I guess I do a lot of talks now. Here are some thoughts on on on

I think the best way to do a good talk is to just practise talking LOADS.

Like you need to at least 10x the number of talks you give, at least! At least!

You can’t just expect to turn up and become good at— figure out how to give good talks. You gotta feel it out and feel your way through it and how to feel the audience and respond to and move with them.

You need to give like one hundred, two hundred talks or demos or whatever, and then you’ll begin to start to get a feel for it I think.

There are many places to do this practice. And here are uhh

• Go to a meetup and give an over-the-shoulder demo.
• Give a lightning demo at your work’s internal show-and-tell.
• Go to a meetup and sign up to give a lightning demo.
• Write a blog post and pretend you’re writing a talk.
• Apply to give a talk/demo at a meetup.
• Apply to give a lightning talk at a conference.
• Apply to give a demo at a meetup.
• Record a talking head video and post it online.
• Submit to an academic workshop and go give a presentation.
• Apply to give a talk at a conference.
• Submit to an academic conference and go give a talk.
• Make and edit a video essay.
• Get asked to give an internal talk at a company.
• Get asked to give an internal talk at an academic institution.
• Get asked to give a demo at a meetup.
• Get asked to give a talk at a conference.

Some might take longer to setup than others, and you might notice that they follow a sort of growth uhh a trend of sorts kinda. And you can use this. Oh! Progression is the word, there’s a progression to it.

This is how you develop a talk. You have to start at the bottom and work your way up, to develop and work on the material. Start by testing it out and working it out in casual settings, over-the-shoulder and in natural conversation.

This is why stand up comedians are terrible to hang out with. I genuinely find them some of the most insufferable people because they’re constantly testing out material in normal conversation and it’s so unnatural.

Then try out your demo in small casual meetups or informal internal things. Find out how audiences react to it. And you’ll end up doing some bad demos and talks as it starts very bare and starts to get more tacked onto it. You’ll end up cutting away unnecessary stuff and you’ll begin to figure out what the talk is about. You can’t go in thinking that you know what that is.

Then you start to hmm you take it to slightly more prestigious settings, more formal stuff. And your talk will have to grow to match that. It’s exciting because you have a licence to go BIGGER now and tell us why your talk is a BIG DEAL. but you know that it has strong roots in being built up from natural casual work, that’s um it’s appealing in a casual laid back way, and that’s important cos it lets the audience just like relax and enjoy it too.

As you refine your talk at more and more and more events, your confidence will grow, but will sometimes take some hits when it doesn’t go so well. I think this is when a talk can turn from a Very Good talk into a Great talk and I know that the way to do that is to INJECT IT WITH YOURSELF.

Now you gotta think about how to turn it into a talk that will stick with people. This is your chance to cut through to give a talk that people will remember for years, that could change their outlook or change their life! A single talk can do that. It could happen at any event, big or small, prestigious or not. Every talk is as umm take every talk as seriously as the next, and people will return that energy back to you. It’s about respect. If you respect your audience then they will respect you. but I’m getting distracted

The way to turn your talk from Very Good to Great is to make it uniquely yours. but no that’s not it really. I think it’s more like, we need as an audience to see why you need to give this talk right here at this moment, and why it needs to be you giving the talk. Show us yourself! Don’t hide behind the formality of the talk, and instead use the formality as a mechanic to play with, leaning on it for order and expectation, allowing you to break through it and be your uh authentically and fully be yourself.

I think one of the saddest and frustrating things I hear after I do a talk is when someone says to me “nice talk Lu. i think I should add more of your kind of energy to my talks in the future” and i’m like thinking like “NO don’t add more of MY energy to YOUR talk. add YOUR energy to YOUR talk.” I think people like talks where people are themselves FULLY. but like dialled up, 200% and unapologetically themselves.

and this frustration made me write this blog post today.

final tips.

the audience WANTS you to succeed because they benefit if you succeed. you don’t have to win them over in the case of “near misses”. they will always give you the benefit of the doubt. they feel anxious for you because they care for you and they’re worried for you. so you need to prove yourself to them within the first five minutes. if your first five minutes is solid-as-fuck then they’ll let go and let you take over. rehearse those first five minutes to death. and another way to win trust at the start is to throw in something weird that proves to them that you’re being very deliberate, and you’ve put in the time and consideration needed. show them how confident you are, and that you can handle the hits and blows that come from doing a talk. you need to say to your audience “don’t worry. lean back. relax. I’ll take it from here. I don’t need you.”

never apologise during a talk. NEVER. it makes the audience feel worried.

make one million backup plans. you NEED a plan for if EVERYTHING goes wrong. imagine no internet, no services, no power, no screen. you don’t have enough backup plans, I can promise you. And don’t feel afraid to deploy a backup plan IMMEDIATELY. don’t wait!!!! deploy the backup plan IMMEDIATELY.

don’t position yourself as a hero or champion. no one roots for them. be the loser underdog instead.

EMBIGGEN YOUR FUCKING SCREEN.

back to the feed.