Liam Sandford

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How to go from conversation to presentation

Liam Sandford

You have heard me say ‘public speaking is just a conversation’ hundreds of times, but how does that scale? How does speaking to one person translate over to speaking to thousands?

Afterall, a conversation and delivering a speech are two very different mediums.

So how can you make every day conversations relevant for speaking in a pressure cooker environment?

Structure

In Effortless Public Speaking we talk about the only structure you ever need to speak in public. That structure is the simple, open-body-close.

This works for a conversation, just as it does for delivering a speech. How can you capture attention in the opening, deliver what you promised in the middle, and end on a call to action?

At a conversational level what does this look like?

  • Open: I am reading [insert book]

  • Body: [something great I have learned from this book]

  • Close: What are you reading?

This is basic, but getting into the habit of intentionally structuring your conversation makes it easier to deliver in this way when you next have a presentation.

I am not suggesting every conversation should become public speaking practice — just one or two reps a day is all you need to start laying the foundations of becoming a great speaker.

Nano speeches

The nano speech is the tool you need to scale speaking to 1 person to speaking to 1000. It is the easy way to build confidence speaking in public quickly.

It is a 10 second burst of public speaking where you open, give your main point, and close.

Your nano speech can be longer than 10 seconds, but it does not have to be. It is something you can do again and again without too much effort. The nano speech allows you to practice with purpose in low stakes environments, and over time, as you get comfortable transfer into different environments.

Once you have mastered the 10 second nano speech, work your way up to 1 minute, then 10 minutes, then 1 hour. Work your way from speaking to 1 to speaking to 2, to 10 etc.

Every presentation or speech is a bunch of nano speeches stacked together. The difference is instead of a close between the nano speeches, you transition. The structure turns into:

  • Open

  • Body (main point 1)

  • Transition

  • Body (main point 2)

  • Transition

  • Body (main point 3)

  • Close

You are stacking together the different nano speeches that make up your presentation. Getting comfortable delivering one nano speech is the first step. As you increase your comfortability in time speaking, start building a transition between a second body before closing out your nano speech.

Stacking reps

If you want to become a great speaker, and make public speaking effortless, practice is critical.

Even if you get good, then stop practicing, you will be rusty when you come to deliver your next presentation — I have experienced this many times.

Practicing a couple of reps every day may seem like a daunting task, or a lot of effort. But the nano speech should make that easy for you. But if you want to speak in front of an audience as preparation for a big event, where do you stack reps?

Twitter Spaces are my favourite place to stack reps. Easy access, a place to build my brand, and build successful speaking reps that add to my comfortability and confidence as a speaker. I host my own, but you can join other peoples spaces to get practice in.

Actionable takeaways

  • Start structuring your public speaking through the lens of an open, body, close — this really is the only structure you need.

  • Practice daily nano speeches. Get comfortable first before scaling up. This will help you build the foundations needed to become a great speaker.

  • Stack reps of public speaking practice. If you have a speaking event coming up, don’t leave your performance up to chance. Get practicing in the weeks before to get yourself used to speaking in public confidently.

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