About this lesson
Caveats of telling the audience the same message repeatedly in a linear fashion.
- 00:04 Tell them what you're gonna tell them.
- 00:06 Tell them and tell them what you told them.
- 00:09 That's advice we've all heard about public speaking, but does it make sense?
- 00:15 Does it actually work?
- 00:18 Well, yes and no.
- 00:21 Here's the problem with that advice.
- 00:23 You can tell somebody that you're going to tell them something.
- 00:27 Tell them and tell them that you told them but if you do it in a straight forward,
- 00:32 linear, abstract way and it's boring, nobody's gonna remember.
- 00:39 Here's one of the tests that I give to
- 00:42 most of my in person public speaking students.
- 00:44 I'll say okay all of you have been on a 757 or
- 00:49 a 747 dozens if not hundreds of times.
- 00:53 You've all heard the safety speech.
- 00:55 Now tell me how many exit doors there are on a 757.
- 00:59 I'll go around the room.
- 01:01 One person will say eight.
- 01:02 One person will say four.
- 01:04 One person will say six.
- 01:05 One person will say twelve.
- 01:07 Everybody kinda remembers something different.
- 01:11 What's my point?
- 01:13 My point is everybody who travels for business or pleasure has heard
- 01:18 the same message again and again and again and again and yet nobody remembers it.
- 01:24 Why?
- 01:25 Because the presentation is delivered in a boring straightforward way.
- 01:31 It's just la la la, here's how you fasten the seat, blah, blah, pay attention, blah,
- 01:35 blah, blah, exit row, blah.
- 01:37 It's just said in such a boring, straightforward, perfunctory way.
- 01:41 It goes in one ear and out the other.
- 01:44 So I would much rather you focus on communicating
- 01:49 a point once, but having such a good story, an example,
- 01:54 a case study, so that people can't forget it even if they wanted to.
- 01:59 Just by hearing it once, you've created such
- 02:02 imagery in their brains that they can see your point.
- 02:08 That's infinitely more effective than telling them what you're gonna tell them,
- 02:12 tell them, and tell them what you told them.
- 02:14 Now, can it be helpful at the beginning to stress a main point or two?
- 02:21 Sure, and then later on give more examples and more case studies, sure.
- 02:26 And then when you summarize, to stress the point again in a way that doesn't
- 02:32 sound perfunctory, that doesn't sound like you're just reading off a list, sure.
- 02:38 That can help, but first and foremost make sure that the first
- 02:44 time you've expressed the idea that that alone is interesting enough, and memorable
- 02:49 enough that if they never heard you talk about it again they'd still remember it.
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