Yasir Khan
speaker
254 appearances
4 recordings
1 series
first heard Nov 2024
last heard 4 Mar
Yasir Khan’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
Trend
recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 1 in all, peaking in Mar 2026 with 1.
Appearances
And then eventually he hits this word that he can't really pronounce properly. Oh, God. And he just puts the clicker down and walks off stage. And I'm seeing it and it's just, I can't understand why. So afterwards I see him in the parking lot and I say, hey, what happened? You were just there in my presentation. He said, oh man, I just, I got nervous. I don't know what happened.
You were in my presentation where I talked about the 17 ways to overcome public speaking anxiety. What happened? And he said, three words I'll never forget. I couldn't remember. I couldn't remember. And that's when I realized what's the point of me talking fast, high energy, covering these 17 points when he couldn't remember it when he needed it most. That's when I learned to slow it down.
So my coach has this great saying, Craig Valentine. He says, I'd rather give you three things you remember than 10 things you forget. Three things you remember than 10 things you forget. So I really narrowed down the amount of material I share, but I also try to vary the pace a little bit as well when I talk.
Talking fast builds momentum. Like, okay, we're going somewhere. Come along with me. But then I want you to think about this for a second. then you slow the pace down. And every time you want to make a point, this is one of the biggest challenges people have in storytelling. They skip over the most important part of the story because they're going so fast.
So if you really want people to listen, slow down and you whisper. What happens when you slow down? What happens when you whisper? People immediately lean forward. So if you look at any of my talks, you'll say I'm super high energy. And then it'll immediately drop the energy. And then people feel it in that moment. So you use pauses effectively.
But you know some people who are trying to be good public speakers, I'm sure you've seen them. They are always trying to talk like this. I have great pauses. And then you're listening to it. You don't sound like a human being. It's just a little too theatrical, too rehearsed for me. So I'd rather you be real and have variety than just try to be this choreographed speaker that everyone wants to see.
Yeah. Memorizing is you putting on a performance on stage. I memorize every single word. I'm here on stage just to say the word so I feel like I did a good job for myself and then I can sit back in my chair. You'll be shocked. Actually, you probably won't be shocked if you've ever been to college. How many people are completely unaware that their audience is uninterested in what they're saying?
If you're ever doing a pitch or a Zoom meeting, the audience has been zoned out for half an hour, but they're still just going on and on because where's their focus, Hala? I need to get the words out. That's it. So when you, instead of memorizing, you internalize, meaning just say the words out loud. And half the time when you do that, you'll realize, oh, that didn't come out right.
That didn't really sound good. Even I can't understand what I'm saying. Let me rework that. You know the structure and the flow of information, right? but you don't have every single word memorized. So now what happens is if I ask you, tell me what you ate for breakfast, lunch, and dinner yesterday. If you remember, you can tell me. You don't have to memorize every single ingredient.
You can just tell me what you had. So when you show up for your speech, you know the sequence. And then what you're able to do is you're able to be in the moment with the audience. And when someone's phone rings or someone makes a comment, you're able to go out of the speech, interact with them, and come back in and be present in the moment.
That's the difference between internalizing and memorizing.
Well, that depends on the goal. If your goal is to get those specific words in that specific order out, then yes, memorize it. Like your elevator pitch, right?
If the goal is to engage in having a conversation with the audience, which is most of public speaking, then you should not memorize. Imagine having a conversation with someone who's memorized every sentence of their conversation.
So if there is a performance element to it, then absolutely. As long as you don't sound like you've rehearsed every single word.
At the end of the sentence and pause. when you want to create anticipation. So I try to use it at the end of a sentence, because if I don't pause, usually an um or uh will stick in. And you'll find when most people have ums or uhs, they don't quite know what to say next, and they're afraid of the silence in between. So then they add a little um or uh in there, and that buys them some time.
So that sounds a little bit like this instead. So that sounds like this. Just removing that and being comfortable with silence really helps. And then also what I like to do is whenever I'm making a big point, I'll combine this with high volume and then I will drop the energy and I'll pause. So for example, I was getting this birthday gift. I was so excited about it.
I finally opened the gift and I couldn't believe that it was a pair of socks I always wanted. High energy, pause, drop energy. Can you see how much you felt that in that moment?
The biggest mistake... or rather I'd say the biggest missed opportunity for most people, Hala, is getting off stage, on stage. Now you might be thinking, what do you mean? If you look at my last keynote, I start the speech on stage, then I get off stage and I start talking to people individually. What happens then? Now they know he's not just gonna talk for an hour. I am in his speech.
He's going to ask me questions, whether it's raise your hand, nod your head, what comes to mind when I say this word. I'm having a conversation with him the entire time. And you'll notice no one else does that because they come onto the stage, they say their slides, and then they hop off. But the moment you step off the stage, now you're one of them. Now you're having a conversation.
You're not, hey, I'm this mighty public speaker up here. Please listen to me and bow down to me. You talk to them and then you go back up on stage. So every single time I'll talk about something, I'll ask a question, I'll go off stage, have a conversation, bring it back. So for example, in one of my modules, I'll say,
Showing 121–140 of 254 · page 7 of 13
← Previous
Next →