Hello, the book I explained to you today is called "The Power of Speech", the Chinese edition of this book has a total of 165,000 words, I will spend 4 days to explain the essence of this book, today is the first day of this book.
Have you ever had the experience of speaking on stage, often nervous to the point of sweating in your palms, speaking incoherently when you were nervous, and forgetting all the content that had been prepared for a long time in front of the audience?
You will find that those who can speak the Truth tend to eat well in life; in their careers, it is easier to get promotions and salary increases than those who talk and talk.
Having a good eloquence is an important skill in creating a good life, it allows us to fully demonstrate our abilities and self-confidence, and it can also influence others.
How to practice a good eloquence? We may wish to start by practicing public speaking and learn the skills of speaking in public.
Chris Anderson's The Power of Speech is one of the most insightful books on public speaking. We can learn from this how to create the miracle of public speaking, how to get the secret of success on stage.
Chris Anderson is the head and speaking coach of TED, directing thousands of TED talks and working closely with great speakers such as Bill Gates, Daniel Kahneman, Ken Robinson, and more. He wrote about the practical experience of the TED team in The Power of Speaking.
The Power of Speech teaches you how to make public expression more influential from five aspects: speech basics, speech tools, preparation process, stage presentation, and reflection.
This book is for everyone who wants to improve their presentation and presentation skills and make a greater impact on their ideas.
Next, we will interpret "The Power of Speech" together and appreciate the charm of speech together.
01
Speaking is essentially an ability that, like writing and writing computer programs, can be acquired through acquired learning. By knowing the presentation, understanding the basics, and practicing continuously, you can create successful and contagious speeches.
The first part of the book "The Power of Speech", "The Basics of Speech", plays a role in speech literacy. We will interpret it from four aspects: skill display, idea implantation, common pitfalls of speech, and main line of speech.
A lot of people have a fear of speech because people are afraid of losing face in public, afraid that their work will be affected, afraid that our minds will be buried.
Not only ordinary people, but also celebrities have had the fear of public speaking.
When Shen Congwen, a generation of literary heroes, first stepped onto the podium, he had originally prepared an hour-long course and finished speaking in ten minutes. Because he was so nervous that he forgot the content and stuttered. In the end, I could only write a line on the blackboard: "Today is my first class, and I am afraid of a lot of people." ”
The debut failed, and Shen Congwen pondered the matter repeatedly. Later he found himself exaggerating the fear of the speech itself, the fear of losing face occupying his brain, leaving behind the long-prepared course content.
Celebrity examples tell us to start by confronting speech, and as with any challenging job, not giving yourself negative hints in the first place. If we adjust our mindset, our minds will not be occupied by fear, but will pay more attention to the content of our speech.
Mindset is the first step, when we have a positive mindset, how do we convey our views to the audience?
The author mentions that the twelve-year-old Richard Tourey invented a lighting system to protect the cattle from lions, so that the cattle are no longer attacked by lions. In order to make more people pay attention to the technological inventions of teenagers, Richard was invited to share his experiences at the podium of TED. Richard was shy and fluent in English, but after working with the TED team to design the story structure, focusing on the story he had put into invention, and unfolding the narrative naturally, he finally won applause and a great success.
Richard's story tells us that speech is actually very simple, that is, to say ordinary words, talk about things around you, be true to yourself, and dare to try boldly.
If you're a scientist, be a scientist and don't try to be an activist; if you're just an ordinary person, don't try to imitate the style of a universityman, just be yourself.
If you are willing to be your true self, I hope you can master the art that is rooted in our hearts, just pluck up the courage to try it.
There are many ways to speak, and you can always find the way that suits you and learn some of the necessary skills to make a successful presentation.
02
The threshold for speeches is actually not high. Anyone who has ideas worth sharing can give a great speech. In public speaking, the only thing that really matters is not self-confidence, not stage presentation, nor fluency in language, but valuable ideas.
Any idea, attitude, or practice that can change people's perception of the world can be called "thought."
The noblest mission of a speaker is to implant something that is very important to oneself into the heart of the audience, that is, into the mind. It is a spiritual construct that the listener can hold on to, spread, cherish, and in a sense be changed by it.
Chris Anderson once gave a tough talk where he spent fifteen minutes convincing the audience to support him in taking over TED. That speech had many shortcomings, but it was successful in one key aspect: implanting a thought in the audience's heart. The idea is that what makes TED unique is not who takes over it, but people in various fields who can communicate across disciplines.
This idea makes the audience value the change of TED leaders less, and more importantly, the preservation of a channel for sharing knowledge.
We don't have to invent lion lights like Richard, we don't have to take over TED like authors, and the things that contain wisdom in our life experiences are ideas worth sharing.
With important ideas, and the right way to speak, you can achieve great speeches.
We should also note that the speech is a journey that you and the audience experience together, not your performance alone, if you only start from your own point of view, you will fall into the trap of speech.
03
So next, let's take a look at the pitfalls of speeches.
There are many kinds of good speeches, but bad presentations can be divided into the following four categories:
The first category is sales tactics.
Some speakers start to sell themselves, sell products, and sell companies as soon as they get on stage, just to make the audience pay for it, and such speeches are undoubtedly failures.
Once people recognize that you're a sales agent, they'd rather look at email.
It's as if you agreed to go to coffee with your friends, but your friend has been telling you about his investment projects and wants you to invest, and at this time you are 80% disappointed and don't want to listen to him anymore.
We need to keep one principle in mind: a speaker's job is to give, not to take.
The second category is rambling.
Many speakers do not have a clear vein, as soon as they open their mouths, they talk aimlessly, and this kind of speech is rambling.
If you are not prepared before the speech, then you are telling everyone that their time is not important, and the speech is not important, which is an insult to the audience.
The third is the nasty corporate people.
If your speech revolves around your company alone, the audience will be drowsy. They are more concerned with the nature of the work you do and the great ideas that permeate it than with your company and products.
The fourth is enlightening performances.
Enlightening performances are speeches that have only form, no content. When you're not focused on the applause of the audience enough, and the applause is not warm enough, you've jumped into the trap of enlightening performances.
Enlightenment is not acting, it is the audience's understanding of sincerity, courage, selfless dedication, and true wisdom. You want to incorporate these elements into your presentation.
04
Knowing the four pitfalls that lead to speech failure, what can be done to succeed? This starts with a clear context.
The speech is a trip, and the speaker is the guide, and the main line of the speech is the route of the trip. There is a clear main line to ensure that there will be no jumps in the speech that the audience cannot understand, so that the speaker and the audience can reach the destination together.
But we must keep in mind: the main line is not equal to the theme. For example, the theme of adventure, the main line can be about endurance, can also be about team spirit, or about the danger of adventure.
So how do we find the main line?
Get as much information as you can about your audience: Who are they? Their level of knowledge? What do they expect and care about? What have past speakers said? Only by facing the right audience can we implant our thoughts into their hearts.
Don't cover too many concepts on the main line, because when you finish multiple topics in summary form, these topics will fail because they are not penetrating and superficial.
The writer Richard Bach said: "Great creation depends on the power of the words that are deleted". In fact, the fewer topics you cover, the better the effect will be.
Because you can dig deeper into a topic in a limited amount of time, a speech with examples and story-backed will be more popular with the audience.
Today's interpretation ends here, we understand the basics of speech, let's think together: what tools do you need for a speech?
Thank you for listening, and tomorrow I will continue to explain the power of speech to you.