[CEO Friday] 4 Specific Tips for Stress-Free Public Speaking

Speaking live on nationwide TV is about the most chaotic, stressful, underwhelming, and anti-climactic thing I’ve ever done

When I started Expensify, I had no idea being a CEO involved talking so much, to so many people, on such a wide array of topics.  Whether it’s a chance encounter in a hallway, keynoting a conference, or being woken up by CNBC with an offer to debate Howard Dean about whether the FEC should accept Bitcoin (answer: yes), you never know what opportunity will come up — and it’ll pass you by if you aren’t ready to jump on it without notice or preparation.

Prior to Expensify, I don’t think I’d ever been on stage or spoken to more than two people at the same time, but here are some tips I’ve come to swear by: 

1. Only memorize the first 5 seconds.  It’s tempting to try to memorize everything word-for-word, but unless your memory is amazing, you’ll probably screw it up.  Instead just make sure you are absolutely clear on how you’re going to start.  The start is the scary time: its when the mic turns on, the lights turn up, and everybody turns to you expectantly.  If you can get through the first 5 seconds, the rest is easy.
2. Practice a lot of dots, and then connect them in realtime.  Any presentation can boiled down to a few key points that the audience will remember.  They typically have concise, intuitive, and hopefully catchy phrasing.  (“Expense reporting is naturally viral: every time you submit an expense report, you submit it to someone more important than you — (dramatic pause) — your boss, your finance manager, etc.”)   Just memorize those specific phrases, decide ahead of time the rough order you intend to say them, and then do your best to fill the gaps in between with something that sounds reasonably smart and deliberate.  Over time you’ll build up such a library of seemingly off-the-cuff key phrases that you can fill any amount of time, on any topic, and sound reasonably intelligent doing so.
3. Bring a drink on stage.  Something hot is ideal (coffee, tea) but even an empty cup will do.  Holding liquid in your hand will help you suppress the natural urge to gesticulate wildly — a surprisingly hard and distracting habit to break.  And best of all: whenever you need a moment to decide what you’re going to say (especially when you get a question from the audience), just take a drink.
4. Slow down.  The faster you talk, the more you need to say to fill your time — and the greater the odds that you’ll run out of things to say and begin to panic.  I’m terrible at this, but make an explicit point throughout the presentation to consciously breathe deep and slow down.  The best presentations are cool, calm, and super super casual.

If I were to pick a fifth tip, it would be “take a shot before going up on stage”.  Seriously — it’ll calm your nerves.  And if the audience is getting bored, swear really loudly about something.  We’ve A/B tested it, and it’s a cheap trick, but it works.  Good luck!