Great public speaking is like magic. Whether it's a presentation for school, a talk for your community, or a video message for family and friends, a good talk can electrify an audience and even change the world. It all starts with an idea.
Ideas change everything. They bring people together, spark curiosity, and inspire action. The right idea can ripple across the planet at the speed of light.
But what is an idea, exactly? Your number one mission as a speaker is to take something that matters deeply to you and rebuild it in the minds of your listeners. That's something is an idea.
Think of it like a gift you give your audience; something they can walk away with, value, and be changed by. Your idea doesn’t need to be a scientific discovery or a genius invention to be great. You can share instructions for a special skill you have.
Or a story from your life and the lessons it taught you. Or a vision you have for the future. Or just a reminder of the things that matter most.
An idea is anything that can change how people see the world. If you can conjure up an exciting idea in someone's mind, you have done something wondrous. A little piece of you has become part of them.
In March 2015, a scientist named Sophie Scott gave a TED Talk: “What I’m going to do now is just play some examples of real human beings laughing. And I want you just to think about the sounds people make and how odd that can be, and in fact, how primitive laughter is as a sound. It's much more like an animal call than it is like speech.
So here we’ve got some laughter for you— the first one is pretty joyful. ” Within minutes, Sophie had the entire audience cracking up. She's one of the world's leading researchers on laughter.
She was showing the audience just how weird a phenomenon laughter is. “Now, this next guy, I need him to breathe. There’s a point in this when I’m like you’ve got to get some air in there, because he just sounds like he’s breathing out.
This hasn’t been edited, this is him. ” “More like an animal call than speech,” as Sophie put it. Sophie’s talk was a lot of fun to listen to, but she gave her audience something more than just a good time.
She changed the way they think about laughter. Sophie's core idea is that laughter exists as a way human beings form bonds with one another. Her research shows that laughing strengthens relationships.
Nobody who listened to Sophie's talk will ever hear laughter the same way again. A laugh isn’t just a silly sound in reaction to a joke— it’s a biological process through which we can connect with one another. Sophie gave her audience a gift.
She gave them an idea that will be part of them forever. In order for an audience to receive the gift of an idea, a speaker has to deliver the idea in a way that the audience can understand. How does a speaker do that?
Well, it can be helpful to think of a talk as a journey that a speaker and an audience take together. You, the speaker, are the trusty tour guide. To be a good tour guide, a speaker must start where the audience is, and must be careful not to lose anyone by rushing ahead or constantly changing direction.
The goal is to lead the audience to a beautiful new place, step by step. And this is done using language. Language is a very powerful tool.
Let’s prove it. Imagine an elephant with its trunk painted bright red, waving the trunk to and fro in sync with the shuffling steps of a giant orange parrot, dancing on the elephant’s head and shrieking over and over: “let’s do the fandango! ” You have just formed in your mind an image of something that has never existed in history, except in the minds of the people who have heard that sentence.
A single sentence can do that. The fact that we can transfer ideas in this way is why speaking skills are so important. Language builds our world.
Our ideas make us who we are. And speakers who have figured out how to spread their ideas into others’ minds have the power to make an incredible impact. Do you have ideas that deserve a wider audience?
Focusing on what gift you would like to give your audience, or what journey you might lead them on, are two great ways to start preparing your talk.
