Yesterday, I gave a keynote speech on the state of the housing market at the Urban Land Institute conference in Austin, TX. The keynote speech was originally supposed to be 30 minutes long, and since I tend to talk fast, I made sure to prepare 35 slides so I would reach the 30-minute mark even if I went through each slide in less than a minute. But alas, I completed my speech in only 23 minutes.
I know quality is more important than quantity, and I gave a quality presentation. But it irks me that I seem to have an upper limit on how much time I can continuously talk on stage.
In 2019, a few months after I started as chief economist at Redfin, I gave a keynote speech to the Bellevue Chamber of Commerce on the state of the Seattle metro housing market. After concluding my talk, replete with charts and figures, I received a polite amount of applause and returned to the audience to watch the next speaker. I don't remember the speaker's name or what his talk was about. But I do remember that his presentation blew mine out of the water. With no slides or notes, he casually walked to the podium and seemingly improvised a talk that had the audience hanging on his every word. I was in awe.
Being able to deliver a speech, unmemorized, is the Holy Grail for me. That's because I'm bad at memorization. It's one of the main reasons I studied economics instead of psychology or neuroscience. There is very little memorization involved in economics compared to the life sciences.
Plus, improvisation is more fun than recitation. I know this from playing the saxophone. I also know that getting to that fun place where music flows freely requires substantial practice. I can sight-read a piece of music, more or less, on the first try, no matter the key. But ask me to improv a few bars in a key I'm not used to, and I will flounder.
I've been working on getting better at improv on the sax, and I want to get better at improv in public speaking. I should be able to achieve this goal. I already have the material (I know this because I feel entirely comfortable speaking in 5-minute increments on dozens of topics related to the economy and the housing market.) To put it in musical terms: I have practiced for years; I know my scales. I just need to learn how to deploy them into a coherent, 30+ minute-long presentation on the fly. It is similar to musical improvisation, which requires being present and in the moment and having the confidence to trust my instincts.
It would also help if I stopped relying on slides, which are a crutch, and used index cards instead, which are more like a safety net. Onwards, and upwards. . .
I loved to watch Steve Jobs to his improv presentations for new Apple products. He would casually reach into his pocket and pull out an iPod (prototype) like he had totally forgotten about it.
He was the master of minimalist slides and made it look so easy. He never held a slide up more then a few seconds as it distracted from the audience focus on him.
Come to find out, every motion, turn, step, and pause were scripted and rehearsed well before the show. He would come into the venue early the morning of the show and do a complete presentation "one more time".
The secret was making it look like an improv when it was really all planned spontaneity.
this was fantastic and a nice reminder of how much effort it takes to speak casually