I was spending a happy hour on Ted Talks the other day (I swear tedtalks could be listed on my CV as a ‘hobby’), and I came across this wonderful ‘talk’ by Mark Bezos ‘A Life Lesson from a Volunteer Firefighter’.
It has a very powerful message ‘don’t wait to make a difference’, and more than that it’s an awesome speech.
Here’s why…
1. No Time Wasted Clearing Throat — Mr Bezos dives straight in, how many times have you listened to a speech and thought ‘just get on with it’, Mr B has in the first sentence covered the ‘here’s who I am, here’s what I do, here’s what I have for you today’ , fabulous.
2. Storytelling — notice there are no powerpoints, no props (okay apart from the helmet), no additions. A GREAT story will always captivate an audience, stories aren’t reserved for children. Our brains love a good story, we visualise and can create our own meaning, characters and setting.
3. Start, Middle, End — all here are powerful, snappy, straight to the point and there confusion to the listeners mind of ‘where they are at’.
4. You — Mr B owns the stage pretty much straight away, by including the audience with the word ‘you’ and then again many times over i.e. ‘I know what you are thinking’.
5. Linking — Mark starts many of the sentences with connecting small sentences.
6. Humour — need I say more, humour balances mind and body, maximises brain power (as well as keeping it in a positive state) helps audiences (learners) stay curious and creative, supports the change, creates environments suitable to learning)
7. Pauses and Pacing — Mr B paces the audience and allows ‘thinking’ and ‘catch up’ time.
Here’s the video, what do you think? Have I missed anything?
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