Bring Fun to Public Speaking by David McCarter || Public Speaking Virtual Conference

I'm David McCarter

I'm a Microsoft MVP, award-winning developer, blah, blah, blah. There's all my handles and things like that

I've got a lot to go over in half an hour. I could probably easily talk about this for three hours

So let's get going. Oh, yeah, and this is my 26th year speaking in public

So I started almost 26 years ago and I'm still doing it for some reason

So here's what we're going to talk about really quick today. Kind of why I'm passionate about this subject, bringing fun to speaking, building a brand really quick

And then my number one tip that I've never shared public. So you guys are going to be the first one to hear my number one tip that I try to instill to beginner speakers when I meet them for the first time at a conference

So let's do opening act. So speaking facts

So these are some quick facts according to me. right and um so to me speaking is fun right not in the beginning i was terrified just like most of

you probably were i was terrified i would speaking was the last thing i ever wanted to do

but now i try to bring fun in it i try to bring my personality into it i try to bring in things i

really like in my world, like music and photography and graphic arts and things like that. So I do

those things mostly just because it makes it fun for me and hopefully for my audience too

So building a brand is important. I'll talk a little bit about that in a little bit

And the other thing is speaking expands your knowledge, right? I think a lot of speakers

out there think that, you know, I'm there to, you know, teach them. Well, you know, you learn

through this process too, because, you know, a lot of us want to go up on stage and know what the

heck we're talking about. So it forces us, you know, to learn the subject, at least good enough

to answer questions, especially live questions. So I've found through my career, you know

running a user group for 20 years, speaking there, speaking for 26 years, teaching at a university

for 18 years. All these things has really expanded my knowledge. And I think I'm a better developer

because of it. So I wanted to really make that point for this one. So last week I did this

Twitter poll and I wanted to find out, you know, how do people feel after they leave a session at

a conference, right? And I gave some choices there. And 60% said they were excited to try the subject

At least for me, it's the opposite. Most conference talks I go to, I am number four there

So at least with this talk and talking about fun and brand, you know, I want to fix this 30

so that 100% of the people, well, 90%, according to this poll, 90% of the people walk away going

I want to try this tomorrow or as soon as I get home

And that is the goal. And to kind of, you know, prove this theory is yesterday, I actually, well, yesterday

I was supposed to be in Portugal speaking at NDC Porto. But unfortunately, because of the pandemic, I couldn't

So I did it virtually. And it was the first time I spoke at NDC

I was a little bit nervous because I've never spoken there before. And I was a little nervous because, you know, I usually don't do live sessions like this

I record things. But this is some tweets that I got afterwards

And this really helps me not only feel better about my talk, but that I actually reached people

I look for tweets right after my talk to see what people are saying

So let's talk about bringing the fun to your speaking. So, the first thing I want to talk a little bit about with the next slides is, you know, software engineering sessions don't need to be boring, right

Most are, and a lot of things that the guys and lady talked about today kind of tell you why, you know, monotone voice, looking at your computer, not engaging with the audience, all these things, right

make, you know, make software and software engineering talks boring. And, you know

software engineering is usually is not the most exciting thing in the world. But, you know

you can make it fun. And I try to really do that a lot in my talks. And because I've learned this

the hard way as usual through the 26 years. So engage your audience. You know, the other speakers

today have talked about this. It's really important to engage your audience. And I'll talk a little

a little bit about some tips that I do to try to engage my audience. But, you know

this is super important. So they walk away feeling good about the session and about you

and hopefully buy your book or come see you again. One thing I wrote down when I was doing

this is talk to them, not at them, right? It's hard for me to explain that, I guess, but

you want to talk to them in a welcoming way and not in a I guess a threatening way Or you must do this you know or you know Java sucks

Oh, wait, I say that. So, you know, you need to learn how to talk well to your audience

And be friendly and show the willingness to help. I think most people, especially my followers in India, know that, you know, I am always willing to help them

I hang around in the halls. I hang around after the session. I hang around as much as I can to help people

That's why I'm there at the conference. Right. I go to conferences to help people to learn to be better software developers

That's why I'm there. So the whole time I'm there, that's my job is to help you guys and listen to you

And one thing I do that I'm really, you know, thankful that I'm a Microsoft MVP is, and this happened yesterday in my talk at NDC, where someone came to me and came to me with a code problem and said, Dave, I can't figure this out

Here's an example. It breaks, you know, .NET is breaking on this

Can you help me? I test it. I see it breaking. And I go, you know what

I'm going to talk to the .NET runtime team on Monday and get them working on this

And so that's one thing I do at conferences is I write these things down and I bring them to the Microsoft Teams up in Seattle

So just some of the things I've learned is I look at my audience a lot

I'm trying to look at this tiny little camera, which is really weird for me to do because I'm an in-person speaker

I'm not a remote speaker like this. But, you know, if you've ever seen me at a session, I am constantly looking at the audience

Right. I try to look at everybody, depending on the size of the room. At C Sharp Corner Conference, it's really hard for me to do that because the room is so freaking huge

But other conferences, like I usually can do that. and um you know not only is this important um to show that you're engaged with the audience

right but it shows how they're engaging with you and and by the looks in their eyes or facial

expressions i quickly change my talk or maybe talk more about one thing or if i know i sense

the audience is more beginner then i explain things a little better but i i can only know

this by looking at them. And anyway, so looking at your audience the whole time is super important

And like Magnus said, don't look at the slides, right? Look at your audience

I walk, unlike Magnus, I walk around the entire time, right? And I clocked it once and I walk

about three miles in one hour when I'm in a live session. And this is great exercise, I guess

helped me lose 100 pounds. But, you know, I do this for a bunch of reasons. But the main

and I could talk about those, but I'm going to talk about the main one. So I actually learned

this a long time ago when I went to a Microsoft conference and I saw a speaker do this

The speaker never stood at the computer. He never stood at the podium. He walked around the audience

the entire time. And I thought that was the coolest thing because it kept me engaged with him

And so I do that now, right? I never stand at the computer. I never stand at the podium. I walk

around the entire time. I walk up and down the audience. I walk around. I don't go behind the

audience, but I walk around the entire time because I've found that this forces them to

pay attention to me, right? And not use their cell phone, right? As soon as someone whips out

their cell phone, the talk is over and you've lost them. So to me, walking around helps me

keep them engaged. Oh, I guess I duplicated that. And I smile a lot. If you guys have seen me

I smile the entire time pretty much, not only because I'm having a good time, but I want the audience, you know, to know that and feel good about, you know, what I'm talking about

So I smile a lot and I have some proof coming up of that

For those of you who haven't seen me, I play rock videos before my session

You know, I started this a long time ago and, you know, I started doing this for the audience because I wanted to get the audience into a different mode before they saw my session

And because, you know, when people are sitting on their butts all day, it's hard to get them engaged

And so I started showing these rock videos before my session. And but I quickly found out that it was a way to get me in a different mood and get me excited

Because when I see these videos, these are all my favorite groups like Rush

I rock out and get start getting happy and, you know, and it starts getting me worked up

I have a routine before I talk. And this is part of my routine. And I also, most conferences you go to, you don't get introduced

You just start your talk. I started these funny videos to introduce myself

And again, it's a way to engage the audience, get them laughing a little bit with these funny things that I come up with

And so we're all kind of on the same page when I start talking especially with my rock and roll outfit and all that kind of stuff that you guys have seen in India I throw guitar picks out at the audience Again this is a way not only to brand myself

but this is a way to make the audience pay attention because I actually found this out with my students at a university

If I threaten to throw things at them, they're going to pay attention. And so I do that

So all of you out there, I've hit in the head with something. I apologize now publicly on YouTube

I try to keep things light. I tell jokes, a few, not too many. Don't tell too many jokes

But, you know, I found getting geeks to laugh is really hard

But I try to do that. And again, it's to keep them engaged

Another thing I do to make it fun and keep them engaged is I bring swag to give away

I always have software posters, mouse pads, guitar picks, stickers, magnets, all these things is mostly branding

But again, to keep the audience engaged and have them excited about the talk

So here's some proof of fun. All these pictures are pretty recent

And now I think my PowerPoint is going to die. Come on

Yep. I think my PowerPoint's going to die

I'll keep talking while it's dying. But anyway, I have some pictures up here about the fun I have at conferences, you know

to kind of show you proof that this works, at least for my branding, at least

Let me try to get this working again. Oh, there it goes. I don't know why PowerPoint likes to do auto saves

when you're in presentation mode. So here's some proof of me speaking

at different conferences around the world, Ukraine, India, America. And you can see in every one of these pretty much

I'm smiling or I look like I'm having fun. And the next deck is even better, the next slide at least

And you can see in all these, I'm smiling, having fun, breaking guitars, engaging with my audience

In one picture there, you have the C Sharp Corner team lifting me up in the air after I broke a guitar

I, you know, those of you who come to India and watch me break guitar, I can't tell you just how much fun that is because conferences won't let me do that here in America

So. So the next thing I want to talk about is branding a little bit. How much time do I have left

I didn't start it, so I don't know. about 10 minutes, it looks like. So here's some things to think about for branding

You know, speaking is one of the best ways to find a new job, right? I can

trace almost every job I've had in the software world back to speaking somehow

either at the university, at conferences, at user groups, at local companies

wherever I've spoken out of high school before. You know, this is the best way to find a job, really

Because, you know, the mere fact that you're up there speaking in front of people gives you credibility

And it really, really helps you find jobs. And people walk up to me, you know, to find a job

I was at the C Sharp Corner Conference and someone walked up to me and goes, Dave, we have to work together

You know, I was in India. So it's a really great way to find a job. Promote your projects, you know, GitHub, things like that, new gid, whatever projects you're doing. It's a good way to promote things. Promote your books. Of course, I use my talks to promote my books. If you're a Pluralsight author, it's a good way to push your Pluralsight. And like I said before, it's a great way to learn. Speaking is a fantastic way to learn

um those of you who have seen me speak before you know um my slide decks are pretty crazy

and crashes uh powerpoint often um but again i do that not only to create my brand but to try to get

you know people uh you know excited about what i'm talking about and you know sometimes i go a

little overboard with my animations because i'm bored and i'm playing around with after effects

or something, but I try to make interesting slides. And there's been many times when people have come up to me

at conferences going, what software are you using for your slides? And I go, PowerPoint

And they go, that's not PowerPoint. And I go, it is. So it's a great way to, again, brand, keep people excited

If you look at like news, I watch the news most of the day. They have moving things, you know, in the background and around the sides

But don't go too crazy. It shouldn't be too distracting. And I've done that a few times

You know, and I said before, this is a great way to like push things like my book

So here's like what I show at the beginning of my talk yesterday at NDC because it was about code performance

And it a way for me to push my book get some people to buy my books which some people have since yesterday And of course you guys know in India that you know all the profit from the print book of this goes to the voice of slum in India so I usually spend like a minute or so

talking about my visit to the voice of slum because it was very is a very

moving experience so here's my number one tip I think I'm close to time but I

got a few more things to talk about so here's my number one tip and you know

one thing I do I just thought about one thing I do in all of my sessions is

there's one thing in my slide deck that I want people to pay attention to one

slide and because if there's I want them to bring that home with them or back to

work with them when they leave the conference. So, and on my two-hour talks, I have two things

but in one-hour talk, I have one thing. So, here's my number one tip, and here's the tip

that I've never shared publicly ever before, and let's see what people say when I

I'm a little bit afraid to share it because I'm worried about what people are going to say

So, here it is. you can't teach anyone anything in an hour or less flat out um it's it's impossible uh you know

when i taught at university you know i had four and a half hours and yes in four and a half hours

i can teach somebody something but in one hour you can't and now most uh conference sessions

are shrinking, you know, 45 minutes, 30 minutes, 20 minutes. I don't know how you do sessions that

small. You know, some conferences have gone to 45 minutes. And if I know they're doing that

I don't submit my talks anymore. I can't do an hour, a 45 minute talk or a 30 minute talk

even though this is a 30 minute talk. But I can't do them. And so there's one thing you have

to remember what your job is. And this is what I found out a long time ago

what my job is in one hour. And this is it. The only thing you can do is get them excited

about what you're speaking about. That's it. You know, that to me is your job

is to get them excited about, you know, Azure functions or AWS Lambdas

or whatever the thing you're talking about, you want to excite them about that

So they go and learn on their own because they're not going to learn in an hour talk

especially at a conference when they've been sitting on their butts for eight hours

It doesn't work. So you need to get them excited about what you're talking about

And I, you know, I can't really stress that enough. and that's why you know i do some of these goofy things and the throwing things and the rock and

roll gear and things like that because i want to get them excited about when i talk about and

in most cases um you can do that and uh i mean in most cases i do that and uh not every conference

i'm successful that's just the way it is um you know every city every conference is different um

I love going to India, you know, and to the C Sharp Corner Conference because, you know, the geeks there are so warm and welcoming

And even though they're a bit more shy than Americans, you know, they do come up and talk to you and ask good questions

And, you know, that's my fun. You know, if I could make a living doing just this, I would do it

But there's no money in this. So anyway, so get them excited

That's your number one thing. If you can do that in an hour, then you have succeeded. Right

And as soon as I learned this, it just relieved a lot of stress on me and and allowed me to basically over a number of years, you know, create the brand that I am now

And .NET Dave and the rock and roll gear and all that branding stuff, you know, that's .NET Dave

but you know this is what helped me create all that so encore

so you know remember to always bring the passion and fun right I'm very passionate in my talks

and I try to be fun and in most cases it really does work for me

And, you know, the last thing I want to leave you with is, you know what

If this shy introvert geek can learn how to speak, so can you, right

I had to force myself to speak because I did not want to do it

I hated it more than anything when I started learning how to speak

and so you know if I can do it then anybody can do it so that's what I'm going to leave you with

and I'm really glad you all attended this I hope you have some good questions I was talking the

whole time I wasn't able to read the chat but thanks a lot for attending and you know I hope

to see you at, um, in India next year. Thanks