Podcast Episode 12 – “How to Deliver the Perfect Speech” with Nancy Duarte
Episode 12 – Public speaking is the #1 fear for a huge percentage of people. Many people report that they fear public speaking more than death. But, what if you had a formula for crafting and delivering the perfect presentation? Wouldn’t that make public speaking less scary? In this week’s episode, Nancy Duarte breaks down the formula for the perfect speech, backed by hard science, and gives us a step-by-step plan for creating the perfect presentation.
You can use these techniques for a big formal conference presentation, or something simple like a presentation to your team about your newest upcoming project. Nancy’s TEDx Talk on how to create the perfect speech has millions of views, and she goes into even greater detail in this episode.
Bookmark this episode and come back to it anytime that you are getting ready to deliver a presentation. This discussion will help you build an amazing speech and give you the confidence you need to step out onto that stage without anxiety and fear.
“You can use story to shape anything. If you really understand some of the basic attributes of story, it can transform how you communicate.”
– Nancy Duarte
Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts
Meet Nancy Duarte
Nancy Duarte is a communication expert who has been featured in Fortune, Time Magazine, Forbes, Fast Company, Wired, Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Cosmopolitan, LA Times, and on CNN. Her firm, Duarte, Inc., is the global leader behind some of the most influential visual messages in business and culture. As a persuasion expert, she cracked the code for effectively incorporating story patterns into business communications. She’s written five best-selling books, four of which have won awards.
Connect with Nancy’s team: Duarte.com
Nancy’s TEDx Talk on giving the perfect speech
Books (click on images below)
Free Resource: The Specialist Series
Featured online community: Physicians to Physician – Healing the Practice of Medicine
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This week’s blog post: 17 “Do’s” and “Don’ts” for Giving a Great Presentation
Show times
- 00:00 – Introduction to the episode.
- 02:53 – Introduction to Nancy Duarte
- 04:31 – Nancy Duarte and her company have produced hundreds of thousands of presentations during their 30+ years in business.
- 05:55 – Giving a good presentation is a learnable skill. Even true introverts can do good presentations. Introverted people actually tend to plan better presentations though they may be more afraid to give them.
- 06:54 – Preparation is key to giving a successful presentation!!!
- 07:29 – “The curse of knowledge” makes it hard for us to deliver a talk to someone and use language that they actually understand.
- 08:47 – When you’re with your peers, you don’t need to dumb things down. It’s fine to “speak your geek.”
- 09:17 – Story is a powerful tool that can transform your communication.
- 11:28 – In any presentation, you need to treat the audience as the hero of the story, and you are the guide!
- 13:21 – When you’re a leader, you can use the story archetypes for communicating in everyday conversations, not just in big presentations.
- 14:43 – How do you know when you need to make significant preparation for a presentation vs just speaking “off the cuff”?
- 16:23 – As a leader, it’s easy to find ourselves in a different state of knowledge or emotion compared to our staff. It’s important to get our fingers on the “pulse” of our team so we can meet them where they are.
- 17:31 – When you’re giving a presentation at a conference, it’s helpful to sit in on the session beforehand to see what the “mood” of the room is so you can try to match that energy or at least make note of it so you plan your approach accordingly.
- 18:00 – Everyone has a different “pre-talk ritual,” either pumping themselves up or calming themselves down. Either approach is ok!
- 19:50 – Nancy breaks down the structure of “the perfect speech.”
- 22:21 – The “perfect speech” archetype works for any speech!
- 24:13 – To be a good speech, should we be creating an emotional or spiritual transformation for our audience?
- 26:13 – Leading an organization is like writing an epic tale.
- 27:04 – Repetition, familiar phrases, imagery, and metaphors help transport the audience to a new plane of comprehension.
- 29:04 – You need to have the right level of emotional appeal to fit your audience.
- 29:54 – Data are important to support the validity and authority of your talk, but you’ve got to weave it effectively into the story structure.
- 31:21 – Should we try to deliberately create emotional responses in our audience, including physical displays?
- 33:46 – Speech coaches can be helpful to even the most seasoned speakers.
- 35:34 – When you’re creating a slide deck, don’t just do it in a linear fashion (e.g. slide 1, slide 2, etc). Start with the “guiding light” or main central point, and every slide serves to drive home that central point.
- 37:47 – You shouldn’t be using powerpoint as a teleprompter in the sense that you’re reading exactly what’s on the screen. But, you can hit the “B” button to turn your screen black or “W” to turn the screen white. Then, you could use the powerpoint as a teleprompter and the audience doesn’t see it.
- 40:08 – Don’t use the podium as a crutch! Move around the stage! It projects confidence and keeps the audience engaged.
- 40:59 – Nancy shares how to use your presentation to translate to real growth in your business.
- 43:00 – Wrapping up the episode. Connect to Nancy on LinkedIn!
- 44:23 – Summary of the episode
- 44:57 – Contribute to The Specialist Series to get featured on the blog or podcast
- 45:59 – This week’s featured online community: Physicians to Physician – Healing the Practice of Medicine
- 49:41 – Signing off!
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Related posts:
business, dentist, marketing, physician, practice management, public speaking
Tamiflu
If you deliver a presentation that is gripping and empathetic, you’ve almost delivered the perfect presentation. All that’s left is including a CTA that clearly explains what listeners could do to help push your idea forward –and an ending that paints a picture of what the world will look like if they help. Then, you can leave your presentation knowing that you’ve delivered a talk that’s going to move people to act.