Episode 29

Nobody Remembers Your 20 Charts — with Ruth Milligan

Ruth Milligan has coached hundreds of conference speakers, curates TEDx Columbus, and wrote The Motivated Speaker — and she's here to tell you that speaking is habitual, not natural. Michael, Wes, and Hadley get a live fifteen-second filler word hack, an uncomfortable truth about listening back to your own voice, and the three kinds of pitches Ruth has been reading for seventeen years.

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Episode notes

Ruth Milligan (Articulation, TEDx Columbus) tells Michael Chow, Wes McKinney, and Hadley Wickham that a great idea beats great delivery, that concision is the real skill, and that nobody improves without listening back to themselves. Also covered: a breathing trick that kills filler words and whether voice memos are a crime.

  • Patsy Rodenburg's "Three Circles of Energy" — a summary of the framework
  • Rébecca Kleinberger, "Why you don't like the sound of your own voice" (TED)
  • Why a great idea beats a great speaker
  • Speaking is habitual, not natural, and that’s good
  • The fifteen-second breathing trick to kill fillers
  • How many charts do you need? Fewer than you think
  • The three pitches Ruth has read for seventeen years
  • You can't get better until you listen to yourself
  • Hadley contends people who send voice memos are monsters

Hosts & guests

Data Scientist and Software Engineer at Posit, PBC
Michael Chow
Hadley Wickham Headshot
Chief Scientist, Posit
Hadley Wickham
Wes McKinney Headshot
Principal Architect, Posit
Wes McKinney
Ruth Milligan
Executive Speech Coach
Ruth Milligan