Every once in a while, it’s good to be reminded just how much persuasion lies in the delivery of a speech. That is, after all, the point of this website.
A good speaker can talk about any topic and make it interesting to the audience. The effective use of vocal tonality, humor, pacing, and hundreds of other variables is what leads to a strong presentation, regardless of content.
The reason I’m posting this is to share the following five minute video with you. I came across it on Facebook one day and realized it’s completely relevant to what we do on Potent Speaking. You are a member of a community of debaters who understand that presenting your ideas in a compelling manner is a good 80% of the reason you win debate rounds.
This video is a short TED talk by a guy who understands the importance of presentation in hiding a lack of content. His speech is about how the typical TED talk is devoid of useful information and instead made to be as compelling as possible through body language and other presentation tricks. Watch it—not only will it give you some ideas for your next debate round, but it’ll also help you see the importance of presentation ability.
Note: I think this guy is a pretty good speaker. However, he wasn’t perfect. He had several moments that could have been better. For example, the “random gibberish” part of the speech was not that humorous, and his ending of “now I’m going to stop talking” matched the rest of his speech but still made him seem weak. He probably could have had a better punchline to finish off with.
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