What Makes a Successful Speech?

Getting chosen to speak at a TED conference is no easy feat. Making a successful speech is even more difficult.

Attending a TED conference — as in, sitting in the audience — is a little like applying for college, with a short essay-style application including questions like “What are you passionate about?” But to speak at a conference is even harder. TED’s content director Kelly Stoetzel and her team review thousands of candidates and whittle them down to 60-70 speakers for the twice-a-year, week-long conferences.

Who gets chosen to speak? To uphold their famous tagline “ideas worth spreading,” TED organizers aren’t looking for motivational speakers or self-promoters. Instead, ideal candidates are “inventors, teachers, artists, scientists, change agents, storytellers, big-picture thinkers, prodigies, performers, makers, technologists … you name it,” according to 2014’s call-to-action for TED speakers.

In other words, emphasis is placed on a speaker’s ideas, not their public speaking skills. The TED talks are good because the content is good.

But when it comes to view count on those TED talk’s online videos, you might notice that some perform way, way better than others — even when the topics are similar. The question is, why? What makes one TED talk more popular than the next?

Lessons From a TED Talk Study

To uncover why certain TED talks are more popular than others, the folks at Science of People, a human behavior research lab, recently conducted an intensive experiment on nonverbal communication. For the experiment, they had 760 volunteers watch hundreds of hours of TED talks and answer questions about charisma, intelligence, credibility, and more. With this data, Lead Investigator Vanessa Van Edwards and her team were able to find patterns between the most popular videos and the less popular ones.

To help control for accuracy, the study stuck to only videos posted on TED.com in 2010 that were between 15-20 minutes long. This way, they all had similar exposure, had about the same amount of time to rack up views, and were moderate in length so as not to skew volunteers’ ratings. Each of the 760 volunteers was given only 10 TED talk videos to watch so as not to experience fatigue (which could affect their ratings).

They found that five specific, nonverbal patterns differentiate the most popular TED talks from the least popular ones. And they believe these five patterns show us how to be influential and charismatic.

Let’s dig into their results, as well as the helpful public speaking tips Van Edwards and her team derived from these results.

Nonverbal communication matters… A lot

Think about how you’d normally prepare to deliver a talk. You probably spend the majority of that time preparing what you’re going to say, right? I certainly do. But in the future, we might consider spending more time preparing how we’re going to deliver our content rather than what we’re going to say.

Why? In the Science of People study, half the participants watched all their videos with sound, and half of them watched the videos on mute. Then, participants were asked to rate each TED speaker on their charisma, intelligence, and credibility. Ratings were exactly the same whether they’d watched the video with sound or without sound.

“In other words, people decide whether they like a TED talk based on the speaker’s body language more than their actual words,” said Van Edwards.

So the next time you deliver a speech in front of an audience, practice standing up straight, purposefully using the space on the stage to move around, and using natural and appropriate hand gestures to improve your delivery.

Speaking of hand gestures …

The more hand gestures, the better

Van Edwards and her team found a correlation between the number of views on a TED talk and the number of hand gestures. The most popular TED talks had an average of 7,360,000 views and speakers used an average of 465 hand gestures. The least popular TED talks had an average of 124,000 views and speakers used an average of 272 hand gestures.

The more hand gestures, the higher the speaker’s charisma rating as well. In general, TED speakers who used fewer than 240 hand gestures scored lower on charisma.

Their suggestion? Use your hands to help illustrate and reinforce your ideas. When you do, you will seem more relaxed, confident, and authoritative.

Scripted speeches “kill charisma”

Van Edwards and her team found a correlation between the number of views a TED talk had and the speaker’s vocal variety. Participants were asked to rate speakers on the amount of fluctuation in their voice tone, volume, and pitch. The results? The more vocal variety a speaker had, the more views they got. More vocal variety also correlated with higher charisma and credibility ratings.

Vocal variety also correlated with high view count: TED speakers delivering the most popular talks had 30.5% higher vocal variety.

“Speakers who told stories, ad-libbed, and even yelled at the audience (like Jamie Oliver [did] in his TED talk) captivated the audience’s imagination and attention,” wrote Van Edwards.

It makes sense that a speech with little vocal variety will turn listeners off. Monotone = boring. When you speak in an expressive, energized way, your audience is much more likely to maintain interest — which probably means they’ll like you more, too. So the next time you practice your speech, practice switching up your pace and pitch and pausing to allow your message to sink in.

More importantly, don’t memorize a script. Memorized speeches sound like memorized speeches. Most of the time, memorized speeches don’t sound natural — and, in Van Edwards’ words, they actually “kill charisma.” Instead of memorizing your whole speech, memorize the key elements you want to cover and allow the rest of it to be flexible and natural.

Smiling makes you look smarter

Van Edwards and her team found that the more time a TED speaker smiled while delivering his or her speech, the higher their perceived intelligence ratings were. Speakers who were rated high in intelligence typically smiled for more than 14 seconds of their entire talk, while speakers rated lower in intelligence typically smiled for 14 seconds or less.

This may be counterintuitive to some of you — and Van Edwards and her team cite this in their research. “Studies on smiling have found that leaders typically smile less,” she wrote. “Nonverbal scientists believe that smiling is actually a low-power behavior.”

Here, she’s referring to research from body language scientists like Carol Kinsey Goman, who wrote the book The Silent Language of Leaders. You might recall more recent research from Munich’s Technische Universitaet that tested how leaders in business and academia are assessed and chosen. The researchers found that male and female managers behaving in exactly the same way were assessed differently — and they concluded that women should appear less cheerful and more proud to be seen as effective leaders.

But the Science of People’s research found that even when TED speakers were talking about a serious topic — like Sheryl Sandberg’s talk on why we have too few women leaders — the amount of time smiling still correlated with intelligence ratings.

Their suggestion? “No matter how serious your topic, find something to smile about.”

First impressions are powerful — even in a 20-minute TED talk. Van Edwards and her team found that participants watching TED talks had already made decisions about how smart, charismatic, and credible the speaker was within seven seconds of watching the video.

You have seven seconds to make an impression

Tufts psychologist Nalini Ambady calls this “thin-slicing.” In her research, she found that students are very good at predicting a teacher’s effectiveness based on first impressions. Ambady took video recordings of 13 graduate teaching fellows as they taught their classes, and then showed silent 10-second clips, called “thin slices,” to students who didn’t know the teachers. The students were asked to rate the teachers on variables like “competent” and “confident,” and these ratings were combined into individual scores for each teacher.

She then compared that rating to the teachers’ end-of-semester evaluations from actual students and found that the initial ratings correlated highly with the teachers’ end-of-semester evaluations. Her findings were the same each time she recreated the study.

The folks at the Science of People were able to replicate Ambady’s findings with TED talk videos. To do this, they had one group of participants watch a clip of only the first seven seconds of a TED talk and then asked them to rate the speaker on charisma, intelligence, and credibility. They had another group of participants watch the entire TED talk and then rate the speaker on the same variables. The ratings for both groups matched.

The takeaway here?

Think about how you present yourself, how you walk onto the stage, and how you address your audience. Be sure to deliver an intriguing opening line — perhaps with a thought-provoking question, a short story, or a joke.

There’s no denying what you’re wearing makes an impression on your audience as well. In another analysis of 50 TED talks, Van Edwards and her team found that speakers wearing clothing marked as “casual” typically had lower popularity ratings than people wearing clothing that was “business” or “business casual.” Interestingly, speakers wearing darker colors got higher ratings than those in lighter colors. So you may want to think twice before donning that bright green sweater.

The next time you prepare to speak in front of an audience, think about the findings in this study and how you can adapt your stage presence and demeanor to make a better, more memorable impression on your audience.

Tips for Public Speaking: How You Can Become Awesome at Presentations

Chris Anderson, the Ted founder said: When I think about compelling presentations, I think about taking an audience on a journey. A successful talk is a little miracle — people see the world differently afterward. Being awesome at public speaking can be one of the most fear-inducing parts of modern life. However, it also can be one of the most rewarding tasks you can do. Talking in front of an audience is

nothing to fear, so long as you are prepared with these tips for public speaking. This article will give you everything you need to plan, prepare, and deliver an awesome public speech.

Check out our thoughts on team leverage.

Be a master at grabbing and keeping his audience’s attention, which is the number one goal of any public speaker. And also any compelling speech. Take them on a journey by way of an interesting story or maybe several.

How do you do it, you say? Pay attention to these 10 key lessons from a rhetorical playbook. Follow them diligently and practice, practice, practice.

Let’s get started:

Tips for public speaking … speech title is critical

Match your topic to your objectives and audience interests. This will help capture the audience’s attention, raise expectations, and give you a specific focus. All are critical to your success.

And to achieve your goal, you must know your audience and do your research homework. Let what you learn the show in your speech.

Public speaking techniques … simplicity

You can keep it simple, even if you have mountains of research to report.

First, fine-tune your core message. Chisel away at your topic until you can reduce your presentation to a core message. Once you achieve this, all your ideas can march behind it.

This is as true for business presentations as it is for political campaigns. Consider Obama’s campaign speeches. He used his simple slogan to make us believe he was the politician for change — something so many Americans longed for — and he appealed to us to have faith (to believe) in the change he was offering us. He won people through a simple slogan, which then allowed him to more easily serve up his ideas about meaty topics.

Topic priorities

Be aware of the great line by Goethe, “Every word that is uttered evokes the idea of its opposite.” What this means is that when you express one view, the odds are high that people will reflexively think about other, unmentioned aspects of the topic.

A presentation that does not deal with this “evoking of opposites” loses the audience’s attention because it fails to address the questions and concerns that come up in people’s minds. So anticipate them. Show your audience that you understand the contrary view better than they do, and explain why your proposal or argument is still superior.

Make sure your points include things that are not obvious or known. Offer your unique opinions. Weave in proof points and examples. Then you can use the stories to help illustrate your points.

Public speaking tips and tricks … use down to earth speech

Chisel away at your speech wording until you can reduce your presentation to a core message. Once you achieve this, all your ideas can march behind it.

This is as true for business presentations as it is for political campaigns. Consider Obama’s campaign speeches. He used his simple slogan to make us believe he was the politician for change — something so many Americans longed for — and he appealed to us to have faith (to believe) in the change he was offering us.

He won people through a simple slogan, which then allowed him to more easily serve up his ideas about meaty topics.

Getting ready

Know your opening and closing statement COLD. Rehearse well. 3 hours prior to your speech, go for a short walk. Once on stage adapt the alpha pose to lower stress and increase your confidence.

Public speaking … taking the stage

The most important point to remember is to not rush at the start. Overlook the audience, smile, and pick out a few faces to concentrate on. Talk to these few faces and maintain good eye contact.

The delivery

Always use a wireless microform so that you can move around. Vary tone and inflections of your voice. Maintain good eye contact by picking specific people in the audience. Change them around every moment or so.

Master use of pauses

Well-planned pauses will do wonders for your speech. For example, Obama has mastered the art of pausing. He pauses to let us catch up with him. He pauses to let his words resonate. He pauses, in a sense, to let us rest. Pauses also give the impression of composure and thoughtfulness.

Where you pause is up to you; there are no hard and fast rules. Try it. Slowly inhale to the count of three at each breath mark. Speak as though you had plenty of time. The goal of this exercise is to teach your body to slow down.

Public speaking … making an impact

Ask a challenging question on your subject theme for a dramatic opening. Present the topic as a story if you can. Use an occasional short, witty quote. Also, use occasional repetition and pauses for attention on key points.

Memorable ending

As we have said, focus on one theme and eliminate everything else. One relevant message and several great stories to illustrate. Save your most memorable story for your ending. Hopefully, the one that is also most encompassing of your message.

Need some help in capturing more improvements for your staff’s leadership, teamwork, and collaboration?

When things are not what you want them to be, what’s most important is your next step.

Test. Learn. Improve. Repeat.

Are you devoting enough energy continually improving your continuous learning?

Do you have a lesson about making your learning better you can share with this community? Have any questions or comments to add in the section below?

Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change. We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way.

The Nine Most Valuable Secrets of Writing Effective Copy

How Good Is your Learning from Failure?

10 Extraordinary Ways for Learning to Learn

Continuous Learning Holds the Keys to Your Future Success

How to Improve Your Public Speaking

We’re a bunch of goal junkies at Digital Spark Marketing but we’re realists in that we can only focus on so many goals. For 2022, we’d like to challenge our clients, readers, and friends on becoming the best public speaking presenters they can be. Instead of creating a long list of resolutions for 2022, we narrowed our focus to just four.

Here are the four public speaking goals we recommend every presenter should make:

Rehearse a minimum of 3 times before you deliver your presentation:

When rehearsing your presentation, rehearse in front of an audience or in front of a camera to watch yourself.

Criteria to judge yourself on include:

Body Language – Are you doing anything that is distracting to the audience? Are you able to keep your legs positioned shoulder-width, arms open, and hands moving with a smile?
Purpose– If you were in the audience’s shoes, is it easy to watch yourself and understand what you are asking for?
Jargon – Are you using words or acronyms that can be confusing to the audience?
Pace– Are you speaking too fast where it’s hard to understand? Can you pause at certain points to help emphasize points?
Flow– Do you tend to ramble and go on a tangent in certain parts of your presentation?
Reliability: Can you present this presentation without a presentation? If AV ever crashes on you, will you be ready?

Simplify your points and data:

It’s very important to deliver stats that are relatable to the audience. The example we love to use is when Steve Jobs stated, “The Apple iPod has 10GB and that’s 2,000 songs.” This is a basic example of how data should be delivered. Presenters should consider their audience’s needs, and deliver the stats in a way the average person can apply the information. This will help the audience consume the data points in a more impactful way.
Showcasing a compare and contrast stat such as, “In 2015, the top performing trailers from each nominee have collectively been watched over 200 million minutes on YouTube —that’s over 3.3 million hours, or the equivalent of nearly a million Oscar telecasts.”
Or a decreasing value size vs. an increasing value size such as “This will cost 4 trillion dollars to execute, or 11 billion dollars a day.” This provides association points to showcase the scope of the number.
Bonus takeaway:When a presentation requires you to showcase a lot of data on slides, organize your slides to ONE graph to be the main focus per slide. You can either break down the chart-heavy graphs into multiple slides or feature a transition that can unveil graphs as you talk about it through clicks.

Create powerful calls to action:

Segment your points into a structure an audience can follow along with while also including a call to action that can move the audience. Without a call to action, there is no strong action the audience feels that they need to take. There are three different types of calls to action that include: the ask, question, or demand.

Always, always create a Big Idea for a presentation:

Before even considering design or delivery rehearsal, always establish a big idea for your presentation. A big idea is the central argument or theme of your entire presentation. It should be something that others really care about. Encourage your team to be able to state their big idea in concrete, but simplistic terms. You can read more about building big ideas for presentations here.

In order to create great presentations, it obviously takes practice. You know that. However, organize the above points into a process that you can easily adapt into habits. For example, why don’t you create a checklist you always follow before you give a presentation?

The bottom line

My presentation is ready to be delivered when:

I can deliver my presentation without the slideshow
I have rehearsed a minimum of three times
I can simplify any data point in the presentation that may be confusing into something simple and relatable to the audience
I know exactly what I am looking for my audience to do through my call to action
I know exactly in one sentence the main argument I’d like my audience to remember about my presentation.

While it doesn’t have to look exactly like the above checklist, having a great mental note or print out near your desk right before your next presentation can make a world of difference.