This is Hacker Public Radio Episode 3773 for Wednesday the 18th January 2023.
Today's show is entitled, My Public Speaking Rules.
It is hosted by Mike Ray and is about 18 minutes long.
It carries an explicit flag.
The summary is, some tips on public speaking for technical talks or lectures.
Hello and welcome to Hacker Public Radio.
My name is Mike Ray.
Hacker Public Radio is a crowdsourced podcast where you out there, and me, provide the sound
bites, the recordings which I'm played, published every weekday, Monday to Friday.
So if you want to make a contribution, go to HackerPublicRadio.org to find out why.
Now, it's done nine o'clock on Christmas day.
It's been a noisy day, I'm like yesterday when I recorded the talk about the bottom
of mine, I'm not one third drunk after a few bottles of beer, but it's been a noisy day that my sister
has now gone to work, so I'm alone in this big old farmhouse now, and my niece is
that I've been here today for Christmas dinner, I've gone home with our littleons.
It's been noisy chaos, but I like to hear the squeals and delight to the littleons as they
do things like trying to run over Uncle Michael's feet with their radio control cars, etc.
Very good fun.
Anyway, today I thought I would give you my view on the rules of public speaking.
Now, public speaking for many people is a traumatic thing, whether it be recording a podcast
like this or giving a technical talk to a room full of people, perhaps a Linux fest
or a conference of some kind, any other kind of conference or just giving a talk to a
small room full of people, perhaps a Linux user group or a classroom, or the other
variety of public speaking, perhaps being the best man at somebody's wedding, or after
dinner's speaking, etc., or they're highlighted in there two different kinds of public
speaking, really. One is technical talks and lectures. The other is the kind of casual,
not casual, but the other kind is what I touched on being a best man or after dinner's
speaking. I've never seen myself as a racer after dinner's speaker, but I have been
the best man at several weddings, that demands the speech, of course, traditionally in
the UK anyway. The rules I'm going to outline here don't really cover that kind of
public speaking, which is more the technical talk or lecture type of speaking I'm talking
about. So, what are my rules of public speaking? Oh, I should tell you about my own
experience of public speaking. I've been doing it for a long, long time, since probably
way back in the early 80s, I was fully sighted at that point and now totally blind as
a lot of people remember. It's never really held any terror for me, especially now
that I can't see because I can't see what people are thinking or I can't see a sea
of eyes on front of me, which is what a lot of people find the terror of public speaking.
And I've given public speaking talks at all kinds of different levels. In the early days
our amateur radio clubs and conferences on such diverse subjects as Ford Scutter, Ford
Meteor Scutter propagation, a rural propagation, the construction of very large EHT, extra
high tension, power supplies, and valve amplifiers for the HF for doing things like
Ford Scutter Meteor reflection propagation and a rural and earth moon earth etc. In the
days when it was a big boys saying we needed an aerial the size of a barn door and an
amplifier to match. Now what I shouldn't do it with a one-yarding and a few watts
thanks to SDR. Then I was sort of graduated up to talks about the similar sorts of subjects
at radio, radio rallies and radio conferences and then later at Linux use groups, classrooms,
all kinds of environments about things to do with Linux and computing and programming
in particular. So rules, rule number one. And we're going to focus on that kind of
public speaking, not only talking as best man or after dinner speaking, recontera etc.
I think I might have already said that. Rule number one. Do not ever begin your talk with
an apology for being a bad speaker. This is an absolutely very, very strict rule. Why do I
say that? Well, if the first thing you do is you start at the front and you say, I'm not
very good at this. Effectively, you might say, I'm a customer, I'm a public speaking or
something along those lines. If you do that, you'll immediately plant in the minds of the
people in front of you, that you're not very good at what you're doing and that they're
going to have to sit through listening to a bumbling idea talking about something that
you might not know very much about. Because if you apologize for not being very good
at public speaking, you're also immediately plant in their mind, the fact that you might
not be very good or particularly, a particularly strong authority on the subject we
are about to talk about. Rule number two. This is a three-part rule, and this was
first given to me many years ago by a member of the radio club who was a retired
lecturer from the London School of Economics. And he said that any lecturer or technical
talk or any kind of talk we are imparting information should be divided into three
parts. And in very brief summary, these three parts are, tell them what it is you're
going to tell them, tell them and then summarize what it is you just told them. So let's
go over those three parts in a bit more detail. At the beginning you explain what it
is you're going to talk about, given some outline of the subject matter, but very
brief outline. Part two is the actual meat of the talk, the way you give the talk, in part
of the technical knowledge. And part three, as a kind of reinforcement practice, you summarize
what it is you just told them and maybe go back over a few bullet points of what it
is you just talked about. And here is rule number three. Always remember that the people
out there in the audience wanted to be there. If you're at some kind of conference or
something, chances are they had alternative venues or alternative streams talks, etc.
They got a gun to, but they specifically wanted to hear you talk. So there is going to
be little or no hostility in the room. And well, it might be one or two very board partners,
but in the main, everybody that is there wanted to be there and wanted to listen to what
it is you have to say, there will be a lot of empathy out there in the room. We're not
all narcissists like Donald Trump. Sometimes we do have actually have empathy and want
people to do well and they will be invested in you. So don't assume that there is any hostility
because there is probably not, almost definitely not. Rule number four is don't rush.
If you'll nervous, the tendency is to hurry and to rush along and get towards the end as
quickly as you possibly can. Don't do that. The main reason I say that is because if you
become gabbled or gabbled, then the effectiveness of imparting, what is you want to say,
is diminished. And also it's a perilous feedback loop because the faster you go, or
your faster you try to go, the more flustered you might become and the more flustered you
become, the more gabbled the message. So try not to rush, pace yourself. If you've been given
a particular time slot in which to impart the information you want to put across, then try
to fill that slot, but don't rush because you may find that you end a long way before the
end. Obviously, it's always a good idea to leave time before the end for any questions.
If that's the kind of venue you're at, but strictly do not rush and do not become chaotic.
Rule number five, do not be afraid of silence. Don't be scared to leave pauses. Not too long,
perhaps, but pauses will provide you with a way of catching your breath, consolidating your
thoughts, organising your notes, making a mental note of where you are in your talk. You know,
whether you'll maybe 30% or the way through 60% of the way through, whether you've forgotten anything,
but very importantly, don't be afraid of silence. Rule number six, don't be afraid of the
kind of thing that you might call verbal text like umms and ars. Keep them to a minimum if you
possibly can. Silence is better than filling gaps while you gather your thoughts with verbal text
et cetera. So don't be scared of those kind of verbal text, but try to keep them to an absolute
minimum if you can. Silence is better than unnecessary noise. Rule number seven is a dynamic
rule, really. It depends largely on a quite complex number of factors. What kind of talk it is,
what kind of venue, what kind of audience the mode in the room, which you will probably be able to gauge.
The seriousness of the subject, but the rule is keep humour to a minimum.
You know, obviously this does not apply to the kind of public speaking I was talking about,
which falls under the category of after-dinner speaking, reckons to a best-man speech, a wedding.
That's, you know, being a best-man is all about humour. It's all about saying embarrassing
things about the bridegroom, et cetera. And I'm aware at this point, I'm talking to the world
possibly, but certainly in the UK in the Western English-speaking world, I guess, probably the same
on the other side of the pond. Being a best-man is all about embarrassing the bridegroom
coming up with a few jokes, maybe. And then there's a formalised structure to it, you know,
thanking the bride's mates, et cetera. But in technical talks, it's serious speaks,
serious talks and lectures, keep the humour to an absolute minimum. Don't let it
pervade the whole thing, because it would attract from the main function, the main focus of the
talk, which is the imparting of technical information. My final rule, which is not really a rule,
it's just a statement. You don't need to pick up or pick out one particular audience member
to whom to speak individually, shall we say. You might find it as effective for you. And if you
have a partner in the audience, unless he or she is sitting in the front row, in which case it's
probably very ineffective, very not very good to focus on somebody that's in the front row.
So, just as well, talking to the back wall. If you want to pick out something or somebody
right at the back and speak to them, but don't have to do that. If you let your eyes wander
around the room, you can, I can't. But in that way, if you look at everybody and you take in
everybody individually, one at a time, as you wander around the room, then you can gauge the mood
and gauge the hell there or receiving a talk. But don't let that bother you. Stay focused on
doing what you came to do. Don't allow any visual feedback from the audience to upset you
and your stride, just carry on at the sensible pace that you have adopted. So, there we go.
Trying to think of as anything else I should add. But as I said, I think at the beginning,
public speaking to a lot of people is a very traumatic thing. In fact, I think it's a sore
list of the most traumatic things. So, in fals arrest, getting married, getting divorced, moving
house, public speaking. I think all of those things would be in was that five, top five,
most stressful things that can happen to it. That most people would list as the top five,
most stressful things that can possibly do. But public speaking, you get used to it.
And now, making a particular focus on podcasting, don't be nervous about doing your first one.
And, hack a public radio is a good place to do that because it is a casual thing.
We don't, the people at hack a public radio and the audience don't mind if your podcast is not,
does not have the kind of BBC professional polish, reminds certainly don't.
If you are imparting interesting information, they will listen.
Your audio might be a bit rough, as long as you can be heard. And you may be inexperienced,
but just do it. So, there we go, rules of public speaking, as I see them.
There, I have been Mike Ray, you have been HPR, thank you, and goodnight. I'm not going to
go and get another bottle of air.
On the side of our status, today's show is released on our creative comments,
attribution for going to international license.