Think Fast. Talk Smart | Matt Abrahams | TEDxMontaVistaHighSchool (2)

And then you tell them what's next, what's coming.

It's like a Swiss Army knife.

You can use it in situations if you're teaching.

You can use it if you are trying to motivate people.

And you can use it even if you're introducing somebody.

Change the "what" to a "who," and you've got your introduction.

Structure helps keep your audience together and in line.

When I was an undergraduate, I was a tour guide.

It was the highest-paying job on campus.

And boy, did I need money.

I trained for 12 weeks to be a tour guide.

I learned lots of interesting - some would say useless - facts about my university,

things they drilled into our heads besides how to walk backwards,

which to this day I still can do in a straight line.

The most important thing they taught us -

they said, "Above all else,

to be a great tour guide at this institution

is to never lose your audience.

You are a bad tour guide if your tour group gets lost."

The same is true when you're speaking.

Structure keeps people together.

We need structure.

So, we see here that these tools,

the tools that help us get our audience engaged and involved

and help us convey our message

are the same tools that helped my students learn to love speaking

and learn to do it well.

It's about the approach you take,

the audience,

the context,

and the structure.

Now, I'm always looking for examples of this to help people understand.

And the other day, I was eating breakfast,

and I looked across the table at my soy milk,

and I said, "You know what? This is a great example."

Think about it: Silk soy milk.

Silk soy milk is targeted to a very specific audience:

people who are interested in eating healthy

or people who are lactose intolerant.

The name is a combination of the words "soy" and "milk" -

"Silk."

It speaks to the audience's desire

to have something rich, something expensive, something yummy.

It's at a time, in a context, in an environment.

If you notice where you buy Silk soy milk, it's next to other milk.

That's not where it was originally.

It used to be in the health food aisle.

Now it's next to milk.

They marketed it and boxed it the way milk is.

The structure of the name is very compelling.

Let's face it, they could have called it "Moy,"

and nobody would've bought it, right?

So, if you get the message right and you communicate it effectively,

you can make a big difference.

So, I want for you what I wish for all of my students:

bold communication that's confident and compelling.

And I want for your message to echo long after you leave the room.

And these are skills that are at your disposal.

It just takes practice and a little bit of a positive approach.

Thank you.