Presentation Skills For Everyone with Taylor Hughes | Episode 126
Taylor Hughes returns for a conversation with Chris Ruggiero to share key insights on how to improve communication and presentation skills for in person and online presenters.
Transcript
You're going there to give them an opportunity that if you didn't go, they wouldn't have. And if we're not giving people what they need, we're wasting their time. If you want to just have a shift in what you're doing, just go back to whoever. I trying to serve what is their biggest need and how can I make their life better today?
And I think that as storytellers, we need to think about both. What is the story we are sharing, but what is the story our audience is gonna go tell other people about the time they spent with us?
[:Dependent on our ability to present our ideas and present our stories. And today I'm talking to someone who is an expert in presenting ideas and sharing stories. Professional magician, storyteller, keynote speaker. He's gonna share a few key elements that help craft stories and then present them to audiences.
And it's not about. Presenting to massive audiences on stages. Sometimes it's presenting to your family or your friends or or your boss, or maybe actually on huge stages. So let's get into this conversation on presentation skills, no matter what you do. And our guest today is Taylor Hughes.
[:Thanks for having me, man. It's interesting how often we have this idea that's in our heart or this thing that we want to exist in the world. Whether it's a project you wanna produce or a business you wanna start, or a nonprofit you want to kick off. And I talk to people who have spent years thinking about it and dreaming about it, but never getting it out.
And I think the difference between having something that's a good idea and having something that actually exists in the world is being able to communicate the story behind that idea. So storytelling for me has been like the number one game changer in my life, my, my livelihood, my business, my family has been dramatically affected by being able to communicate stories in a way that are accurate and powerful and connect people with one another.
[:Then actually, how are we going to actually convey that by speaking to the audience? Okay, now we're ready. How are we gonna like start? We need a successful opening. And then it's not just about the words that we say. So how do we use visuals and illustrations? And then we'll tie it up with a little bonus of, you know, it feels overwhelming to a lot of us of, oh, we have to memorize a speech or memorize a presentation.
So how we think about that memorization versus notes versus bullet points versus filling in the gaps as we go into this, I really wanna. Emphasize that your expertise is often on stages and bigger presentations. But again, this is for everyone. Despite how big of a audience or idea or story it is, it's just everyday things can be.
Yeah, exponentially improved if you're able to share things in a, in a effective way.
[:Want to say, and I've never thought about what I want to say. And so starting with what is your message? What is the thing that you're uniquely qualified to discuss and to share and to educate people on? And how can you get that message out in a way that's gonna connect with people? But before you do any of it, you gotta start with what is it that I want to say?
What is the message that I've been given that I wanna share with the world? And I also think that that's the number one key to avoiding stage fright, is when you attach yourself. So confidently to this message that you have, then you're just the vehicle to get that message out. It doesn't matter what people do with that message or how they react or how they respond to you.
Uh, a lot of times our fear when it comes to public speaking is this idea that what if I go out there and people don't like what I have to say, or I look foolish or I say something, uh, that makes me embarrassed. And the truth is, if we can just attach to the fact that. This message is so important. It needs to get out there.
Then it takes all the pressure off of you. You're just going out there to share the message that people need to hear. What people do with that is up to them. One of my favorite examples is if you were to come to me and say, Hey Taylor, you gotta go knock on your next door, neighbor's door. And when they answer the door, you need to hand them a subpoena 'cause they're gonna go to court.
I would not want that job. I would hate it because me going over there to them would be me taking something away from them that was valuable to them. Right. But if you told me, I want you to go to your next door neighbor, and I've got a check for $10,000 that they didn't know they were gonna receive, now I'm like.
Oh, I can't wait to go. And if you want to not have stage fright, if you want to not have fear of what people are gonna think about you, you need to just reframe it to realize you're not going there to take something from people. You're not going there to get applause or elicit response or get them to sign up for what you're selling.
You're going there to give them an opportunity that if you didn't go, they wouldn't have. And so that all comes from knowing your message and realizing that your message is powerful. It's important, and people need to hear it.
[:And he came up after and he said, stop asking the audience for so much. 'cause he spotted that I was looking for applause, breaks, and trying to get some, instead of just doing my thing. And. Giving that as a gift. Enjoy it if you would like. If not, you know, I'll be off the stage soon. And that has always resonated with me.
He's just said, stop asking them for so much. He, you know, so it's just, we give it and yeah, it won't work perfectly every time and that's okay.
[:Right. And I think that if you, yeah, if you wanted to just take all the pressure off, just put the pressure not on you. But put the pressure on the message. Make the message good. If the message is good, everything else will, will be gravy.
[:So how do we think about that of like knowing the audience? And that's something that we don't always get to pick either, because sometimes the audience is. Different than what we expected or something. There's variables that change there. So it's knowing your audience and preparing for that. But then there's also a part of being prepared for things to change or, you know, something different, to, to be able to be adaptable and flexible to meet that audience who they are or where, where they're at in the, in whatever.
[:Right? Knowing who your audience is helps you shape and craft that message in a way that's gonna best reach that individual. And at the end of the day, that's the most important thing. Having a great message means nothing. People can't receive it. And so you gotta know who is it that you're trying to reach.
If you're trying to reach someone who is an expert in a particular area of business, you better know what you're talking about. If you're gonna use industry terms and phrases and words, right? if you're trying to reach someone who's a college student, you gotta know what struggles are they dealing with right now, and what is it that they are waking up every day feeling and wondering and wanting.
And if you can address your message to fit that need, they're gonna receive it a lot more. Yeah,
[:So I think that's really, really important.
[:So they've got a problem. And if you want to be in business, you just have to solve the problem that that person has. So it starts with caring, it starts with understanding. Where are people at? Where are they struggling? What. What are they worried about today? How can I make their life easier? How can I make it better?
And I think sometimes businesses and entrepreneurs who start off with this focus all about people, they start developing programs and all their attention goes to like making the program run rather, rather than making the people happy. And I think if you want to just have a shift. And what you're doing, just go back to who am I trying to serve?
What is their biggest need and how can I make their life better today? And if you do that, you're always gonna be busy.
[:20 minutes into you not connecting with them, they're not ever gonna connect or hear or even hear the message. So how do you think about in, in different capacities of like giving a big stage show or just opening a conversation with someone, how do you think about success? Openings to your stories and your presentations.
[:So you wanna give them something great upfront. And I think whether you're on stage or online, if you want to connect with people out the gate, you need to give them high value. And we need to respect people's time. Like everybody's vying for our attention. Life is busy and I'm just going online to try to find an answer.
If you can show me you have the answer, then you're gonna have my attention, but, but it starts by just giving high value right out the gate.
[:So sometimes like high value is. Again, thinking about knowing your audience, it high value to them, not you. You know, it's about what you think is important or what you think is a good, uh, video or idea. It's, it, it's only good if it resonates and connects with the audience.
[:Yeah. You, your message is the answer to the problem that they have. And if you forget that, you can make it all about what you want to say rather than what they need. And if we're not giving people what they need, we're wasting their time. So just start with that. What is the need? How do I get to answering that need as quickly as possible?
[:So how do you think about that? Because the answer is not to make a PowerPoint and write out all the bullet points that you're going to say, right. And then read off of those, which seems to be what most people do, uh, if they don't think about it. But how do you think about using visuals to help your storytelling?
[:So by introducing an. Like, just bring, I'll just grab something I have here on my desk, right? Introducing an object. It, it immediately can be intriguing because people go, oh, I know what that is, but I don't know what they're gonna do with it. And so if I'm talking to you and I'm just sharing a, a conversation, but we're playing with this, you're thinking, why is he doing that?
And then we could discuss, uh, an important topic like how life isn't a puzzle to be solved. It's a mystery to be enjoyed. See how by bringing this out, it draws your attention. Something interesting is happening, but then when I say that line in the middle of a talk and that line hits you, the next time you see one of these, which is gonna be often in your life, the likelihood that you remember what I talked about.
Is gonna be higher because I've associated my message that life is not a puzzle to be solved. It's a mystery to be enjoyed. I've associated that with an object that you're gonna see in your everyday life. And so I think it serves two purposes. It keeps the engagement happening while you're in person with people or when you're online with people.
But it also gives them another story to tell afterward. And I think that as storytellers, we need to think about both. What is the story we are sharing? What is the story our audience is gonna go tell other people about the time they spent with us?
[:And that's really not,
[: [: [: [:Yeah. Especially going into a traditional presentation, it could be overwhelming for people to think about that they have to memorize their speech or memorize their talk, or even memorize all of the bullet points of things that they want to talk about. Mm-hmm. So how do you think about memorization versus just having notes to follow versus bullet points or key takeaways?
And then on top of that, how do you, do you physically have. Notes, or do you write them on the palm of your hand? Or how do you kind of manage that so that it doesn't feel like even if you have bullet points, that you're not just looking down at the bullet points?
[:Many people will write their message and they will memorize that message verbatim and never deviate from it, which if you write really well, is great. As long as nothing happens in the room that you weren't prepared for. And I think the thing that separates great speakers from good speakers is the ability to recognize when something's happening.
Maybe someone right before you got up, shared something. And now you can weave in a story at the beginning that's gonna make your message fit in better with the overall theme of the event, right? So that only can happen if you can realize that like I've prepared, I've memorized, but I'm also not afraid to deviate from what I've prepared and what I've memorized and the way I do that.
Is I will plan out and practice my, my speech, my keynote, right? one of the easiest ways to memorize stuff is to record yourself doing it, record yourself doing it within the timeframe you have, and then make an outline that's just bullet points so you know. You've got this kind of timeline of what you're gonna say on stage.
And another thing that's very, very helpful is if you put time codes next to that. So let's say I record 30 minutes of me talking and I realize that five minutes in I should be getting onto this story. If you have that on the stage, then you've got your outline. You can always go, oh, these bullet points will trigger the stories that I've already listened to myself say, right?
It's gonna trigger those memories. But you also realize if, if you start to get a little too behind schedule, maybe you skip a story or maybe you jump ahead a little bit. Having those mile markers to let you know at this point you should be about here are really helpful so that you don't get to the end of a talk and go, I had so much else I wanted to say.
Say, but I just didn't have enough time for it.
[: [:On your GPS, you're like, I want to go here. If something happens along the way, the GPS might take you around it. The goal is just to get you where you need to be, when you need to be there, right? And so I wouldn't worry about not hitting everything. As long as you keep that core structure, you can divert away from it, and you always have a place to come back and it's gonna get you right back on track.
[: [:Right. If you're in a sales meeting, maybe you want them to say, yeah, I, I, I want to take your offer up. Right? If you're doing a major donor fundraiser for a nonprofit or a university, maybe you want them to respond to the ask that you're gonna give, right? Maybe you're just there and you've been asked to share your story and you want.
To not just draw attention to yourself, but you want people to leave encouraged and full of hope and realize that like what worked for you could work for them. If you can write in one sentence what you want them to walk away remembering or talking about or sharing with someone, then everything as you're writing gets filtered through that and you go like, this is a great story, but it's not helping people leave with hope and encouragement and know that this works for them, right?
You filter everything through the win of what you want to have. Accomplished and then it makes it real easy to edit your, your talk to know that you're like really hitting on the thing that you want to hit on.
[: [:Keynotes were on stage or books for people to read. When you're in writing mode, don't edit yourself. Just you're only, imagine you're in a car and there there's only an accelerator is when I'm writing. I only go forward once you get. 30, 40,000 words on the page, then you can go back and say, what are all these words pointing toward?
Right? But, I would encourage you, if you struggle with a constantly stopping yourself from producing, it's probably because you're trying to edit something before. It's the editing process. There's time to write, there's time to edit. and if you give time for both of those things, then you're really gonna get to where you want to go.
[: [:Personal. And we went to a party one night and she called me on the fact that when we left the party, she's like, we were all sitting around the fire pit and you were telling stories and people were leaning in and they were having a great time, and we all left connected in this different way. Why don't you do that on stage?
[: [:All I can tell you is the minute I started telling personal stories and I started framing everything I do around what is the story I want to share, people leaned in in a different way. Business went better. Family relationships went better because since the beginning of time, the way we connect with each other is by gathering around and sharing stories.
And the people who told the best stories were the leaders. And if you wanna lead at home or in your neighborhood, or in your business or in an organization, just become the best storyteller in the room and people will look to you for where we should head next.
[:Uh, usable tactics. That's like stuff that we can actually take away and, and implement again in whatever level of storytelling and presenting that we're going to do. So people are interested in finding out more. You have a, you have educational things like this that's available, but then also entertainment, things that people can watch.
so where would you like people to, uh, go check out more in, in whatever world they're interested in finding out more about you?
[:I've got, one called Enjoy the Ride on YouTube, and another one we just put out live in Chicago for on YouTube as well. Um, so people want to go see good, clean. Funny stuff. They can go check that out. And if you want to learn more about storytelling, it's my biggest obsession in life and my YouTube channel is full of it.
I've got a, a full masterclass for free on public speaking on my YouTube. I also have one that you worked with me on. Your team did amazing job on, uh, book publishing and, and the kind of the world of self-publishing. So. yeah, check YouTube for fun content and also stuff that might be helpful in whatever you're working on.
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