Diverse Speaker Training Workshop Part 4

Becoming a better speaker. We are going to
be talking about practicing speaking, do's

and don'ts, handling nerves, handling the
Q&A section, and getting post-talk

feedback.

Now, anyone who [inaudible] Practicing
speaking, the most important thing, okay.

Practicing speaking, the most important
thing you can do to become a better

speaker is practice. The more you speak in
front of a mirror, in front of friends, or

in front of a roomful of people, the more
comfortable and the better you'll become.

You can even give your talk to a friend
over Skype. You can also video record

yourself,r take notes on behaviors you
exhibit while speaking, then practice

reducing them. When you practice, time
yourself. You might be surprised by how

long or short your talk is when you're
speaking out loud. It's important to know

how long your talk is going to be taking.
If you're looking for opportunities to

practice speaking, you might see if
there's a Toastmasters in your area.

They'll provide you with many
opportunities to speak in front of a

supportive group of people and give you
tips and tools for improvement. And you

can also practice at smaller meetups.
WordPress meetups are good for practicing

for WordCamps. And if you want to practice
for WordPress meetups, you could find

smaller related meetups who'd be
interested in hearing about your WordPress

topic.

Becoming a better speaker: do's and
don'ts. No matter how much public speaking

experience you have, there's always room
for improvement. Here are some do's and

don'ts to help you improve. Do speak
slowly. Many speakers speak too fast but

audiences almost never complain that
someone went too slowly. Take pauses in

between sentences. It may feel strange to
you, but it will seem very natural to the

audience. Have water available and drink
it. Most events will provide water for the

speaker. But make sure you have water on
hand just in case. When you find yourself

going too fast, taking a drink of water is
a great way to slow yourself down. It

might feel like it takes forever to take a
drink but the audience doesn't mind. Very

your voice. This gets easier with
practice. You don't want to speak in a

monotone so make sure you have some
inflection in your tone. Look at your

whole audience. Make eye contact with
people if you can, but make sure you scan

the whole room and don't just look at one
part of the audience. One trick here is to

locate some friendly faces in multiple
sections of a big audience and then adjust

them one at a time in a loop. Make sure
the audience can hear you. If you aren't

sure whether the mic or your voice is loud
enough, ask the audience if they can hear

you. Ask the people in the back to raise
their hands if you get too quiet. Keep

your hands above your waist. If you do
this, you'll find yourself gesturing

naturally. Remember to breathe, and
practice without notes. Even if you'd like

to have your notes with you to make you
less nervous. practicing your talk without

notes helps you map your content to your
thought process. You already know your

subject matter so avoid trying to memorize
your notes and script verbatim. This will

help your talk sound more natural and for
you to feel better about deviating from

your script. And now for some don'ts.
Don't drink too much coffee. You're

already jittery from nerves, so you don't
need a coffee buzz on top of it all. Don't

turn away from the audience. If you need
to point something out in your slides,

make sure you keep your face pointed
towards the audience as you point. Don't

use filler words like um. You might not
even notice that you're doing this. So ask

friends to point it out in rehearsal or
record yourself and take notes. To help

yourself break the filler words habit,
take a small breath or a sip of water

instead. Don't read your slides or notes
directly. If you must, like I'm doing

right now, make sure you look up from your
notes and ad lib at least a little bit.

Handling nerves. Everyone gets nervous
about public speaking; it's part of being

human. In fact, it's hardwired. For our
caveman ancestors, anytime more than five

pairs of eyes were looking at them at
once, that meant that in all likelihood,

they were about to die. We still react
that way when we get up in front of a

group of people and see them all watching
us. Keep in mind that your audience is on

your side, they want to see you succeed
and all of them would be nervous if they

were in your shoes. In fact, it's okay to
admit that you're nervous; people will be

sympathetic. Here's some things that you
can do to help soothe your nerves.

Practice! It really does get easier with
practice. The more you practice, the

better you will know your material and
more confident you'll be. Sleep! If you're

well rested, you'll do a better job.
Resist the urge to network or socialize

too much the night before.

Exercise. The best way to get rid of
nervous energy is to burn it off.

Physiologically, the reason you get
nervous is so that you'll have the energy

and adrenaline to fight or flee from your
predator. Running or getting some other

form of exercise is a great way to burn
off that nervous energy and convince your

body that the danger is over.

Breathe. When we get nervous, we tend to
take shallow breaths into our chest. This

is a part of the body's preparation for
fight or flight. And it actually deprives

the brain of some of its important oxygen.
Take long, slow breaths into your belly

and this will help calm you and clear your
mind. Be sure to take breaths before

getting on stage, when you're on stage
before you start talking, and every so

often during your talk.

Dress comfortably. Being body conscious
never helps so make sure you're

comfortable in whatever you're wearing.
Take time for yourself before you speak.

This helps you compose yourself and get
mentally prepared. If you could go for a

walk, listen to some favorite music, go
over your notes, or just take some really

deep breaths.

Know the stage. Try to find a time before
you give your talk to see the room where

you'll be speaking. Use your own devices.
If you have your own laptop, clicker, etc.

You'll be more comfortable with your
equipment. If you won't be using your own

devices, come early to ensure you're able
to get your notes onto the system and that

you can use the system with ease.

Adopt a persona. This doesn't mean don't
be yourself. It just means be the speaker

version of yourself. For instance, if you
talk with your hands when you're nervous,

embrace that and make that part of your
speaker persona. You'll behave differently

when you're in front of a big group of
people. Go with that and don't fight it.

Be excited. Nervousness could actually be
excitement. There's no chemical difference

between feeling excited and anxious; it's
the same physical state. So if you think

you're nervous, try turning it around and
remind yourself that you're just excited

Handling the Q & A. Many talks have an
audience question and answer session at

the end. So first of all, timing. Ask the
organizers in advance what the expect

expectations are. Try timing your talk
when you rehearse it and make sure that

you've left enough room for an adequate
amount of Q&A time if that's something

that you'll be expected to do. How much
time should you allow for Q&A? If the

organizers haven't specified this for you,
it usually depends on the length of your

whole session. In general, 10 to 20
minutes is adequate. For example, if your

whole presentation takes up a 45 minute
slot, you might want allow 35 minutes for

the presentation and 10 minutes for
questions.

Interspersing Q&A. Some people prefer to
take questions throughout their talk

rather than holding them until the end.
You can let your audience know up front

what you prefer. Bearing in mind that if
your audience will be using a microphone

due to the size of the room, or the fact
that your talk is being recorded, you'll

need to give the room technician a heads
up about your q&a plans so they're ready

with the audience microphone as needed.
Don't forget to ask for questions. If

you're saving the q&a until the end, don't
forget to do it once you finish your talk.

To remind yourself, you can add a slide at
the end of your talk, saying thanks and

ask them for questions. And here's a good
tip. Repeat the questions back to the

audience. Unless the audience is mic'd,
repeat each question before answering.

Your audience and anyone later watching
the video if your talk is being recorded

will thank you. Even if the audience and
recording can hear the questions,

sometimes it's nice to repeat the question
for everyone to hear it again or to phrase

the question more clearly. Some people are
especially nervous at the q&a because of

because difficult situations could arise.
Here are some tips to make it easier.

Tricky questions. Often speakers who are
brand new to public speaking, and even

those who aren't, are nervous about
getting asked a question that they feel

they don't know the answer to or that has
a tricky answer. There are ways to handle

that situation. Remember to repeat the
question back to the audience. This buys

you a little bit of time to think about
how to handle the question. Don't be

afraid to admit that you don't know. The
audience will have far more respect for

you for admitting that you don't know than
if you try to fudge it and fail. You can

say something like, "That's a good
question. I'm not sure about the answer

but let me look into that for you. Could
you send me a tweet or email after the

session and we'll stay in touch?" You can
throw it to the audience with something

like, "Good question. I'm actually not
sure. Does anyone here have any ideas?"

Throw the question to a friend or
colleague in the audience. "Good question.

My colleague, Jane here actually knows a
lot about that. Hey, Jane, do you have any

ideas on this one?" You can also talk to
your colleagues and friends beforehand to

make sure that they're okay with being put
on the spot like this.

The smarty pants. Handling the smarty
pants in the audience who thinks they know

better than you and goes on and on is a
big fear. And this is something that

Miriam mentioned ahead of time. It doesn't
happen often but if it does, one thing to

keep in mind is that in these sorts of
situations, other people in the audience

are thinking about how much of an idiot
the know-it-all is, not about how you're

handling it. Don't be afraid to cut
someone off if they're monopolizing the

Q&A or derailing. It's possible to do this
politely but firmly, "I think we're going

to have to move on now because time is
running out and I really want to get a few

more questions in."

Unrelated questions. Sometimes people ask
questions that have little or nothing to

do with your talk, and answering the
question will derail the conversation. One

way of handling this is to say, "That's a
good question but it's outside of the

scope of what we're talking about. I'd be
happy to answer it for you privately

after."

Silence. What if you finish your talk,
throw the floor open to the audience, and

there are no questions? That's totally
okay. There aren't always questions. You

can have one or two people you know, in
the audience ready to ask a question, or

even chime in with a different angle. For
example, if you're a developer, have a

designer ready with an observation on your
topic from that point of view. You can

also ask and answer your own questions.
For example, "Something I didn't go too in

depth in the talk but you might be
wondering about is.." or "A question I've

had come up before is..." You can ask the
audience a question. For example,

"Something I didn't go into in depth in
the talk, but you might be wondering about

is..." or "A question I've had come before
is..."

Errors. Don't be afraid to correct errors
after your talk. If someone points out an

error, either during the Q&A or later, go
ahead and update your presentation online

and include the corrections if you give
the same talk again. Be sure to verify

that the correction is actually accurate
before doing this.

Contacts and slides. Once the Q&A is over,
let people know how to connect with you

once you're done and where to find your
slides. Give out your Twitter handle

and/or email. You can also include this
information on your final slide so it is

up on the screen behind you while you take
questions.

Getting post-talk feedback. We often
forget this part of the process but

getting feedback after your talk is really
important if you ever want to do to get

better at public speaking. You want to get
feedback both about your content and your

speaking style. You want feedback about
whether your content was interesting, well

organized, easy to follow, etc. This is
true whether you plan to ever give the

same talk again or not because a lot of
the knowledge gained can be generalized.

You also want to know about your speaking
technique. How is the pace, volume,

approachability, etc? Where can you get
feedback? Ask conference organizers if

they send out a survey and whether you can
see your own feedback. Ask people you know

who are there for feedback. The more
specific questions, the better your

feedback will get. Don't ask "What did you
think?" Ask, "Was there something you

thought that could have been better? Could
you hear me? Did I speak too quickly or

slowly, etc." Keep in mind that asking
people for feedback directly will be

different from asking organizers for the
feedback that was sent to them. People

tend to be softer and kinder when speaking
to you, as opposed to when they think that

their feedback is only going to
organizers.

Creating great slides. In this section, we
are going to talk about good slide decks

and a few more tips. Good slide decks.
Let's first start with a public service

announcement: You do not need slides with
every talk. Some talks can stand on their

own. Slides can be your friend and your
enemy so don't rely on them completely.

Something to ask yourself, if the slide
projector were to break down, could you

give your talk without it? That said, when
used correctly, slides are amazing and can

bring a lot to your talk. Used in the
right way, slides emphasize and help you

get your points across. Look at some of
the tips. Let's look at some of the tips

for creating good slide decks. Give your
slides a theme. It could be that you

illustrate all your points with lol cats,
or they could all be the same background

and typography. Whatever it is, having a
visually unified deck makes all the

difference. Many speakers end up with a
look to the slides they stick with from

presentation to presentation. This is
great and makes the talk stand out and

feel part of a cohesive set. It may not be
the route that you want to go but it's

something to consider. Don't use a default
slideshow theme like the templates that

come with Keynote or PowerPoint. We've
seen them all 1000 times and they look

generic and boring.

Don't write out what you're going to be
saying. This can be a flexible rule for

useful important quotes, but nobody likes
someone reading lines from a slide. Make

your text size readable; think of the
person sitting at the back of the room.

Use code sparingly. Nobody likes pages and
pages of code on a screen. Not even

developers can stay awake through that,
depending on the situation and the person.

Including a slide at the end of your deck
to thank your audience. You can also use a

closing slide to remind you to do your
Q&A. Enhance the mood of your talk with

slides. Use them to add humor and to help
you get your point across. Check the

copyright on your images. If you're using
a creative commons graphic, remember to

give proper attribution to its creator.
Consider sketching something original,

creating your own images, or using your
own photography. Make it personal and

unique. Slides don't need images, you
could just have words. Check your contrast

on a wide range of screens to make sure
it's legible. Also consider choice of

color. You can check color contrast using
an online tool to be sure it'll be easily

readable. You just plug in your background
and foreground color codes and the tool

will tell you if it's in the acceptable
range. Take care when selecting fonts.

Don't use a fancy font that's cute but
unreadable and don't use too many

different fonts together.

Make sure you're creating your slides for
the right screen size. Try to find out in

advance what aspect ratio the projector
will have and stay away from edges of the

screen to be safe, keeping key information
out of those areas. Let's look at a few

examples from your slide decks. This is a
good example of a slide that sets the mood

of the whole presentation. The deck
supports the presentation and acts not

just as useful information but as a
backdrop to help create a cohesive talk.

This is a deck that stands on its own,
either with or without the verbal part of

the presentation. It carries a theme
throughout the slides and delivers the

message with clarity. It also demonstrates
a strong personality, something you

shouldn't shy away from from your deck.
This deck has a strong sense of design

that clearly delivers the message of an
expansive subject area. Slides are used to

break down this complexity and it's all
done with a clear vision and a deck that

stands on its own apart from the talk.
You'll find a collection of more tips on

creating great slides and other resources
at getspeak.in. There are links to

contrast calculators and examples of
inspirational slide decks that you can

explore at your leisure.

A few more tips. Practice going through
your deck using external monitor using a

presentation mode, which lets you see your
notes. Think about bringing your notes

printed out on paper in case the
presentation setup doesn't end up allowing

you to see your internal notes. Bring a
backup of your slides with you on a thumb

drive, including any special fonts you've
used. Save the presentation in a few

different formats, including PDF. If for
some reason there's any issue with your

computer, you will be able to easily
borrow someone else's and ensure that your

type looks just as good as you intended.
Upload your slides before your talk, if

possible, and include a link to them at
the end of your slides. Slideshare and

Speaker Deck are two good services where
you can upload slides. Remember to tweet

out the link afterwards and send it out to
the event organizers so that they can post

it. If you start to do more speaking,
invest in a presentation clicker to

advance your slides without having to use
a keyboard or mouse. It'll let you stand

away from your laptop and keep your hands
in a more natural position while you

speak. And a note on live demos: It can be
very tempting to do a live demo and hop

back and forth between your demo and the
slides. This could be hard to watch,

especially if something goes wrong during
the demo, as it often does. Consider

recording these bits instead and embedding
the videos within your presentation.

Questions and sign up. Thank you for
attending today. We'll be passing around a

sign up sheet. If you're interested in
speaking at an event, please let us know.

This is not a commitment but we'll get in
touch with you to discuss the possibility

of speaking at an upcoming Meetup or
WordCamp.

WordCamp Central would like to know how it
went so this will be a chance to have an

open discussion on what worked well, what
didn't go well, what would you like to see

change? What could we have done that we
didn't do and what made you nervous.

That's a discussion to have with your
group. A note on... So this is something

that we're starting to have the groups who
run this workshop do. We would like to

take a photo for our meetup page and for
WordCamp Central to have. Anyone can opt

out. So this so we're not actually going
to do a photo right now with us. We're not

an actual meetup. But please, those of you
out there in the world doing this, please

do take a photo. We're going to be
creating a page with all the success

stories and everything which we'll talk
about in a moment. And this is that

moment, your results [inaudible} that
slide in.

We'd like to let WordCamp Central know how
it goes. If you speak at a Meetup or

WordCamp and especially if anything new
comes out of your speaking such as

becoming a requested speaker or taking on
a leadership position or getting a job,

please let us know so that we can let
WordCamp Central know. Also if you love

this work and want to train others to do
this, or be a train the trainer or help

our team with other things like marketing
and admin, the WordPress Community Teams

Diverse Speaker Training Group is always
looking for more help. Contact Jill on

Slack or Twitter @jillbinder. And now we
have time for any questions or comments or

anything before we wrap up the main
section. Okay, great. Thank you everybody

for attending. Miriam?

Oh I was just about to say that it was
very well done. So yay.

Thank you so much. I appreciate that.