1.1 CISO Competency - Public Speaking

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Hey, folks said here, um, we're just about the top of the hour here. I see some people still popping in,

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but we'll do is we'll go ahead and get it started.

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We're at the halfway mark. How cool Is that? What you've been?

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These are six. Lecture together in, uh,

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plan 12 lectures. For those of you who've been with us

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through the 1st 6 Congratulations. You're either really interested or your massa kissed. I'm not sure which. But I appreciate you hanging in there with us. This is

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stuff that I find very fascinating. And it's, you know, well done security training.

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And, uh,

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I hope you find this little different. That was the whole idea with Leaf and I and Sigh bury people

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got together and discuss this. I wanted to do something different, and you're going to see the lecture today is absolutely nothing to do with cyber security

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other than it could be the most important thing.

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Uh, that that differentiates the

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successful career from the unsuccessful one. I'm not kidding him. Maybe a tad prone to hyperbole, but I think this is important. So we're gonna talk to you today

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about public speaking

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and I'm going to

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be very honest with you.

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Share some of my own weaknesses.

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You know, try and try and hopefully inspire you to believe that even if you're terrible at this,

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you could be great at it.

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I'm gonna try and help you understand what terrible means and why it's so important

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to figure out how to be a good presenter. And the presentation opportunities for all of us

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in our world range from talking to a couple of people in a room. In other developers or soccer team members are

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compliance staff or whatever you would have around you

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up to and including presenting in front of the board.

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You know, President presenting in front of you betting performance reviews,

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um, opportune included. It's if you're see so

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in a larger company that it's frequently the case that you're going to be in front of a big group

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and you need to learn to do this. Now there's some people who do it naturally. I don't believe there is natural. I think this has to be worked at,

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like you could be a great football player,

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but you work at it. You might be born with Cem GIF ts and some skills, but you still work at it, and I'll share with you what I think you need to do here. So I really do hope you pay attention the next hour because I I'll be honest with you. My own career and I've had some success in my career was a dopey UNIX developer

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who expected to be

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a

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a college professor that did my plan.

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And

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less than 20 years later I was one of 100 people running one of the largest companies in the world. And the reason I believe the number one reason

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is my ability to speak in public.

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And I hope that for you and I'm gonna show you that that was not always the case for me

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and not always the case for a lot of very successful people. So this first confidence, he public speaking,

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I must do our little thing that we read in the beginning. Here.

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It's effective. C so gives presentations. Clearly,

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be confident.

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You have to be, in fact, effective in front of a whole range of different

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potential audiences, and that could include,

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you know, corporate boards, so you have to learn to do this. This is something that

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I think most people that I know would agree is not just table stakes, but it really is the differentiator. How many times

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you part of a work group?

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And you may not be the person who did most of the work or the best work, or the contributed the most

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effective ideas. But if you're the person who presents the results, then

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I hate to say it. But you're the one who gets essentially, associate it with the contribution and probably get the majority of credit. It's not fair, but it's the way it is. And sooner you learn that, the better.

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Now for me,

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it all started here. That's my high school.

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Um,

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back in the late seventies, I was there from 76 to 79 Christian Brothers Academy in New Jersey. Um,

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they would make us get up in front of a group and and speak,

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and I was really quite terrible actor that I look at it. I wonder if that that may be a different Christian Brothers Academy and copy D of now. Maybe that's it. That's it. Lincroft. Yeah, that's the road. I don't recognize the statute

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Annual rate. I had this

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English teacher my junior years. Name is Mr Lau's Lee,

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I think,

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and

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he made us get up and give a presentation. I was probably about 16 or something that was very quiet, timid, a heated high school. I was like that guy who you didn't know, you know, just sort of sitting there.

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But we have to get up, give a presentation. I figured it was about some book We read the Red Badge of Courage or something, Something like that,

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and and I I didn't really know how to do it, and I didn't prepare and I got up and

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I remember my voice was visibly quivering.

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I think my legs were shaking.

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I couldn't get through it. I felt dizzy, almost like I was going to be ill.

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And I think he even cut it short.

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You know, out of just pure

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sympathy tea. Just get me down from wherever I was standing

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and afterwards he asked me to stick around after and and I did. That was humiliated. It was horrible experience,

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and he took me aside and he said, You know, you're very clinically I remember him saying they had these glasses he put on the tip of his nose. He goes, Mr Amoroso,

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your voice was visibly quivering and knees were shaking. Baba, Baba, blah. And then he took his glasses off and said,

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Um, something like, You'd better work on this E. Do you know what that meant?

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You know what? I gotta go Go ask for more experiences like that was the worst experience of my life, and I'm gonna work on that was talking about

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as far as I was concerned. I hope that was the last time I ever got up in front of a group

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the rest of my life. That would have been my preference,

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but I kind of phenomena know must have mentioned it to my dad. My dad was a college professor and who's used to embarrass me. Because where we would go, he would always ask a question. I would cringe that my father would stand up in a group and ask a question I would control My God. How could he do that? I mentioned something to him.

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And

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here's what my father showed me and told me

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my dad

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had also been a little timid when he was a teenager

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and and he'd been introduced to Dale. Carnegie is who took one of Dale Carnegie's courses.

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And he said to me, Call me Eddie, my dad still around because he probably still calls me and he says that you need to look at these books

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And the 1st 1 he gave me was one of the top left, their public speaking and influencing men in business.

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STO. P. 16 year old kid. And he's handing me this book that looks like the last thing on the planet. A 16 year old kid in the seventies is gonna read, but I must have read it

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because it it affected me a little bit like I read it. I saw that maybe there was a chance

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that you could learn how to do this. And these air all books here I, by the way, these four books.

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I'll bet you I have 20 copies of each of these. This is the Dale. Carnegie

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is my personal guru. The one in the bottom left had to stop worrying and start living. I think is the greatest book ever written. If you're a warrior, if you're the type of person who

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it's constantly fidgeting and wearing about health and the kids and

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that problems and money and swollen. That's a book you ought to get. It's a wonderful book, and I think related to public speaking. It's all connected.

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It's all who you are

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and your confidence and how, how much you know, the material you're speaking about and how comfortable you are in your skin.

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All of these things were part of speaking. But this guy, Dale Carnegie, wonderful, wonderful teacher. He decided he wanted to be a novelist. Turned out not to be, not to be in the cards,

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but it was pretty good at kind of teaching adult education courses.

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And he started teaching at the Y M C. A. You know, many years ago wrote these books, you know, almost ah

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say, 80 years ago, his books were written. No someone later, but 88 or so years ago,

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it teaching at the Y M. C. A. And he was teaching people to speak

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and they would pay

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per course. There were paying tuition, they wanted results.

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And Dale Carnegie really built essentially a laboratory human laboratory

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around how to give speeches and later on he built the same lab around the thing on the bottom, right? His big

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you know, kind of opus is how to win friends and influence people. Beautiful book,

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you know, that I personally think is the most important thing is what I've given all my Children.

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You know, they will. People say, What do you get? What do you advise your kids on? It's that and all of my executives. I've managed many, many, many dozens of vice presidents,

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senior executives and every *** one of them.

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I told that this was the most important book, and I could tell people who paid attention and ones who didn't.

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You know, the essence of this is

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to be sympathetic and to recognize that the person you're dealing with

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you know, has feelings, and you need to look at things from their perspective. They're looking from things from their own perspective.

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And if you want to be successful and you need to be ableto project

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and try to be getting the head of the person you're dealing with and be sympathetic to that blob, a body of mu, you know they'll learn. I hope you read some of this. We have a lot of politicians right now who could

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benefit by reading some of this? But anyway,

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the beauty of this book is that it gave me some real confidence. Help me. Sort of understand. You know what potentially could be could be done. So I hope you'll go ahead. Read this and look, Here's a guy Warren Buffett

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that's him pointing to his Dale Carnegie

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thing on the wall. It's like the richest guy, the planet,

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and he's got three things hanging in his office and one of the Mrs Dale Carnegie

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certificate. I love that. I kind of like Warren Buffett. I think he's awesome,

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you know, You think it's so funny that, you know, if you asked him what he thinks, he would say, the confidence to stand up

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and speak in front of others

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is what differentiates people. There's beautiful Norman Rockwell painting

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where it's a bunch of farmers and all standing in one of them is standing up. He's got the little brochure in the back of this pocket,

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and he's standing speaking his mind

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and and I think that is tthe e essence of what? As a chief information security officer, you need to have some passion need to be able to stand up and speak your mind and get your point across.

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And believe me, I was not born with that ability. Now let's start going through

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a bunch of tips. I'm gonna start giving you some ideas here

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that I think we'll help you. And here's the 1st 1 Let me start with the story

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the next time you have to give a talk.

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I don't care if it's to the accounting board

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or to your, uh, your your board of education or to the Little League dinner or to your team.

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You know about what the plans are for upgrading your SIM o care what it is.

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I want you to promise me if you're listening to my voice right now, that thes six words will be the way you'll start your presentation.

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It should be Let me start with a story.

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And when you say that

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everyone will put their cup down, put their pencil down, put their whatever down and go Oh,

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this is gonna be good.

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Anything else is no good. Like, if you say,

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um

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oh,

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well, let's get our pencils and papers out and we're gonna We've got a lot to do here, you're gonna have to do here.

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Or if you hear

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well before we get started. I just wanna make sure no one knows the men's room or in the back in the corner. There. What, any, uh, starting with a commercial

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or you say, Well, let's get right to it. Our first chart. Here you go. It's gonna be that. But when somebody says,

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Let me start with a story,

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then you look up.

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And by the way,

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telling this story

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is probably the best way to relax in front of the group. And I don't mean telling some stiff dumb thing. I mean telling something personal. Look, I started here by telling you about one of the most embarrassing, horrible experiences of my life in high school.

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But you see the effect that has it connects me to you. It makes me vulnerable, and you should make yourself vulnerable. And again, I'm Kif. It's in front of the counting board. Listen, the person you're speaking to right now, me, I think they probably could make the case. That might get a little run for my money from Jim Row,

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but I can make the case that I probably briefed as many boards of directors on cybersecurity. Is anybody alive? But it can't be true. I like I said it in

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Jim My Bud buddy. Jim Rath does a lot of that, Mr Mothers, but starting right up there needs the kinds of things was all these, you know,

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people staring, I in fact, I did one front of a bank

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and I took a picture of the room because it was so funny. Like it had my name on a play card with a chair and then ah, long table that looked like it was 1000 feet long with all these play cards, and it was all empty,

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but it looked like the scariest thing you could ever imagine with a microphone. My name and I took a picture and I don't know, that's some funny because, like, this is what speaking is Now, how do you think I started? Do you think I sat down and said a lot of gentlemen and ladies? Uh, no. I said, let me start with a story

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and everybody put their pencils down in turn that I told them a story.

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It doesn't matter where you are. You start with a story and it calms people down and it connects you with them. Make sure it's related to what you're talking about. And it could be short and it could be simple. And it could be just whatever you think makes sense.

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Now, let me really start with a story. So here's a picture.

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If you see the guy on the right there is Rex Tillerson.

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Um,

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who, you know, is that Exxon? And then he was the secretary of state. Very successful at Exxon,

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perhaps a little shorter run a secretary of state. But here, there he is, in the Dean Acheson Auditorium.

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Um, it's an auditory math estate, U S State Department from every picture door reason that picture actually makes it look smaller. If you're in that room, it's wider than it looks. And it's longer than it looks and is probably as scary as you could imagine if you're not a great public speaker because it holds a lot of people

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and and remember, years ago mid nineties,

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I got invited to go give a talk in that room. My topic here, you laugh. But this is the 1990

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three or four.

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My topic was What is a firewall? And they're funny. And is that many people in the rooms on it was a C I A conference go figure.

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State Department, some random Give my talk on what is a firewall and off down here in the bottom. You know where I have the little guy? A few guys come see my arrow moving. There was a table here,

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and it was me and two others,

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and we each got up. We were doing cyber security. Didn't call it cyber security. Then it was probably called computer Security or something. And I was doing firewalls. There was somebody from Sun Microsystems doing something or other. And then there was a graduate student young man who was gonna get up and give a talk

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about something, and he got up. There was actually a podium here,

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and he got up and he got being on the podium. And I was sitting behind him

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and could see

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that this kid looked like he was me back at C B. A.

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His voice was quivering, his legs were shaking. I was terrified.

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And and, you know, I What are you gonna do? You know, it was uncomfortable. I felt bad for the guy. I'm such a jerk, though. Like and when you do cybersecurity,

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you tend to have a little quirky nature sometimes a little snarky. And back when I was younger, it probably wouldn't have liked me because I was probably a bigger jerk than I mean, willing to admit. But I remember leaning over the Sun person

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and I'm a joke is this kid was talking about Some company was known

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and I'm a joke like, Jesus, this kid can you may give a talk how the hell is going to start a company? And of course, the company was Netscape and it was Mark and Greeson

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introducing SSL

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and Netscape,

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you know, probably the most consequential

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then we've done in computing in the last 25 years. Maybe with the fees. Work would give him a run for his money. But I'd say that Netscape in SSL

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are the reasoning of Amazon

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and mark injury. Since look has successfully is probably one of the most amazing technologist

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ever. I mean, I had a chance to meet him a little bit ace, amazing person, but back when he was a little younger, just scared terrified to give a talk in front of all these people that I've heard through the Grapevine and Injun Clark's book. I think even these both good books to read.

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Um,

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I think they got in love speaking coach. He learned that has got more confident. I've seen him

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in front of a big group on a stool, chatting and making jokes and being charming and being amazing.

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But I remember when that wasn't so,

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and for me it was also sort of trump ever being just absolutely terrible

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at giving presentations. And and really, the secret is you have to You have to do that. You have to find opportunities. If there's if there's a,

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uh, Toastmasters club nearby, you ought to do it. If you have the opportunity to teach, of course you should.

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But there's some things that you can do here that I'll show you in a minute that don't require that you make the, you know, make the investment and teaching a local course or something that may be more than

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you actually have time

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to do. And again, you can start with. You know, this many people, these five people here Thio do some presentations, but it is not optional.

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You do have to figure out a way

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to get opportunities to go and speak. Let me say that again.

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If you would like to be a successful security executive,

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then you're going to have to find opportunities to get up in front of people and speak.

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Now look, I think you should target being great. I've had a lot of executives have worked for me who can get up and put the Excel spreadsheet up and kind of walk through the ratios and talk to our plan for next month and

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list out the gaps and the issues and raise a couple of concerns and then sit down. They can kind of do it. I mean, whatever you know, you can bang through it,

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but that's not what I'm talking about here. I'm talking about being great at this, meaning when you get up in front of a group,

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they watch and they listen and they're inspired and they act.

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You have to learn how to do that.

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It's not just, you know something that you just do if you've never thought about it, and you go and I can just kind of do it, then you're doing it wrong

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because the people who do it properly, or people who put a lot of time and effort and kind of personal sweat

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into doing it right.

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So I could said at the beginning, this is a now, er that I hope you're gonna remember some of you,

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you know, one or two of you, maybe more.

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Um, I hope this is a transformational discussion, because you really, really do. Even if you're okay, it doing, Maybe you're shrugging eye ***. I could give a talk. Whatever. If you've not thought through some of the things I'm going to show you,

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then you're not doing it right. And I know for Mark and Grease, and he'd be the 1st 1 to say it didn't work out. And that was good, you know, But he wasn't when he started

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this guy.

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Um, Abe Lincoln teaches us something

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that I believe is one of the great secrets to giving presentations. And by the way, this book Carl Sandburg's Lincoln.

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I read it when I was in college, and I'm really absorbed it. I think it's the most beautiful

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Lincoln book. By the way back here,

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Dale Carnegie wrote a book about Abe Lincoln as well. That, I think is wonderful, is I'm kind of a psychological study

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of Lincoln that I love. I think it's great book, but this is way better.

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You know, Sandburg's Lincoln. It's a fat book, and you ought to set aside some time to read it with your U. S. Citizen or not. But here's what Lincoln taught us. He taught us that brevity

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and and being to the point,

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is much more powerful than being long. When didn't going on?

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Um, Lincoln One time said the following. Someone asked him.

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Still, Lincoln, can you come say a few remarks that are that whatever it was

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and he said, Well, how much time would I have to speak?

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They said, Well, what difference does that make any sense makes an enormous amount of difference, he said. If

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you know, if I have five minutes to speak, well, then you know I'm gonna need,

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you know, I'm gonna need a couple days or so to prepare something, he said. If I

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have maybe

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no, no, 15 minutes to speak,

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then I need today to prepare. And if I have an hour to speak. I'm ready right now

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and you get the point like it's easy to get up and ramble and go on and on and on,

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but to speak for five minutes, take some time. And one time Lincoln was arguing a case as a young lawyer

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and he was arguing against this big famous lawyer. And it was something like, ah, shipping rights for ah river

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like they were, there were two sides of a river, and for whatever reason, there was some issue about trading back and forth.

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I don't have all the specifics with something like that and the, you know, the other attorney got up and spoke for half a day on and on and on and on and on.

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And then Lincoln got up in the point he was gonna make Is that Ah, boat going up the river is more or less the same thing as a boat going across the rivers of this point. I'm not getting this right, But the point is, he got up and he walked to the jury and he says,

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I know you all agree that the boats Congar oh, up the river. So why what? They not also be allowed to go across,

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and that was it. And then he sat down. It was something like that. I'm probably getting it wrong. I forget it and go dig through. Sandberg's book was something like that. Anyone and again, Look at the Gettysburg Address, a short little address. People forget that that was the second or third speech. The ones that came before had been these long, enormous speeches.

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But Lincoln had thought it through, and he gave one of the most beautiful, reflective commentaries on war and on democracy and in America ever.

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This is a short thing so that the in grade school well memorized it. I'm annoyed

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that we don't make youngsters memorize things like that anymore. You know, we think that's silly in a waste of time. I don't agree,

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but the point is, this guy Lincoln

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teaches you.

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They say what you gotta say Bisa sink and don't go on and on and on and on and on and on. We all know the people who go on and on their the worst speakers and the ones you want to stay away from, the ones who never get invited back

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because they're just frankly about as annoying as it can get.

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Now,

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let's do some news and dotes here. Um,

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first off the first dough,

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don't raise your charts.

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Um,

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I don't know how. How much more clearly, I can sort of lay it out. But

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if you read your charts that nobody's gonna pay attention to, you just don't do this.

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I have a lot of young interns that work here. Tag Cyber for me were very, very heavy

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in bringing in turns in. Sometimes I think my little company is more interns in Bank of America. Well, about 10 of them sitting over in the room

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across from where I am right now love bringing them in,

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and we make them give little presentations and every one of them start by reading charts on I was stopped. Um,

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and I say, Now,

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don't look at the charts, Tell me what's on it and then they can't do it. And I said, Now, come on,

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don't look at the charts and tell me what's on it,

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and then they can kind of do it. And then we all start laughing and I say not tell me what an even better one should just get rid of the charts.

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What what are you trying to say? And then the real is kind of clicks.

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Just communicating and reading charts is ridiculous. How many times do we see people doing this? I teach a course over its Stevens Institute of Technology in their 31 years,

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and if any of the others called been in my course, you know, the last thing we do is everyone gets up and gives a little talk,

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and this could be tedious, and it could be 80 80 90 people in the class. And that means they get up and speak for two minutes.

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But I make everyone get up and speak a little bit because I want them all to say they spoke in front of a big auditorium. You don't get that opportunity frequently,

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and I like him to do it. But most of them

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I want to, but I will let them read their charts that were charred up and say,

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Multi factor authentication is the process. On I go hold on a minute here. Just talk to me. I can read just like you can.

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So do not read your charts. Here's the 2nd 1

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don't start by pointing out that you've got a head cold

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or that. Gosh, you're very nervous.

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Are you? Hope that they'll they don't mind. But you know, you you hurt your hip and you're gonna try and get through this talk. You've just created a distraction, and then I'm gonna be listening to you. They're gonna be watching your stupid head call.

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I don't care if you're blowing your nose in front of them. Don't mention it. Just let it be. You'll be amazed how many people don't notice. And by the way,

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there's a rush that comes with giving presentations where you could be on your death bed feeling crappy with the flu, you get up in front of the group and for an hour you might have quite a bit of respite.

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And then when you're done, you go back to your your bed being second, Be amazed how many times

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you know you feel better. Look, people say my gosh, listen, I want to start by, Just apologize. And jeez, I have such a head cold. I hope I get through this and then they get through it. Anything. Why did you even say that?

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You know, I didn't I wouldn't have noticed. I'd rather you didn't.

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I mean, so do not point out distractions when you begin,

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Here's the name. Don't wing it like you're going to see in a minute. We're going to do some dues here.

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Preparations, big thing. But if you're getting up to give a presentation in your winging it, meaning you just said it should be just fine. And it's not gonna be fine.

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The best you could never do with winging. It

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is kind of survive that there are people, I presume,

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somewhere in some discipline

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who can get up and just kind of make something off. I remember there was a jazz pianist

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we used to get up and just sort of play stuff off the cuff.

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And, um,

28:56

I remember one time he sat there at a concert. I read about this, you know, you couldn't start. Somebody yelled out like, be sharp, minor or some stupid things like that.

29:04

I don't even think the sharp minor means anything. But sharps and layers cancel themselves out. But whatever

29:11

be nine or some suit sale, that's something. And the guy started laughing is thanks. I needed that and he started like it was obviously

29:18

I said, but I don't believe he was winging it on. And I do that too.

29:22

Like what I teach. I don't bring materials.

29:26

I don't have a pad in my hand. And I lecture for three hours complex mathematical stuff where I'm banging stuff out and it looks like I'm some kind of savant or genius. But the reality is that I actually went through the whole presentation in detail before I got up there.

29:44

I don't wing anything and I've been speaking for 31 years.

29:48

Even my presentations and even this presentation had been practiced before. I gave it to unit today.

29:56

I went through it this morning. I was eating my breakfast

30:00

and I went through every chart. And I have next to me my notes that I wrote this morning about everything that I'm gonna be telling you hear, I don't wing this and you can't wing it either.

30:11

You should make it look like you're winging it. It should look like you're all discovering this stuff together.

30:18

And it's this wonderful serendipity.

30:21

But you don't wing it if you wing it. You did it wrong. If others look good. Make it look like you're winging it. That's OK because you prepped it

30:30

other people's materials. So look,

30:34

I get that. Sometimes the boss gives you a deck

30:37

and you have to use it. But to see if you can tailor it if you can't at least learn it,

30:44

um, using other people's materials is rough. Um, and I've had to do it many times, Believe me. Marketing hand you up

30:52

bunch of president heroes That could be just terrible.

30:55

And you end up kind of, um, you know, what can I say? You do the best you can

31:02

when you have other people's materials. Have been my experience that that's just a recipe for trouble

31:07

when you're forced to sit down and bang something out, that someone's materials that you didn't create me.

31:15

And then here's the last thing

31:18

I hope you find this funny. But if I have to hear that stupid

31:22

well, im between you and lunch

31:26

joke, I have to hear that one more time.

31:27

You know, I think I'm going to just, uh, what I'm gonna do.

31:32

But please do not make that joke. It is a ridiculous joke. It makes your presentation

31:40

a speed bump

31:41

you've just created the obvious are sort of

31:45

belief that, yeah, I agree. I'm hungry. Get is why even your speaking anything. Just get off the stage and let's go eat lunch. So do not make the I'm between you and lunch, Joe, Can you get the point? There's a lot of don'ts here that she should do, but these are all distractions. These are things that are done by people who haven't thought this through.

32:06

And these are a few things that I think you don't want to do. Now is to some dues here

32:10

because there's a few things that I think are clearly in your best interest. The 1st 1 is

32:16

lose the charts, if you can,

32:19

about that woman.

32:20

I think the idea that you have no charts

32:23

strikes me as a spectacularly good way. By the way, I hear a little bit of noise in the background. I don't know. *** the cyber re, folks. If you can bat or whoever's on, if you could make sure everybody's muted,

32:37

that would be good. And if you're listening, if you could just double check to meet your line, that would be good, because I do hear some

32:43

paper rattling in the background. Anybody else here in that? If we can get that muted, that would be great. Really? Right.

32:51

Um, so if you can lose the charts, you should. I remember there's a wonderful computer scientist Name's David. Greece

32:58

from Cornell University, is a friend of my dad's.

33:00

He told me once when I was young, computer scientist in grad school

33:06

said that he'd run a conference once on algorithms

33:09

where everyone had to show up and give a talk on whatever their research had been. Algorithms with no presentation materials. They just had to speak.

33:19

And the idea waas

33:21

that the clarity of thought that had to come with describing an algorithm without having a chart without having a drawing without having chalk and blackboard

33:30

underscored the importance of clear thinking.

33:35

And and I really do believe that when you have no charts,

33:39

you have to think clearly and you have to be direct, and you can't be reliant on stuff you don't understand. Just what comes out of your mouth is what you know.

33:50

I mean, look with your spouse. If there's some issue that you're playing like our, we're gonna put an addition on our house. You whip out power point charts to go over that. Or do you just sit down over coffee and said, Let's discuss it

34:02

or if you're gonna plan the vacation and really using power points for that?

34:07

So so if you could lose the charts, do it. But minimizing it will be good as well. I have some material sharing a little bit about specific charts.

34:16

If you could lose him and just talk, it's way better just leaning up on the podium or standing in front of the group.

34:24

Clasping your hands behind your back and speaking is the most effective weight. Oh, communicate with your team or with whatever you're doing, if you see so when you want to talk to your team, you should get up and speak with them. And if you have fewer charts, better

34:39

2nd 1 again. Start with a story, and it should be one that's been practiced,

34:45

and it should be short.

34:47

You should practice the stories. The story should have a moral.

34:52

The story should be friendly. They should be positive. They should never,

34:57

ever poke fun at someone

35:00

or be malicious or used. You know names for some don't ever be. You know, snarky and mean, mean does not play. Maybe does occasionally in politics, but in the long run, mean always loses. You should create stories that I think are sweet and friendly

35:19

and produce. Ah, nice feeling

35:22

and put things in the right mood.

35:23

Like if I'm getting up in front of a board, then there's a lot of little things that I like to talkto I. Sometimes I'll talk about. The first time I met Bob Woolmer's Who is the CEO of M and T Bank and I served on his board. I had the great pleasure to be independent director on the board.

35:43

Well, I met him. I thought it was right out of like a novel. He's just

35:47

and he had some beautiful things that he talked about community,

35:52

why he was in banking. That's great story to tell. Or I'll tell a story about Bob Morris senior. The first time I ever briefed Tim's one of the fathers of UNIX,

36:00

he had the newspaper open

36:04

and I'm briefing a literally had the newspaper open,

36:08

and I thought, Well, he's not paying attention. In the middle of the presentation, the paper went down and he said wrong and he pointed to the chart and he was making a point that, Hey, he's listening just because he's got his feet up and reading the paper. And then I was a little odd. But it's a funny story, right? Like you can.

36:27

It's that kind of thing where you're

36:29

you're complimenting someone you're talking about a mentor and icon. It's related to the meeting. It sets the mood, and it also establishes your confidence. It shows people that you're

36:40

you know what you're doing, and you're gonna guide them along to something that they're going to enjoy and learn from notice. I understood underlined practice will come to that in a minute. In fact, come right here,

36:52

practice

36:53

and time your talk in front of a mirror.

36:57

I know that sounds nuts,

37:00

but you ought to do it.

37:01

I do it in hotels about once a week.

37:05

Here's what that means.

37:07

It means it. Fine. Let's say you're going to give 1/2 hour talk. Well, alright. You're checked into the Marriott. You're gonna go meet people for dinner in an hour.

37:15

You brush your teeth, you check the news. You do what you gotta do. You call home, you've got 40 minutes. Now you set your iPhone,

37:24

you get in front of a mirror

37:25

and you do it

37:28

and you say it out loud and you know what happens.

37:30

You find yourself traveling down a thought process

37:36

and then you stop yourself and say,

37:38

That's not going anywhere. That's not a good direction to go,

37:43

and you make a note not to do it.

37:45

If you do that in front of a big group where you haven't practiced, you often find yourself going down a path where you say something and you're thinking in your mind. Uh oh,

37:55

this wasn't the right place to go. I don't mean you're saying something appropriate. It's just a dumb Mary. And you wish you hadn't said it and you wish you could have rolled the clock back. And that's what practice does.

38:07

And by the way, timing means if you have 35 minutes, then *** it, do the talkin 25 minutes

38:15

because everybody

38:19

prefer shorter than longer. No, look, we do this course and I do it on an hour because cyber Eri is basically my partner here, and I told him I'd do a narrow do an hour.

38:30

But if this was like Amoroso incorporated, this is tag cyber stuff. I always finish 5 10 minutes earlier. I think people love it.

38:37

They love when you finish early fact, maybe we'll try and finish five minutes early today. Just as a ceremonial,

38:44

um, you know, kind of celebration of early. But time your presentations. Because if you go over, then you 10 minutes over on a one hour presentation and you'd be better off not even doing the presentation.

38:58

Now, humor is tricky.

39:00

I'm gonna show you some humor and a little bit.

39:04

You gotta be really careful with humor.

39:07

Um, you know, you can offend people, so we'll do that.

39:10

And if it's really dumb humor,

39:14

then may be better off not doing it.

39:17

How many times you see somebody up there making a joke and it's just so painfully bad.

39:23

Look, what you do is, as you give presentations, you learn what gets a little chocolate. You learn what doesn't get a little chuckle like I was what I'm talking about. Botnets. I've noticed

39:34

if I talk a little bit about my mom's PC

39:37

and I was out, you know the attacking our enemies All day long, everyone laughs. They left the issue my mother's

39:44

PC, like attacking another country.

39:46

So I know that one gets a laugh and I can throw it in. It gets a little chuckle, but it takes practice. Be careful with humor. You've seen people get up there and make presentations and try to be funny.

39:59

And it could be just a really stupid. You should be friendly. You should be sympathetic. You should be entertaining. But the humor part you've gotta practice because that's that takes some time

40:09

and then finally learned the material.

40:14

I don't mean memorize the material we learn material is that here's a start. One time I got off the plane in Dayton, Ohio, I was giving a talk at

40:24

Wright Patterson Air Force Base. Is that in Dayton? I think it is remembers. Go where it's I gotta get there. This was before you had your laptop with you. Hide my foils. Was these

40:37

Lucite sheets that had your printed presentation Remember, the Bell Labs?

40:44

Um, audiovisual team would make them for you, and they taped them to these cardboard borders. They were beautiful. And you go and you put it on an overhead projector and you give your presentation, I get off the plane

40:57

and I go in and I'm ready to give my presentation. I walk up and I opened the folder and I realized it was the wrong presentations Were the wrong foils.

41:07

Oh, but luckily,

41:09

this was all after my dad had helped me and I practiced. And I knew what was going on, and I'd time the presentation. I just had the wrong foils.

41:19

So I turned

41:21

the projector off

41:23

and I set my thing down and I looked at the group and I said, You know,

41:29

I'm guessing your little tired of

41:32

seeing overheads. How about we just talk? Why don't I share with you what we're doing? Every face in the room with how? Yeah, that's good. And they like that. That noisy projector was off

41:45

and and and and I went through because I'd practiced. It was one of the best presentations I ever gave in my entire life. Now, what would some people have done? They've gone in. They'd open and went, Oh, my goodness.

41:57

I have the wrong material here. Wow.

42:00

Uh, room.

42:01

All right, well, let's see I, I'll do that. And now everybody in the room is going, Oh, my God, this person is the wrong presentation's gonna be terrible. They're not gonna be listening to be uncomfortable. They want you to get down, You get the point,

42:15

learn the material,

42:17

practice the material. And if you can lose the charts, great. If you forget the charts, better

42:23

to make up, make a point of it and say, You know what? Let's hear these thes sick of these charts. Let's go through. Let's just talk

42:30

and everybody in the room will thank you and we'll be just great. So practice

42:36

now, some humor

42:37

humor is something that requires

42:42

a little bit of conflict and surprise. So you got to be careful conflict and surprise or not, things that you often want to bring up during a business meeting.

42:52

But you congenitally nudge a little bit

42:53

like Look, I have great respect for the analysts and garden. I see. My friend Anton actually just left. Gardeners never google, but I have great respect for them. I'm there the people that I I go, the briefings with them. There may be some gardener people on this call, but I compete with, um,

43:09

so I'm the crude jokes and I try to make the jokes friendly and the kind of thing that's not going to,

43:17

you know, cause great

43:19

stress. So So another thing that I'm demonstrating here is a reveal.

43:24

So that means that when you do humor, you can't let the punchline dangle before you tell the story. The punch line has to come at the end,

43:35

so I often use these reveals. And here's an example of something that I give when people say right at what? What do you do? I do research and advisory. Oh, how are you related? The gardener, They go well, likely what? I got a little joke here that I'll show you What, what, what we think we try to make our material very valuable.

43:52

That's all idea. We try to produce real solid value, took heart and soul

43:59

into these market reports. They're not just something that somebody spent two hours banging out, and then they did 50 others. I really put the time in Seoul, say, Here's my little hero. Charlie sees a talking to people and they work for me, he said.

44:14

Did our vendor give you these Gardner reports as gif ts. And then and then I'll reveal the second panel and they say Yes. But you said that we could take anything from a vendor. And again, this is evokes

44:27

the common sort of discussion at work about what you can and can't take from a vendor. So you see that and it recognizes. Oh, yeah, that the little gentle rub here is that every one of us know how silly it is when you have policy at work where they said, Well, you can take something with Bender if it's

44:45

$10 or $5 or should those crazy

44:49

value statements So we poke a little fun of that and also make a little joke with Gartner by saying, So long as the values zero.

44:57

You're making a little joke there, right? And then I always say, Love, love, Gardner. Love Forster. That's what I do. They're the same industries. May they're grown ups. They can take a little joke here. I'm really joking more about vendor

45:09

kind of policies that we've got, but also making a little jab. But maybe to compare, you get the point

45:16

like it's it's hard to get the humor, right? It's it takes some time and some skill.

45:22

To make the vendor something that's not too malicious

45:27

but rather is, is friendly and makes people chuckle that Ronald Reagan was the master of that. He could make a little joke and make his enemies

45:37

kind of like him. I'm from a person. I didn't agree with his policies, but I think he's a wonderful man who read about three biographies about him

45:45

because I just thought his technique and his approach to life was something I agreed with the new policy, like the person. So if you can do that, then you could do a humor. Now Edward Tufte

45:55

is a professor at Yale who wrote three or four of the most beautiful books.

46:01

I'm visually displaying information that I've ever seen in my life. I have all of them. They're very, very prominently displayed on my shelves. I've even taken his course,

46:12

And this,

46:13

um, this graphic here by ah, Frenchman named Minard

46:20

is one of the most spectacular graphics

46:23

ever produced,

46:24

and I think it's the march of the French Army.

46:30

You know, it starts the with of the

46:32

this color. I'm colorblind about state sort of this great thing is the size of the troops. And here they're marching to the right

46:40

and they march in the march in the march. And then they get headed off and now they're retreating. Different color

46:46

and the retreat. It's fewer and fewer. It's fewer and fewer. They get to this point a river, someone up here and they didn't make it. And then it's fewer. And here's how many people got back,

46:58

so it shows the direction it shows terrain. It shows the size of the troops. It's one of the most spectacular Assad's temperature, one of the most spectacular graphics ever done. And I'm not doing it justice. Here go Google. Listen, read it. It's a beautiful,

47:16

beautiful, beautiful narrative.

47:19

And this is what your power point should be saying. You should be a great artist like this, but you should be talking in dimensions. When you if you were, you know, the kind of somebody would probably do something stupid like this, they would have the size of the troops,

47:36

you know, And then they put the number of the size of the troops and then they'd have a bunch of bullets and all this nonsense that you'd look at that. This graphic is a beautiful representation that tells a story. I have this hanging in my office at home. I think it's

47:51

perhaps the most spectacular graphic I absolutely that I've ever seen.

47:57

I don't think anybody's ever done a better technical diagram that tells a story and more dimensions than this one. So so think that through is you're giving presentations. Better do one beautiful chart

48:08

than a bunch. That air. Just sponge a junk. Now this this guy we we've talked about before, Richard Feinman

48:15

is my favorite guy of all time. He's, um

48:19

he was part of the group

48:21

that did the investigation after the Challenger accident. And in this book, what do you care what other people think? That's the follow up to his Great.

48:30

Surely you're joking, Mr Fineman, which I think I've already recommended. But this one he talks about his experiences in Washington on this commission,

48:38

and the first thing a asked about What do you think? And he said, though they had these things, these little stupid dots,

48:45

he called them excuse. My friendship called them god *** dots,

48:49

and nobody knew what that meant. And what it would mean is this He was talking to power points

48:54

with these dumb dots and its foot, Like you say, Why did people wanna be to put words after dots? I don't get it. And how many of you have presentations that look like this? My presentation using dots,

49:07

This thing written after this lone little stupid dot And now this thing another dot

49:15

And this thing third dot Also this last dot Frankly, what air? This stupid dots, What are they

49:22

and really, is not the way you're thinking like a region's everything like a grocery list.

49:28

Is your presentation a grocery list?

49:31

That's how my wife and I keep our grocery list on the refrigerator. It looks like that thing's perfectly reasonable. If this says milk, eggs, yogurt,

49:40

you know, uh, chocolate chip cookies. All right. Great. That seems like the right way to

49:45

keep ah, grocery list. But certainly not a good way to make a presentation.

49:51

So if your presentations look like this stupid thing,

49:55

then you are doing it wrong. Get rid of it. This is better. Look how beautiful that is. Look out, Dad. That is my friends. These are the two ends of the spectrum in terms of presentations. When you're speaking,

50:07

if you're doing something like this, you're doing it right. If you're doing something like this, you're doing it wrong.

50:13

That makes sense,

50:15

and you're

50:15

presumably would be better with nothing. Although I will grant that you'd be better off with this than nothing. If you create something like this, I think you should bring it.

50:25

You should be proud of your presentation charts. If you're using them, that should be good. They should not be this nonsense.

50:34

Now, this is my last chart here. We'll spend a few minutes on case study and then we'll try and quit a couple minutes early. But

50:40

David Ogilvy

50:43

is the greatest ad man who ever lived,

50:45

and I think you should buy this book. It's called Ogilvy on Advertising, written in 1983

50:51

and in it he teaches you how to influence people with words and pictures.

50:57

After all, that's what a presentation is, right? If you're gonna be using words and pictures, this is the guy

51:01

toe learn from.

51:04

And this is the one of the greatest campaigns of all time. Wasn't his campaign was actually Doyle Dane Burn back,

51:09

Um, in the sixties that did the Volkswagen

51:13

campaign. There's some of the most beautiful and hilarious and touching and

51:17

kind of, uh, active

51:21

advertisements of all time. But it's all about communicating like this chart. If this was a power point chart with picture of the Bug and the word lemon, that is the way you tell the story here in the story that's told around this

51:34

is that when Volkswagen's come off the assembly line,

51:37

they go to a quality assurance function

51:42

where I don't remember the number but something like 348 10% of them are pulled off the assembly line because there there's a problem.

51:51

And this one, it turns out, is a lemon because there's some little thing wrong with the dashboard and had to be fixed. But they're pointing to it, saying, this is a lemon because there's a problem here that we found that we do not let you buy a car from us.

52:06

If it has that problem blob of I get the point like a power point chart that tells a story is amazing. Look at the one I have on here right now. I have an Ogilvy on advertising book Here I have this lemon thing. You're probably wondering,

52:20

Good Lord, would it? Why is Ed showing me a picture of a Volkswagen here? And that's the point.

52:27

If you can make presentation materials to make people think, Wow, I wonder what they're going to say about this. And then when I connect the dots, it's very satisfying. You did it right. You get the point. So look

52:39

my message to you. Take all this material. Go by. The Dale Carnegie Book joined Toastmasters. Find opportunities to speak,

52:47

read books, practice. Get rid of the charts.

52:52

Always begin your presentation by saying, Let me let me start with a story that didn't make the story's good. Use a little bit of humor. Get rid of the bullets. All that kind of stuff. That is something that's important to your career is a C. So our as a security executive

53:07

as learning the cyber security controls,

53:10

it's It is perhaps the most important thing that you will do.

53:15

So I hope some of you write to me in about five years. If you do some of this and you find that it makes a difference, I It's not even in. If I This is a cz close to a guarantee as I can ever make for you. If you're wondering how to get ahead in your career,

53:30

then go through all the stuff that I shared with you today

53:34

and internalize it and really become a great speaker and inspiring speaker. Enjoyable speaker unengaged ing presenter, you do all that.

53:46

I guarantee you you will see an acceleration

53:51

in your career progression. Now here's our case study for today Again. I appreciate some of the notes, and people have been writing notes back down into the case. Studies have been useful. I do them because I hope that you guys can take these

54:05

and and go tell the story to your team. Impose the discussion. But here's our case studies scenario for today that again I hope you've read

54:14

of Emily, our hero talking to someone. And she tells the story about

54:19

this kind of mean manager. I called him John, um, ex Marine, kind of tough dude,

54:25

very tough, who have these big scary program reviews

54:30

and and she's got someone who works for him. Named Joe

54:34

was very timid, very good developer, but super timid. I was one case where he's like sitting under his desk. Cause was all sad, and

54:42

and something comes up that has to be covered in one of the big program reviews.

54:46

And Joe is the expert. So he she's asked to bring Joe to the meeting, too,

54:52

to comment on this thing, that he's the expert on, that the big managers want to hear about

54:58

so they will get into the room, and she senses very quickly that Joe is not going to be able to do this. But too late. He sits down, there's a little play card in front of them, and they eventually get to the point where they need him to comment. And it's obviously he can't do it. There's a the words here are

55:15

you can get started, Sir John said. We're on a tight schedule, so please proceed.

55:20

Still, silence from Joe. This is not good, I thought. That's Emily thinking. So John leans forward, looks across the joe. Is there a problem here? Yes, with some force. And then just then joke. It's up from the table but walks out slow.

55:32

And after that, John is furious. That manager says, why was embarrassing so amiable speak, he says. Basically get rid of that guy

55:42

and there's an inside get rid of that guy.

55:45

And then And then there's this

55:46

this comment that,

55:50

Well,

55:52

you know, what do I do here?

55:53

And I have the hero just sort of clearing your throat.

55:57

And

55:59

what does she dio like? What does she tell the manager that she,

56:04

you know, do she'd say, Hey, listen, um, he's not a speaker, but he's agreed developer,

56:08

You know, I probably should have been here. Giving the presentation was a mistake asking him to come in here.

56:15

Is he right? If somebody can't present in front of a group, maybe they don't belong the company. Have you ever had in something like this happen where someone just does not have the ability

56:25

to speak in front of others? And and there's this weird presumption that if you can't speak in front of others, must be something wrong with you.

56:34

I think you should give this some thought when somebody has a speaking catastrophe,

56:38

What does that mean? Does that mean they're bad employee? Does that mean there's somebody you should get rid of?

56:44

Does that mean there's somebody that should be trained. Um, and could this person be trained? So take this back to your team and have the discussion about what you do

56:52

when there is a speaking catastrophe in front of the executives, and they demand consequences. Maybe you think it's right. Maybe you think it's not,

57:00

but I think it's something that should be pondered. So I hope you'll enjoy this one.

57:04

Well, look, we're att three minutes of and I'd promised that I would try to give you a couple of minutes back also is part of the subliminal message here. So what I'm gonna do is we're going to go ahead and close. I hope you enjoyed the material here. Drop me a line. And if you want some coaching on this case, give me a call drop. You know,

57:23

happy to make some suggestions,

57:25

but the main thing is, get some opportunities, get up in front of groups and start speaking