Tell a Personal Story and Tell it Well - opportunities will rush up to you

Richard Turere, a 12-year-old Masai boy from Kenya invented a simple yet effective device to keep the lions from eating the family herd of cows that he was charged to watch.

Because of the success of that device he was asked to conquer a bigger fear - to speak in public at a TED event. He was a shy 12-year-old boy asked to speak in front of hundreds of people. English wasn't his first langauge and he was travelling to a distant land for the first time in his life.

Watch this TED video to hear his story and more importantly learn from the story telling techniques that he used very well. You probably need to watch this video more than once because it will be difficult to notice techniques while you are entranced by his story.




What did you notice?

He employed a conversational tone - no preaching or bragging.
He spoke without notes. That's one benefit of telling a personal story. You lived it. You simply need to replay the memories.
He spoke slowy.
He set up the problem and importance quickly.
This was a life and death issue.
He allowed his emotions to show.
He revealed his thoughts, struggles and joy.
He used only a few images that aided his story.
He paused when the audience laughed. 
He smilled.


You can read the story behind this TED talk as told by Chris Anderson, Curator of TED in this article How to Give a Killer Presentation on Havard Business Review.

The article also provides excellent tips on giving a TED talk or business presentation.



Presentation Tips on Twitter Presentation Skills Club on Facebook Executive Speech Coach, Business presentation tips from George Torok, the Speech Coach for Executives