Speak Like TED

1. Five Techniques of TED Talks

As a leader or advocate, public speaking is the key to unlocking empathy, unleashing passion, sharing knowledge and insights, and realizing shared dreams.

Since 2006, TED Talks have been available to watch online for free. This provides a platform for creative people to share their ideas instantly with millions. Their voices have been amplified and sparked a revolution in the field of public speaking.

TED Talks are regarded as the gold standard of speaking, and it is difficult to be invited to speak at the national TED conference, and it is even harder to make a speech welcomed by millions of people around the world.

TED Talk videos and transcripts are posted online together, providing researchers with a wealth of data to analyze which talks stand out and which do not.

Researchers used high-tech data analysis tools to discover that those TED speakers who are memorable to the audience actually use classic rhetorical techniques, and those TED talk stars have 5 speaking habits.

1. Use pictures instead of bullet points

TED organizers handpick speakers and work with them to create the best talks. There is one rule that can never be broken when designing slides, and that is: No bullet points, no matter what.

For example, Richard Turere’s 7-minute speech includes 17 slides, more than 2 pages per minute. Each slide is a picture, plus his explanation. 17 slides in 7 minutes is too much for a typical business report, because there may be charts, tables, graphics and text that the audience cannot handle.

But TED organizers and Turere designed a unique presentation together. People like pictures because it is a communication tool that dates back to the beginning of human beings on earth, to the era of cave paintings.

Every concept mentioned here will be explored in more depth in Part 3, but for now, remember that study after study confirms that pictures are more influential and memorable than text alone.

2. Make the audience laugh

Even though Turere was only 12 years old and was in the United States for the first time, he understood that humor could connect people of different cultures and languages.

He said his first idea to scare away lions was to put a scarecrow near the barn. “But lions are very smart. They left after seeing the scarecrow on the first day. However, the next day they said: ‘This thing doesn’t move, it’s always there’.”

At this point, the audience laughed. The 3 scarecrow idea didn’t work, and Turere had to try another way.

Neuroscientists believe that when our brains perceive jokes, they release a class of “feel-good” chemicals: dopamine, serotonin, and endorphins.

At the same time, humor is also powerfully contagious. Laughter is a social signal, when the audience laughs, it is as if they are saying “this speaker is likeable”.

One reminder from TED to all speakers is: Laughter is good.

In this regard, Shah Rukh Khan, Bollywood’s most famous actor and the world’s eighth highest-paid, never needs to be reminded. His fame far exceeds the huge box office he created in India. The 80 films he starred in have attracted countless fans around the world, and he has 24 million followers on Twitter alone.

When he gave a TED talk in 2017, he started by telling the audience that he was a 51-year-old movie star who hadn’t had Botox… well, only for now.

He opened with the Botox joke and made the audience laugh 6 times in the first minute. Comedy writing classes teach students to pack 4 to 6 jokes per minute in a short stand-up comedy routine. Shah Rukh Khan reached a high level, and he won the house with humor.

Excerpts from what he said in his speech to make the audience laugh:

I sell dreams. I sell love to millions back home in India who think I am the best lover in the world. If you promise me not to tell anyone, I will tell you that I am not the best lover, but I will never let that assumption go away.

Someone tried their best to make it clear to me that a lot of people here today haven’t seen my movies, and I feel really, really sorry for you guys. That doesn’t erase the fact that I am very, very narcissistic, movie stars are like that.

Behind the humor, Shah Rukh Khan had a serious topic to talk about. Through the narcissistic movie star joke, he talked about how humanity should take care of each other and care for the earth for future generations. “People are a lot like me.” He said, “I am an aging movie star trying to grapple with everything new, and still wondering if I got it right.”

Sir Ken Robinson is the only TED star who surpasses Shah Rukh Khan in humor. Robinson is not an actor, but an educator, and his TED talk produces more laughs per minute than many Hollywood comedies.

His speech titled “Do schools kill creativity?” has 450,000 views and is one of the most popular videos on the TED website.

Most neuroscientists who study persuasion agree that laughter is an emotion that helps consolidate memory. Robinson’s humor lies partly in funny anecdotes or anecdotes, and partly in self-deprecation.

For example, Robinson says: “If you’re at a dinner party and you say you work in education—frankly, if you work in education, you’re not actually going to dinner parties very often, because you’re not invited…”

Humor almost always boosts engagement because it is one of our most primal and deep-seated emotions.

While you don’t have to be a stand-up comedian to make a splash on the TED stage, a little humor helps you stand out.

Robinson says: “If they’re laughing, they’re listening to you.”

3. Share personal stories

Dan Ariely’s story is not funny.

In his senior year of high school, an explosion left Ariely with third-degree burns over 70% of his body. Over the next 3 years, Ariely underwent countless surgeries and plastic surgeries in the hospital, and his dreams vanished in an instant.

Ariely suffered severe pain in the hospital because nurses had to tear off old bandages from him quickly, just like tearing off a Band-Aid when you cut your finger. However, unlike tearing off a Band-Aid, the process of removing the bandage for Ariely took 1 hour, and it happened once a day.

He tried to persuade the nurses to remove the bandages more slowly, so that the whole process might take longer, up to 2 hours, but the pain would be less. The nurses’ response? They knew it was best to tear off the bandages quickly, and patients should keep quiet.

After Ariely was discharged from the hospital and went to college, he began to study human behavior, psychology and economics. He chose a research topic related to his own experience: the process of people experiencing pain.

Through a series of experiments, he found that his intuition was correct. While the nurses meant well and strongly believed that tearing off bandages quickly reduced pain, Ariely found that they should have used a longer time to remove the bandages slowly, thereby reducing the intensity of the pain.

As a behavioral economist, Ariely wrote the bestseller “Predictably Irrational” based on his experience and research. He is also a TED star, having been invited to share his ideas on the TED stage 6 times.

Ariely first talked about his experience in the hospital burn unit in a 2009 TED talk. The video of his speech went viral, and people all over the world knew his ideas and research.

Since then, all of his speech videos have garnered more than 15 million views, and Ariely has become one of the world’s most famous and respected behavioral economists. The reason for his fame is his ability to explain what lies behind human behavior, but the reason for the success of his TED talk is no secret.

Chris Anderson, curator of TED Talks, says: “Stories about you or your loved ones build the strongest relationship with your audience. Honest stories about failure, embarrassment, misfortune, danger or disaster build empathy quickly.”

The old brain is wired to love stories. Today, neuroscientists are using science in the lab to prove what we have known for thousands of years: stories are our best tool for building deep and meaningful relationships with the people we hope to persuade.

Shonda Rhimes, producer of hit American TV shows like “Grey’s Anatomy” and “Scandal,” gave a talk about herself at the 2016 TED conference. The video has been viewed more than 3 million times.

In the speech, Rhimes talked about the things that scared her—events you can imagine a gold-medal TV producer having to attend. She decided to start agreeing to do the things that scared her.

“So not long ago, I did an experiment.” Rhimes began, “For a whole year, I agreed to do all the things I was scared of, including anything that made me nervous, anything that took me out of my comfort zone, I forced myself to say yes. Did I want to speak in public? No, but I said yes. Did I want to be on live TV? No, but I said yes. Did I want to try acting? Of course not, but I said yes too.”

Rhimes said the result was “magical.” By doing the things that scared her, she actually felt that those things weren’t so scary. “My fear of public speaking, my social anxiety, poof, it’s all gone. It’s amazing, just agreeing to do these things changed my life.”

Rhimes once wrote an article celebrating the 100th anniversary of Forbes magazine, in which she talked about the role of storytelling in cultivating relationships, “Our world is full of infinite opinions and choices, and those who can bring people together and tell a good story have extraordinary power.”

Rhimes and Ariely are influential because they are able to spread their ideas through storytelling. Speakers on the TED stage have published bestsellers, started businesses, and launched powerful social movements.

Facts won’t help you start a business, but stories will; facts won’t start a movement, but stories will.

4. Let the audience keep up with your speech

The best TED talks are infectious for a reason. They are carefully prepared by experienced speakers who have mastered the skills necessary to persuade an audience. Seasoned TED speakers know how to use humor, how to tell stories, and how to build arguments and the rule of three.

One Headline

Chris Anderson wrote: “Beautiful slides and charismatic stage presence are all good, but without real substance, what the speaker is doing is entertainment at best.”

Many speakers don’t plan their speeches around a central theme, they open their slides or whatever presentation tool they are familiar with, and start listing bullet points on every slide: no theme, all bullet points.

Actually, the best TED speakers design their speeches around a central theme and repeat it throughout the speech. For example:

Why we love, why we cheat - Helen Fisher Avoid the climate crisis - Al Gore How to prevent Alzheimer’s - Lisa Genova

I call these themes “Twitter-style headlines” because out of 2,460 TED talks, no headline exceeds a tweet’s 140 characters. Actually, most of them are shorter.

Neuroscientists have recently found that stating the theme at the beginning makes it easier for the audience to follow the speech. Compared to stating the theme in the middle or at the end, or having no theme at all, stating the theme at the beginning is more memorable and impactful. Because stating the theme at the beginning sets the frame for the rest of the content.

Human rights lawyer Bryan Stevenson gave a TED talk that set a record for the longest standing ovation in TED’s 30-year history. Within 40 seconds of the speech starting, Stevenson mentioned the word “identity” three times and gave the theme of the speech.

“Today I want to talk to you about the power of identity.” After stating the theme, Stevenson used another technique from the TED talk toolbox: the rule of three.

The Rule of Three

On the first day of the 2017 TED conference, a special guest appeared before the audience via satellite. The speaker’s name was kept secret until the speech. When Pope Francis appeared on the screen, he lit up social media.

This was the first time a Pope had given a TED talk. The conference organizers spent more than a year planning and traveled to Rome multiple times to make it happen.

Pope Francis decided the content and manner of his speech himself. Because his speaking time was the same as other TED speakers, 18 minutes, he chose three points:

We all need each other. “Only by uniting can we create the future.”

Equality and social inclusion should be part of technological progress.

We need a “revolution of tenderness,” a movement that “starts from the heart.”

Pope Francis didn’t choose three points randomly. He had a reason for choosing so. Pope Francis once said that he studied public speaking in seminary, and one of the most impressive persuasion factors was the rule of three, which he uses in every speech.

The rule of three is a classic public speaking method with roots dating back to Aristotle and contemporary ancient Greek orators.

Today, neuroscientists have proven what those orators intuitively knew: the average person can remember 3 to 4 pieces of information in short-term (working) memory.

Many other TED stars are the same, and they all believe: the simple rule of three is the cornerstone of making speech and writing persuasive.

5. Reassure the audience that they will learn something new

I analyzed the 25 most popular TED talks of all time and found that they all share a common trait: every speaker guarantees that the audience will learn something they didn’t know before, and the speech content is packaged in a novel or unexpected way.

Learning is addictive, thanks to the amygdaloid gray matter in the temporal lobe, the amygdala. When you receive new information, the amygdala releases dopamine, which is your brain’s natural “save” button. This explains why we feel excited to learn new things, because we are natural explorers.

In 1985, Robert Ballard discovered the wreck of the Titanic. His TED talk “The astonishing hidden world of the deep ocean” won a standing ovation from the audience.

I interviewed Ballard afterwards, and he said: “The mission of any presentation is to inform, educate, and inspire. You can only inspire people by telling them a new way of looking at the world.”

When you give people a new perspective, you are tapping into their adaptability that has lasted for millions of years. If our primitive ancestors hadn’t been curious and explored the world around them, we would have gone extinct long ago.

The need to explore, the need to learn new things, and the need to be attracted to novelty are rooted in our genes, give the audience something new to chew on!

Because people crave creativity, TED talk views grow by more than 3 million daily, and your ideas matter more than ever. Today, we also have far more tools than ever before to spread our voices globally.

The ability to inspire people to transcend their circumstances and imagine a future world is a talent that should be shared, nurtured, and exercised. A great idea can light up the world, let us light up your world.

II. Secrets to Building Top Communicators

1. The Emotional Principle of Stories

Without emotional appeal, that is, without arousing the audience’s emotional resonance, persuasion cannot happen. Stories are our best linguistic tool for building emotional appeal because humans naturally love stories.

You can use three types of stories in your next speech or pitch:

1. Stories about personal experiences;

2. True stories about customers or clients;

3. Stories about landmark events in the brand or company history.

2. Three-Act Structure

A great business presentation will follow a three-act structure and contain at least two key beats: “catalyst” and “all is lost.”

McKinsey leaders know the power of storytelling in winning new business and deepening relationships with existing clients. They teach new consultants a way of storytelling that is almost exactly the same as the three-act structure followed by Hollywood screenwriters. The story structure McKinsey uses is SCR, which is an acronym for situation, complication, and resolution.

In presentations made by McKinsey, the situation is basically the “beginning.” It describes the current state of the client’s business, the complication is the challenge the client faces now or in the future, and the resolution is the answer and happy ending provided by McKinsey.

While McKinsey consultants use slides to present their recommendations, they are trained to refine their thinking with a three-act structure first, leading the client to keep up with their presentation. Slides are just a method of disseminating information, but the story will always lead the way. Engaging drama, wonderful movies or deals always start with a story.

Entrepreneurship competitions are becoming increasingly popular around the world, and charismatic entrepreneurs’ presentations contain “sparks that ignite conversation.” The spark is often a story. 58% of successful presentations have a story, and about 30% of successful presentations follow the hero’s journey three-act structure. “Everyone loves a good story.” [18] Van Edwards says, “Some kind of compelling story told by an entrepreneur, such as an experience or personal anecdote, provides context and piques people’s interest. If told well, it can move people. Try building your personal story according to the hero’s journey, which is a time-tested formula. In this formula, you are inspired, tested, struggle for a while, and eventually succeed.”

Three-Act Structure of a Story

1. Next time you speak or present, follow the classic three-act story structure: beginning, conflict, and resolution. This structure is as old as storytelling and works wonderfully.

2. Set obstacles that the hero must overcome before successfully completing the task, leaving the audience in suspense (tightening a string).

3. When telling a story, have a dramatic arc, i.e., tension, conflict, and a happy ending, to trigger the audience’s brain to release oxytocin.

3. One-Sentence Logline

Too many arguments only weaken the power of the story, and what you have to do is not put everything you know into your speech.

TED conference organizers’ instructions to all guest speakers are similar: pick one point and make it as clear, specific, and vivid as possible.

If the story is too complex, no one will listen. The simpler the story, the easier it is for us to be drawn in.

Come up with a logline that can hook investors in 5-10 seconds at the opening

An aging Mafia don transfers control of his clandestine empire to a reluctant son. — “The Godfather”

At startup pitch events, every investor is holding their smartphone, and once they don’t want to listen to your presentation, they will check email. Rollston says: “You will lose their attention very quickly. You need a memory point. The best memory point for a startup is to quickly clarify why what you do matters. That’s how our brains work. The simpler the concept, the easier it is for us to enter your world. You have 5 seconds to get someone’s attention.

Great talks have one theme, and everything else is there to support that important message.

1. Next time you speak, imagine you are designing a one-sentence logline for a Hollywood movie. If you had to persuade someone to support your point of view in one sentence, just one sentence, what would you say?

2. Introduce your idea in the first 15 seconds of your speech.

3. Great communicators are great editors, making children and village women understand.

4. Language - The Simpler, The More Effective

Abraham Lincoln’s 2-minute Gettysburg Address inspired generations, John F. Kennedy launched America’s dream of landing on the moon in 15 minutes, Martin Luther King Jr. explained his dream of racial unity in 17 minutes, and Steve Jobs gave us one of today’s most famous college commencement speeches in 15 minutes at Stanford. If you can’t explain your idea or dream in 10 to 15 minutes, keep revising until you do.

Ideas don’t spread themselves. You have to choose your words carefully, and if they do nothing to advance the story, delete them. Condense and simplify your speech as much as possible, and be as concise as possible. Dare to use language that elementary school students can understand. These suggestions will not weaken your argument, but will elevate your idea so that more people hear it.

Simplicity and Effectiveness Principle of Stories

1. Edit, edit, and edit again. Kennedy had the world’s greatest speechwriters around him, but he still improved his speeches by editing and re-editing. Great communicators make their speeches sound effortless because they put a lot of effort into making them so.

2. Know that the audience will start to zone out after about 10 minutes. Some neuroscience research has found that the attention span is a little longer, but not much… 15 minutes max. There seems to be an intrinsic evolutionary reason that causes people to get distracted after a period of time. In short, the brain gets bored. So get to the point, and don’t let it drag on too long.

5. How to Make Stories Persuasive

Analogy

There is no persuasion without analogy, analogy can turn unfamiliar territory into familiar territory, thereby helping us run in new territories. Tell stories with analogy. LinkedIn founder Hoffman had no way to tell stories with data, because they were weak in this area, but he could tell stories with concepts. As he later said, this concept revolved around a core analogy. Hoffman is now a billionaire and a partner at Greylock. He advises entrepreneurs to adopt LinkedIn’s successful strategy of using analogy in startup presentations. He says investors don’t have much time, and entrepreneurs often don’t have much to show, so you can connect your idea to companies investors already know.

Pope Francis credits his writing and speaking style to Jesuit homiletic training (i.e., the art of preaching). Today, he advises young seminary students to exercise their speaking skills. He used a series of analogies to illustrate the importance of speaking, saying evangelism should be “ignited by the fire of the Holy Spirit” to “activate the hearts of believers.” Entrepreneurship is full of metaphorical language used in the Bible. Entrepreneurs are likened to missionaries with a mission to find believers. Investors look for entrepreneurs with passion and fire in their hearts. Great communicators can inspire audiences (in religion, “inspire” means to be infused with the Holy Spirit). It is no coincidence that startups and spiritual leaders rely on analogy. Faith emphasizes believing without seeing.

Metaphor

Investors need a lot of confidence to put money into an entrepreneur with little more than an idea, and how that idea is expressed determines everything. No one can express an idea better than metaphor master Steve Jobs.

Aristotle once wrote: “To be a master of metaphor is the greatest thing by far… It is also a mark of genius.” Ordinary communicators will use straightforward scripts, while speaking geniuses will distinguish themselves with analogy.

Telling Stories with Analogical Thinking

1. Analogies and metaphors will give your speech “linguistic beauty.”

2. To start paying attention to analogies and metaphors, you can find them anywhere.

3. To find ideas, read Warren Buffett’s annual letter to shareholders and John Pollack’s “Shortcut: How Analogies Reveal Connections, Spark Innovation, and Sell Our Greatest Ideas”.

4. Why Jobs himself liked Picasso’s famous quote “Good artists copy, great artists steal.” When Jobs said he was “shameless about stealing great ideas,” he meant the same thing as Picasso. Anyone can emulate their competitors. When you stand on the ideas of your predecessors and create, true innovation appears.

6. Tell Stories Creatively

1. One cannot be creative just because one wants to, one must create ideal conditions and have an epiphany to be creative.

2. Combine ideas from different fields, listen to movie soundtracks, read a book or take a walk to open your brain, and it is even better to do so when traveling to a strange country.

3. When preparing a presentation for your idea, don’t make slides right away. Before creating slides or documents, put yourself in a creative space and think about the elements of the story. Know that people won’t be moved by slides, but by the emotional elements in your story.

7. Overcoming Fear

There is a world-renowned pastor who can command the attention of an audience in a packed stadium. He once confessed that in his first year as a pastor, his hands would shake as soon as he approached the pulpit, his palms would sweat, and his heartbeat would accelerate. He had bad stage fright. The pastor told me that if he overheard someone criticizing his speech, he would focus his attention on it and replay it over and over in his mind. I asked him: “How did you overcome this habit?” “I started to encourage myself in a more positive way. Instead of self-deprecation, I psyched myself up.” He said.

The pastor also began to practice, rehearsing for hours before every sermon. The latest neuroscience research concludes that the pastor did two things right based on intuition, namely cognitive reappraisal and rehearsal.

Cognitive Reappraisal

One reason why many people are speechless when under high pressure is that we put pressure on ourselves, and we can eliminate this pressure. Beilock says, for example, “when worry and self-doubt fill the brain,” people are more likely to mess up a speech. [3] When you worry about what others think, it is difficult to perform at your best. “Expecting something, especially expecting how others will judge you, is enough to pressure you before you even go on stage.”

Repeat Practice, Learn to Tell Stories Under Pressure

Ask a few friends or peers to watch you practice your upcoming speech, and have them watch the “rehearsal” in a conference room, office or home. Beilock says: “Simulating lower pressure helps prevent you from collapsing when pressure increases, because practicing in this way teaches you to stay calm, cool and collected no matter what you face.”

Corcoran once said: “If you are going to make it in business, the most important thing is to be able to communicate your ideas to everyone you meet.” Corcoran knew that if she didn’t have the courage to stand up and express her ideas, she would fail miserably at this most important thing. Having an original idea is not enough to guarantee success, the person concerned must also spread these ideas. However, if they cannot overcome fear and doubt, they will not succeed. Happily, fear and doubt are often self-imposed. If we can put these limitations on ourselves, then we can also remove them to boost ourselves.

Deliberate practice makes it come out of your mouth · Great communicators are not born, but made. From historical figures to today’s business leaders, many of the world’s most inspiring speakers have overcome anxiety, nervousness and stage fright. You can too. · Neuroscientists have identified two methods to help you excel under pressure: cognitive reappraisal and rehearsal. · Cognitive reappraisal is re-examining your view of yourself and what is happening in your life. Turning negative thoughts into positive thoughts is the key to winning. Once you change your inner thinking, you must take the time to practice. Practicing your speech over and over again builds your confidence and prepares you for the big day.

Excerpt from: Carmine Gallo. Talk Like TED: The 9 Public-Speaking Secrets of the World’s Top Minds. CITIC Press Group. Kindle Edition.

Published at: Sep 4, 2019 · Modified at: Dec 4, 2025