Paula Rizzo walks through her four-step system for preparing talking points: brain dump everything, infuse your expertise, organize and curate your notes, then practice aloud. She uses examples from a PIX11 segment and LinkedIn panel to show how many points work best for different formats.
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Hey there, welcome to Inside Scoop. I'm Paula Rizzo. I do a lot of talking, a lot of talking, a lot of talking on video, a lot of talking on panels in the media. You know, I like to talk, what can I say? It's a, it's a pretty good medium for me. But one of the questions I get a lot is about talking points, about like, what do you know about what you're going to say before you say it. Ah, all of these things are prepped in advance and we will talk about that. But most recently, I was on PIX11 in New York City and I spoke about, you know, how to make sure your holidays were not too stressful. So that is something that I did specifically and used this system that I'm going to teach you today. And I also have two books, Listful Thinking and Listful Living, which I always try to infuse in whatever it is that I'm talking about. Right. Because a lot of people do know me as an expert expert in list making. And so I try to think about, okay, how can I infuse that knowledge into whatever it is that I'm going to speak about? Which brings me to why this is important. Why are talking points important? A lot of times people think, oh, you know what, I'll get on TV, or I'll get on a stage, or I'll get on video, and I'll just, I'll just talk. It'll just come to me. I'll just know. No, no, my friends, you do need to prepare to feel your most confident. This is what I do with my clients all the time. I have media training clients who are authors and executives, and I always help them to create their talking points ahead of time. And then I will take you through the whole system so you know all about it. But first, I have a free resource just for you. Uh, it is my checklist to be a go-to media expert, and you can check it out right there if you go to paularizzo.com/checklist, or there's a QR code for those of you who are super, super savvy that way. I'm also a LinkedIn Learning instructor. I have a bunch of courses, but one that is brand new and I know that you will love, it is Media Skills for Executive Leaders course. You can go to paularizzo.com/linkedin, or there's a QR code there. And this course will really help you to think about your, your public speaking in any way, in a different way as an executive, because you want to put your, your best face forward. You want to make sure that you are thinking through any opportunities that come to you, right? And so that, that more come after that. You want this to be an ongoing thing for, for you. And, uh, you know, I think it'd be helpful if you have any friends who you would want to share this with. So if you are thinking right now, you're like, oh my gosh, so-and-so would love this conversation and needs to know how to prepare for speaking engagements or for media and how to create these talking points, tag them, share this with them, uh, you know, give them a little, a little, a little comment below to say, hey, you might want to check this out, I was thinking of you when I heard this. And ask questions if you have any questions. If you're watching the replay, leave them in the chat boxes below. I would love to help you out there. So this brings me to Talking point number 1, making notes about what you're going to talk about. Okay, so let's say you have your topic, right? You know what you're going to speak about. Number 1 is do a brain dump. So take all the stuff that you know about that topic and just stick it on a piece of paper, paper, write it in a Google Doc, whatever it is, right? Anything that you could possibly talk about when it comes to that topic, you really want to get it all out. Make sure that you have it in bullet points. OK, it doesn't have to be in order. It can just sort of be like whatever it is that came out of your head. OK, that's number one. Number two, then you really want to talk about what it is that you have as an expert, right? What is it that you bring to the table? So, for instance, that example I gave you when I was on PIX11, you know, I was talking about holiday stress. So I was talking about things like, you know, how to, how to make sure that you're not doing too, too much when it comes to wrapping or waiting till the last minute to get your gifts and things like that. And then I thought, you know what, I need to bring this back to list making because that's what they look for with me. That is what is expected. So I thought, OK, lists, holidays, of course, that's why they came to me in the first place for the segment. Infuse your expertise. Think about, OK, are there opportunities in these, you know, talking points that I've already sort of created to really infuse what I know or a mention about my book? You know, I media train a lot of authors, and so sometimes they feel a little strange about talking about their books. But you could simply say, hey, you know, something that I talk about in my book, Listful Thinking, you know, using lists really actually makes you less stressed. It's a nice, elegant sort of way to kind of put that in there. OK, so that is— that's number 2. Next, we're going to organize the notes. All right. So think about, OK, there's a whole bunch of things here that I put on this list, all these things that I could talk about, but now curate. What do you actually really want to talk about? Okay, so you pick just a few depending on how long the segment or the speaking engagement will be, because you don't want to put too, too many that then you'll feel like, oh my gosh, I have to remember all this stuff. You know, maybe 3 to 5 topics, that would probably be good for, you know, a TV segment. If we're talking about a panel, maybe a couple more, maybe up to 7. Let's just say, you know, some topics that you could talk about, some, some points that you want to make sure to make. Organize those notes, have it there in front of you. And then the only real way to get this right is to practice, practice, practice, practice. I do this for every event, every speaking event, every media interview that I do. I do it ahead of time and I speak out loud. I literally hear myself saying the words that I want to say when I talk to somebody. And you might think, oh my gosh, that sounds insane and you're kind of crazy. Yes. OK, but it's easier to— when I hear myself say it, then I'm like, OK, yes, that's how I want it to sound, right? Versus, oh, I think it'll be great. No, I really want to say it out loud. And for instance, I was recently on a panel with LinkedIn in LA. It was their Talent Connect conference. And there I am with a bunch of other great panelists talking about remote work and empathy in the workplace and all kinds of topics. So the day before this, I was with my producer, Ali. Keller, who was on the trip with me, and we sat at the hotel and we talked through my talking points together, and we were able to go through and say, you know what, this one doesn't really work that well. Let's, let's make mention of this, you know. Oh, okay, right, that's a great, that's a great example. Yeah, yeah, I'll say that. So for me, it felt better because I had already said these things out loud, and then we were able to see which examples work best, what things should I bring up, what stories should I tell. It was really, really helpful to have someone else to do that with, but you don't have to do it with to somebody. You can just do it on your own as well. But it is really helpful to just get it out of your head and say it out loud, because you think that you'll be prepared, but I'm telling you, it is much, much better if you say it out loud and try it. Um, so I hope this is helpful because I get a lot of questions about talking points and how to create them, and that is literally how I do it. So really, you know, the mind dump happens first, then you have to sort of organize your notes, make sure your expertise is in there, and then practice. Practice, practice. And before I leave you, I would love to leave you with my freebie, my free gift, again, to make sure that you become a media savvy person over there. And, you know, a lot of, a lot of, um, tips and tricks about video as well. If you go to paularizzo.com/checklist. If you have questions, please leave them below. I would love to hear from you. And thanks for watching. Until next time, I will see ya.
