Over the years, I’ve been given all kinds of advice when it comes to speaking, some useful, some forgettable, and one piece of gold that changed everything.
It came in the form of a simple line, handed to me in a briefing for a TEDx talk I was preparing for. Nothing fancy. No strategy deck or big philosophical treatise. Just this:
“Make them laugh, make them cry, make them think.”
That’s it. And honestly, it’s the best advice I’ve ever received in my speaking career. Let me unpack why.
Why This Line Matters
If you’ve ever stood on a stage, you’ll know the pressure that comes with trying to truly connect with your audience. Not just hold their attention, but actually engage with them in a way that makes your message land, stick, and ripple.
This one-liner? It’s a trifecta. If you can get people to laugh, cry, and think in the same presentation, or even two out of the three, you’ve taken them on an emotional journey. You’ve shifted their energy. And that’s where real transformation happens.
Now, it’s not about forcing it. Some talks won’t suit tears. Some topics don’t lend themselves to belly laughs. But if you aim for it, if you structure your presentation with the intention of tapping into those emotional touchpoints, everything changes.
How I Put It Into Practice
That one-line gem came to me during a TEDx talk I was invited to do. The event’s theme was “Curiosity,” and I was encouraged to pose a question. Mine was inspired by something quirky I’d read in a magazine.
It turns out that over the last ten years, LEGO characters had become 33% angrier in their facial expressions. Seriously. Now, LEGO comes from Denmark, statistically the happiest country on Earth, so if even the little LEGO guys are getting cranky, something’s going on.
That sparked my talk: “Imagine If We Were 33% Less Angry.”
On the surface, it was playful. But underneath, I went deep into the idea of global angering, how the world is heating up emotionally, and not in a good way. The kind of talk where you can be light one minute, and then have people blinking back tears the next.
And right there, that golden advice guided me like a compass:
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I opened with humour, something quirky, something curious
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I went deeper with stories that touched the heart
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And I wrapped it all in a message that made people stop and think
That talk worked. And it worked because I followed the brief: make them laugh, make them cry, make them think.
The Best Speaking Advice, Energy Is Everything
When you tap into those three emotional states, laughter, sadness, reflection, you’re not just delivering information. You’re shifting energy. And when you shift energy, people remember you. They remember how they felt. They remember your message.
Let’s be real, most presentations aren’t remembered because of slides or statistics. They’re remembered because the speaker made you feel something.
A Simple Rule That’s Ten Miles Deep
This advice might seem simple. And it is. But like all the best ideas in life, it’s an inch wide, and ten miles deep.
You can spend your entire career as a speaker learning how to refine each of those three elements, the timing of humour, the vulnerability of emotion, the clarity of ideas that spark real thinking. I know I have.
But what a goal to aim for.
So whether you’re delivering your first speech or your hundredth keynote, ask yourself:
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Where can I make them laugh?
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Where might I touch something real, something emotional?
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Where can I challenge them to think differently?
Go Watch It in Action
If you want to see how I mapped this out in my TEDx talk, head over to my website and watch “Imagine If We Were 33% Less Angry.” You’ll see how I wove the trifecta of laugh, cry, think into a story about LEGO, curiosity, and the state of our emotional world.
One Final Thought
I’ve spoken on stages in 25 countries, and trained thousands of speakers. And I always come back to this one idea. If you want to be a speaker who connects, not just presents, this is your roadmap. It’s not always easy. But it’s worth it. So the next time you step up to speak, remember this:
Make them laugh, make them cry, make them think.
It’s the best advice I ever received, and now, I’m passing it on to you.
