4 Public Speaking Tips to Ensure People Remember You

As a professional public speaker for 6 years now, I’ve learned a thing or two about how to communicate an idea effectively. There is a difference between talking and teaching. Oftentimes, we assume the audience has as much patience for us as we have for ourselves. Wrong. You have about 4 seconds to get your audience’s attention…and keep it. So overthinking, oversharing and over-communicating will ensure that your audience checks out and you get lost in your own ideas.

If you just want people to hear you, head to your Instagram stories or your family group chat. If you want people to learn from you, then follow these 3 tips before getting in front of a live audience.

1. Have one idea

The 3-point keynote is outdated and proven to be ineffective. Most people will forget what you talked about within 24 hours. If you want people to remember what you say, boil your talk down to one point. And continually bring your talk back to that one point.

2. Have a simple structure

Don’t overthink the structure. Have a funny or sharp intro, the main point, maybe some examples, and then close. You can fill those sections with large amounts of content, but the structure should be easy to follow. Think of your content structure like dough. You don’t want to overwork it or it becomes unusable. People won’t remember it because they won’t be able to follow it.

You can even cue your audience when you shift to a new segment. “Let’s jump in” or “Let’s look at some examples” or “I want to close with this point” help your listeners identify segments and therefore, help them categorize and retain more of what you’re saying.

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3. Simplify

Smart people make the complex sound simple, not the simple sound complex. If you can’t boil your talk down to a single sentence, it might be too complex.

Simplifying your content doesn’t mean you’re dumbing it down, it means using your deep knowledge to pick and choose the right information to share a single idea. The goal of your talk should not be to educate the audience on everything you know about a topic. The goal is to pick ONE idea from your collection of knowledge and share the appropriate material that emphasizes that point.

If you try to cram too much into a talk, people will get overwhelmed with information and likely forget everything. I know every piece of information might seem critical to you, but ask yourself, is this information critical to backing up my main point? Will the audience still grasp the point if I leave this out?

4. Go off-book

A good indicator that your talk is simple and concise enough is if you can go off-book. Sure, you may want to look at your notes for quotes or reminders, but if you can get through the broad strokes of your talk without reading straight from your notes, that’s a good sign that you’ve made a concise yet informative talk that’s easily digestible.

Public speakers, what are some of your speaking tips?

4 Public Speaking Tips to Ensure People Remember You was originally published in Better Humans on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.