How to start speaking at conferences

Speaking at conferences and meetups has been a huge part of my career, and it’s one of the ways I’ve spread the good word about Test Double—who we are, what we do, and why we do it. Because many more people watch talks than perform them, it didn’t take long for people to start asking me for ideas and advice about how they might get started speaking, too.

So, in the grand tradition of being too lazy to repeat myself for the thirtieth time, I’ve assembled a quick-hit list of 10 things I prioritize in my own talks, recorded for posterity with this new explainer video.

I’m tempted to say that speaking is like a lot of the other topics I cover—that there’s no silver bullet, that everything’s a trade-off, that the righteous path is simple but hard—but the recipe for success is more cut-and-dry than you might think. Beyond overcoming one’s fears, what really seems to hold people back is that most advice about speaking is gobsmackingly bad. And even though we all have plenty of experience watching people talk on stage, our intuition usually fails to reveal much about how to go about giving an enjoyable and effective talk. Hopefully some of my experience figuring this out the hard way will prove helpful to you.

If you watch this video and find yourself in want of additional resources, I’d encourage you to check out Zach Holman’s speaking.io compendium next.

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I started giving conference talks about 13 years ago and I've got bad

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news: public speaking is terrifying.

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But, so are rollercoasters.

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And horror movies.

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And people seem to like those.

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So every year, for whatever reason, a few people will ask me

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how to break into public speaking.

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And so today I prepared a few tips based on my own experience.

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So, here are my ✨ TOP 10 ✨ pieces of advice in roughly the chronological

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order of the life of a conference talk.

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First, befriend organizers.

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In my experience, events are organized by people who are every bit as hooked

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on organizing events as speakers are hooked on speaking at them.

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So, they tend to put on more than one conference over

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the course of their careers.

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Think about it.

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They're the ones looking for speakers and you're the one looking for a conference.

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It's worth getting to know them.

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You never know where these friendships will lead.

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I made friends with an organizer of a conference at an indoor water

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park in Ohio, and a few years later, he was inviting me to speak at the

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largest tech conference in Bulgaria.

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A connection so weird, I'm still confused by it.

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But my first real talk was at a regional conference in Boulder, Colorado.

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Even though my presentation was pretty rough,

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I got to know the organizer, I showed him how much I appreciated him, and

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thanked him for the opportunity, and then he invited me back the next year, too.

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And, a year or two after that, he became the organizer for the

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national conference series, and he helped me break in there as well.

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That led to the opportunity for me to speak at maybe 10 more events

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around the US, including my first keynote slot just a few years later.

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So, if you want to make a name for yourself speaking, don't waste time

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buttering up other speakers like me.

01:38

Find a conference organizer and get to know them.

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Next, wait for something worth saying.

01:44

Most people have no interest in speaking.

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It's a lot of work and a lot of stress and the pay is awful.

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Just kidding, unless you're a big enough draw to sell tickets, there is no pay.

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That means I'm always skeptical of my own impulse to speak.

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So, each time a new conference rolls around, I ask myself, "why

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exactly do I want to do this again?"

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I know myself pretty well.

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And I'm comfortable with the fact that part of the answer will always be that

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I simply crave the validation of others… it's why I'm making this video right now.

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But that alone isn't good enough.

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If you get onstage with nothing to say but, "please like me," people

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will withhold that validation.

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Besides, merely wanting attention and applause won't be enough

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to get you through the pain of pitching topics to organizers,

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writing and rewriting outlines, and meticulously crafting slides.

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There are cheaper, simpler ways nowadays to get yourself

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some meaningless attention.

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So, when a conference is approaching, if I don't have anything to say,

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I'm not afraid to take a pass and let somebody else have that slot.

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Instead, I take it as feedback that maybe I haven't been engaged enough

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in my work to extract anything useful.

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Or, maybe I've failed to take the time to reflect on what's interesting

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and meaningful about my life lately.

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CFP's are their own game.

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A CFP, or a "Call for Proposals," is how many organizers collect

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pitches from speakers which they then review to determine who to

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invite to speak at a conference.

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Responding to a CFP typically requires speakers to submit a title,

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an abstract, and some kind of pitch.

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If you've ever submitted to a CFP, you may have already discovered

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that writing a good abstract is nothing like preparing and delivering

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an excellent conference talk.

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Abstracts are a totally unrelated format that leverages a completely

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different set of skills.

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But, similar to how research scientists spend half their time writing grant

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proposals to secure funding, if you don't play the game, you won't get anywhere.

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The goal of that game: given the finite number of slots at a given

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conference, convince the organizers that they should reject everyone

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else's talks and accept yours instead.

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So, if you want my advice, treat every talk proposal like a game of

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Mad Libs that specifies the things that organizers are looking for.

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Give your talk a provocative, but self-explanatory headline.

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Then start the abstract with a pithy one-liner to get their attention.

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Be sure to make ample use of line breaks, too.

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Reviewers have to read a lot of these, and the last thing they

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want to see is a huge wall of text.

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Next, clarify the problem that you're solving in a sentence or two at most.

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Then, introduce the solution and highlight its benefits.

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Conclude by explaining not what you will say, but what the

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audience will get out of the talk.

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Identify who the talk is for and who it is not for.

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And really think about this one.

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If the talk is for everyone, it might actually be coming

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across as blasé or unfocused.

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Once I started rigorously following this formula, my success rate getting

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into conferences shot through the roof.

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There really are just a certain number of boxes that you need to

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check that organizers are looking for.

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Give your ideas breathing room.

04:42

It takes me at least one calendar month to make a talk.

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And it used to take me at least two.

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That's not because creating the talk requires that much time behind

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a desk, actively working on it.

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It's because all my best ideas for a talk arrive as my brain

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asynchronously chews on the topic.

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And the thing about asynchronous thought is that it happens on its own schedule.

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You can't force it.

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So before I go on a run or while I'm cooking dinner, I'll prompt myself

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to think about an aspect of the talk that I'm working on, and then listen

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as my brain starts generating ideas.

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As those ideas pop into my head, I'll add them to my reminders app

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and sort and triage them later.

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Your mileage may vary, but I'm not sure I've ever had a clever idea that made the

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final cut into one of my presentations while I was staring at a computer screen.

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So, if you're feeling stuck, go outside, touch some grass, and get some fresh air.

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Outline outline, outline.

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When I'm in the homestretch a few weeks before the talk, I start actually

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putting pen to paper and create a rough outline of the talk's structure.

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I start by picking a rhetorical strategy, and then I break up the topic

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into some number of sub-components that I can start fleshing out with the

05:49

individual points that I want to make.

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Then I set it aside and start over from scratch.

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This time, drawing a storyboard.

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I take the sections and points from my outline and try to imagine what

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I might convey visually on slides to go alongside each of them.

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My outlines are intentionally lightweight and disposable, because

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I'd rather recreate a third or fourth or fifth outline than marry myself to

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the fixed structure of the first one.

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I'll keep repeating these activities until the structure and flow of each section,

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as well as its subordinate points, is so compelling as to feel inevitable.

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And, I'll know I'm done when I've convinced myself that I might

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actually be right about whatever it is that I'm talking about.

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Before I call my outline finished.

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I read it adversarially and rework anything that a reasonable

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person might disagree with.

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When the talk feels airtight, then it's finally time to move on.

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Become one with your slides.

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I have been a programmer for over 20 years.

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So, naturally the apps I know best are developer tools, right?

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Nope.

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It's Apple's Keynote.

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I know every keyboard shortcut.

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I assign custom macros to menu items that are otherwise only reachable with a mouse.

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I learned AppleScript just to automate the most laborious aspects.

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A hallmark achievement of my career was when somebody from the Keynote

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team saw a tweet of mine about an obscure bug that I'd found, and he

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reached out to tell me that I might be pushing the app a little too hard.

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For whatever reason, I can happily write code with a dozen different editors,

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but I would never build a presentation with anything other than Keynote.

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So why do I care so much about presentation software?

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It's because conference talks are an audio-visual format and

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the words that come out of your mouth only tell half the story.

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This isn't Shakespeare.

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If there's nothing compelling to look at, people will pull out their phones and

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laptops and you'll lose their attention.

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In order to keep the audience on the edge of their seats, I pair every single thing

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I say with a bit of visual flourish.

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I also move fast enough that the audience will realize that if

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they so much as break their gaze they'll miss something important.

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That's why my slides are full of BIG BOLD TEXT, illustrations that

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gradually build-in to analogize a concept, animations that

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speed up as my stories unfold.

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It's also why I place visual anchors that I return to regularly between sections

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to give people who get distracted some means of hopping back on the bus.

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Every statement is always paired with a click of my presenter

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remote—click, click, click.

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I average 500 clicks in a 30-minute talk.

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But it's not just about the audience.

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As a speaker, my slides are like a pitcher's backstop.

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If my mind wanders and I lose my footing, one click is typically

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all it takes to regain my focus.

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Information without emotion is useless.

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There is one question that I ask myself countless times when creating

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a talk: "How do I want people to feel after they hear this?"

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If speaking were just an exercise in conveying information, I

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may as well hand the audience a README to read to themselves.

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Instead, I sit down with my guitar and write software-adjacent

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power ballads, pouring my soul into every morsel of content.

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The way I see it, if I can make an audience feel my pain, maybe they

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can learn a lesson without making the same painful mistakes that I did.

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And if I can close my talk leaving people feeling empowered to make a

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change in their life or career, and optimistic that they'll succeed, it's

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more likely that they'll actually try.

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Rehearse transitions if nothing else.

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I hate rehearsing and generally don't recommend it… but for

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the inconvenient fact that it usually makes performances better.

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Ideally, by the time I fly to the venue, I'll have instituted a Slide Freeze and

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I'll have nothing left to do but practice and iron out any remaining wrinkles.

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Usually I'm trying to cram 60 minutes of content into a 30 minute time slot,

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so I focus my practice on eliminating superfluity and tightening my delivery.

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I'll run through each subsection of slides repeatedly until the words I

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say don't change between run-throughs.

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Then, I'll repeat the process in larger and larger sections until

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I'm running through the entire talk.

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Measuring success almost entirely by whether the runtime

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will fit into my time slot.

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It's like marathon training, but for your mouth.

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If I don't have time for that much practice, I'll focus on just

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the transitions between slides.

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Because each slide requires me to hold so much in my head, I'll drop it all if

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I click to the next slide and suddenly realize I forgot what I was gonna say.

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Don't write a script.

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I'll come right out and say it: never write out a verbatim script and

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definitely never bring it on stage.

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The best case scenario is that you'll memorize your script so well that

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you'll never need to look at it.

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And yet from the audience's perspective, you'll still manage

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to sound like you're reading it.

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Flat.

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Distant.

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Impersonal.

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Remember, you're giving a talk about raising miniature ponies, not delivering

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the State of the Union address.

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You know the topic well, and you're over-prepared as hell.

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Just talk.

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And while you're at it, disable the presenter display, and instead

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mirror whatever the audience sees on your computer screen.

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Looking at that screen for anything more than a fleeting glance will inevitably

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disrupt the flow of your performance.

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if you really need a sneak preview of what the next slide build looks

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like, it probably means that you don't know your slides well enough.

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People get good at what they do most often.

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So trust me on this: practicing without a script or a presenter

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display will make you good at speaking without either of them.

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By forcing myself to constantly think on my feet and express my feelings

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authentically as I build and rehearse talks has—against all odds—made me

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very good at standing up in front of thousands of people and speaking

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for an hour as if each idea is spontaneously coming to my mind in

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real time, because it literally is!

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Look, I understand going on stage without knowing exactly what you're

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going to say takes a lot of courage.

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But believe me when I say: it will pay off.

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Remember none of this matters.

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It's normal to be nervous before speaking.

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It's understandable to feel like you're not important enough to say

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things in front of an audience.

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If you're terrified of being bad at this, I get it.

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Don't worry about it.

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You will be bad at this, at least at first.

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Speaking is a weird skill that takes a lot of time to develop.

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If you ever saw me before I go on stage, you would see I'm an absolute

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trainwreck of anxious energy, even today—no matter how prepared I am.

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And, if you ever see me after I walk off that stage, it's only because I've

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yet to escape to my hotel room, turn off the lights and take a four-hour

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long bath as my adrenaline levels crash.

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So why do I keep subjecting myself to speaking if it makes me feel this way?

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It's because conference talks are how I find meaning in my career.

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Each talk is an opportunity to crystallize whatever I'm most passionate about and

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share my experience in ways that might be useful or impactful for others.

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But even then, conference talks also, kinda, don't matter at all.

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At worst, speaking is a distraction from whatever your

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boss thinks you ought to be doing.

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And at best, it's an extra credit assignment.

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So try not to take it or yourself too seriously.

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It's true, I put a lot of pressure on myself.

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Every time I go out, I have every intention of pitching the perfect game.

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But I also keep in mind that all of that pressure is entirely

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self-imposed, which grants me the power to let it go whenever I want.

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And my favorite way to release that pressure is blasting all of that

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nervous energy in the direction of an unsuspecting audience.

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So remember to have fun, don't take yourself too seriously and don't

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beat yourself up for making mistakes.

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Just show up as your real, vulnerable self and, in most cases, audiences

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will find themselves rooting for you.

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That's why I never tell other speakers, "good luck," before they go on stage.

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I always say, "have fun," instead.

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So long as you have fun out there, odds are somebody else will too.

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Thank you for watching this.

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You can find more talks at our blog at testdouble.com or by subscribing

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to our YouTube channel and poking around at some of our videos.

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Have fun!