heard all of the most important information that matters
- End your talk with two possible endings
Close the loop
Make sure you are telling people why.
Practice with clock counting down
Set a few places in your talk where you benchmark a time stamp
Print your current slide deck as 9-up handouts
cut at least half of the slides, and keep trimming and trimming until you feel you are close to 18 minutes
- during this process it becomes clear that your big idea can be communicated in a succinct, distilled manner
Solicit feedback
Assemble a handful of people who are effective presenters that you trust to give honest, unfiltered feedback on your narrative and slides.
- Verbally run the ideas by these folks and have them look at all the slides at once so they can give feedback on the “whole” of the presentation.
Don’t be camera shy
Videotape some of your final practices.
- This helps you get used to looking at the camera, and you can review the video to look at your stage presence, eye contact, gestures, plus identify any expressions that need modification.
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