Talk Like Ted: The 9 Public-Speaking Secrets of the World's Top Minds

The second chapter focuses on the importance of storytelling to a successful presentation and business in general. Stories are effective because they stimulate and engage the brain.

The primary example Gallo uses to illustrate his points about storytelling is civil rights attorney Bryan Stevenson’s persuasive talk, “We need to talk about an injustice.” While Stevenson’s presentation focuses on heavy topics such as the number of poor and Black individuals incarcerated in the US prison system, supported by statistical data, he spends much of his time connecting to his audience through anecdotal stories from his life. To explain why this boosted the persuasiveness of the talk, Gallo turns to the three concepts created by Aristotle to explain rhetoric: ethos, logos, and pathos.

Gallo breaks down how all three function in his analysis of TED Talks. Ethos is anything that boosts the credibility of the speaker. Logos is the data, statistics, or logic used to support points. Pathos is anything used to appeal to the audience’s emotions. To be an effective speaker, one must use all three concepts. However, the proportion of each can change the persuasiveness of the talk. For Stevenson’s presentation, Gallo assigned each part one of the three categories: Stevenson talking about his work was ethos, his statistics were logos, and his stories were pathos. When Gallo calculated each occupied percentage, he found that pathos took up 65% of Stevenson’s talk, with logos at 25% and ethos at 10%. While the talk was voted one of TED’s most persuasive, the high percentage of pathos contradicts the standard concept of appealing to reason over emotion. This is because using data and numbers without support from narrative risks alienating the audience. However, by sharing a compelling narrative, one can break down emotional barriers and establish a deep connection with the audience, which makes the audience more likely to agree with one’s perspective.

Gallo breaks down the most effective types of stories to be used in presentations into three categories: stories about yourself, stories about someone else, and stories about brand success.

Personal stories provide a simple means of exposing vulnerabilities to the audience. By sharing personal secrets, fears, or childhood experiences, you allow people to perceive you in a more relatable light. The intimidating façade of being someone of high status dissipates, replaced by a human having a genuine conversation with another human. Stories about other individuals still evoke a strong sense of pathos. Narrating their relatable struggles and subsequent triumphs instills hope in listeners, inspiring them to believe in their potential. These stories can be as personal as your own, aiming to establish a connection between the audience and the message. Sharing behind-the-scenes stories about brands and corporations demonstrates how humble beginnings can lead to greatness. Such accounts ignite the audience’s curiosity and keep them engrossed.

Gallo adds that the audience always wants a hero to root for in the stories they hear. He uses a chart created by writer Kurt Vonnegut to explain the shape of the story most effective to tell. The x-axis represents the beginning to end of the story, while the y-axis represents the good or bad fortune of the hero. Gallo says the story should start at the bottom of the y-axis and climb upward, with a few drops along the way, to finish with “off-scale happiness” (71). If possible, the speaker should introduce a hero and a villain to the audience to give them a way to connect.

The chapter closes with Gallo noting that if ideas are the currency upon which modern society runs, then storytelling is the means through which that currency is exchanged.

Chapter 3 covers how speakers can best present themselves through delivery and body language. No matter the size of the audience, it’s crucial to appear conversational, as if speaking to a close friend instead of a large crowd.

Gallo says the key to projecting this conversational attitude is extensive practice because genuine authenticity doesn’t happen without it. He says as an explanation, “If you don’t practice having a conversation, you’ll be thinking about a million other things instead of being focused on your story and making an emotional connection with your listener” (77). He uses singer Amanda Palmer’s preparations before her TED Talk as steps for the reader. Because it’s easy to be too close to the subject to look at it objectively, the speaker should seek help from people who know them well in the planning phase. The speaker should also get feedback on how well the presentation works as much as possible by letting others read the script or asking for feedback after rehearsals. Finally, hours of practice giving the finished talk nails down the delivery.

In his work on delivery with his clients, Gallo says he focuses on the “three Ps”: passion, practice, and presence.

The speaker should identify their passion, as outlined in Chapter 1, then practice giving their presentation. Only at that point does the speaker’s “presence” emerge. He emphasizes the second point and notes that the speaker should focus on their verbal delivery and body language during rehearsals. Gallo breaks verbal delivery down into four elements: rate, volume, pitch, and pauses.

All four should be considered and used correctly to keep the audience engaged. He compares adjusting any of these qualities in your voice to using a highlighter to mark critical points in writing. For the rate or pace of speech, Gallo says that it should match that of your regular conversations. A mistake many people make is to slow their speech, which makes their presentations sound stilted. However, the rate of speech can be altered to make a point, such as speeding up when high energy is needed. Pitch, volume, and pauses should be natural but can also be adjusted for rhetorical or dramatic effect.

Gallo moves on to discuss body language. He states that issues arise when what the speaker says doesn’t match what they are physically doing. Melding the two comes from believing in what one says. Otherwise, the deception will be blatant. How one looks overall changes the way one is perceived. The speaker’s posture, eye contact, attire, and language selection demonstrate how the target audience will receive the message. Leaders, for example, take pride in every aspect of their presentations. They dress slightly better than others, speak firmly, and maintain eye contact. They exude precision and project their message from the diaphragm. Every aspect of their manner and appearance radiates leadership qualities.

For gestures, Gallo makes a few points on their usage. The speaker shouldn’t be afraid of them, but should be careful not to overuse them. Instead, gestures should highlight key moments in the presentation while remaining genuine to oneself. Finally, all gestures should stay within the power sphere, which is the “circle that runs from the top of your eyes, out to the tips of your outstretched hands, down to your belly button, and back up to your eyes again” (98). To illustrate his points on gestures, he breaks down the respective presentations of Colin Powell, Ernesto Sirolli, and Jennifer Granholm. He marks the gestures used at crucial points in three tables. He highlights the style of each of the three, noting, in particular, Granholm’s use of the type of body language called “eager nonverbal.” The most effective style, “eager nonverbal” gestures are animated, broad, and open, projecting genuine excitement and engagement.

Finally, Gallo provides some fixes for issues in one’s body language. The speaker can combat fidgeting, which makes one look unsure to the audience, by recording the first five minutes of their presentation and reviewing it for unnecessary movements. One can avoid standing rigidly in place by making a conscious effort to walk, move, and overall work the room. Movement is welcome and expected. Hands should be kept out of pockets by removing them and not putting them back in. One hand may be acceptable as long as the other is moving freely.

Gallo concludes that while learning effective delivery and gestures enhances quality, passion and practice are the keys to achieving the best possible presentation.