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How Bunker Roy Delivered His TED Talk

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Bunker Roy is a social activist whose work has lifted the fortunes of the rural poor throughout India and beyond. In this post, I deconstruct the factors that make his TED Talk both powerful and viral.

 

Tip #1: Share an idea worth spreading

Every great TED Talk is based on a single big idea.  Interestingly, Bunker Roy begins his talk with a different theme than the one that ultimately emerges as his core message.  By sharing his motivation for becoming an activist, the listener briefly thinks that Mr. Roy will try to persuade the audience that serving others is a higher calling than pursuing a comfortable future.  Though that remains a subtext, he quickly shifts into his primary message: ‘To empower rural women with knowledge so that they can improve the living standards in their communities.’

 

Tip #2: Inspire people with your personal story

Bunker Roy’s talk is dominated by his compelling personal story.  Stripped down to its bare bones, here is the narrative structure:

  • Introduction (“Ordinary World”): After graduating from the best schools forty-five years ago, I was set up for a comfortable future. But I got curious what it was like to live and work in villages.
  • Part 1 (“Inciting Incident”): So, I dug wells in rural India for five years and dreamed of starting a “Barefoot College” to empower the poor to share traditional knowledge and skills.
  • Part 2 (“Climax”): Until one day in 1986, we ultimately built the “Barefoot College” to provide education, food, shelter, electricity, and medical care.
  • Part 3 (“New Normal”): And our approach was so effective, that we spread the methods to women across India, Africa, and Afghanistan.
  • Conclusion: (no story elements)

Mr. Roy used a wide variety of supporting examples that demonstrated the ingenuity and impact of empowered villagers of all ages, genders, and ethic backgrounds.  In many instances, he brought these individuals to life with emotional, dialogue-rich vignettes supported by photographs.

 

Tip #3: Build a compelling logical argument

Since Bunker’s talk was almost all story, the listener had the infer much of the logic in his speech.  Here is his logical structure:

  • Introduction: There is more to life than comfort.
  • Part 1: The knowledge of traditional village professionals has incredible value beyond the confines of their communities.
  • Part 2: If you empower villagers with even more knowledge, then they can improve lives in their communities.
  • Part 3:  The best practices of rural villagers are transferable within and between countries.
  • Conclusion: Therefore, the people on the ground have all the solutions they need at their fingertips.

Structurally, this is a classic inductive argument that takes the specifics of Part 1, 2, and 3, and draws the general inference he shares explicitly in the Conclusion.  As with most generalizations drawn from inductive reasoning, there is some room for doubt – namely, that the rural poor may benefit greatly from knowledge and resources beyond their immediate grasp.

 

Tip #4: Use shifts in vocal variety to highlight important points

Though there are others, the primary elements of vocal variety that are easy for speakers to control are volume and pace.  Bunker Roy’s general style of communication is low and slow which has the effect of projecting calm and tranquility.  However, there are moments in Mr. Roy’s speech where he amplifies his words to express more passion.  This is most evident when he delivers the following passage with steadily increasing speed and volume:

And we thought that these people should come into the mainstream and show that the knowledge and skills that they have is universal. It needs to be used, needs to be applied, needs to be shown to the world outside — that these knowledge and skills are relevant even today.

 

Tip #5: Embrace the rule-of-three

Humans are accustomed to accepting information more readily when grouped in threes and Bunker Roy embraced this principle throughout his speech. Some notable uses include:

  • I saw starvation, death, people dying of hunger, for the first time.
  • Who is a professional? A professional is someone who has a combination of competence, confidence and belief. A water diviner is a professional. A traditional midwife is a professional. A traditional bone setter is a professional. These are professionals all over the world. 
  • It [knowledge] needs to be used, needs to be applied, needs to be shown to the world outside.

 

Tip #6: Build in circular references (or call-backs)

Circular references, also known as call-backs, are emotionally satisfying to listeners.  The best practice of most speakers who use this technique is to bring a key piece of information from the introduction into the the conclusion   Though not in his introduction, Bunker Roy references Mahatma Gandhi early in his speech as a model for the design of the Barefoot College in the following passage:

So the college works following the lifestyle and work-style of Mahatma Gandhi. You eat on the floor, you sleep on the floor, you work on the floor.

In his conclusion, Mr. Roy closed the loop by citing the civil rights leader as follows:

I’ll end with a quotation by Mahatma Gandhi. “First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, and then you win.”

This call-back was moderately effective, but would have been more so if it had tied more closely to his central theme of empowerment.  Though not quite perfect, the following Gandhi quote would have been more on point: “A small body of determined spirits fired by an unquenchable faith in their mission can alter the course of history.”

 

Tip #7: Control your nerves

Bunker Roy’s contributions to humanity and his inspiring content make minor technical flaws in his delivery seem rather insignificant.  However, it is useful for other activists, not accustomed to public speaking, to understand the following improvements:

  • Rather than rocking his body by shifting his weight, Mr. Roy should have firmly planted his feet.
  • Rather than keeping his hands behind his back, Mr. Roy should have let his arms fall naturally at his sides when not gesturing.
  • Rather than looking at his notes, Mr. Roy should have relied on the confidence monitor that was on the floor.

 

Tip #8: Use vibrant, emotional, image-rich slides

Most TED Talks are more effective without slides.  The exception is when the images present a first hand account of the story the speaker is sharing.  This was the case for Mr. Roy who shared 36 slides including before and after photos of the Barefoot College site, villages he helped transform, and women who were the subject of his vignettes.  With few exceptions, each slide was a vibrant, full-bleed image devoid of text.  This style provides visual support without taking too much attention away from the speaker.

 

Tip #9: Use a single, contextually relevant prop

Contextually relevant props are a great way to mix things up during a presentation.  Unless absolutely necessary, strive to use a single prop since using many props can get gimmicky.  During his speech, Mr. Roy dons a hand puppet, when sharing how he uses it to solve problems in the villages he advises:

Where the percentage of illiteracy is very high, we use puppetry. Puppets is the way we communicate. You have Jokhim Chacha who is 300 years old. He is my psychoanalyst. He is my teacher. He’s my doctor. He’s my lawyer. He’s my donor. He actually raises money, solves my disputes. He solves my problems in the village. If there’s tension in the village, if attendance at the schools goes down and there’s a friction between the teacher and the parent, the puppet calls the teacher and the parent in front of the whole village and says, “Shake hands. The attendance must not drop.” These puppets are made out of recycled World Bank reports.

Mr. Roy kept this hand puppet on a nearby lectern.  Following best practice, it would have been somewhat more effective had he hidden the prop before and after using it.  Many TED speakers have an assistant deliver and remove a prop.  Alternatively, he could have put the puppet in a small, nondescript box to keep the audience from being mildly distracted by it.

It is also notable that Mr. Roy not only used the hand puppet, but also had slides of the puppet being used in village settings.  I found this to be a novel and clever combination.

 

Final Thoughts

If you have not seen it, please check out Bunker Roy’s TED Talk below.

 

How Ken Robinson Delivered His TED Talk

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With over 20 million views, Sir Ken Robinson holds the record for the most popular TED Talk of all time. In this post, I deconstruct the factors that made his speech so powerful and so viral.

 

Tip 1: Share an idea worth spreading

Ken Robinson’s talk is entitled “Schools Kill Creativity.”  That is a powerful statement of a important problem.  Knowing that something bad is happening might catalyze change; however, it does not tell you what to actually do about it.  A much better way to express an idea worth spreading is with a call to action that combines a “WHAT” and a “WHY”.  With a nod to fellow TED star Simon Sinek, a darn effective way to do this is by using the framework: “To (action) so that (outcome).”

Using this framework, Mr. Robinson’s idea worth spreading is: ‘To educate the whole being of children so that they can build a brighter future.”  There is nothing less at stake here than the future of civilization as we know it.

 

Tip 2: Build to your revelation by raising and then answering audience questions

Rather than state his big idea up front, Ken built up to it progressively. To see that, let’s strip his talk down to its logical essence:

  • Introduction: Creativity in education is as important as literacy.
  • Part 1: And, children are inherently creative.
  • Part 2: However, we are educating children out of their creative capacity to meet the needs of our industrialized society.  Rather than creating a better world, we are simply fueling academic inflation.
  • Part 3: Instead, we should embrace the diversity of human intelligence.
  • Conclusion: Therefore, we must educate the whole being of children so that they can build a brighter future for themselves and for the planet.

Mr. Robinson begins his deductive situation-complication-resolution narrative structure with the first noncontroversial statement he can make about the subject of creativity in education.  Starting with something that any reasonable listener would agree with is a proven best practice in the art of persuasion.  Every statement generates a multitude of potential questions.  The speaker’s job is to address the most pressing question first.  In this case, it is reasonable to assume few listeners need to know why creativity is as important as literacy.  Ken can take that as a given.  The more pressing question is ‘Do we actually need to teach kids the basics of how to be creative?’

In Part 1, Mr. Robinson answer this question with a definitive no.  Children are born a creative beings.  That is the end of the ‘situation’ part of his argument.  However, this  raises the next logical question, “Then what is the problem?”  Part 2 lays out the complication that our current education system fosters left brain logical development and casts aside right brain creative expression.  This raises the new question, “Well, is that necessarily a bad thing?”  Still within Part 2 of his speech, Ken answers by arguing the present system is not making us happier and more productive;  quite the contrary, it is simply leading to academic inflation.

Feeling the intensity of the problem at its peak, the audience is now seeking a resolution. Part 3 of Ken’s speech reveals that our greatest hope lies in embracing the diversity of human intelligence.  Though his case is complete, audiences appreciate when a speaker wraps up his conclusion in a nice little package by explicitly stating it.  That is precisely what Mr. Robinson does with his final words:

 “What TED celebrates is the gift of the human imagination. We have to be careful now that we use this gift wisely and that we avert some of the scenarios that we’ve talked about. And the only way we’ll do it is by seeing our creative capacities for the richness they are and seeing our children for the hope that they are. And our task is to educate their whole being, so they can face this future. By the way — we may not see this future, but they will. And our job is to help them make something of it. “

 

 Tip #3: Support your logical argument with proof points

If the idea worth spreading is the spine of the talk and the logical essence constitutes the ribs, then proof points are the soft tissue that gives beauty to the form.  Proof points come in many forms. The most powerful proof point is a personal story.  However, well told stories about others are a close second. In addition, there are other forms of proof as well including factoids, quotes, and even activities.

Though they are not mutually exclusive, there is some degree of trade off between the persuasiveness of a speech and its entertainment value.  Talks are often most persuasive when built around a single story told in sections.  Sharing self-contained story vignettes in each part of a speech is another reasonably sound approach.  When the quantity and variety of proof points increases, a speech becomes more entertaining and less able to affect change.  Stand-up comedy takes this principle to its extreme.  After a great routine, the audience feels very satisfied and eager to tell others what a great time they had. Entertainment is viral.  However, if you asked them what they learned, then you will get a blank stare.

Ken Robinson choose to pack proof points very densely into his speech.  It took some of the impact of his message away but certainly made his talk more likely to be shared. Here is how he supported his logical arguments with proof points tightly coupled to his core message.

  • Introduction: Reminded the audience of three themes running through the conference including – (a) extraordinary evidence of human creativity; (b) an uncertain future; (c) exceptionally talented children. 
  • Part 1: Shared stories about – (a) six-year-old girl who drew a picture of G-d; (b) his son playing Joseph in a nativity play
  • Part 2: Packaged up a mix of – (a) a quote by Picasso; (b) a story about moving to America; (c) a statistic from UNESCO
  • Part 3: Told a story about Gillian Lynne who developed a successful career as a dancer and choreographer
  • Conclusion: Cited – (a) Al Gore’s climate crisis TED Talk; (b) a quote by Jonas Salk

Keeping the body metaphor going here, Mr. Robinson also added a few decorative tattoos to the flesh including a digression in the introduction on talking about education at a dinner party, two brilliant comic interludes in Part 2 about Shakespeare as a child and about university professors at a discotheque, and personal commentary about how his wife is superior at multitasking.  It is not that these elements were completely irrelevant.  Rather, the issue is that they existed to entertain rather then to inspire.

 

Tip #4: Bring your stories to live with description and dialogue

Ken Robinson is an expert not only at retelling but also at actually reliving stories with his audience.  Doing this is difficult enough with a personal story.  It is harder still with a story about others.  However, true masters are able to do this even for hypothetical stories.  Ken’s comic interlude about Shakespeare is an outstanding example that includes spoken as well as internal character dialogue:

You don’t think of Shakespeare having a father, do you? Do you? Because you don’t think of Shakespeare being a child, do you? Shakespeare being seven? I never thought of it. I mean, he was seven at some point. He was in somebody’s English class, wasn’t he? How annoying would that be?   “Must try harder.” Being sent to bed by his dad, you know, to Shakespeare, “Go to bed, now,” to William Shakespeare, “and put the pencil down. And stop speaking like that. It’s confusing everybody.” 

 

Tip #5: Customize your speech for your audience

As a professional speaker, Ken Robinson had probably delivered most elements of his speech countless times in the past.  However, when you watch the speech it feels custom built for the venue.  He achieved that effect in three important ways.

The first way was by engaging in conversational banter with the audience in a ‘pre-introduction’ to his speech.  Though it is generally better to launch right into your speech, there are times when you need to take a moment to bridge the audience energy level to that in your talk.  In Mr. Robinson’s case, he was the final speaker in the post-lunch time slot and was following a musical act.  He engaged the audience by staring with the following laugh inducer:

Good morning. How are you? It’s been great, hasn’t it? I’ve been blown away by the whole thing. In fact, I’m leaving.

The second way he customized his speech was by giving his audience a contextually relevant summary of the themes running through a conference.  If you have ever been to a TED conference, or any other conference for that matter, there comes a point where you have been inundated with so much information that your head is spinning.  In sharing the three themes he pulled out, themes which related directly to his talk, he performed a valuable service for his listeners.

The final way he customized the speech was with frequent references to material from prior speakers and performers including 11-year-old violinist Sirena Huang, anthropologist Helen Fisher, and climate activist Al Gore.

 

Tip #6: Keep your audience engaged by previewing your roadmap and asking questions

Since he was building to a big conclusion using deductive logic, Ken Robinson never needed to provide an overall road-map for his talk. However, he provided road-maps for several of his individual sections as follows:

  • Introduction: There have been three themes, haven’t there, running through the conference, which are relevant to what I want to talk about.
  •  Part 1: [none]
  • Part 2: So the hierarchy [of our industrialized education system] is rooted on two ideas.
  • Part 3: We know three things about intelligence.
  • Conclusion:  [none]

In addition to providing road-maps, he also kept the audience engaged by asking questions throughout his talk.  Here are just a few of 38 instances:

  • Introduction:  I have an interest in education — actually, what I find is everybody has an interest in education. Don’t you?
  • Part 1: He [the speaker’s son James Robinson] was in the Nativity play. Do you remember the story?
  • Part 2: Are you struck by a new thought? 
  • Part 3: Following off from Helen [Fisher] , I think this is probably why women are better at multi-tasking. Because you are, aren’t you?
  • Conclusion: [none]

 

Tip #7: Boost your laugh count by riffing

As the passage about Shakespeare referenced in Tip #4 shows, Mr. Robinson does not just get a single laugh and move on.  When the audience laughs, he pauses, then expands in ever more exaggerated fashion several more times.  Even though there were several long stretches of serious content, he packed in an impressive 2.6 laughs-per-minute by riffing.

 

Tip #8: Repeat and elaborate on your most important points

Straight repetition is an effective and well known way to underscore a point while speaking.  You can add variety and kick the impact up a notch by paraphrasing.  My favorite illustration of this in Mr. Robinson’s talk is when he states the logical so-what for Part 1 of his speech in three ways:

What these things have in common is that kids will take a chance. If they don’t know, they’ll have a go. Am I right? They’re not frightened of being wrong.

 

Tip #9: Avoid slides

The TED conference has led to a slow but important revolution is the way that slides are used in presentations of every kind.  Bullets are disappearing and are being replaced by captivating imagery.  However, slides are best when they are absent.  Ken Robinson’s speech is just one of many most viewed TED Talks that use no slides at all.

 

Final Thoughts

Ken Robinson’s talk is not perfect.  As highlighted earlier, it is a bit more entertaining that it is inspiring.  It has not, as of yet, led to a massive revolution in education.  Moreover, there were various minor tactical imperfections including his rapid speaking pace, limited vocal variety, and propensity to put his hands in his pockets.  Still, these are simply nits in a powerful speech with an important idea worth spreading.

 

1990 Toastmasters World Champion of Public Speaking David Brooks Shares His Insights

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I interviewed David Brooks on February 8, 2013 and asked him just one question: “What are your best pieces of advice on how to win the Toastmasters’ World Championship of Public Speaking?”

David is a sought-after keynote speaker and public speaking coach.  You can find a wealth of free resources as well as information about his products and services on his website.  Generously, he has provided open access to the transcript of his world championship speech.

 

Tip #1: Scale your presentation for the audience and the moment

“Here in Austin in 1986, I learned from a very talented speaker named David Abel.  He visited our club and at that time I thought, “Wow, is he ever eloquent.” He’s stunning and I wanted to be that good. He planted the seed for my growth as a speaker.”

“Over the course of four or five years, David and I became friends. At one point he said to me, ‘I have written a speech that can win the International speech contest. Now, all I have to do is to find a speech that can get me out of my club.’”

“When you compete at successive levels, you have to grow into each one. In other words you can’t take a club speech to the world championship stage. Similarly, you can’t take an international final-round speech and win at your club.”

“Each level has its unique personality andits unique challenges.  There aredifferences in audiences, differences in room setting, and differences in–and this is very important–the maturity and sophistication and experience of the judges. I don’t say this to be critical but it is a fact that there are many great speakers who don’t win their club contest simply because the judges weren’t experienced enough to fully appreciate what they just heard live. By way of example, Craig Valentine’s winning speech in 1999 was brilliant and unusually difficult.  He spoke incredibly fast, but then he slowed down to repeat key messages.  If he had done it at his club, I wonder if he would have won.”

“Here is another example.  Years ago, I watched a very talented speaker named Michael Holman from another Austin club.  I saw him compete because I went to different Area contests to scope out the competition before I went to the Division contest. His Area contest was held in a very small room. I mean, we’re talking about 50 feet square packed with 30 people.  He gave an incredibly powerful speech. The problem was that he overpowered the room. His delivery was too big for that venue and for that audience.  A couple years later, he brought that speech back to a larger room that accommodated 200 and he won.  From that I learned the importance of matching your delivery to your venue.”

“Speakers must adapt and to adjust at each level factoring in: increased audience size, increased room size, increased quality of venue, and, hopefully, increased experience and knowledge of judges.  More broadly, you have to scale your presentation for the audience and the moment whether it’s in a contest or not.

 

Tip #2: Great speech writing requires ruthless, if not artistic, editing

“Great writing is the combination of word selection and narrative construction.  Rick Brunton, for example, delivered in 1998 an absolutely seamless panorama for seven minutes. Each scene evolves into the next and each has a reason to exist. There’s not a word or thought misplaced. His concept was strong. His message was strong.  His editing was unusually strong.” The problem is, his speech did not win, place or show. Why? See the comment above: “the judges weren’t experienced enough to fully appreciate what they just heard live.” I contend this was a gem of a speech that was underappreciated by judges who didn’t understand just how good it was. Listen to it three or four times and you’ll recognize its artistry.

“One of my biggest regrets is that I was not there when Jock Elliott won [in 2011] because Jock and I have been friends since we competed against each other in 1990.  He is a superb craftsman with ideas and an artist with words.  The great thing about Jock is that he has a deep appreciation for the purity of the message. You don’t find any unnecessary movements or motions in his speeches. I was thrilled when he triumphed because it shows—sometimes—wordsmiths win”

 

Tip #3: Compete to gain the experience of perfecting a speech

“Another observation I should mention has to do with mindset. The absolute worst reason to get into the Toastmasters’ contest is to become the World Champion.  If you are just trying to win something, then go buy a lottery ticket. Your odds are about the same and it takes a lot less effort.”

“Instead, your goal should be to use the competition to become a better speaker.

Contests are the quickest route to the greatest improvement because they force you to raise your standards.  They force you to play a better game than you can play in your club.”

“Toastmasters International is smart in terms of having manuals that encourage you to develop specific speaking skills like vocal variety and hand gestures.  But the big unmet opportunity in the Toastmasters program is that they should have a manual that requires you to go back and revise a previous speech. And then revise it again, and again, and again.  After four or five revisions, you might be onto something. That’s THE benefit of the contests: to keep advancing, you have to take one speech, revise it, re-revise it, re-re-vise it until you have something.A good speech rarely happens the first time around.

 

Try It Out!

David’s particular preoccupation is with narrative construction and the use of language.  This makes sense given that his background is in publishing.  Many of his favorite speeches were delivered in the finals but did not win including: Jeremiah Bacon in 1997, Rick Brunton in 1998, and David Sanfacon in 2003.  Recordings of these speeches can be purchased from Bill Stephens Productions. (Neither David Brooks nor I have any affiliation with this partner of Toastmasters International but David recommends Bill Stephens’ archive as the best resource you may ever find.)

Go craft a better speech starting with better parts as David outlines in this excellent article.

2012 Toastmasters World Championship Finalist Andrew Kneebone Shares His Insights

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I interviewed Andrew Kneebone on January 27, 2013 and asked him just one question: “What are your best pieces of advice on how to win the Toastmasters World Championship of Public Speaking?”

In his own words, here are the insights he captured along his journey.

 

Tip #1: Compete to make a friend of your public speaking fear

“I guess it all begins with the reasons why we all joined Toastmasters.  I joined Toastmasters because I realized that wherever I’m going in my career, I will need to speak in public.  Fear or no fear, I recognized that without training I most likely would do it badly.  During the biggest moments in my life, I am going to have people in front of me – my bosses or my peers.  Or, it could be my wedding.  Those are the times where you really don’t want to stuff it up.”

“After twelve months in Toastmasters, I wanted to take it to the next level.  I realized that the more that you confront the fears of public speaking in this nurturing environment, the more fear is no longer a stranger.  That feeling I get in my chest… he’s a friend now.  If you know how to harness that energy, then it’s going to do some pretty cool things to you.  That’s why I decided to complete.”

“I competed for a couple years and then work changed and I dropped Toastmasters.  I came back after a three year break to get my skills going again.  There’s nothing better than jumping into the deep end and just doing it.  I entered the club competition with my speech entitled “The Lights That Blink” and rode that all the way up to and including the win in the semi-finals.  On the surface, that speech is about setting the time on the VCR.  But, it is really about family and what happens when technology comes into a family unit.”

 

Tip #2: Develop your speech around a ‘seed idea’

‘I started developing the speech I gave in the Finals about three weeks before I left to come to Florida.  In speech writing, I use what’s called a ‘seed idea.’ It’s that little kernel of a speech, often one sentence that sort of embodies the whole damn thing.’  For that speech, it was ‘his blood is your blood.’  His blood is your blood.  If your father says words to you like that, you don’t really forget it. It’s pretty empowering.”

Before I developed “A Story of Two Kneebones”, I tried another speech out in my club and it just bombed.  It bombed, it bombed, it bombed.  I call it ‘airing.’  I was doing the speech for me and not ultimately for the audience.  If you want to do that, go stand in front of a mirror, because that’s who you’ll be pleasing.  .I then just scrapped it, and worked until I got the feeling that what I had was a heck of a lot better.  I practiced the new [Final round] speech twice – once at my club and once at another club.”

“When I arrived in Orlando, I came across one of my first troubles with the competition, because I don’t actually write my speeches down.  People were rifling through notes for their speeches and I just said ‘Wow!  You write them down?’  When they found out I didn’t write [my speeches] down they’d look at me and go, ‘Wow! You don’t write them down?’”  I go for walks.  I walk and I think.  I just mutter to myself.  I’m sure I’m known as the mad man of Melbourne.”

 

Tip #3:  Don’t practice the emotion out of your speech

“I hear of people giving speeches 20 and 30 and 40 times.  For me it’s kind of like the difference between listening to ‘Love Bites’ by Def Leppard versus ‘Hound Dog’ by Elvis Presley.  ‘Love Bites’ took six months to record.  But does it make it a better song?  No.”

“For me, a speech is going to be great or not.  I’ve always approached speaking akin to something similar to like a jazz performance where there’s a beat, but I get out there and throw a couple things in that I might not have rehearsed because I feel it at the time and go with it.”

“You’re pretty much going to know after the first couple times if a speech sucks, especially if people know that you are open to honest feedback.  At the other extreme, I find that if I’m delivering a speech 10 or 15 times then I’ll be bored with it.  It might be too polished and therefore sanitized and boring.  That’s just me.  Other people get better with practicing that way, but not me.”

 

Tip #4: Prepare for competitive speaking like a sporting event

“I treated the competition like any sporting event.  There was a lot of preparation that had very little to do with the speech itself.  For starters, I arrived a week early [from Australia] because I knew my body was going to get beaten around.  I’m went from 9 degrees [48 Fahrenheit] drizzling weather to 30 degrees [86 Fahrenheit] humidity.  I got sick the first two days.  When I recovered I then went down to the gym – just moving the body.”

“Your body’s got to work at all if it’s going to deliver this thing.  Don’t gorge on junk food, although I did try to taste the great American hamburger.  Good burger.  Once the physical was done, then I turned to the mental.  Don’t build yourself up to fail.  What I mean that is don’t go there with the expectation that you have to get a trophy in order to get a win.  I’m going to get some Florida sun.  That’s a win right there. I’m going to go to boot camp on how to actually prepare for a speech.  That is another win.”

“I also set myself a schedule.  Up until the Division contest, I practiced my speech three times per day.  That was it.  Stop.  Then, for the semi-final and the final, I rehearsed on my own seven times in the morning, seven times in the afternoon and then I’d rest.

 

Try it out!

The main thing that Andrew stressed during our discussion was the friendships that he developed throughout the competition.  He got support and constructive advice at every stage from other Toastmasters, former champions, and even from his fellow competitors.

He asked me to leave you with his one regret:

“They didn’t give me an opportunity to thank the other semi-finalists.  I really feel badly about that.  Every single one of the semi-finalists and finalists were amazing.  I really feel sorry for the judges.”

2007 Toastmasters World Champion of Public Speaking Vikas Ghingran Shares His Insights

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I interviewed Vikas Jhingran on January 25, 2013 and asked him just one question: “What are your best pieces of advice on how to win the Toastmasters’ World Championship of Public Speaking?”

Check out Vikas’s insights on leadership at http://www.vikasjhingran.com/blogs/.  In addition, stay tuned for the 2013 release of his first book: “Emote: Using Emotions to Make Your Message Memorable.”

 

Tip #1:  Planning trumps execution

“Anytime I give out advice on how to win the world championship, one of the first things I say is that in most cases the championship is won long before the actual event. Sometimes it’s difficult to understand that.”

“My background is in engineering and project management and we do these huge projects in the oil and gas sector. If you ever go to a project management training course, the first thing you will learn is that the best place to influence the outcome of a project is right at the beginning. When you carefully plan your path upfront, the value that you get out at the end is far better than if you rely on brute-force execution.”

“How that translates to speaking is that you have to spend a lot of time figuring out what you’re going to talk about.  Once you’re in the execution phase, you can only influence the end result so much.  In other words, you have to start with something that can win. If you start with something that doesn’t have that kind of potential, you might do a fantastic job in delivering that speech, but it’s not going to win the competition.”

“Topic selection is deeply introspective. You really have to sit down and figure out something that moves you… that matters to you. It’s not, ‘Hey, this topic will win, so let me speak on it.’ It’s more about where you really come from. What is something that stirs your strongest emotions?  Until you are in that place, you cannot connect with your audience.  With that level of depth, you can make a lot of mistakes in delivery and still win.  If a judge is crying at the end of your speech, then do you really think he’s going to mark you down for mispronouncing a word?”

“Speeches are about the transfer of emotions. If you’re not able to manage that, then the audience is not going to have a very good experience. The only time I think you’ve gone too far is when you are not in control of the emotions that you are feeling.

 

Tip #2: Deliver a moving message to the best of your ability

“I think it is a dangerous to go into the contest with the objective of winning because that is not in your hands. That just creates unnecessary pressure.  You don’t control that. What you do control is having a message that will move people in a very dramatic way and delivering it to the best of your ability.”

“I come from a very analytical background. I spent many years trying to figure out how do well on exams.  Though it took a long time, I ultimately figured out that the best approach is to not worry about the grade.  You are not there to get the ‘A.’ You are there to solve every problem that you can solve. If you prepared to the best of your ability and there are 15 problems out 50 that you have no clue how to answer, then you should be absolutely fine with that.  If you get nervous along the way, then you will do even worse.  It is the same with speaking… how you manage your mindset is critically important to the overall outcome.”

 

Tip #3: Practice idea delivery not word delivery

“Though I do write my speeches out, I can never recite a speech word for word.  I just don’t have that kind of memory.  I’ve delivered my world championship speech probably a hundred times now and I still cannot give it word for word. I just have to be there in the moment and let the emotions roll. The words are close, but they’re never exactly the same.”

“The words really are not that important. The words are a tool to convey emotion.  When you start thinking about words, you are hampering the flow of emotions; you are thinking about what comes next.  That prevents you from being present in the moment which is the point of speaking.”

 

Tip 4: The rule is that there are no rules

“People give all kinds of advice like the ‘10 things you have to do if you want to win the world championship.’ I really stay away from that. I think there is nothing that you have to do to win a speech contest. Just be original. Figure out what works for you and then run with that.”

“If you are uncomfortable doing something onstage, the audience will know it instantly and that takes away from the connection you are building.”

 

Try it out!

Like his fellow world champions, Vikas encourages competition as means of improving your speaking skill in a way that regular Toastmasters speeches do not.  Again, in his words:

“I found that competing is a very good way of improving your speaking skills because it’s one of the few times in Toastmasters that you get a chance to work on one speech for a long period of time. If you do that, it shows you how good you really can be.  Even if you don’t win, just experiencing that preparation process makes a huge difference in your development as a speaker.”

1999 Toastmasters World Champion of Public Speaking Craig Valentine Shares His Insights

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I interviewed Craig Valentine on December 21, 2012 and asked him just one question: “What are your best pieces of advice on how to win the Toastmasters’ World Championship of Public Speaking?”

Craig is a sought-after motivational speaker, author, and speaking coach.  He is incredibly giving with his expertise – in fact you can get many of his best tips by signing up for free at http://www.52speakingtips.com/.

 

Tip #1: Tell a story and make a point

“In the championship I’ve seen a lot of speakers trying to make three major points in five to seven minutes, and you just can’t do that effectively.  What I always tell people who are trying to go for the championship is, ‘Tell one major story and make one major point.’  There’s an old proverb that says when you squeeze your information in you squeeze your audience out.  If you’re trying to get across three major points in five to seven minutes, that’s like trying to do a 45 minute keynote speech in seven minutes.  It just can’t be done and it shouldn’t be done.”

“If you look at Ed Tate, if you look at Darren LaCroix, if you look at Lance Miller — all of these are basically a story that had one major point.  Now Ed had several parts to his story, but it was still basically one major story with one major point.”

Most people make the mistake of simply retelling their stories; they do it through a lot of narration.  For example, ‘Well this happened to me, and I’m talking to my son, and my son told me that I didn’t do this right…’  You know, it’s all narration.  The key to storytelling, and the key to speaking, I believe, is what Lou Heckler said, ‘Don’t retell it, re-live it.’  I’ve actually expanded upon that, “Don’t retell it, re-live it, and invite your audience into your re-living room.”  What I mean by that is, you’ve got to invite them into the scene of your story so they can hear it how your heard it, see it how you saw it, and feel how you felt it.”

“Here is another quick example.  Did you watch the Olympics at all this past year?  Do you know who the oldest person in the Olympics was?  It was a 74-year-old equestrian from Japan.  A 74-year-old equestrian!  My seven-year-old son and I are watching the Olympics on TV, and all they kept saying as commentators was, “He’s 74, he’s 74.  He’s a 74-year-old equestrian.  He’s 74.”  Finally my seven-year-old son looked up and said, ‘Well how old is the horse?’”

“Do you know for a week I couldn’t get that thought out of my mind, so I Googled it.  I found out that the 74-year-old equestrian from Japan was interviewed, and they asked him, ‘How long will you continue to compete?’  His answer was, ‘I can go on forever, but my horse is 15.’  I thought – wow, my son’s question was much more relevant than I thought.”

“Let’s just take that that story.  It illustrates a key concept in self-development which is to never stop asking questions.  It is just a quick story about my son and me, but the dialogue helped you feel like you were there.  The dialogue is what put you directly in that scene, and you could hear my son say, ‘Well how old is the horse?’  Right?”

 

Tip #2: Your (foundational) phrase determines what stays

“Here’s a key to figuring out what you keep in your speech and what you keep out.  That’s a big part of winning the World Championship.  The phrase determines what stays.”

“Your point should be fewer than ten words so that it becomes repeatable – it becomes memorable.  I call it a foundational phrase.  The foundational phrase for this story was just four words.  It should also be somewhat rhythmic, ‘Never stop asking questions’ – that’s easy to say, it rolls off the tongue.”

“There’s a lot more to that story — that equestrian story.  My wife was with me, my daughter was with me, my son was with me, we were in Houston, my kids were running in the track national championships — but none of that matters, because none of that really supports my foundational phrase.  All the content that supports my foundational phrase I keep in.  If it doesn’t support my foundational phrase I take it out.  All I really needed was my son, the newscast, and what my son said about the horse.”

“Sometimes you can actually build brands off of your foundational phrases.  ‘Your dream is not for sale’ is a story that I tell — it’s a brand.  People repeat it everywhere I go.  They contact me and say things like, ‘Hey, I was going to sell-out on my dream, but I remember you said, your dream is not for sale.’”

 

Tip #3: Tap, tease, and transport

[As demonstrated in his Olympic equestrian story, Craig begins most of his stories with an question that has an esoteric or counter-intuitive answer.  I asked him how often he does this and why.]

“Almost every time — almost every story.  It’s what I call, ‘Tap and transport.’  In an educational sense it would be called, ‘Activating prior knowledge.’”

“A lot of speakers, start their stories and just expect their audience members to come along.  That’s a mistake.  You’ve got to tap into your audience’s world — or at least into their minds — first, before you transport them into your story.  Because then they want to come on the journey with you to find the answer.”

“I started by asking, ‘Did you watch the Olympics at all this past year?’ I tapped into your world by reminding you of the Olympics and your experience of it.  That’s important.  Then I tapped into your world even more by asking you, ‘Do you know who the oldest competitor was in the Olympics?’”

“This gets you involved.  You’re not sitting back as a passive spectator; you are actually an active participant.   People buy into what they help create.  So I’m making you part of the process.”

“Once I tap into your world with that question, I get you thinking about you, I get you thinking about your answer — then, and only then, do I transport you into my story to get the answer.  By you not necessarily knowing the answer, it builds tension.  I always tell speakers to ‘Tease them before you tell them.’  Whatever it is, tease them before you tell them.”

“For example, in one of my signature stories, I start, ‘What do you think is the number one thing that stands between most people living their dreams?’  People shout out all kinds of different answers.  That’s my tap.  I’m tapping into their world.  Who are they thinking about?  They’re thinking about themselves.”

“They yell out all the answers: fear, procrastination… this and that.  Then finally I say, ‘All your answers are wrong!  The number one thing is not what you think.’  That’s not only a tap, but it’s what I call, ‘Tap, tease, and transport.’  I tap into their world with a question, I tease them to want to know more.  Then and only then do I transport them into my story.  It is something I do very, very intentionally, and I suggest that speakers do that.  Otherwise there’s really no reason for us to want to come on that journey with you.  Tap, tease, and transport.  It’s a great way to get into your story.”

 

Tip #4: Don’t just tell your message, sell your message

People trying to win the World Championship have to realize that they are in sales.  When I won the World Championship, I was a beginner — I was just starting out and I didn’t know that much.  But, one thing I did very well in my World Championship speech is that I soldthe message – ‘If you take this step of having five minutes of silence in your life every day, you’re going to find a peacefulness, a tranquility, a serenity that you never felt before.  You’re going to finally feel fulfilled.’  I was selling the heck out of that message.”

“What does it mean to sell a message?  You never want to sell a product; you never want to sell a process; you always want to sell the result.”

“Here is another example.  When I went to buy my first car ever, I went to the dealership and the salesperson came up to me and said, ‘Are you looking at that car?’  I said, ‘Yes, sir.’  He said, ‘Great, let me tell you about it.  This car has this type of brakes, this type of engine, this type of power, this type of window.’  But my question is, ‘What is he trying to sell me?’  He’s actually trying to sell me the car.  Now I just said, ‘Never sell a product, always sell the result.’  I said, ‘Thank you, but no thank you.  I’m not interested.’  I didn’t even know why I wasn’t interested, I just wasn’t.”

“I went to a different dealership on the same day — different salesperson, same car.  This guy must have anticipated where I was in my life emotionally at that time — young and single and looking to mingle.  (Laughs)  He walks up to me and says, ‘Are you looking at that car?’  I said, ‘Yes, sir.’  He said, ‘Ooo, you’re going to look good in that one.  You’re going to be flying down the road, the wind’s going to be blowing through your hair, and the girls — let me tell you — the girls will be all over you.’  What do you think I did? I said, ‘Where do I sign?’  (Laughs)”

“He made the sale not because he sold me the car, but because he sold me the result — and he lied!  (Laughs)  I was lonely in that car, I’m telling you.  Just me and my payment — that’s all that was.”

“When I was talking about five minutes of silence in my World Championship speech, what I was really selling was was fulfillment, serenity, tranquility.  Figure out what result you’re really selling, and drive that home.  The title of my speech was, ‘A Key to Fulfillment.’  The result was built into the title — so was the curiosity.”

 

Tip #5: It is not about perfection, it is about connection

“The World Championship is not about being perfect.  It’s not about perfection, it’s about connection.  It’s not about perfection, it’s about connection.  You’re going to see several speakers go to the World Championship stage and do their speech flawlessly — and connect with no one.  Because they’re so into what they’re going to say, and how they’re going to act it out, and doing it flawlessly that they don’t even connect with the audience.  By the time you get on stage you shouldn’t even been thinking about what you’re going to say or what you’re going to do.  The thoughts should all be about your audience.”

“Right before I take the stage, what I say to myself is, ‘May I forget myself, remember my speech, and touch my audience’ – because it is no longer about me.  When you get up on the stage, if you come from that mindset, chances are you’re going to connect more deeply than the other contestants.”

“At that championship level everybody is going to have good content; everybody is going to have good delivery.  The difference in who wins and who doesn’t is in the connection; and you can feel that in the room.  So don’t be there for yourself, be there for your audience.”

“The quickest way to connect with an audience is to share the 4 F’s – your failures, flaws, frustrations, and firsts.  I almost always open up my speech with a failure story.  That way people relate to you.  I always tell people, ‘When you lift yourself up, you let your audience down.’”

“The inner dialogue of the audience members is, ‘Of course the strategies he’s talking about work for him, because he’s special.  These strategies will never work for me.’ The key to speaking is to take yourself off of any pedestal that they may have put you on, and never come across as special — come across as similar.  Put the process — not the person — on a pedestal.  Sprinkle failures throughout the speech to make sure that they keep me similar.”

“For example, if I’m talking about how imagination changed my life, I’m not going to talk about all the wonderful things I’ve done.  I’m going to talk about the wonderful way that imagination has helped me.  I’m putting the process, not me as a person, on the pedestal.”

“Sometimes I’ll share my dismal first SAT score with my audience.  The reason I do that is because when they hear my SAT score, they say, ‘Hey, he’s not any more book-smart than I am.  If he can accomplish this, I know I can do it.’  And that’s exactly what you want your audience to feel.”

If you think about my story — I was talking about my son making the comment about the Olympics.  I like what Mark Brown says, “Your stories don’t have to be sensational, they just have to be sincere.”  I’m telling a story about my son making a comment about a horse, and people love the story.  I don’t think your story has to be “climbing Mount Everest”.  Your story can be about your son and you watching the Olympics — because that’s similar, and it’s going to connect.

 

Try it out!

I wish I could have listened to and learned from Craig’s stories for hours and hours.  Again, you can get more of his wisdom for free at http://www.52speakingtips.com/.  For aspiring and established professional speakers, I also strongly recommend his book “World Class Speaking.”

My conversation with Craig yielded many insights.  Pick your ah-ha moment from among the following to apply to your next speech:  ‘Tell as story, make a point’; ‘Your phrase determines what stays’; ‘Tap, tease, and transport’; ‘Don’t just tell your message, sell your message’; or ‘It is not about perfection, it is about connection.’