How to be yourself when you give a talk

Why your delivery should match who you are, and what happens to a room's trust when a speaker borrows someone else's manner.

This lesson covers the manner you bring to a talk. It asks that your delivery be your own.

Watching other speakers creates a pull to copy them, borrowing their gestures, their cadence and their style of humour. The lesson asks you to resist that pull. Audiences pick up on performance quickly. When a speaker puts on a manner that belongs to someone else, the room senses it, and the trust built across the whole talk starts to leak away. What a room responds to, underneath everything, is the sense that it is hearing the real person.

So you give the talk in your own register. A quiet speaker gives a quiet talk. A funny speaker is funny. An intense speaker stays intense. Trying to become a louder, smoother or more theatrical version of yourself reads as an act. The room wants the real, slightly imperfect you. In the Source Talk Method, sincerity is what carries a talk.

Key ideas.

Audiences detect performance quickly, and a speaker who adopts a borrowed manner loses the trust the rest of the talk has built.
A quiet speaker should give a quiet talk, a funny speaker should be funny, and an intense speaker should stay intense.
What an audience responds to, underneath everything, is the sense that it is hearing the real person.
Copying another speaker's gestures, cadence or style of humour works against a talk, because the room senses the act.

Questions.

Should I copy the style of speakers I admire?

Resist copying them. Borrowing another speaker's gestures, cadence or style of humour puts on a manner the room can sense, and the trust you spent the talk building starts to leak away. Audiences respond to the sense that they are hearing the real person. Give the talk as yourself, at your own volume and in your own register, even if that version is slightly imperfect.

Do I need to be loud and confident to give a good talk?

You need to sound like yourself. If you are quiet, give a quiet talk. If you are intense, be intense. Trying to become a louder, smoother or more theatrical version of yourself tends to read as performance, and audiences pick that up fast. In the Source Talk Method, sincerity carries a talk, and the room responds to the real, slightly imperfect you.

Lesson 7.2 of From Story to Stage, a free written course by Aaron C. Leaman, published by Brighter Future. The terms it uses are defined in the glossary.