Think Fast, Talk Smart: Communication Techniques

He Never uses "um","well","ah","hmm" for 50mins. Incredible....

Remind me iff you're watching this video in 2024

I was brushing my teeth and this video popped up on my feed. Instantly, I recognized Matt’s face right away.. he was my speech professor in 2007! So happy to see him here all of these many years later!! Good memories came back right away cause he was one of the best teachers!

"If you are striving for greatness, dare to be dull" Amazing advice!

Here's the notes I took, hope they are beneficial
1. Have Anxiety under control
1. Greeting Anxiety
- Greet Anxiety, say hello to it, it's normal and natural, Take a deep breathe
- Anxiety helps us, we just want to manage it
2. Reframing it as a conversation
- Use conversational language (Inclusive language)
- start with questions in your presentation
- reframe presentation as conversation with audience
- presenting isn't performing
3. Be in the present moment
- bring yourself to present not the future
- Be present Oriented
- Walk out a building before talk
- count number by back
Audience should be comfortable
2. Ground Rules
- Get yourself out of your own way, don't be perfectionist
- See things as an opportunity not a threat
- Improvise
- Dare to be dull
- "Yes and .. " make it always on your tongue
3. Slow down and listen
- You should be in service of your audience
4. We have to tell a story
- Never lose audience, you can hook them by a story
- you have two structure :
1. Problem → Solution → Benefits
2. What → So what ? (Why) → Now what
-Structure sets you free

I have studying to do. So I'm procrastinating productively by watching this video.

Great video really but if someone wants an advice you need to read a book called revealing the mysteries of self love.. you can thank me later

Dare to be dull.
I think this was speaking to me.
I often find myself stuck trying to give the very best but end up not doing it at all.
Thank you Matt Abraham, I'll allow myself to make mistakes and correct them as fast as I can.

Every family👨‍👩‍👦 has that one person who will break the family financial struggle, I hope you become the one🤝

Who's here learning to be a human after Covid

i love his way of speaking,
it feels like he is a father talking kindly to his own children (audience),
it's comforting and easier to understand ♡

I actually took the class he is referring to. It was a 12-week class held at the Stanford campus, a few hours a week. This is one of those "self improvement" classes that had a huge impact for me. It really helped me with public speaking inhibitions and freed myself to just speak and be in the moment. Highly recommended.

He is very confident, calm and knows exactly what he is doing. He has the pulse of the audience. Even as an online audience, I found it very interactive.

Notes, general ideas, and summary:
Agenda of being an effective speaker regardless of it's being planned or spontaneous, depends on:
1. Anxiety management.
2. Ground rules.
3. Speaking spontaneously.
- Anxiety management
85% of people are nervous when they speak in public. Anxiety isn't inherently a bad thing it can help you focus. However, excessive anxiety could impair our ability to speak spontaneously.
The techniques used in anxiety management:
- When anxiety symptoms kick in few minutes before public speaking (as in gurgly stomach, shaking limbs, etc.), just be mindful about them, acknowledge them and don't resist them "We simply greet our anxiety and say hey" Take a deep breath and don't let anxiety spiral out of control.
- Re-framing public speaking as a conversation and not a performance. There is no "right" or "wrong" way of presenting (although there are certainly better or worse ways). there are multiple ways to make it as a conversation like:
- Start with questions: they are dialogic in nature. They could be rhetorical, polling, or simply asking for information.
- Using conversational language. Using an inclusive language and not distance the audience from ourselves and the speech, in addition to having a relaxed body language.
- Be present oriented. Don't think about the far future. This in turn will clear your mind and make you less nervous. There are some ways of becoming present in the moment such as doing pushups, walking, listening to music, tongue twisters (they can help in warming up the voice as an added benefit) or it could be anything that brings the attention and use some cognitive resources.
- Ground rules for being comfortable in speaking in spontaneous situations
- Get out of your own way. Dare to be dull. Don't worry about being perfect or doing stuff flawlessly. Improvise, don't stockpile information, let your brain act spontaneously. Train the skill of improvisation. Because aiming at greatness could be in your way due to over evaluation, and over analyzation which leads to freezing up.
- See things as opportunities and not as challenges or threats. Make it a conversation and don't make it an adversarial situation. Make it an opportunity to clarify and explain what's in your head, and understand what people are thinking. Take a "Yes, and.." approach instead of "No, but..".
- Slow down and listen. "You need to understand the demands of the requirement you find yourself in, in order to respond appropriately". Don't jump to conclusions without gathering enough information. So, slow down and listen to understand and be in touch with the receiver to fulfill your obligation as a communicator. "Don't just do something, stand there."
- Tell a story. Respond in a structured way. Having a structure is key to having a successful spontaneous, and planned speaking. It increases processing fluency which is how effective we process information. We process and retain structured information 40% more reliably and accurately than non-structured ones. For example to memorize a string of 10 numbers we structure them into 3,3, and 4 numbers. Structure helps us Remember.
A couple of useful structures:
- The "Problem > Solution > Benefit" Structure. You firstly start talking about what is the problem, then talk about a way/ways to solve the problem, and finally, talk about the benefit of solving it. Never lose your audience. Set expectations and provide a structure to keep the listener on track, and this structure helps with that. Could be re-framed as "Opportunity > Solution [steps to achieve it] > Benefit"
- The "What? So what? Now what?" structure. Start firstly by talking about what the problem/idea is, why is it important, and then what the next steps are. This is a good formula for answering questions, and introducing people [Who they are? Why are they important? And what to do next with them (listening,drinking, etc..)]. In a spontaneous speaking situation we have to think about two things simultaneously; Figure out what to say and how to say it.
Practicing these structures is a key skill for effective spontaneous thinking. "Structure sets you free."
Sorry if there are any grammatical or spelling errors. I'm not a native English speaker.
Edit: Spelling.

Who's watching in 2024 😊❤

people listen to soft music to do their homework, but i find these hour long podcasts with speechless delivery more enticing and relaxing

Notes
7:58 manage anxiety - acknowledge your anxiety
9:22 reframe as a conversation, not as a performance.
9:52 ask questions -gets audience involved, frames a conversation.
10:12 note, should be questions -so you can answer, this is more helpful to remember
10:29 use conversational language -includes audience and can help manage anxiety
12:13 Be present-oriented -helps manage anxiety, helps bring you to the present
16:42 Get out of your own way -stop thinking you need to get it right -you over analyze, you over evaluate, all this can make you freeze up
24:41 make your challenging situations into opportunities -your approach affects the situation
32:51 co-create and share -helps feel less nervous and defensive -these traits can help you accomplish
33:32 slow down and listen -you need to fully understand the speaker in order to communicate
38:35 Don't just do something, stand there -listen and then respond
39:35 - 42:54 structures -structures in speaking helps you process information more effectively

First time in my whole life watching a video with 58min without getting bored even a second!!

The lecturer is super humble and funny! What an exquisit style of speech delivering!

He seems so confortable talking in public that it also makes me more confortable to listen to him. Awesome video!

20 million views... proves how much we're all learning to be human

I'm happy to have come across this channel today. I battle a lot with anxiety hence it makes me paralyze when I'm doing a public speech or a presentation.

I’ve been trying to find out why I some time freeze in the middle of a conversation and forget how to finish some of my sentences. This video right here has saved me from drowning with anxiety. I always knew I that I can communicate like no other when I’m full of confidence but when I crack under pressure, i become the most uncomfortable person to be around with. Day by day I’ll take everything on board from this video and will definitely revisit this in the near future

What I learned from this talk
1) anxiety is very natural and don’t let anxiety overtake you . Learn to manage it. I personally use deep breathing and meditation to overcome anxiety .
2) Be inclusive in your communication.
3) First become a good listener by being focused
4) Treat every speaking occasion as an opportunity not as a challenge
5) Remove No- But with Yes -And attitude
6) public speaking should be like an inclusive conversation not as a performance.
7) Your body language counts a lot .
8) structured communication- problem -solution - benefit OR what -so what - now what

It's so rare to find a person with such exceptional EQ. His voice alone exudes such openness and joviality that I could not but relate. My heart is pounding right now.

Damn, I’m half way through the video and it opened my eyes. I already had seen some tips and textbook advice but the way he presented everything was so easy to understand and apply in real life. I went to an interview and I felt so good after watching this - one of the best (if not the best) performances I’ve had for an interview LOL. I’m definitely going to finish the rest of the video and apply as much as I can because it is legit advice. Especially managing anxiety. What works best for me is slowing down. Never starting at 1000 words per minute! It helps sooo much to not have anxiety. You’d be surprised how well you can speak when you let what you’ve learned come out instead of your anxiety.

It amazes me greatly how I go from living an average lifestyle to making over 63k per month
I've learned a lot over the past few years that there are plenty of opportunities in the financial markets; all it takes is just to focus on the right thing. Credits to Zach Micah Demers

The one thing I noticed is that he used humor to relax and open up his audience, which in turn helps him to do the same. Secondly, he used opportunities to make it interactive, which helps them learn better and also keeps their attention.

i saw this lecture and now i realised (again) how important Drama/ Theater lessons were to me. It changed me so much, mu communications and freedom of expression changed a lot.
I really hope to get back to it one day, and well, i hope more people have the same oportunities. Its a new world of undertanding art, comunications and people.

If you wanna be successful, you most take responsibility for your emotions, not place the blame on others. In addition to make you feel more guilty about your faults, pointing the finger at others will only serve to increase your sense of personal accountability. There's always a risk in every investment, yet people still invest and succeed. You must look outward if you wanna be successful in life.

"What I have learned from this video is that listening is the key to being a good speaker. We should greet anxiety. If we get the opportunity to talk, just speak (get out of your own way) without worrying about whether you are right or wrong. Everyone gets anxious; it's normal. Speak confidently. Always use structured conversations when conveying the message. Thanks for the video."

It's a trail of an excellent teacher to able to express ideas and concepts in a clear and concise manner. Mr. Abrahams is, definitely, one of the best couch you can find on the Internet on this touched nerve topic.

Finally KRplus Recommended something good

“See, I’m having a conversation with 100 people”
...22M views later

"in spontaneous speaking situations. The very first thing we have to do is manage our anxiety. Because you can't be an effective speaker if you don't have your anxiety under control. And we talked about how you can do that by greeting your anxiety, reframing as a conversation, and being in the present moment" I love the beginning and ending with words

He's a great communicator because he had me, a 15 years old teen watching this 58 minutes video without stopping

1. Manage anxiety
1. “Greet” anxiety. “This is me feeling nervous”
2. Reframe as a conversation not a performance
1. Start with questions (rhetorical, polling, etc.)
2. Use conversational language (“this is important to you” vs. “one must consider”, “step 1” vs. “The first thing for you to consider..”)
3. Be in present moment to eliminate anxiety (orientation to time influences reaction).
1. How: 100 pushups, tongue twisters, walk around building, focus on song, count backwards from 100 by tough numbers.
Tongue twister: I slit a sheet. A sheet I slit and on that slitted sheet I sit.
2. Warm up your voice
2. Practice Steps to Speak Spontaneously
1. Get out of own way (remove expectations)
Activity: Point and shout wrong name, without pre-planning
2. See interactions as opportunities not challenges
Activity: Surprise gift challenge. Giver: “I knew you’d like it because...”
3. Take time to listen
Activity: Spell letters of conversation
3. Use a useful structure
1. Problem/opportunity-> solution -> benefit
2. What?-> so what? (Why important) -> now what?
Book: “Speaking up without freaking out”

If you wanna be successful, you must take responsibility for your emotions, not place the blame on others. In addition to making you feel more guilty about your faults, pointing the finger at others will only serve to increase your sense of personal accountability. There's always a risk in every investment, yet people still invest and succeed. You must look outward if you wanna be successful in life...

I am not a native English speaker, yet your ideas was clear and concise. It has helped me in my endeavor to get over anxiety in speaking and in maximizing mediocrity to achieve greatness. i wish you the best in your book and lectures. Your lectures and methodology will help millions of folks.

We read news in the media that doom and gloom is coming and we just accept it, doom and gloom doesn’t always have to be coming, I’ve read numerous success stories of people that are pulling off tremendous gains of up to $250K within weeks in this crazy market and I just want to learn how to achieve such figures.

A good talk that deserves the speaker's name on the title- Matt Abrahams, and a completed intro in the brief.

I wanted to watch this video 2 yrs back but I was postponing it due to some work But now I have watched it completely it is an amazing video with helpful techniques for communication Thank you

I swear, its the best presentation and speech ive ever heard

This video is never going to be die.
My grandson will learn mostly everything about presentation by this video

I'm glad I ran into this one. It's almost like the internet is monitoring me and had youtube say "this is the video for you".. I had a nervous session in class after running on zero hours of sleep, I really thought I was going to be able to do it but it was terrible. Will never do that again. Get your sleep before class.
There... I used the structure and I think it worked pretty well.

This is one of the most fantastic academic workshops I have attended online, really worth wotching, it might make all the difference in the way you are doing things when it comes to public speaking and presenting in front of large number pf audience !!

shoutout to the people that are aged in this workshop yet actively learning at that stage.

Younger audience is just looking awkwardly at each other. The aged audience are the real learners they are taking the activities more seriously. Just loved their hunger for acquiring new knowledge!

This is absolutely brilliant and I am so grateful that knowledge, wisdom, and guidance like this is readily available AND FREE on KRplus. thank you so much!

I can't believe I just watched a 58-minute video in one sitting. Recently, I have turned to KRplus to broaden my knowledge and deepen my thinking process. However, this is the first video where I learned practical and applicable knowledge that'll stick. Good stuff, Matt!

""Presenting" is not a performance"
Bro..tht line...will forever be engrained in my mind..

just planned the best surprise party for my mom and gave the best speech i've ever given because of this video, thanks for your help sir! the best way to start progressing in life is by saving money, i promise nothing brings the confidence level up like a a good finance believe me!! i'm taking her to hawaii afterwards will tell you how the trip went

he is very calm and confident and know how he doing and he is very interactive when he talk his speech is very interesting for audience even they are online, so he is vary good speaker.

"dare to be dull" is the best advice i think for working at a call center lol

The most inspiring thing about this video for me is his confidence while speaking and teaching
The flow is smooth and worth emulating

This is a great speaker to the core, and I have listened to this video for more than 5 times. As a podcaster, I see “Active Listening” as a fundamental communication skill. This is a great skill because it helps for full concentration, understanding, responding. In business, this technique is vital for building strong relationships with colleagues, clients, and stakeholders.

Just watching him is a lesson in itself, such a professional speaker!

I have no idea how I am just now blessed enough to discover Matt Abrahams but he has a new fan! I have been meaning to watch this for while but as I was talking my morning meditation walk I tuned in to his Grit & Growth Podcast episode and just had to finally watch this.

The most challenging part really is retaining audience's engagement. This is very helpful!

Dear unkhown person whoever reads this we don't know each other yet I wish you all the luck afterward from this moment 💫❤️ you are a blessing you don't know that yet , don't blame your self or else loose yourself in the dessert of uncertainty, ur smile is precious keep that up🥰

I love the fact that this is the first video that I can focus on and not getting bored. I'm the introvert, like I always feel nervous and scared to present in front of my friends when that happens I tend to forgot about the topic that I'm going to talk about 😭 I really can't take that anxiety off

He is an incredible speaker and he knows how to efficiently get his point across I am a high school sophomore and I watched this entire video no issues its understandable and easy to learn from and take into your own life.

I'd love to be in the this institution listening to him guided by him. I'm indeed blessed to have searched about communicating. I have picked out more vocabulary than what I've received.❤😊

One of the best video on Communication skill I've ever watched. Thanks Stanford Business for uploading this.

Communication is AMAZING. It's ART all by itself. COMMUNICATION IS NOT ONLY VERBAL. Obviously, BODY LANGUAGE is essential as well. Not to mention. It's the SIMPLICITY for me. This Gentleman is literally having a conversation about CONVERSATION which equals, communication. Effective communication!
~ LISTENING. ✨

what is outstanding for me is, many old people want to hear and attend the seminar, and frequently ask the speaker how to talk effectively in order to talk without creating an altercation and ambiguity. Because I often see and feel, some of them are always feeling "I have been living in this world for a long time and you don't have the right to teach me how I live, specifically how to communicate with each other". But, amazingly, they're trying to listen and learn about it. I really appreciate those old people, furthermore, shout out to the speaker who gives a stunning presentation and education.

I just stumbled into this video and couldn't stop watching. Too good. I loved it.

Listened to literally every podcast episode. First time seeing Matt visually. As always, great stuff. He’s my mentor and doesn’t even know it lol

This seminar is the best example of what he taught us.

"Make your audience feel comfortable."
Wow.
This changed my perspective all over the place!
😱

I dident really thought about spontanious speaking as problem to be solved altough it is some of the biggest barriers. My mind was almost of reborn as i listened to this lecture cant discribe the feeling. We have been tought by our schools our hole life ro think in a certain partern i really felt i was out of that trap listening to this 😊🙌🙌

This was literally one of the best things. The knowledge and self development here>>

The fact that this video was uploaded way back 2014 and is still relevant until this day is 👌🏻✨

This video was amazing I’m glad it came into my recommended, I think now I can overcome the confidence and anxiety to toast and appreciate my family when we eat at the table together

I just discovered this today and I’m glad i chanced on this. I have battled anxiety for years as a very intelligent students and people’s choice for leadership yet anxiety has pulled me back. I hope to practice these to be confident in my delivery.

Matt is gorgeous and super skilled podcast producer and an excellent lecturer/mentor.
I really improved my listening and speaking strategies throughout his lectures.

Great video. I interviewed for a job that requires public speaking and just the thought of even getting hired and preparing to speak has me shook. This video is full of great tips.

I instantly became nervous when he spoke about anxiety.

Incredible communication techniques! I’m so happy that I can watch this video for free. I think I’ll watch this wonderful interactive speech again and again❤

Notes.
Anxiety Management:
-Notice and accept you're being nervous, this avoid it to spin up
-Reframe, you're having a conversation, not a performance
.ask questions
.use conversational language
-Be present-oriented, don't think about consequences, just focus on the moment
Ground rules:
1. Get yourself out of the way, stop looking for perfection, "dare to be dull"
2. See the communication moment as an opportunity (for example to land more effectively your message)
3. Slow down and listen
4. Respond telling a story (having a structure)
.Structure #1: problem, solution, benefit
.Structure #2: what is it? why is important? what are the next steps? (what, so what, now what)

Wonderful lecture to advance my knowledge of commutation skills. Im starting my journey to self improvement, who else is here with me?

General ideas that has been put forward by Mr Matt Abraham here will be really helpful for me in longrun. Accepting our anxiety and avoiding stock pilings of our brains makes us more creative. Matt abraham's way of communicating with his audience is exceptional. He acquired his audience attention with his confident and brilliant communicative skills.
Anyone Struggling with focus or communication , Matt Abraham is the man you can approach.

As an ESL teacher , the tongue twister and the games are really fun and so active . Hope to attend your seminar one day

List:
Anxiety management:
• Anxiety isn’t bad, it gives us drive to continue speaking.
• Make your audience comfortable.
• When your nervous try greeting your anxiety.
• There are no mistakes in presenting.
• List questions that you’re going to answer while presenting.
• Use conversational language.
• Don’t worry about the future consequences.
• Try being in the moment.
• Warm up your voice.
Ground rules:
• Speak more spontaneously.
• Don’t be afraid to get things wrong.
• Don’t fallow patterns.
• Train your brain to get it out of the way.
• See things as an opportunity.
• Say more yes than no.
• Slow down, focus and listen.
• Respond with structure.
• Never lose your audience.
• Have ideas and themes.
• Paraphrase questions.
• Try figuring out who is your audience and what are their expectations.
• If you’re asking a question, ask for some advice.

"A Q&A session is an opportunity to clarify, to understand what people are saying"- Seeing it as an opportunity rather than a challenge and a threat. That whole sentence changed my life

I believe gaining confidence and clarity in our communication can make a significant difference in various aspects of our lives. Thanks for sharing this valuable opportunity!

As a proud member of AA, I have over 6 yrs public speaking experience. I prefer spontaneous vs planned, so not to give myself time to overthink or to seem scripted. I don't usually get very anxious and it gets easier every time.

This was a great presentation. Thank you Troy McClure.

from the very beginning i started to love this video. Such a powerful speaker👍

who is here 2024 to ur self

I just received a call from a company I am applying to. They emailed me already that I didn't pass hence I didn't expect their call but someone called and I got so nervous that I had a hard time understanding what he is asking me, I think he got pissed off 😅 that's why after that call I searched immediately for this.
Since I am an introvert speaking spontaneously to anyone is a hard job for me but I'll try harder to develop my speaking skills from now on 😣✊

You know why u kept watching this till the 58th min and the 20th second? becoz of one thing.. He was talking spontaneously!! He wasn't distant from his audience and he used an understandable vocabulary.
Am going to read his book and look for other "conversations" of him.
Worth watching 👍

This was the best 1h of my entire day and it’s just 10am! Such a great talk , one of the best advices I have ever heard 👏🏻

This is a beautiful message! Easy to digest and quick to the point

This is amazing advice. Spontaneous speaking, off the cuff/in the moment, is a skill all professional service founders must master, and also teach their teams. Will be sharing this!

haha, this has been in my recommendation from 2 years now. just because of the length of the video, I always just dropped it. And today after enough of procrastination, I can really say that youtube recommendations should seldom be neglected.

1. CONTROL YOUR ANXIETY
• If you feel anxiety just take a deep breath and tell yourself ohh this is me feeling anxious GREETING YOUR ANXIETY
• Think it as a conversation not a performance
• Try to be in the present moment rather than thinking of the future and outcome, using something that busy your mind to think in present moment can help like tongue twisters. Try this-》(I slit a sheet, a sheet i slit and on that slitted sheet i sit) hope not shit words were sayed 😜
2. GET OUT OF YOUR OWN WAY
• Dont think/stack/pile up things just before saying it is like getting in your own way. Tell your brain thankyou for piling and do your own raw creative stuff DARE TO BE DULL
3. GIVE GIFTS- TAKE IT AS AN OPPURTUNITY
TO INTERACT RATHER THAN A CHALLENGE
• Take it as an opportunity rather than a challenge and speaking spontaneously will shock them and make a mark of ourselfes in their memory like in the game of giving gifts
• Use YES, AND.... more and instead of NOT, BUT....
4. TAKE THE TIME TO LISTEN
• Listen more, focus on each word and understand like in the game of talking through spelling.
5. USE STRUCTURES
• Tell your story in a structure STRUCTURE SETS YOU FREE, a famous structure is PROBLEM/OPPURTUNITY - SOLUTION - BENEFITS. and WHAT- SOWHAT- NOWWHAT
P.S- if you have read till this far plz like this cmnt it will act as a reminder for me to go through this again Thnx in advance❤😮

amazing presentation. that is exactly how to captivate a crowd just by giving knowledge and making it stick.

Amazing lecture. I wish you all the best with coping with your anxieties and becoming effective comunicators

Am really grateful for this presentation.
I have always been nervous to ask my customers when they are paying their debts but now I feel able with structuring