Cheat codes for being an engaging public speaker
Four tips that have worked so far for me - and they keep inviting me back!
I’ve given 6 major conference talks in 2025. One good demo led to another, and since I gave zero talks in 2024, this is (technically a divide-by-zero error that I am choosing to interpret as - ) infinite growth.
To be clear, I am not claiming to be the best public speaker in the world. I have been elected leader of zero nations, and I was only the second-best Girl Scout cookie salesperson in my childhood troop. If you want to decide for yourself whether you think I have any useful advice to give, here are some talks in which you can judge me:
Furthermore, this is not a blog about persuasion or closing deals. There are plenty of those floating around the internet.
All that said - I sure do keep getting invited back to talk!
So what does follow is an honest readout of the things I’ve figured out so far that make me a more engaging, energizing public speaker - and SO CAN YOU.
1. Be the most excited version of yourself
When I was in eighth grade, the most high achieving student in my Honors World History class gave me a piece of advice for an upcoming presentation:
“If you just seem really excited and wave your hands around a lot, people will think it’s good.”
This is not someone anyone would have described as peppy. But she knew how to get an A. This tip changed my scholastic and later paid career.
Trust me, I’m highly aware of how uncool it is to be excited in a day and age that favors the chill. But people are human. Humans build off of humans. And if you are excited and interested in what you are saying, the people listening will be too.
Don’t change your personality. But ask yourself - how would you talk if you were genuinely stoked about what you were saying, or alternatively had too much coffee before this, or ideally both? That’s the vibe to aim for.
2. Build your talk around an example/demo people can relate to (bonus points if funny)
This is extremely important: Your talk needs a relatable demo! No one wants to watch slides about a hypothetical tool/solution/etc. A quick demo that people ‘get’ is worth 10000 slides.
Last spring I gave an entire technical demo explaining the concept of AI evaluations tooling centered around getting a model to suggest more Taylor Swift songs. Not a passing mention - a whole Swiftiverse scenario. People loved it. I got invited to give multiple other talks as a result of this talk.
Why?
Because I am genuinely excited about Taylor Swift, which reinforces the first point. But also because everyone ‘gets’ Taylor Swift, whether they like it or not.
If you stay vague and hypothetical, people drift and start answering Slack messages. When you anchor your concept in something real - especially if it’s funny or emotionally evocative, they’re gonna stay focused and ‘get it.’
3. Let AI write the first draft - and only the first draft
I’m not too big to admit that a tool trained on almost every known piece of writing from the history of humankind is better than me at writing.
If you describe your talk in a high-level to AI, it will give you a very good structure and starting point. It can suggest demo ideas that might resonate with others. I especially love turning on voice-to-text mode, ranting for awhile in circles about my talk idea, and letting AI turn that into something cohesive for me.
But AI is terrible at sounding like a human people want to listen to. Which brings us to the next point…
4. Explain it how you would to a friend
Open up draft 1 from the AI in one browser, and a new doc in another browser. Do not copy/paste anything.
Rewrite every single line in the new doc the way you would explain it to a friend. Sometimes I literally imagine a work friend sitting next to me and “rubber duck” to them how I would say this in a real conversation.
For example, you ask AI to describe a data monitoring tool, it’ll say something like:
“A powerful, innovative solution leveraging cutting-edge capabilities to revolutionize…”
But when I describe the same tooling, I would say:
“It has cool graphs!”
Guess which one people want to listen to?
Here’s another example. If AI gives you something like:
“This tool leverages cloud-native observability frameworks…”
Translate it to:
“It emails you if something is broken.”
Simple is good. Be a friend, not a robot.
Final thought
If you enjoyed this, subscribe! I promise practical content, occasional humor, and examples whenever possible.