PUBLIC SPEAKING CREATIVE PROCESS
The photograph above shows Taro a teacher from the audience as she leads the entire room and me in an impromptu dance with absolute class and joy, but like any good surprising human moment, the space and the journey to create the conditions require crafting, so lets look at the journey!
Learn about the audience
First, months ago I had a call with the client and asked them about their conference to understand the audience and context.
Collect your ingredients
For two weeks before I travel for the talk I begin assembling 3 different types of ingredients. The first is writing, whenever I feel inspiration, just scribbling without critique..
The second ingredient is talking to people I respect on the topic and asking them “what would you think was important to say if you had this opportunity?’
The third ingredient to go in the mix is compiling previous thought work and content I have created that might relate.
Find a title
Once I have all my ingredients assembled I begin to ask, what ingredients do we have? and what title can I commit to with these ingredients? In this case the working title was ‘Learning to be Human.’
Getting there in good time
A good delivery always requires focus and calm so I like to get to places as early as possible, the further away and more unknown the earlier I arrive. In this case the talk was Saturday 6pm and I began travelling at 10am Thursday. On the plane I began try to organise the ‘ingredients’ into an order of some kind!
Work on the shape
I attempt to get a shape and arc for the 1 hour session and begin to think about how to shape the content so I don’t exhaust or lose the audience. When to act and tell stories, when to speak from the heart, when to educate the mind, when to provide light relief with video, audio and comedy, and when to create interaction with the audience, when to build trust through sharing my story and when to talk about them.
Assemble Slides
From this list I begin to assemble slides that I think will relate to the important points, finding pictures, photos and video from my recent archive where helpful. My rule is to mainly use photos and very few words on each slide.
Bullet point talking points
In order to make a flowing talk I aim for one slide per point and one point per minute 1x1x1. This keeps order and momentum to the story. So now I find the slides I begin to map my previous bullet points to numbered points and slides.
If any points are missing slides we either find a slide or remove the point.
Phone a friend!
Once this is complete I phone 2/3 people I know and run through in 10 minutes the summary of the points using only the numbered list. This is to see whether after this process there is a natural order to the story or if it is ‘losing people’.
Visit the space alone
Once I am happy with the flow I make a visit to the stage to asses technical setup, meet technician for sound and visual, discuss microphone, sound, auditorium, temperature and smell! I dance around on stage to begin my relationship with the space and get comfortable in my playground standing and looking from all sides so that I am completely at peace with the space.
Review Slides
With this full knowledge I go back to the slides, make and final tweaks to add any local knowledge and amendments to increase cohesion then send to technician.
Go to sleep
Once the talk is locked (and it must be, the day before) it is now time to relax, rest, rejuvenate, get an early night and end the ‘preparation zone’ — I never engage with any complex messages or external work, nothing at this point that would take my energy or reduce my clarity.
Performance day
I now leave all the ‘work’ in the past and wake up as the performer. I accept that whatever it will be will be and all that is left is to enjoy, be present and to try and connect.
Phone two more friends
I will probably give a couple friends a call to run it through with them, not looking for big feedback here, that boat has sailed, just experience and tiny encouraging pointers.
Listening to other speakers
I tend not to listen to many talks before me as I don’t want to learn anything new or feel influencer by others approaches, I want to come on and share what I said I would bring and do it justice.
Managing Energy
The key to performance day is to make sure that you peak your energy and arousal at the right level at the right time. Too much coffee and I can get the shakes, too much water and I might need the loo, but not enough food and I might lose energy.
On Stage
The stage is my playground, I breathe and take my time , I owe it to the event organiser, to my team, to my community to give it everything. I make sure I connect with individuals one at a time as it keeps it human! I accept I will screw up, I will forget my words and I will cringe at some bad habits, that is the only thing that is guaranteed.
Feedback
The next day (today) I look back on twitter and email and youtube if they are quick with the video to see what I can learn. Consider what does this talk now mean I can do / who else would like to hear this story either online or LIVE!
Get back on the horse
Once I have fed back and said thank you for the organiser having me at their event I go back to work! get on doing what I do, go and make some new stories to tell and come back and tell them when I next get the kind offer!
