Public Speaking Class with Josh Constine
Tags: publicspeaking, speaking, podcast
Published: 2022-01-20 18:30:00

I recently had the chance to sit down in a small setting with [Josh Constine](https://twitter.com/JoshConstine), to learn about how to be a better public speaker and better moderator. I wrote notes voraciously, and wanted to share them with you:

![a group of gas station members listening to josh talk](https://cdn.hashnode.com/res/hashnode/image/upload/v1642702273742/R_VjFmoOE.jpeg)

- you sound slower than you think when you’re speaking, but still **try to speak a bit slower**
    - the slower you speak, the less filler words you use
    - you sound more dignified
    - your brain can keep up with the words you’re saying
- use **dynamic tone**
    - emphasize words that matter
    - take pauses at end of sentences
- “**finish your sentence**” - make sure you come to the end of your sentence
- **ask questions with a finite ending**
	- keeps speaker on edge
    - put the context at the start of the question
        

        > “Web3 is growing big... how do you get speaking gigs?”
        
        *instead of* 
        

        > “how do you get speaking gigs? now that web3 is blowing up, there are more opportunities to find talks” 
        

- **never answer for your panelist** - if they don't answer right away, let them have the time / give them the space to think
    - it's not on you as the moderator, to rescue the speaker
- as a speaker, **keep the answer hard and specific to the question**
    - do not dilute the speaker’s question
    - formulating good answers take time
- small gestures on stage are actually really distracting → try and stay motionless
    - a little bit of gesture / posture change as a moderator is ok, but fidgeting is really noticeable
- when you ask tough questions, be sure to **ask in an empathetic tone**
    - helps break down walls
- as a panelist, have 3 points you want to keep going back to
    - prepare beforehand of what these three points will be - have a strategy
    - if you don’t know the answer to a question asked, you can lead back to these 3 points
    - 3 points is easy for an audience to remember
- if you’re being interviewed - **prepare the interviewer with points you want to talk about**
    - helps shape the direction of the conversation
- if you need a prompt / interview helper, **do not use your phone**
    - better to have an analog prompt (piece of paper, notebook, index card, etc) to help with answering question

> 💡 **interviewer pro-tip** - read the last few tweets of the person you’re interviewing! It will help you be relatable, also might be able to tie into the talk

- **listen to previous works / talks of the interviewee** → you can tie it into your questioning, and allows for deeper conversations / questions
    - It doesn’t have to be the whole thing, just a small snippet
- **pre-write your jokes**, even if they’re not funny
    - the audience will relax because bad jokes are still good jokes
- prep calls are counter productive
    - vibe doesn't carry over to the interview
    - audience wasn’t there, so if you refer to something from the prep call, audience wont understand the context
    - email threads >>>> phone calls 
- recommendation: have 2-3x more questions than needed
    - you will have flexibility and no stress of filling the time
    - have list of questions ordered by themes
        - allows for organic flow of conversation
- **don’t give exact questions to speakers beforehand** because they’ll write canned / PR friendly answers
    - instead give topics and subtopics you expect to touch on
- you can get people to talk about “thorny” or hard topics by asking them three times
- feel free to use “critics have said ____ how do you respond” or “people on twitter have said _____, what do you think?” to ask hard/edgy questions
- always know your next questions → no dead time on stage as the interviewer
- if you have a large number of speakers
    - start lightening round of questions to get speakers talking / riff
        - this also hooks in the listeners / audience
    - later you can ask to share a little bit more about their background and to answer a question at the same time
    - personal and biographical questions help audience relate


>  “Give a quick 10 second intro and then answer what’s your favorite DAO right now?” 
    


- get to the meat and potatoes of the talk in the beginning of the talk to be sure to give enough time for deep conversations and answers
- don’t be afraid to shut down long winded speakers
    - this is your duty as a moderator to the audience
    - redirect to another person if they’re talking too much or back to a topic if they’re off topic
- end panels with something future facing - “what's next?”
- do recaps - Josh likes to do recaps at the ends of talks
    - takes notes mid talk quickly (using analog means) to do recap for later
    - helps keep audience’s memory fresh of what was covered
    - very impressive skill to speaker bookers
    - moderator or speaker, you should do this
        - josh literally will do this as a speaker by grabbing the mic and announcing things to recap
- a good question ordering as a moderator
    1. speed round
    2. personal/autobiographical question
    3. tactical question
    4. challenging question if needed
    5. future looking question 
    6. recap
- twitter spaces - talks do better with closed speaker loops and then allowing external listeners to ask questions
- breaking open shy speakers by giving them an easy question to start with

## Q and A:

- it took Josh 4 years to start getting paid
    - how bad do they need you?
    - as a reminder, you have a lot more leverage last minute for getting paid
    - typically you want them to throw out the first number
- looking for gigs → you can probably get paid if a conference has paid tickets and sponsorships
- find your core piece of credibility - “i made this and that’s why you want me to speak”
    - assemble your references / sources and have them easily available for people to find
- the hardest speakers to find right now are keynote speakers
    - find a topic you care about and turn it into a 20 minute presentation
    - conferences want keynote speakers
- when do you  feel like you have mastery / competency to talk publicly about a subject?
	
	> 💪 “Fake it till you make it”

- how to get competency about a subject to publicly speak about it, quickly
    - get an advisor network to give advice, future insights, and to ask what are the current heated topics / debates in the field
        - get experts to tell you their insights
        - read a few blog posts
    - formulate a new opinion after absorbing all this information
- good keynotes have stats, lenses, and insights about a topic


It was a really engaging discussion, and I'm excited to share these notes with you. Thank you Josh for taking time out of your busy schedule to talk to us! 


## Bonus Video

This was originally posted on my personal blog, [blog.ali.dev](blog.ali.dev). If you want to watch the bonus YouTube video, [you'll need to check it out over there](https://blog.ali.dev/professional/2022/01/20/public-speaking-with-josh-constine/) ;)