I know, pretty shocking title, isn’t it? Well, I’m feeling passionate, so strap in.
I’m in a pretty exciting place right now. Not literally (currently I’m sitting in Ely Library in the ‘Quiet Area’. Nothing much exciting happens here). I mean figuratively. I’m starting my public speaking training business, and there’s a demand for my service, which has the unusual – and possibly unique – hook of being a stand-up comic’s approach to presenting and public speaking. And the more I train people, the more I consider what it is that I’m bringing to the table, what my philosophy is, and the more I realise it’s even more basic than I originally thought. And it’s this:
Simplify.
Bruce Lee’s martial arts philosphy was to use the sculptor’s mentality of beginning with a lump of clay and hacking away at the ‘unessentials’. This translates perfectly to presentations: remove the fluff, trim the fat, cut the bullsh*t and generally reduce your presentation down to a lean, mean, tight bundle of information that informs and persuades. Nothing more. If in doubt, cut it out.
Forget telling them what you’re going to say, forget anything that’s slow; make it exciting. Imagine your presentation is a music CD with twenty tracks. Your audience has the remote, and they’re very choosy. If, metaphorically, they want to skip to the next track, then that bit of information is redundant. If they want to skip right to the end, then the whole thing was probably a waste of time.
No offence. But to be honest, it’s best that you hear it from me.