The Open Secrets of Successful Speakers with Abdo Wahba - Productized 24 TalkInTen

We’re excited to bring you more exclusive content from Productized 2024, our third conference of the year! This series continues our TalkInTen format, where we deliver concise, impactful conversations with industry leaders driving innovation in product and business agility. Each episode is packed with fresh insights, actionable strategies, and real-world examples to help teams and organizations succeed.

In this episode, we’re joined by Abdo Wahba, a seasoned product leader and public speaking coach who has helped countless speakers elevate their presentation skills. Abdo shares the open secrets behind successful speakers and how anyone can improve their delivery with a few simple techniques. Learn how to craft a clear, impactful message and captivate your audience by focusing on what matters most.

Abdo on LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/abdelrahmanwahba/

If you enjoy the show, please leave a review and stay tuned for more great episodes from the Product Agility Podcast!

Use code PROD24 for 15% off training courses at Sheev – https://www.sheev.co.uk

Host Bio

Ben is a seasoned expert in product agility coaching, unleashing the potential of people and products. With over a decade of experience, his focus now is product-led growth & agility in organisations of all sizes.

Stay up-to-date with us on our social media📱!

Ben Maynard

🔗 https://www.linkedin.com/in/benmaynard-sheev/

🐦 https://x.com/BenWMaynard

💻 https://sheev.co.uk/

Product Agility Podcast

🔗 https://www.linkedin.com/company/productagilitypod/

💻 https://productagilitypod.co.uk/

🖇️ https://linktr.ee/productagility

Listen & Share On Spotify & iTunes

• Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/0lkwAYJzVSuk5zfJ1vIDZq?si=4c691fb12f124a56
• iTunes - https://apple.co/3YvTX8p

Want to come on the podcast?

Want to be a guest or have a guest request? Let us know here https://bit.ly/49osN80

Transcript

0:00

Welcome to a very special series of episodes of the Product Agility Podcast, broadcasting for two days, direct from Lisbon Portugal and product ties 2024. This year, we're bringing you more exclusive bite-sized wisdom with our Talks in 10 format, where we can be diving into actionable insights from some of the best and brightest minds in product leadership. And attendees this year are being spoiled with talks and workshops from the likes of Radakadot, creator of radical product thinking and Rich Morinov, author of the Art of Product Management. Having us all find some joy in what we do, but it would be a pretty shitty conference if it was just two people. There are so many more people here and they'll be getting as many of them as possible on here to share their talks in 10. Now before we begin, a huge thank you to our sponsors Sheev Limited. Sheev is the company which has bankrupted this podcast pretty much since day one. I want to take an opportunity just to share with you and make you aware we do some awesome stuff. Whether it's training your product teams or coaching your product teams with clarity and alignment or just a simple thing of actually making OKRs work in organisations, these are all things that we are very good at. So do head over to www.sheev.co.uk, see what we do and get in contact with us. Also check out the show notes for a tasty little discount code over any of our courses. Grab a notebook because the next 10 minutes are going to be packed with action tips from the best in the business. And here begins a talk in 10. I erroneously said beginning of the last episode, this is day two of productise. It's day two for me but it's day three of the conference. It's been a really awesome few days and we're here with Abdo Hopper. Is that kind of? Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Close enough for rock and roll. Good. I like that. I like that. And it's slightly different in the crowd of people that we've had coming on the podcast at productise because you're not actually giving a talk or a workshop. Are you? I am not. So if people go into the productise website and it's happening your name, you won't be there on the list. That is true. Why the hell are you here? Many reasons. But the main reason I'm here is that I have coached the speakers to in order to make their talks just not suck. At least this is what I like to put it. I mean, they were awesome already. I helped them be really, really awesome. At least some of them, the ones who signed up to work with me. And it's because I, in addition to being a product person, having worked in product for 17-ish years and led different product teams in different industries, I've also delivered roughly 1300 hours more than 1300 hours of coaching and training with a focus on presentations and obviously product as well but with a focus on presentations. And I talked to Andrea and Marina about, hey guys, you know that I did a study that said 73.68% of all presentations are usually average or they flat out suck. And if you ask me about the number where I came and what's the basis of the study, I pulled this number out of thin air. But it's felt right, didn't it? Well, it sounds very precise. Like with me, it makes me think, I thought I must be really accurate. The more decibel pages you add to something, the more I was looking at that man, those were these two, talking about Jesus, he was doing some deep research to get to that number. Yeah. But I have pulled it out of thin air even though it's still, I mean, you can relate to it and it feels okay, I mean, 70%. Yeah, maybe I learned this, I learned that but usually this is the case. There's the majority of presentations are okay or average. Yeah. And the issue is, I know for a fact that this majority of speakers, they could be great. But if they apply just very simple things that we are not taught in school or in business, they can really elevate themselves to the top 25% of speakers worldwide. And if they apply them repeatedly and they internalize them, they can speak on the TEDx level like of the masters. So we've only got a handful of minutes. Yes. I'm trying to think about English words to put things I used to with smattering earlier and you quite liked it. I think I'm more English like localism as I can throw into the mix. However, we don't have a lot of time. And I think what the listeners really benefit from is perhaps some of those tips or some of the things which you've helped the speakers with that maybe will help them lift, elevate their game. They're going to give away too many trade secrets. But there's a few kind of pointers that you can give to people to help them help make them be more successful in their speaking journey. Absolutely. I mean, I'm happy to give away all my trade secrets. That's because they're not. They're just not secrets. If you open any YouTube video, talking about it, you'll find it out there. The trade secret is how to apply it and how can I really recommend it to the speaker in a bespoke way so that they can so that it works for them and they're able to apply it and internalize it and mix it in line with who they are and how they speak in their own style. And let's do a bit of an experiment. I want you to remember to go back to a very, very good presentation or talk that you have attended. You're in the audience. You don't have to mention you don't have to remember it. You have in mind? Yes. I want you to remember how many takeaways did you stuck with you from the stock until today? I'd also encourage listeners to do this as well. Yes, yes, please do. How many? Just a number? Not what they are, but just just a number. I can bet money that is never more than three. It's always between one and two. So, putting this aside, when most people have a presentation ahead of them and they need to prepare and they're doing the best and I really cannot judge them for it, what they do is you think about what you want to talk about. You make a list of topics, list of ideas and I want to start with this and I want to talk about that. This is a very interesting graph. I want to use this is relevant to the topic. I want to bring it in and this is an interesting gift or story or a graphic or whatever. I want to also bring it in and then at the end you look at the slides and you're like, oh, it looks good. Let's go through it and I see you nodding and I hope you're nodding, not just to be nice, but you're kind of relating to it. Just get me thinking. That's all because it is a delicate thing, you know, trying to think of the correct term. It to give birth to a talk. It's delicate. I'm going to take a few steps back from this expression. Give it to the world. So, which is not wrong per se, but this is the second step. It's not the first step. The first step is to really hammer what is my message and whenever I ask someone in my coaching sessions, like the first time we meet, they do a presentation and I ask them, hey, what's your message? The usual answer is never very Christically or never. It's usually also sometimes like a few minutes of talking. I want to say this and I want to say that and I think I need and I think I want what I'm trying to say is and I guess my message is and so on. And the thing is, it's not about what you're trying to say. It's what do you want the audience to retain in their hearts, minds and souls after they leave your presentation? And this is why I asked you how many things did you take away? And it was true. And I would guess it was a bit of a longer talk, not necessarily a 15 or a 10 minute talk, probably 30 minute, 45 minute talk. And that's the thing. If the audience will retain one thing or they will take away one thing, then you might as well plan it as such. You might as well, okay, phrase your message as I want the audience to. Because essentially, why do people do presentations or talks? Is we want the audience to think differently about something or we want the audience to feel differently about something or we want the audience to do something different? That's it. It never is. I'd say at least there's a strong fourth. What is it? Ego. People do talks and they stand on stage because it feels damn good. Right. So I would look at you and people think that you know what you're talking about. A lot of it is ego driven. That is true. I think some of the speakers here are slightly more futuristic. Right. I'm going to do it but there's definitely, I'm looking at George, I think some of the conferences we've been to over the years, there's definitely a strong vein of like somebody wants to feel good. Right. That is true. In this very specific case, they're not looking for an impact on the audience. So if you're looking for an impact on the audience, you're doing it for one of those reasons. You either want them to think differently about after they leave the presentation, you want them to feel differently about a topic or we want them to do something differently after they leave the presentation. If you're doing it for your ego, that's a different story. I think they're not mutually exclusive. I think you can still want to give something back but it also feeds you a little bit. That's true. And then it definitely gets to a point maybe, a tipping point, right? Where you just become that crusty old dude saying the same old shit just to get the money in these things. It's a good byproduct if you have it. But if you want to have a strong impact, you have to focus it. You have to really say, I want the audience to feel that whatever I'm talking about is very important. Or I want the audience to feel that working in product is not glamorous. Or I want the audience to feel that or to think, to believe that being in line with your values is super important for a product person. Essentially, this is where you seek success as a public speaker. And this is one of those things that you have to do like this. Otherwise, you're all over the place. And once you do this, it changes everything in how you prepare your presentation and how you structure it. Because suddenly you're no longer wanting to talk about stuff. You actually want to convince the audience of something. And therefore, you're starting to make a case. You're starting to land a certain point. And all of a sudden, you're focusing a lot on this very specific point. And as product people, we do a lot of prioritization. And your message becomes the basis of prioritization. And if there's anything in the content that you think that does not help you deliver your message, and you ask yourself, does this piece help me deliver my message? And if the answer is anything except an emphatic unequivocal, yes, it has to go. Because if it's not helping, it's not neutral. It's actually harming. I mean, it doesn't matter how much you love this story, it doesn't matter how much you love this graph, it has to go. So it's the graphs, you know, man, you always want to get that graph. Oh, my, don't get me started on graphs. You want to make the font so small that one can read anyway, you know, and then you're already going to hit the mark. I can talk endlessly about how to use graphs and how not to use them. We're at time. One thing that I'm taking away, and this is something I learned actually in structural design, we're trying from the back of the room, which is no, I think we can, it's also a bit of a product mindset thing and start with end-to-minds, understand the outcome we want people to leave with, and then let's just focus on what they need to know for their outcome, rather than that like that graph that we want to include, because we would just love that graph. Absolutely. Perfect. I do. Thank you so much for coming on. It's really nice to have this conversation with you. I know we met briefly at dinner last night, my brain was fried. It was a long day. So thank you so much for coming so early. If people do want to find out more information about you and the services that you offer, LinkedIn, I guess is the right place. LinkedIn, find me on LinkedIn, and my name is Abdul ABDO, WAVA, W-A-H-B-A. I think I'm the only one there. Yeah. Nice and fine. Mate, thank you so much for coming on. Everyone, thank you so much for listening. Thank you for having me. If you've enjoyed this talking, please do, I can't think of the right term, subscribe, click on download, or plus, or whatever it is in your podcasting platform of choice to make sure that you don't miss out on any future talks in 10. We'll be back again at some point soon. Thank you.