Public Speaking for Engineers: Never Get Lost in Tech Detail (Udemy.com)

Very good course and the content of the first sections were really helpful (the 5 ideas, a story for each point etc). However, the sections related to AI felt really unnecessary. All the videos were repetitive and abstract, and feels like all the videos could be summarized in a single written page mentioning about how AI is a game changer and how it helps improving communication etc (which is also important to bring up in this course, but no need to have several sections for it). Maybe bringing up how to actually use AI to enhance communication, with real examples such as useful prompts etc would be 100% better. Thank you

Really appreciated the content from TJ Walker. I put in practice his recommendation, I started to record myself and then analyze the video. I realized how important is not just be good but appear good as well. Even though I am absolutely not a professional speaker, I think I received some important benefit at the work, since I was more clear when delivering technical information.

I enjoyed the course, especially narrowing a topic to only 5 points. One improvement would be beneficial to me is going into more detail around images and power point. When I attempt to select an image for my slides, I feel they are not always relative or applicable. More detail on how to select images for slides would be appreciated.

As an engineer, who has a shy personality and has some problems while talking in public, this course has widened my world. Most of the tricks are seem like obvious but, it is important to know how to use and combine them and this course helped me to learn that. I will try to focus on and try to do what I learned here in my next first public speaking. Thank you for creating such a course, it was one of the most effective course I have ever taken and I will try to share it with my engineer friends like me!

TJ is an incredibly polished speaker who presents his content, as far as I can tell, in perfect accordance with the lessons he's teaching. He has a very matter-of-fact form of confidence, the kind that can only come from long experience with a topic, and that true confidence is refreshing to hear in a world full of loudmouths. Lastly, I am amazed with the amount of content he has made available to us in this class. Taken together, I get the sense that TJ is someone who loves helping people overcome their communication challenges with his finely honed skill. I once worked for a physical therapist who treated anyone who needed help for just 30$ per hour, no questions asked. She just wanted to make injured people well again. That generosity is what this class reminds me of. Unfortunately, I really don't agree with the hard-line nature of TJ's premises. Taken at face value, I'm afraid much of this content is incompatible with my job. I take particular exception to the idea that there are no purely technical presentations, and that everything must be presented in a persuasive lecture format. My main speaking engagements, for example, are design reviews. During these, I have to show my design to a panel of customers and, critically, I have to show detailed images and data proving that we (the engineering firm) fulfilled every specification and action item. The purpose of these meetings is to discuss the design, voice any new concerns, and make a decision to "go" or "no-go" with the project. Whether the presentation covered every topic in the time slot (usually 1 hour) and resulted in a pass is more important than whether it was a memorable or persuasive call to action. The most efficient way to handle these proceedings is to have a clearly visible agenda and show the data to be discussed. The town-hall format means that if you don't show your facts, the customer is going to stop you and ask for them. Remember that the goal is to make a decision in the meeting. They won't be content to hear that a companion text will be available afterwards, and that they're being asked to make a decision now without data. To bring this all back to why TJ's lessons are sadly difficult to apply here, the above circumstances mean that I owe my audience slides with text, and it often means discussing more than five points in one sitting. I can't imagine being able to address these items in the form of a story. I feel that the example above is a legitimate presentation format, and in my own engineering career, it has been the norm. If nothing else, its the standard in my industry to review specifications with the customer in this manner, and a requirement of my job. I am disappointed to see this kind of presentation dismissed as wrong and to only receive instruction in lecturing, a task rarely given to junior engineers like myself. It just would have been nice to see meetings and other gatherings understood as speaking engagements in their own right, and to have lessons that acknowledge those more ad-hoc circumstances. These design reviews are often challenging experiences, and I can only imagine that I'm not the first engineer to look for help with speech training, like this very class, because I want to navigate them better. To improve the tone a little bit, I want to reiterate that what TJ teaches, he teaches incredibly well, and I can't deny that this course will help me in other settings such as job interviews. I also believe that there are some oblique ways I can still apply his teachings about speaking effectively to improve how my handling of these data-intensive design reviews. In closing, I would like to thank and commend TJ for his work.

The course points out clearly and in a great way what are the most important things to deliver a great presentation. It's also rich of stories, and TJ surely knows how to keep your attention high, but I just feel like it misses examples. In particular if you think about PowerPoint, where examples of "good" and "bad" slides would have been helpful. I would also have liked some more insights about the voice tone, how to modulate it to not sound boring, when to raise it, when to keep it low, what to do if you start stuttering, and maybe some other suggestions for people that have to deliver presentations in a language that is not your mother-tongue.

Dear TJ, I appreciate your effort and passion for providing this course. Thanks a lot. However, please let me express my honest opinions: 1) Basically your course explained 3 key points: narrow presentation down to 5 points, make video of your speech and practice, test your presentation in front of colleagues and see how much they can remember. However, these points were repeated again and again for 2h without any stronger arguments or evidences to support. You even unnecessarily tore a few sheets of papers up while you were repeatedly saying “if they can’t remember,…,…. throw it into the bin”. 2)The most critical thing I found is that, sorry if it is too straightforward, you do not have an engineer mindset, or, you do not really understand engineers. I have also watched another public speaking course from you on Udemy, which is not specified for engineers. I found this course does not have any significant distinction to that one. For example, you took an example of prime minister’s story in this course, what does it have to do with engineers? As an engineer, who is also most of time in the presentations held by other engineers, for me data and technical truth are the most shining points, not the stories. In presentation, people need to get convinced by the technical data or reality to feel safe about the products. People do not have to remember each number - as you said, the numbers can be found in the handouts. But people need to get THAT feeling by looking at or listening to the numbers and technical strength during the presentations. My suggestion would be, really try to understand engineers, and learn how they want to be understood, and get to know how all stakeholders expect from engineers and their presentations. Anyway, thank you again for putting effort into this course and for having helped so many people to improve their public speaking skills.

As an engineer I have had the opportunity to explain technical maters and always has been difficult to face the simply-complete dilemma. Thanks TJ for your sharing your experience on public speaking engineering things it has really been a comfirmation of the power of simplcity.

I like the thought process TJ proposed of designing and testing presentations as an engineer would with their other projects. TJ has made the art of public speaking something to look forward to doing. He explains the logic behind the information he gives and encourages you to test it for yourself, this is the scientific process! very nice.

For many years I always try to simplify my presentation and slide without finding any place where I can find confirmation that's the way to go, I also try to record the presentation when I gave it, which is a waste of time because I should have recorded before, not during, now with this course I found many answers, I will definitely try what I learn. In fact, this training will be mandatory for the new group I'm building it, so we can have a coherent way to produce documentation and deliver the same speach in a effective manner