Note on public speaking

Last month I was a mentor at #WomenDeveloperAcademy. While preparing for mentoring sessions I’ve collected some notes with advice for my mentees. It can in fact be useful for public speakers of all levels, thus I thought I’d share.

Why become a speaker? ??

Personally, I learn by teaching. It’s easier for me to dive into the topic when I’m taking the responsibility to share some knowledge around it. It motivates me to go 2-3 layers deeper than it’s required for the talk.

Another reason is sharing your vision. It’s very interesting to listen to speakers that have a unique and very own point of view on something.?

It could be that you’re the first person that raises a problem, and that is a great reason to become a speaker as well.

Last but not least - promotion. No matter how good you are at something, no one will know it until you speak about that.

Assuming you now have your reason to be a speaker. The next question is:

Where to find topics? ????♀?

Your talk doesn’t have to be 100% unique. You may talk about your recent work, as things that you find to be a boring daily job might be very inspirational for others. We underestimate how valuable our routine might be.

Really good topics might come from excitement. When you learn about something that you find fascinating, you have all chance to inspire others.

The opposite emotion is good as well. When you feel anger or frustration - that might be the ground for your talk. Though I prefer speeches with positive vibrations. Make love, not war ????

Next category I call “That’s really interesting…”. When you talk about something and hear ?hmm, that’s interesting? from 3-4 different persons - that might be the topic for your next speech. Pro tip: listen to others and don’t focus on things that only you find interesting.

The last category is ?Magic Wand?. If you have the idea or some knowledge that you wish to put into people’s heads (like by magic) - do it. But before that make sure that this idea matches the checklist below.

In fact, I recommend using this checklist for all topics, not only from the ?Magic Wand? category. You should prepare a talk only if the answer is ?yes? for every item in the checklist.

So, does your talk …

? deliver a gift rather than trying to sell or promote something? ??

Nobody likes useless advertisements. Your topic should be valuable on its own, make it useful without coupling to your product or company.

? advance an idea that others can learn from rather than focusing on unique circumstances? ??

This kind of speech is good for when rich and famous people share their stories. If you focus on something that might never happen again - consider speaking about something else.

? have a clear through-line? Could someone else summarise your talk’s main theme in 1-2 sentences? ??+??+?? = ??

I highly recommend you to read ?The Pyramid Principle? by Barbara Minto to validate your topics. Induction and deduction help here as well.

The deduction is a line of reasoning that leads to a “therefore” conclusion. Induction - inferences from particular to the general case, it might be time-ordered (yesterday, today, tomorrow), structural (apple, banana, grape), degree (junior, middle, senior), etc. Prepare with deduction, present with induction.

? carry the audience on a journey? Does it start in a place that is accessible for an average person in your audience? ????♂?

It should be doable for your audience to follow you during your whole speech.

One more thing...

Btw, I’ll be speaking at #FlutterGlobalSummit in less than a month. If you’re as excited about functional programming as I am - you know what to do ?? I heard ?that’s really interesting? several times on that topic, so it should be good ??