Live Keynote Presentation Advice

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Chris Do
Published
October 17, 2017

Chris Do talks about his experience and advises on doing live keynote presentations.

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Like, you always just killit at presentations, Chrisand I wanted to knowwhat your format was.Do you follow somethingor do you just kindof have it all in your head?Awesome OK are you talkingabout live presentationsas a keynote talk in frontof real human beings?Yeah, OK.This I love this.I love.OK, so I'm goingto share with you.And if you have any questions,feel free to fire back.OK, now I think inthe very beginning,I would say in thefirst two years,doing presentationswas a terror for me.I would lose sleep over it.I would sit there and rewritemy tech as I was sleeping.So it was a lot ofrestless nights.And then when it came to theday of depending on where I wasand a speaking slot,my heart would flutter.I mean, it wouldbeat out of my chest.I would start to swallow alot of air and start burping,and I was thinking,what is wrong with me?Like, calm your nerves.And I tried everytrick from the powerposing from Amy Cuddyvocal exercises,just doing everythingI can to tryto be not as nervous as I was.And what I found outis that it's a processand you have to just keeppracticing and just knowthat if you don't die, which youwon't, then you will get betterand you could justkeep working on it.And I have a few tricksthat I like to use,and most definitely,I come prepared now.I always laugh andtease Ben and Matthew,who work for weekson one talk whenI have to give seventalks in one week.So there's a bigdifference there,and usually what it is, is Ineed a little bit of pressureto help me grind one out.I don't know why itdrives my wife crazy.My kids are confused by it.Why do you wait in thelast possible minute?And I just havethis way of working,and it seems to have worked sofar, even though afterwards, Ialways think nexttime I'm not goingto wait till the last minutebecause it would have been goodif this were donetwo days prior.Had I practice andlooked at it some more,I would have refinedand change some things.But what I do?Works for me.And I'll tell you how insane.I am.Usually I'm flyingsomewhere to give a talk.And at that point, thetalk is usually not done,and I'm reading thebook on the subjectas I'm flying and makingnotes like a madman.I did that recently fora San Francisco trip.I read a book and a half priorto sitting down and finalizingthe deck.So of course, there's alot of information going onin my head.So one of the things thatI do and I've mentionedis to you guys before I readnot with intent to learn.I read with intent to teach.And it forces meto read materialsvery differently thanperhaps how I used to read.So when I'm reading a book, Ihighlight just the key words.I generally just skip all theadjectives and the pronouns.I just get right into.Like, what does this mean?The fewest number of words?Because if you highlightthe whole page, whichI've seen a lot of peopledo, what's the point?That's not reallya summary, and I'mtrying to leavemental breadcrumbswhile I'm reading so thatthose things stick out to me.You guys have seen this whenpeople post on social media,on Twitter, on Instagram orwherever else on Facebook.They'll show apassage from a bookand they'll have highlightedan entire paragraph and a half.That's cool to do, Iguess, if that helps you.But it doesn't help me.So you need to first readwith the intent to teach.It'll force you to pay attentionlike you haven't paid before.The other thing I dois I usually carrytwo things with mewhen I'm readinga highlighter, an orangehighlighter and a pen.I write in the margins.I circle words.I make diagrams.I make notes about likewhy this is importantor other anecdotesthat relate to my lifeso that when I go outand teach this material,I don't have to kind ofreread the entire book.And that's a shorthand in termsof how I read and how I learnand how I canregurgitate information.The next thing thatI do is like whenI'm sitting in frontof my desk and I'mgoing to share a deck with youahead of the Adobe live streamthat we're doing.I guess that's tomorrow.Yeah so I just worked on thatlast night until about 2:30.So let me pull that up.I'm going to sharethat with you.OK so I'm going tostop sharing this.Was I sharing this at all?No what am I doing here?OK, I'll pull up that deck.So I'm a little frazzled here.Like somethingyou just said, yousaid you make try to make italmost relatable to your life.So are you thinking aboutthat each time you read?How can I?How can I tell a storyabout what happenedand how this is relatableto the audience?Mm-hmm OK that's anexcellent question.So I'm reading withintent to teach,so I don't want to justtake something wholesaleand regurgitateit because I knowI can't do it as good ofa job as the person whowrote the material, obviously,because I didn't write it.So I'm trying tosynthesize, synthesize itwith other conceptsI've learned.So, for example, if Iread something in a bookby Brian Tracy and I makea connection between thatand say something that BlairEnsor said or Simon sinek,I try and triangulateall those things.And I guess the more you read,at least for me, the more Irealize there's onlya handful of ideas,especially in thebusiness aspect of thingsor in sales ornegotiations, whichis different waysof describing them.So some I likebetter than others.And I've mentionedthis to you guysbefore I tried to be awarehouse for storiesbecause stories are whathelp people to learnand they come in really handywhen you're talking to clients.I spoke to a client recently.And she wants us to go in todo corporate training for her,and I said thatI think there maybe a problem with the way yoursalespeople are onboardingclients in a way that you'recreatives might feel betrayedby them.They may not have vocalizedit like this, but as we know,salespeople tend to saythings to close the sale.That's what they're judged on,so they will give away more,make more concessions.And then who's left to cleanthat stuff up your designers?And so you're going to createa culture where there feelslike there's two entitieswithin the same company,and we're not all workingtowards our mutual bestinterests.So the analogy Imade with her is thisis if you teachyour salespeople whowork with a lot ofwriters and creative typesabout why in films, thereare very few directorscuts that are actually any good.And the reason being is, you'retoo close to the material.As a director, if I reallyworked on the scene,if I knew how expensive it was.I might tend to keepthat seam in thereor keep it longerthan it needs to be.I enter into the exhibit PeterJackson's the Lord of the Ringswhen he has complete control.The films got out of control.And you watch that.I don't know if it'sa trilogy, but if youwatch the end of theseries, people oftencritique that lastfilm as havingseven different endingsin the same film,and it just dragged on and on.So you know that the studiosystem really is built around.Yes, you're the creator,you're a genius.But the system works.If you give usyour film, we knowhow to show to anaudience as a screener.And then we know how to editbased on their feedback,and we can make somethingthat's the best possible filmfor everybody to enjoy.So if you use thatanalogy with your writersand your salespeople, maybethey have a better chanceof onboardingclients in a way thatallows them to bepositioned as an authority,not just as a person who'sgoing to help you facilitatea book making process.So stories help us learn a lot.Now, I could havejust said that youneed to tell them x, y and zAnd then enter these reasons.But if you give thema story, it helps.So as I'm reading a bookthat has no stories,I try to add littlestories to it.It doesn't have to be my own.I just want to addstories to it because ithelps me to remember it.But I know that if Ihave to teach this,that story is goingto come in handy.There are other books that arefull of stories that don't havehigh level take away points.Those fantastic twoand I read thoseand I try to memorizethose things, right?There's a book calledOne plus 1 equals 3.That's a book full of stories.Not a lot of highlevel bullet point,this is what you need to learnfrom it, but by reading it,I guess it becomes self-evident.So it's a collectionof stories on one sideand a collection of highlevel ideas and perhapssome actionable things that youneed to do from your own lifeexperience.Those three things puttogether and make a trifectafor learning.So that's why I make thosenotes to help me remember.But I know just fromteaching and sharingso much that the storieshelp people remember.OK instead, you said one thingyou said, actually two things.Hi level ideas like actionablestep by step things,if you can include it,like do this tonight,five steps, three steps,one thing you need to do.OK, thank you.All right.Yeah, you're welcome.Now there's anothervery powerful device.It's what people whostudy rhetoric understandis to ask a rhetorical question,a question that you haveto think about, butyou don't actuallyrespond to becauseyou can't obviouslyhave everybody in thetheater respond to you.And I like to start mosttalks with a big question.For example, whyare some designersworth more than others?And it makes you think.And I want to makesure I sprinkle thosein throughout the presentationto keep people awakeand paying attention.I've gone to a presentation,had design thinkers in,I guess it was Torontoand in Toronto therewas a speaker with his name.His name is MichaelJohnson, and Michael Johnsonsays he thinks thatpeople fall asleep.Right around 18minutes of a talk.So when you're giving a40 minute presentation,they're going to betwice knocked out.And he thinks that thereason why it's 18 minutesis because Ted Talks.The maximum is 18minutes, so theymust have figured out that yourbrain can only pay attentionfor so long.So you have to putin interruptions,commercial breaks,teaser trailers, whateverit is that you need to do towake your audience up again,especially if your presentationstyle is really flat.So think about that.So every 18 minutes orso in your presentation,you should ask a bigrhetorical questionor give people an exerciseto do to break it up.They'll come alive.So that's aboutpresentation design.I also thought I wasgoing to say every fiveslides, every five slidesor every 10 minutes, guys,five slides is a good.Like thing, if you havefive pieces of information.Next slides, a beauty slide,five pieces of information.Next slide is a beauty slidethat will break up your time.Speaking of beauty,I love the hair, man.Haven't seen you in awhile and you come backlike all hot, pinkand blonde, and I knowI was like a giant popsicle.It's really fun.I love it.You look like a characterfrom Stephen's universe.My son would be very happyto see you right now.Excellent onward.Thanks, Ashley.OK you decide whatgoes on your slide.Is this a quote?Is this some sort ofinteresting thing?It's like, you knowhow so for me, I alwaystake the beautyslides as a chanceto just completely pull awayfrom the information, right?So it's a chance to use a quote.It's a chance to animatethe shit out of that slide.It's a chance to use,like really good Photoshoptechniques.It's just that slide you can.The story is different, right?So you're askingthem a question,you're hooking themin, you're gettingthem to wake up and thinkabout something, right?So if you're doingwomen's health,this is your chance to ask them,how many people do currentlyhave STIs or somethinglike something justto be like, Oh shit, what?Right? that that's whatthe beauty slide is.It just different.It's not loadedwith information.It is simple and it isbeautiful and gets them.Exactly It's like a beautifulpink sorbet for a presentation.OK, thank you.I'll give you anothertip here on this.I'm not terriblygood with comedy.And one thing that almostalways work is a meme.Just find something ugly andhorrendous on the internet.That's got a funny pop culturemoment with a funny loopand just put it in there.It works automatically,it doesn't evenmatter if you're funny,you just put one in.Yeah, it does.It really does.I did an entirepresentation for eBay.Every slide was a meme.It works.But research your memes,make sure that they are nota bad meme.OK, I'm card number 71.The art of the good meme.I'm just kidding.I have no ideawhat that is, but Iknow that I put a pictureof Ryan Gosling onand I put my own titlein there because I justhate that auto generated memetype with a heavy outlineand the fake drop shadow.So I downloaded ahigh Res wallpaper,and then I put myown graphic on topjust because I'ma control freak.And as soon as I putit up, everybody justbusted out laughing.Now there is anotherstyle of teachingthat I do that I do notrecommend for all of you guys.I only recommend it for peoplewho have actual teachingexperience for many years.What I like to do isto leave the safetynet of the deck and mytalk and go and interactwith the audience and ask themquestions and sort of makefun of them.It's lighthearted,making fun of them,kind of like themost tame versionof what a comedian might do.I might ask somebodylike, so what'syour what's your relationship?And just bring that intothe conversation, if I can.I remember, I thinkif you guys watch itin the talk I gave in Toronto,I asked if anybody therewas a consultant.And somebody raised their hand,so then I was like, wow, OK,so they're doing well inlife right now, you guys.I try to integratepeople into itbecause it puts people on thespot and it makes you wake up.I noticed thatworks when I teachbecause if somebody isfalling asleep in the corner,that's a good person to call.And that's very uncomfortablefor a lot of people.But I it's like sport for me.OK, so I'm going toshow you guys the deckand I worked on this last night.Now there's aprocess here, and Ithink I'm showingyou guys this before,but since we're on this topic.All right, right.I don't know if youguys can see that,but I write and I writelike lots of little ideas.I keep it loose.That's one way that I do it.And there's a pad here of likelittle notes that I'll write.So if I have an idea,I just jot it downand then I just rearrangethe pieces of paper.And that way, Ifeel like I'm notconcerned about thebeauty or the precisionof the information.It's more that I need toget the information downin some form andmost often, most.Oftentimes very little ofthis makes it to the deck.But this is thepalette of ingredients,it's my kitchenpantry, if you will.I don't need to useall the ingredients,but the ingredients are hereand it makes me feel really safeand I don't start tohave a panic attack.Now I notice when I try to dothe same thing using keynote,I get obsessed withthe layout, the sizeand just like all thatgraphics, not right.And then I get distracted.So then I'm only workingwith a few ingredientsversus everything I want to say.So it's a process of makingit, refining it, destroying it,making and refining it.I think StevenSpielberg said this,that a film is madethree times, and Ithink there's some parallelsto making a presentation.A film was made the firsttime when you write it.The film was madethe second timewhen you go to shoot it becauseyou have to interpret the wordsand there's a lot ofcreativity and interpretationand changes that go onbetween the written wordand what you windup shooting and youare going to overshoot it.You're going to coverfrom different angles,you're going to doalternative takes,you're going to shootthings out of sequence.The third time the film wasmade is when you edit it.So you take you give itto a very capable editorand they go throughall this materialand they think thislook from this takeworks better in this spot.And there's tons that youshot because you probablyshot hours of footage and wecan only make a 90 minute film.They're going to throwaway a lot of your footage,and they might even ask thatissued new footage, hencethe pickup shoot.That's what happensthere, so whenyou're talking about writingor creating a presentation,I guess for me, this ismy version of the script.Sometimes I willactually get into text,edit and actually writeeverything I want to say downand then pull parts from thatand start to make my slides.But in that process?A lot gets changed, modifiedand then I'm looking for flow.Does this deck flow fromone point to the next?Then, of course, when yougive the presentation,it takes on its own life.Now I will caution you onthis that if you includetoo many words on thescreen, if you includetoo many notes inthe comment section,you will feelcompelled to read it.It's human.Nature is very hardto resist that.My advice to you is to useyour presentation as props.If the content atthis point, if you'vebeen able to readthrough what you'vewritten a couple of times.Get rid of thenotes now, sometimesthat's a luxury becauseI'm doing presentationspretty fast and furious andI'm managing lots of things.But if you have one importantpresentation to give,then you can focus in.You can rehearse andread it and get ready,and the slides are just prompts.That's it.There are just toremind you whereyou need to be in the story.OK all right, now, I'm goingto share with you this deck.I am not wearingblush, it's justI think it's the majorold boxer, it's colorcorrecting me different.OK, so I'm going to goto light table mode, ok?And I love seeing apresentation from this level.Now this is for.A three part livestream with Adobe,and I'm just going toquickly scroll through thisand I'll break it downfor you what I'm thinkingand how I do this.OK, so of course, I haveso many slides and so manyillustrations I'vealready created,and sometimes I wind up creatinga multiple times because I'mnot as organized as I should be.But as you can see, thisis kind of the layoutthat I go through.Now I know that this isgoing to be about an hour'sworth of content.My tendency is to jam packwith too much information.So in the editing process,I'm deleting a lot of slides.OK so let me go backto Navigator viewand show you how it worksnow, in the beginning,I just have this slide.And strategically, I want totry to customize the titleslide for wherever I'mgoing, so if it's in Toronto,I'll put a Canadian maple leafhere or if it's some in Milan,I might put apicture of where I'mgoing to be in the background.That is a Guy Kawasakitrick now that we allhave digital phonesthat can quicklygrab high quality images.He says he likes to tailorevery presentation in some formto where he's goingto be speaking.So sometimes he'llvisit a venue daysbefore somethingfunny might happen.That encapsulates somethingthat's a good icebreaker.It shows that you're payingattention to your audience.He'll take a picture andthen tell a story about it,and then he'll go from there.So if you guys want to lookat how Guy Kawasaki presents,he's a really good presenter.That's one of thetricks that he'll do.So I try to do alittle something,especially if it'sa really cool place.So when I was travelingthrough Europe,I had a slide eitherthat I took or Ifound on Unsplashthat was tailoredfor that particular cityand I might make a joke.So here's the example of a joke.This was for Dublin.There was a shortage of bread,milk and of all things, mints.There was an ice stormthat went through Dublinand there was some kindof alert that went out.So everybody rushedout to the supermarketand bought bread, milk and mint.So, of course, I open up thewhole thing, it's like, OK,I think we're OK.The storm is over.Thankfully, you guys gotyour bread, your milkand your breath is fresh, sowe know that we're all good.Those are the importantthings in life.Now we can do the presentation.So if you can integrate somelittle tidbit of informationin there, I would do that.Another trick that Ilike to do, especiallybecause I talk aboutthe business of design,is I like to warmup with the crowd.And if you have that luxury,I would definitely do it.I'll ask them somethinglike, how much doesan average designerhere make annually?And they'll give methe amount of money,and I try to find outas much as possible.So when I'm doing the talk,I reference those pointsover and over again.Comedians do this whenthey design different setsfor their stand up routine.They have a coupleof running jokesthat they weave in andout over and over again.Some of the best ones.This is what they do.The set is composed of bits,I think that's how that works,and then they reference thesethemes over and over again.Anyway, that's myopening slide, and Iwill force myself to createa little bit of an agendaor what the learningoutcomes are going to be.So for this one, forAdobe, I'll have an hour.I'm going to quicklygo into design briefand I'm talking about process.To teach them howto do a style escapeand then to quicklysketch something.This is just for day one.So I know this isgoing to anchor my talkand help me to organize becausethe tendency is to overdo this,at least for me.And if I'm nottoo lazy, what youwant to do is helpto direct the eye,there's a generalrule that you'resupposed to only put one pieceof information per slide,and it's better tohave more slidesthan overly complicated slides.So one way to get around thisis to use color and contrastto help guide your eye.So here I like toshow them that I'mgoing to talk about fourthings, and I can justuse this one slide.And say, I'm going to dothis, this, this and that.But we're really going to focusfirst on the design brief, ok?And then, you know,I just set it up.Here are some images.This is what I'm talking about.And here's whatever blah blah,and this is the objective.So we're going to get into this.Why is I let it?Deal with that later.OK mm-hmm.Mm-hmm And then I rememberit so that the audiencecan follow along.Guy Kawasaki talksabout this quite often.He says that he always does.Top 10 talk.Top 10 why?Because, you know, andyou can track alongas to exactly where you are.If it's good, you know whereyou are and if it's bad,you know how quicklythis is going to be over.So when you're on point numberseven or your seven, besttip your top 10, then you onlyhave to deal with three more.That's how he does it,so I have four thingsthe brief and thenthree parts, so that'swhy there's a giant number one.And my deck, I'm going toshow you the deck here.I use this deck forthe live stream,I use it for the protocol,I don't use it now.For presentations I giveoutside and the deckis pretty straightforward.I realize you onlyneed one blank pageand then I have mylight and my dark.This has all the obligatoryjunk at the bottomand the side to make your slidesa little cooler with type.Not necessarily.Obviously, some peopledon't like to add that.I like to add it becauseit makes the layout looka little bit better.I have a giant tidal slide.I have one where there'sa full size imageand this is all done withplaceholders, a placeholdertext and everything,so it's really easyto do my chapter markers.And what I realize is sometimeswith these chapter markers,I want to put an imagebehind everythingand you can't unlesseverything is a placeholder.So this will always be behind.If it's not doneas a placeholder.So all you have to dois highlight that and goto format, advance, defineas placeholder text.I'll never changeit, but this way Ican push things behind it.Ok?bullet point slides aquote slide quote slidewithout the person in caseI don't have the person.And as I continue towork on these things,I clean up my masterdeck, so there'snone of the original slidesand absolutely would probablydo the exact same thing,except for she's probablygoing to go into the codingpart and totally deconstruct it,make her own customcolor paletteand all that kind of stuff.And based on that, I know howto anchor my three main pointsand make sure that it'sbeing communicated clearly.And I think that's all I wantedto share with you guys on that.So if you guys tunein tomorrow at 12 30,you'll see me do thispresentation liveas I'm working on it andediting it with the people.All right, I'm going tostop sharing that question.Go ahead.Yeah, quick question.So are there any kindof techniques or tricksthat you use to aread the audience,especially inaudience, where they'relike basically paying toengage with you on the stage?And second is, if youdo read them, how do youwhat do you do on the spotto kind of pivot or re-engageor do something along thelines to bring them back in?OK.So you have to be preparedto throw away an entire deck.I know that's super scary.But you know, what's worseis if you stick to your deckand you're bombingand nobody caresabout what you'resaying when you'retelling a joke and anotherjoke and nobody's laughingand you can just lookinto the audience.And you can see thatpeople are nodding off.They're looking at their phones.They're obviously not tweetingabout your amazing presentationand you can just tell.Now, that's super scary ifyou never talked before,and the idea ofpublic speaking makesyou want to drop aload in your pants.But that's something that I'malmost always I prefer to do.I prefer to not have to come inwith any agenda or any slidesand just speak freelythe entire time.However organizersdon't want me to dothat because they're nervousbecause they don't know.They think I'm not prepared.So I have to make a deck.So I make a deckand I do the deck.And sometimes I actuallystand in front of the audienceand I'll ask them,I've got a deck,it's got 264 slides in it, orI can just sit here and justtalk to you, whichdo you prefer?And then some of themwill say, just talk,let's tell, tell a story.I said, great.Let's start withthe first story.Here's what I thinkyou need to know,and then we'll openit up from there.And then there's no deck atepicurus, I did somethingand I will pull up thatslide for you guys as well.Let me find it, Chris.I think you have a duplicateno slide 48 49 or is it?Yes no, no, I do.I have plenty becausethey're all placeholdersbecause I'm still working on it.Were you payingattention to my deck?Yes, I was.No, don't analyze it, I toldyou it's a work in progress.And there's a goodchance a lot of itwill change between nowand tomorrow morning.All right.That's what I do.I just I just createsome kind of framework.So that when I geton a plane, I'mnot filled with anxiety that I'mcompletely 100% not prepared.OK, so I'm going to sharethis other deck with you guys.OK, so the firstthing I'm going to dois show you it via light tablemode, so you guys can see.So there's a lotof imagery in herethat you can see is tailored.Let me make this asbig as I can make it.This is for app occurrence,which happened in Yosemite.So I'm looking formaps and thingsthat remind me of the outdoors.I try to contrast the factthat I'm from Los Angeles.And to remind everybody to bepresent to where they're at.That's why there's that slide.We are here.Like, how freaking cool is that?And then I ask andkeep an open mindas we're looking up at a bunchof like, really amazing trees.I think the redwoods?I don't know.And then I gave them someadvice and some ideas, right?And I tell some storiesabout this movie.So I love films and I lovehow certain scenes aregreat at communicating an idea.So here's somethingthat I've discovered.People love stories,and it doesn't evenmatter if the stories aretrue or not, like theycan be pure works of fiction.As long as thelesson is very clear.So don't get caughtup in the factthat the story may nothave happened exactlylike that in your real life.The more importantthing is to tella story that engages peoplethat have them leaningon the edge of theirseats and deliversa very powerful message.Do I think this is OK now?Some people mightget mad at me here,but first of all, parables,fables, mythology, they'reall fake.They're all designed toteach lessons of morality,I think, or ethics.And in a way, the biggeststorybook of a mallis the Bible.Now, whether you'rereligious or not,some people would arguethat the Bible's not true.It's not a factualrecording, it'sjust a collection ofstories or the Koranor the old testament, whatever.So the stories don'tnecessarily be true.And here we are,2000 years later,still clinging on to themas if they were fact.OK, so get over that.And the reason why I say thatis because my wife sometimeswill go to these talksand afterwards she'lllaugh at the story she'll beleaning in and she'll say,that's not really what happened.And she smiles, Isaid, I don't care.That's not a concern to me.You're you're imprisoned by thewall that you build with facts.And liberated bythe fact that I justwant information or lessonsto be easily digestibleand for the lessonto be super clear,that's what's important to me.So as you can see,this deck is densebecause I've alreadytalked about onemovie within the firstfive minutes up in the air.I'm talking about thesecond movie in section.So there's lots of stuffthat's going on here, right?Oh, shoot, I don't have.Where those slides?That's odd.OK I wanted to show yousomething with slide,so it must be this one.I open up the wrong one, youguys let me stop sharing this.Yeah, the other oneis massive, it'staking a long time to eventhink about opening it.Come on.It helps if it willopen, but it won't open.OK, so one otherquestion, so you'reobviously thinkingabout the lesson.First that you want togive to the audience,so you're looking atwho's going to be there?Yes what lesson, youwant to teach themor that they're goingto be huge with?That's true.Yes and you have to think aboutthis because the organizer.Insists that youtell them what you'regoing to talk aboutbecause they'retrying to write a program andto organize you in the day.So they might start withsomething really bigand then anchor it withsomething really bigat the end.Something in between.And some of thelighter material.So depending on the natureof what you're going to sayand your presentationstyle, they'regoing to try their best toorganize a flow like a sevencourse meal.So they're going to need atitle for your presentation,and they're going toneed a short descriptionabout a paragraph and a half.So there's a strategyon that, too.So you're making acommitment when you agree.I'm going to bespeaking in frontof this audience, the whateverthe Chamber of Commerce.I'm going to be speaking infront of a bunch of students.Aspiring entrepreneurs,they need to sell ticketsand they need to sellyou and your talk,so you have to givethem something.Here's another tip for you guys.I know that it's reallydifficult to speakin front of a largegroup of people I know.I feel that.I tell you what's much worseis when the theater's empty.And you know that thereare 1,000 people thatare supposed to be hereand they were there justbefore your talk,and now there's 150.OK, so how do you preventthis from happening?You have to write yourtitle to your talkas if you're selling the talk.It has to be somewhatattention grabbingand dare I say, click baity.Because they will not show up.You have to write it notas technically like whatyou're talking about.But as a user benefit, what areyou going to get out of this?How to earn your first million.Path to scaling yourcompany, to managing teamsand to explosive growth.There you are.So I'm trying to hit on painpoints and then I go in panicand try and write thedeck to meet that thing.The first order ofbusiness, and thishappens months priorto you even writingthe deck is you have to sell it.I write so many decks thatthis becomes quite a challenge,right?If I were just to startwith why, I'd be like,let's start with why.Makes total sense, it'sbeen totally refined.And if you don't believeme, watch more than onetalk by Simon Sinek.He tells the exact same storyin the exact same order,with the exact samepauses and the same jokes.100% memorized.So if you're doingjust one or two talks,that's a great way to do it.Right, so I hope thatanswered your question.You have to know what you'regoing to present beforehand.So what I do is I get on thecall with event organizersand ask them somevery simple questions.Now only do thisif you genuinelyare going to do somethingtailored for them.Otherwise, just say,I speak about this.If this works for you,I'm going to do itand then they have to decideit's a good fit or nota good fit.So what I like to do isI insist before we committo doing the talk,before I committo flying out thereand scheduling this,I want to talk to you.So I ask them,who's your audience?What do they want?What have been thebest talk so far?What have they done differently?Where did somebody bomb?And what are you lookingfor in this particular topicor this particular theme?And I write allthose things downand then we're havinga conversation,so I'm facilitating themas if there were my clientand then trying to find outabout who their users are.But there's not tomorrow.OK, good.So ask all thesequestions, right?There is no point for me toget on a plane, train or a bus.To show up, give up my day todo something for less moneythan I normally dothings for, onlyto suck in frontof their audienceand give them no value.That would be just a completewaste of everybody's time.So I want to know what'simportant to them.Now I will say this, Ilearned this from Jose.He'll sit down, he'llfacilitate, he'll talk.He'll talk in frontof the audience.He'll ask them lots ofquestions about what they want,but then he goes right backto his desk or his teachingmethods, or it's the same.Like, he's gothis one golden hitand he does it all the time.So then I wonder, like, whydoes he ask these questions?I don't know.So I caveat thatby saying if you'regoing to ask them whattheir audiences want,who's done it really wellbecause I'm very competitive.Then you need tostart to tailor it.Now in my mind, and I don'twant to add any undue pressureto you guys, it's tough.I know what the ticketprices for the conference,the entire conference, not justfor my top, let's say, $200 US.I go in with a mindset that Ineed to deliver $400 of valuein my one talk.So if they got screwedover by everybody else,I'm going to be the oneguy who makes sure theyget that kind of value.And that every presentertook themselvesas seriously as I do, I thinkconferences would be much moreengaging, muchmore entertaining,but unfortunatelythat's not the case,especially design conferences.OK awesome, thank you so much.You're welcome, so I'mgoing to share this dream.I'm going to show youone technique that I door I've used before.That's going to be scaryfor a lot of you guys.So this is the deck we hidepresenter notes that, ok?I like white boarding andworking live with an audience,so if I have some notecards on a marker,I will write downsome things I'm like,so what are you here for?What do you want to get thistalk and I'll write it down.And what will youwrite your name on?Do a little drawing of them.So throughout theentire talk, I'llbe referring backto these people.So, Jane, how do we do here?And by the way, you want to talkto Bob about that other thingthat he's got a problem with.And so people laugh.And if I know I forgot to sayon this particular conversationwe're having rightnow, but I've said thisbefore in presentation design.I read in the Ted book thesingle most powerful wordthat you can say toan audience that getstheir attention is their name.So if you say,Mary Ashley, Tina.Diane, as soon as yousay some of these name,because we're trained like dogsto like, whoa, what's going on?Now, obviously, you can't dothat with a really large group.So the second best wordto use, believe it or not.Is the word.You have you ever stoodin line and wonderedwhat the other person wasdoing in front of you?Have you ever you?That's the secondbest word, so Iuse a combinationof two things one,I'm trying to findpeople's namesbefore I start, if that'spossible, so I'll ask them,what are you here to learn?Tell me anybody.Look around the room.Oh, OK.And they'll tell me.And I'll ask them,so tell me your name.Great and I tell them I'mreally bad with names,that's why I have to ask And Ihave to write this thing down.Give me a second.And then I had these things, andnow I can retrace and rebuildthe conversation.So I'm using a combination oftheir name and the word you.OK, so if I can, Ican whiteboard and dothe giant drawing,and I love that.But if you wantto stay organized,you have to kind of recreatethat sensation this way.This is how I do it.So I write down all thewords, so I say to them,you have the option.We can go with adeck, which I havemany things I can talk about.Or here are some of the mostpopular things that peoplehave questions about.So split in halfis mindset stuff,which some people might feellike it's a little frou frou.Or do you want tools, thetactical step by step stuffand that can showyou those things to.So by putting thisthing up there,it gives them a menu, becauseif they don't know youfrom anybody else, they don'tknow what kind of questionseven asked you,and they might askyou some really dumb questions.So I put this upthere for them to see.So make sense.We've done some of thisstuff before, you guys.OK, I'm going to stop this.All right, any otherquestions about this?I have a question.Yes and so what about when thepresentations get too technicaland and in scenarioswhere you arespending the whole day withthese people, so eight hours?How do you keep youraudience engagedduring workshops like those?OK, so workshops are a littlebit of a different beast.Workshops are best done withasking questions and designingexercises.So you're not going to standthere and talk the whole time.Not even close.So it'd be good if you gave ashort presentation 20 minuteslong and structured the day infour modules 4 to five modules.If that many, you'llfind out quicklythat when you ask the groupto participate in exerciseand then you ask them toreview with each other.And then you'recritiquing, and then you'realso pulling up lessonslearned from that each oneof those modules are breakoutscould be between anywherebetween 30 minutes toan hour because youhave to give them time to thinkand work through the problem.And then you have to havetime to review as small groupsand to review as a largegroup and then to summarize.OK, so when you'redoing workshops,it's about designing thequestions and the exercises.All right.I'll give you an example.Some of you guys may haveseen this, this talk.It's called the clientis not your enemy,and it's a gamethat I use to teach.And every time I play thisgame, I pull away new lessons.And so I think the game and theexercise is quite refined now.It will take anywherebetween 10 to 15 minutes timein your workshop.OK that's David.Thanks thanks, guys.Please all right.The client is and enemy.Not the client isnot your enemy.I play a game.It's called 21 questions.It's fairly popular game.You guys understandthe rules, right?Yes or no questions.I think of somebody and thenyou try to guess who it is.And so now the entireaudience is really engagedand some of them arenot just engaged,but they're enraged becausepeople are asking themquestions too abstract.They're not listeningbecause theyask the same questionsbeen asked already,or their logic doesn't make anysense because I say it's femaleand they ask, is it Bob hope?And it's what areyou guys thinking?So they get reallymad each other.I love it.I what?I love watching themkind of Judge each other.And I get to play referee.So at the end of it,I say, who is this?And then they have no idea.And then I guess again, right?And then I show them, didyou guys have a strategy?Did you have a sense of who thismight be before you started?And so I showed them to thegraph and we talk about it.I talk about howdifficult it is to workwith teams that you can'ttalk to or strategizewith beforehand.And as a matter, if there's200 people in the roomor 15 people in the room,there's still a problem.So we need to appointsomebody to take notes,somebody to lead the team.You're most vocal person to helpto distill the questions downto know that this is thebest, most clearest way to askthis question.Right and then whatwe also realize,and I can ask this question is.Which is more valuable.Questions or answers?That can lead us to a wholeother set of discussion.So when you get intocurriculum design and.Teaching teachers.You learn that there's thecourse material, the lecturepart of it.And then there are the questionsthat you have to designand the exercises thatyou have to design.It helps if you have people toprototype these exercises with,like, where did you get stuck?Let me see you do it.Let me ask me questions soI can fix the parts thatare confusing and not clear.Mm-hmm OK that justgave me a lot of ideas.Excellent.Thank you.All right.Wow this has been afairly meaty topicto talk about on this Monday.It sucked up almost an hour.Do we have any othermore questions about thisbefore I move on?

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