So you want to be a speaker?

Here are four things I personally like to keep in mind when preparing to speak. There really isn't a one sized fits all method that I've found for "making a talk" (and I've read a lot on the subject!), but here are a few general thoughts that whether it's a deep tech dive or a quick lightning talk (or even a sermon for church...!) have helped me out when making a presentation.

Edit Edit Edit Edit

The number one thing that will make your presentation better is to say less. Don't ramble, don't add filler, don't add a video just to suck up time. Please don't "just start hacking some code live" because you need material. Say the least amount possible (but no less!!) to fully convey the topics you're covering. Need more material? Add topics and breadth rather than filler and fluffy "depth." No one wants to sit through you reading the README for the library you're covering line by line. Edit out useless stuff and keep it tight!

Plan Plan Plan Plan

I was not good at this one all the time, but even though you're cutting down what you're saying, plan for more. A lot more. Inevitably you'll skip something on accident, or you'll rush through a demo that should have taken longer. Maybe you'll leave a lot of Q&A time but end up with no questions (happened to me quite a bit...painful!). By the time I stopped presenting at conferences regularly, I had begun to plan for 20% more time than I had. The topics I planned were "good to know but not essential" type stuff so that if I didn't get to it, it wasn't the end of the world. Hopefully you won't need it, but being overly prepared is always a good thing!

You can't satisfy everyone

The biggest lesson I learned when speaking is you can't satisfy everyone. You can try, but you won't. You either won't cover something well enough, or you'll go deeper than they're expecting and be accused of wasting their time. You'll be too jokey or too dry. Speak too quickly or too slowly. Obviously, don't ignore valid feedback (thrive on it, get better!), but definitely be prepared for to let a lot of it roll off as well.

The truth is, in a room of 200 folks, you'll have 214 different levels of expectation for you presentation. Do your best to educate folks, and don't let their (often unfair) projections and expectations make you feel bad.

Be kind to yourself

You will bomb sometimes. I did several times. Either I wasn't as confident with the material as I should have been or I didn't adequately prepare or whatever. The reason doesn't matter. Sometimes people just won't resonate with your POV on the topic. Sometimes, like me, you'll be feverish and deathly ill, do a poor job, and someone will call you a "loser" directly to your face. People are people, and as such, they're going to people.

When you're given a rare opportunity like that to do something that has big impact like giving a talk in front of people, sometimes you can overestimate the positive side of it, but it can also wildly distort the negativity of a failure. Honestly, most people won't remember the particulars of your talk either way unless it's some sort of seminal revelation. What really matters is that you be kind to yourself afterwards and realize that no one is perfect, and your value as a person is greater than anything you do. And if anyone isn't speaking that into you after you feel like you failed, then perhaps that person is someone you should reconsider spending time with or should absolutely block on social media.

Getting ready to deliver a talk?

Especially if you're early in your "speaking career," I'd be happy to try to coach you or offer suggestions. Shoot me an email at my full name at gmail with whatever. I'm happy to look over slide decks, outlines, or even topic ideas to help you flesh stuff out. And like everything else I do here, it's free, no strings, no eBook upsell, no course to join. I'm just happy to help out where I can. ??