What's your twist? Make your talk interesting, not just informative

A couple of weekends ago, I sat staring at my computer. I was working on my TEDx talk about women in leadership and politics –  and I knew it was missing something.

My first draft was good – about the benefits of having more women in elected office, the gender stereotypes female candidates face, and some stats thrown in for good measure.

It was informative, but it wasn’t really interesting.

I could imagine the audience nodding their heads along with what I was saying, but I wasn’t sharing anything they didn’t already know.

I needed a hook, a twist, something that sparked curiosity.

I needed to get to the core of my topic, to find the a-ha moment.

So, as I sat at my computer, I stopped researching and typing and instead let my mind wander, sifting through all the years I’d spent studying women’s history and gender theories in undergrad and grad school, the years I’ve spent working in politics and business.

And then I saw it. It became so clear that my hands could barely keep up with my thoughts as I hurriedly wrote it all down.

I’m not going to tell you what it was because I want the TEDx talk to be a surprise for those of you who are in Orlando and will be able to attend. I’ll share the video with you all afterwards.

It’s pretty easy to make a presentation informative – talk about what you know, mix in some stories and examples along with a dash of research, and you’ll have a good talk that people will learn something from.

But, especially for a TED-style talk, you want to make them feel something too.

How can you make your presentation interesting and not just informative?

1. Have a unique angle or twist on your material, an original way to frame it so that it’s not like what everyone else says about your topic.

Your thesis, your reveal, should be unexpected, even counterintuitive. Think of Brene Brown’s talk on shame and vulnerability, Sir Ken Robinson on creativity and education, Damien Mander on what it means to be a modern warrior.

2. Bring in your particular background and experiences. What unique set of circumstances led you to this topic? Don’t just regurgitate what others have said – bring something new to the conversation.

3. Cut everything that is not on theme. The shorter the amount of time you have for your talk, the more crucial it is to stay strictly on theme.

My TEDx talk is only 8 minutes long which is about a thousand words. There’s only so much to fit in 1000 words, so I had to cut everything that was not explicitly tied to my central theme – and doing so has made the talk exponentially better.

We think the audience will miss out because we’re not telling them everything. In fact, the opposite is true. You’ll leave the audience with one big idea that they’ll then be able to connect to other things on their own.

4. Just like a good story and a good play, your talk should have 3 acts: crisis, climax, and resolution. I’m going to go into more detail about this in a future email, so stay tuned. (Not subscribed to my list? Add yourself here.)

What’s your twist on your topic? Let us know and get some input in the Facebook group.

Speaking of twists, I was on The Liberated Woman podcast (episode 55) with the delightful host Amber Chalus. Her guests mainly talk about holistic living and feminine wisdom and here I was ready to discuss public speaking, women in politics, and the current election. So, I knew I had to find an angle that her audience would find interesting. Listen in at http://www.amberchalus.com/blog/2016/09/29/episode55/.

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