Essentially, the best speakers on the TED stage were the ones who had mastered the art of storytelling.
The most common (and thus boring) opening is, “Thank you for inviting me. My name is XYZ and I want to talk to you about...”
She doesn’t bore her audience with gratitude by trying to express how thankful she is that she was invited to speak at TED. Instead, she immediately dives into a story. The best way to thank your audience for the opportunity to speak to them is to deliver a speech that keeps them engaged, interested and involved.
The number one thing that makes a story irresistible - that has audience members sitting on the edge of their seats, totally captivated by your every word - is conflict.
“People don’t remember what you say as much as they remember what they see when you say it.” That means that your speeches need to help the audience get an experience and create a visual image.
There are five senses that we use to experience the world – sight, sound, touch, smell, and taste. By providing descriptions that use as many of these senses as possible, you can help your audience to create a mental motion picture of your characters and stories.
instead of saying, “The man was tall,” say “He was about 6 foot 5 inches.” Instead of saying, “I was speaking to a large group of people,” say “I was speaking to a group of 500 CEOs.”
Specific details help your audience see what you’re saying. Specificity adds internal credibility to your presentation.
Finally, another advantage of dialogue is that it allows you to use vocal variety - to slightly change the pace, pitch and volume of your voice to reflect the emotions and speech of the different characters in your speech. As a result, your delivery will be more dynamic and engaging. When delivering your story, always use dialogue - not narration.
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