Book Review - Talk Like TED by Carmine Gallo

I have recently completed Talk like TED by Carmine Gallo. In this book Gallo unfolds the 9 Public speaking secrets of the world’s top minds. This book is based on exhaustive research on TED talks.

Here is a summary of my takeaways from the book

"Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex; It takes a touch of a genius and a lot of courage to move in an opposite direction."

While delivering an impactful presentation, stick to 18 minute rule. Some people may argue 18 minutes is a very short time and I have a lot to share. Creativity thrives under constrains, and 18 minutes is enough to deliver an impactful presentation. A 60 mins presentation would produce cognitive backlog and high chances of upsetting your audience unless you create a very engaging presentation with soft breaks.

Just sticking to 18 mins is not enough, it is important to persuade your audience and reach their heart and head – logic and emotions. You will need evidence, data and statistics to back up your argument. Use some of the data points to create jaw dropping moments for your audience by placing them in a context. (There are 3 components in any story Ethos, logos and Pathos. Ethos is your credibility, pathos is the act of appealing to emotions and logos is persuasion through logic, data and statistics.)

To add more weightage to your idea, remember to talk, walk and look like a leader. Your non-verbal communication can convince your stakeholders/customers to agree to your idea/product.

Most important thing to deliver an impactful presentation is relentlessly practice, that you can deliver your presentation like a conversation with your close friend.

The last one involves some risk. It is adding good humor. ?A good sense of humor would not only make your presentation interesting, but it would help you in building personal and professional relationship.

All professionals should read this book as it has examples from all spheres of work. Implementing some of the best practices from this book would save your time, create impact and might help you get more business.