The following comes from TJ Walker’s upcoming book “The Wisdom of Your Audience”. Consistently, the worst advice speakers and presenters get, comes from everyone who is NOT your audience. The following gives examples of some of the WORST advice people are often given. It is followed by the advice of your audience. Listen to them. They are your true judge and jury.

Should I tell jokes at the beginning of the speech to loosen up the audience?

Your Speech Writer: “Yes, this will be a great way to get the audience on your side.”

Your lawyer: “What? Are you crazy? Do you want to get us sued?” Don’t ever use humor at anytime in your speech.”

You: “Yes, I’d like to start off with a good joke—this will relax me and make me more comfortable for my speech.”

***

Your Audience: “Who are you, Henny Youngman? There’s nothing worse than someone trying too hard. That’s the problem with starting your speech with a joke—it’s too obvious. We know it’s coming and so do you. Sure, you might get a chuckle form us begrudgingly, but so will bad puns. You’d be a lot better off saying something funny in the middle or the end of your speech. We aren’t expecting it then—that’s why we’d be even more pleasantly surprised.”

The following comes from TJ Walker’s upcoming book “The Wisdom of Your Audience”. Consistently, the worst advice speakers and presenters get, comes from everyone who is NOT your audience. The following gives examples of some of the WORST advice people are often given. It is followed by the advice of your audience. Listen to them. They are your true judge and jury.

Should I play it safe by avoiding humor?

Speech Writer: “It’s good to open a speech with a joke. This will loosen you and your audience up.”

Chief Legal Counsel: “Humor? Are you crazy? Do you want to get us sued?”

You: “What do I look like Jerry Seinfeld? Joan Rivers? I think I will play it safe and avoid humor all together.”

***

Your Audience: “Nothing is worse than a speaker who is trying too hard to be funny by telling stale or canned jokes. On the other hand, nothing is better than receiving that unexpected surprise of laughter. A speaker who can have fun and make fun, especially of himself or herself, will always have a special place in our hearts. Here is the one thing as a speaker that you should know about us audience members: if we are laughing, we aren’t sleeping, daydreaming or checking our Blackberries. Enough said.”

Here is an excellent tutorial on how to place YouTube video into your PowerPoint Presentations. Personally, I use a lot of video in my presentations. However, I caution most people against this–There are numerous technical problems associated with video, even after you have figured out how to get it into your presentation.  Also, make sure you don’t use copyrighted material from YouTube in your presentation. YouTube has the billion dollar resources of the Google legal department to defend it; chances are that you don’t.

and I’d like suggestions on the most common questions speakers ask themselves when preparing to speak. The theme for the book is how your audience can always give you the best answers to all of your questions. Please take a look and add your comments on other questions to add.  TJ

Wisdom of Your Audience

Improving Your Speech

Preparing You Speech

1. How should I ask to be introduced? *

Beginning Your Speech
2. What is the best way to begin my speech? *
3. Should I tell my audience that I am very happy to be speaking to them today?*
4. How many Points should I cover in my speech?*
5. Should I make this a formal or informal presentation?*

Using PowerPoint
6. Should I give a PowerPoint presentation?*
7. How many bullet points should I use per slide? *
8. How many slides should I use? *
9. Is it OK to read from my PowerPoint slides?*
10. Should I read my speech in order to not make any mistakes?
11. Should I use a teleprompter?
12. Is it OK to use notes when I speak?
13. Should I play it safe by avoiding humor?
14. How can I best establish my credibility with my audience?
15. How can I best establish the credibility of my company?
16. Should I stand behind the lectern?
17. What should I do with my hands?
18. Should I walk around when I speak?
19. What should I edit out of my speech?
20. What should I add to my speech?
21. Should I use stories in my presentation?
22. Should I be more concise?
23. How big a problem are my “ums” and “uhs?”
24. How can I show how serious I am about my speech topic?
Delivering Your Speech

25. Won’t I lose credibility if I talk about my failures?
26. How long should my speech be?
27. Should I tell ‘em what I’m gonna tell ‘em, tell ‘em, and then tell ‘em what I told them?
28. How big of a disaster is it if I can’t answer a question during a Q and A period?
29. What is the most likely speaking disaster I could encounter while presenting?
30. How should I end my speech?
31. When should I thank my host, introducer and audience?
32. What points from my speech will stick with my audience?
33. How will I know if my speech “worked?”
34. Is it OK to use handouts?
35. Will I steal my own thunder if I email my PowerPoint presentation to people in advance of giving my speech?
36. How do I get my audience to think I’m smart?
37. Should I use special effects in my PowerPoint?
38. Should I use the jargon of my audience?
39. Should I rehearse and for how long?
40. What if there is no time to rehearse?
41. I’m not a technical person, is it OK if I don’t use the slides the right way?
42. Who/what should I look at when speaking?
43. Should I sit or stand when presenting?
44. Who should be my role model for speaking?
45. How should I use modern technology to enhance my speech?
46. Is drawing on white boards and charts too old fashion for modern audiences?
47. Should I use a microphone when speaking to an audience?
48. How can I make better transitions?
49. Are you looking at my hair/makeup/teeth?
50. Will I seem more professional by keeping my body still and planting my feet?
51. Is it a danger to use more than one example?
52. Is it wrong to use more than one story to make a point?
53. Is it bad to be redundant?
54. Is it bad to be redundant?
55. Does my speech flow?
56. If my allotted time is cut, what should I eliminate from my speech?
57. Is it OK to speak faster if I am running short on time?
58. What do I do if I feel I am losing my audience?
59. What’s the worst thing that can happen during my speech?
60. Should I tell jokes at the beginning of the speech to loosen up the audience?
61. If I’m more comfortable holding a pen in my hands while I speak, is that OK?
62. What happens if I make a mistake and say the wrong thing?
63. What If I forget where I am going in my speech?
64. How can I recover from a major blunder in my speech?
65. How can I get a standing ovation?
66. Will I sound more credible if I speak with a lower voice?
67. Will I sound more credible if I speak with an even tone to my voice?
68. Is it OK to use props?
69. Should I tell my audience that I am sick/my plane was late/I didn’t get a full night’s sleep?
70. How can I get invited back to speak again to this group?
71. How can I increase my sales to the group I am speaking to?
72. How can I get my audience to rush up to me after my speech?
73. Is it OK to have a drink before I speak to calm my nerves?
74. Should I show my audience that I am well-organized by telling them at the beginning the outline of my whole speech?
75. Will reinforcing my key points in text on PowerPoint make my audience retain the points more easily?
76. Should I interact with my audience at the beginning by saying “good morning” and then saying “I can’t hear you” to get them to try again with more energy and enthusiasm?
77. Is it OK to drink water during a presentation?
78. Should I take questions during my presentation, or ask people to hold them until the end?
79. Is it safer to weed out the bad questions by asking people to submit their questions in written format?
80. Is it OK to ask questions of audience members?
81. How long do I need to stay around after my speech?
82. Should I show passion by speaking LOUDLY?
83. Should I maintain my professionalism by avoiding all personal observations out of the speech?
84. What bugs you the audience the most?
85. Do I need to memorize my speech?
86. How do I know what messages and topics will be most interesting to my audience?
87. How do I know which messages and topics resonated with the audience the most after the speech?
88. Don’t great speakers have to be taller, older, richer, deep voiced than I am?

89. How will I know what my audience will remember? *

Here is a great video used to introduce bill Gates before his last keynote speech at the Consumer Electronics Show. The video is funny and well done. But I feel it should come with a warning: Don’t try this at home kids! Why? Because it is extraordinarily time-consuming and expensive to put together a video like this. My advice? Most speakers are better off coming up with an interesting speech rather than getting lost in the details of editing a video. So if you have the resources of Microsoft behind you and you are good friends with international celebrities like Gates, then go for the fancy videos. If not, think twice before going to these lengths.

Fantastic CNN feature story today on audience members falling asleep and doing other distracting things while politicians speak. This is a funny piece and it just goes to show you that no matter how good a speaker you are, you can’t captivate everyone in your audience.

I have written a lot about pausing in the past. Here are some additional insights about the pause as it relates to humor from well-know speaking expert Tom Antion.

“In joke telling, a pause just before and just after your punch line sets it apart from the setup of the joke and gives the audience a chance to laugh. Absolutely do not continue to talk when laughter is expected. Laughter is hard to get and easy to discourage. Hold eye contact a little bit longer than you think you should when delivering punch lines because time is hard to judge when you are pumped-up for a presentation.
The size of your audience will affect your timing. Your presentation will take less time to deliver to smaller audiences. Smaller audiences should mean quicker laughter. Conversely, presentations will take longer for extremely large crowds. Your pauses will be longer to compensate for the wave effect created because of the physical distance between you and the back row of the audience.” from Wake ‘em Up Business Presentations