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.

How do I get rid of my “ums” and “uhs?”

Your Volunteer Speech Group: “Have someone ring a bell every time you say um and uh during a speech. You will stop eventually.”

Your Presentation Coach: “Videotape yourself and then stop the tape every time you say uh or um. Count to “three Mississippi” silently in your head and pause instead of filling the sound with uh or um.”

You: “God! I hate myself for saying so many uhs and ums. This is my number one problem. If I don’t figure out a way to say fewer uhs and ums, I’m going to cancel my next 10 presentations.”

*** 

Your Audience: “Um, I guess it’s slightly annoying to hear a whole lot of uhs and ums, but do you know what is even more boring? Listening to a speaker give us a boring data dump. Do you know who says uh and um a lot? Martha Stewart, Bill O’Reilly, Ed Koch, and Geraldo Rivera. They all say uh and um a lot and they’re all multi-millionaires. So maybe saying uh and um aren’t your biggest problems?”

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 use a teleprompter?

Your Corporate Communications Director: “Yes, this will ensure that we are all on the same page with our corporate marketing messages.”

Your Convention Technical Planner: “Yes, this will ensure greater consistency and control over time—we must keep everything on schedule!”

You: “My God! This teleprompter thing is the greatest thing ever created! Now I don’t have to memorize anything. Now, I don’t have to spend as much time rehearsing because everything will be right in front of me and yet my audience can’t see my speech. This teleprompter thing is a better invention than the iPod!”

***

Your audience: “Ugh!!! Have you ever actually listened to someone read off of a teleprompter who wasn’t a professional news anchor? They sound as energetic and engaging as Keanu Reeves on Quaaludes. There is a reason why the TV ratings for political conventions are usually lower than a test pattern running on cable access TV. Most people sound like robots reading without enough electricity when attempting to use a teleprompter. Instead of using a teleprompter, why don’t you just talk to us about what you know?”

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 read my speech in order to not make any mistakes?

Your Marketing Director: “Yes, this way you won’t get off message and we will be guaranteed that our message will be transmitted.”

Your Corporate Lawyer: “Yes, this will be the best way to mitigate risk.”

You: “I know I probably shouldn’t read, but I didn’t really have time to rehearse or memorize my speech and I want to gt it just right. The stakes are too high for me to make a mistake. OK, just this once, I will read my speech word-for-word.”

*** 

Your Audience: “What did we ever do to you to deserve this torture? Why are you picking on us? We weren’t the ones who through you in the dumpster behind the lunch room in Middle School. If you are going to read a speech to us then you might as well come out on stage wearing a sandwich board that reads ‘I HATE MY AUDIENCE AND I WANT TO BORE THEM TO DEATH…PREPARE FOR PAIN!’”

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.

What is the single biggest difference between great speakers and average/mediocre speakers?

Your Speech Coach: “Practice, practice, practice!”

Your Marketing Director: “It is belief in his or her product or service that count s for the most.”

You: “Innate charisma, luck, the topic, I don’t know! Help!”

***

Your Audience: “A speaker can have perfect diction, perfect eye contact, perfect clothes, perfect hair, and perfect pauses and still be an awful presenter. Why? Because the presenter gave a data dump without stories or examples. The speaker was too abstract and to dispassionate. On the other hand, a speaker can have a button missing, messy hair, say “uh” and “um,” but if the speaker passionately conveys just a handful of messages using compelling stories and examples for each one, then that speaker will be considered a great presenter—every time.”

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 outline all of my key points at the beginning of my speech for the benefit of my audience?

Your Speechwriter: “Yes, this shows order and structure.”

Your Public Affairs Director: “Yes, this is a very logical way to proceed.”

You: “Yes, my audience will be impressed with how thoroughly I have prepared, how logical I am, and the well I have planed.”

***

Your Audience: “We hate outlining. You remind us of a boring school teacher when you do this. When you tell us about all of the points you are going to cover later in your speech you are reminding us that now would be a good time to check our email.  We won’t miss anything important because you’re going to cover it later, right? It’s OK for college teachers to outline for us because we had to write everything down in class. Why did we write down what the teacher outlined? Because that professor was going to test us two weeks later and if we failed the test we would get kicked out of school and have to go wash dishes for the rest of our life. Our college professors could bore us to death with data dumps and outlines and we were motivated to listen and write it all down. But you, my friend, don’t have that power over us. Instead of outlining, just tell us each point in a manner that is so interesting, visual and memorable, that we can’t forget even if we tried. Then, there will be no need to outline.”

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 give a formal or informal speech to this audience?

Chief Protocol Officer: “It depends on the audience. Make it a formal presentation if you are speaking to the board of directors or if there are any elected officials present.”

Director of Sales: “We want this big account, so of course this will be a formal presentation.”

You: “If it’s just in-house to employees I know, then I will make it informal. But if it is to 30 or more people from the outside, then I will make it a formal presentation.”

***

Your Audience: “Formal? Informal? What the h*&L are you talking about? There are two kinds of speeches in the whole world and formal and informal are not the categories. From our perspective, every speech is either good or it’s bad. It’s that simple. If a speech is good, then we will pay attention and focus on what you are saying that is relevant and helpful to us. If a speech is bad, we will zone out and plan our weekend grocery list. Your job is to figure out how to make your ideas and messages as interesting and memorable for us as possible. Period. That could mean making decisions on whether to use PowerPoint, handouts, drawings, stories, or props. But it does not involve deciding to be formal or informal.”

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.

Do great speakers have to have a certain type of look?

Director of Marketing: “Yes, great speakers need to have a polished look. Make sure you have hand-tailored suits and expensive shoes on when speaking.”

Chief Legal Counsel: “Only an expensive business suit will do. And best to have some distinguished gray hair too.”

You: “I had better look like Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher or Bill Clinton. Otherwise my audience will think I’m a joke. I’m going to be toast!”

***

Your Audience: “We don’t really care what you look like, or sound like. Just give us interesting and memorable ideas and do so with passion and stories. You can look as small and quiet as Mother Theresa or as big and rumpled as Michael Moore, we will give you are full attention for the next 20-60 minutes. We aren’t looking to marry you and we aren’t looking for a fashion role model. Just look and sound real and authentic to who you are and you won’t have any problems.”

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.

Don’t I need to speak in a deeper voice to sound serious and credible?

Your Corporate Psychologist: “Studies show that the lower the pitch of the speaker, the more authoritative and credible the speaker will be to the audience.”

Your Image Coach (Female for Female): “You need to lower the pitch of your voice to seem credible to men. It’s a man’s world.”

Your Image Coach (Male for Male): “You don’t want to sound feminine do you? It’s better to keep our voice in the lower ranges to sound serious and credible.”

You (male or female): “Ugh!!! I hate my voice! It’s too high, thin, and whiny. I’d better lower it to make it sound more credible and authoritative.”

***

Your Audience: “We can always spot phony baloney and bad actors a mile away. Be real! If you try to sound like a 1970s network news anchor, you’re going to sound like a fool. Worse, you are most likely going to sound monotone, which is very effective for one thing: no, not sounding authoritative, but putting us to sleep. If you want to sound credible, then you need to sound real. And in real conversation, your voice goes high and low, loud and soft, fast and slow. Sounding real is the ultimate credibility builder.”

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.

How can I get over stage fright and nervousness before I give a speech?

Your Motivational Guru: “Think positive thoughts and you will have a positive impact.”

Your Speech Coach: “Picture your audience naked and they won’t seem intimidating.”

Your Mother: “Just visualize all of your audience giving you a standing ovation, and it will happen!”

You: “Maybe if I open with a good joke then everyone will laugh and I will feel relaxed.”

***

Your Audience: “You SHOULD be nervous before giving a speech. Chances are, you are going to bore the hell out of us like most speakers do. Why don’t you try something radical, like actually delivering an interesting, relevant speech full of compelling case studies, stories and examples that will help us improve our businesses or lives.”

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.

How do I know what messages and topics will be most interesting to my audience?

Director of Marketing Research: “We will conduct a market survey and get back to you in three weeks.”

Director of Public Relations: “Let’s give a brief history of our organization, outline our core strengths, and then cover all of our major accomplishments from the last 6-12 months.”

You: “I want to cover all my bases. I’d rather err on the side of being too thorough. That way, no one can criticize me for leaving anything out. I’ll cover every major accomplishment I can think of from the last 2 years.”

***

Your Audience: “Why don’t you just ask us? Pick up the phone and call a few of us a week or two before the speech. Tell us your topic and then ask us what we’d like to hear if we could have a one-on-one conversation with you for an hour. Ask us what questions we would toss your way. Throw out a dozen ideas and see which ones we like. After about 10 minutes, we will help you come up with literally a handful (that means 5) ideas and messages you should cover in your speech.”