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.

Who/what should I look at when speaking?

Your Therapist: “Look at the clock in the back of the room. This will keep you from getting scared by your audience.”

Your Colleague down the hall: “I look at the top of people’s heads. This way I can’t see them staring back at me.”

Your Speech Coach: “Sweep the room with your eyes, moving in a counter-clockwise movement going from the top left quadrant, to the bottom left quadrant, to the top right quadrant and then the bottom right quadrant every 2.3 seconds.”

You: “I’d like to look right at my audience, but I don’t want to make any mistakes. Therefore I better keep my eyes on my script or on my PowerPoint slides.”

***

Your Audience: “Would you give me a job if I came to a job interview and never looked you in the eyes or shook your hand? Of course not. We hate to sound petty, but if you ignore us, we will ignore you back. If you want to get our attention, look us in the eye. Look at each one of us individually, not as some big sea of people. If we feel and see you looking at us individually, we will pay great attention to you, individually. That will add up to one big attentive audience for your speech.”

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 rehearse my presentation and for how long?

Your PowerPoint Presentation Creation Specialist: “Rehearsal sounds like a nice idea, in concept, but we still have to re-design the last ten slides.”

Your Corporate Communications Director: “Sure, let’s rehearse if there is time. But we are still waiting for approval on the slides from corporate HQ and I don’t expect those until the morning of the presentation.”

You: “I absolutely have every intention of rehearsing. But shoot, it’s midnight and we are still changing the font size for the bullet points on the presentation and the speech is tomorrow morning at 8:00 AM and I haven’t slept in 2 days. Looks like there is no time for rehearsal. Besides, I want to seem ‘fresh.’ I might seem stale or canned if I rehearse.”

***

Your Audience: “We don’t care if you rehearse or not, just don’t rehearse on us. If you don’t know what slide goes where, or how your transitions work, or how your clicker operates, guess what you are telling us? You are telling us that you and your one hour of time are a hell of a lot more important than the collective hundred hours of our time as audience members. You are telling us to drop dead. OK, we will; right in front of you. You now get to speak to a dead audience. Are you happy now? You had better be great when you present to us if you want us to remember you and to love you. In theory it’s possible you could be great without rehearsing, and maybe Tiger Woods could have become a great golfer without ever practicing. Yeah, right!”

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 special effects in my PowerPoint?

Your Corporate Communications Director: “This is the MTV generation. Of course we have to have special effects. Get with it!”

Your Director of Marketing: “Yes you need some special effects and music. In fact, this will be the perfect time to unveil our new TV advertising campaign.”

You: “Wow, if I could have some eye-popping special effects, that will really make my presentation sizzle. This will also take the spotlight off of me and make my whole speech go down better.”

***

Your Audience: “Do you have any idea how many chumps we’ve seen standing in front of us apologizing for their audio or video not working in their presentation? Or worse, they have some PowerPoint page flying in from the top and then dissolving at the bottom like we’re going to be impressed. You know who impresses us? Steven Spielberg impresses us. George Lucas impresses us. You and your special effects in a PowerPoint don’t impress us. Do you know what would impress us? That’s if you actually prepared something interesting to say and then you said it, rather than wasting 15 hours preparing some cheap special effect gimmick that probably won’t even work.”

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.

Will I steal my own thunder if I email my PowerPoint presentation to people in advance of giving my speech?

Your Speech Writer: “Yes, let’s keep the element of surprise on our side. Don’t send it in advance.”

Your Communications Director: “No, why would someone come hear you speak if they have already received the presentation in advance? Let’s not cannibalize our audience.”

You: “What will by audience need me for if I have already given them all my material? They will know as much as I do if I send them the presentation in advance. Worse, they will have had time to think of tough questions based on what I’ve sent them. And worse still, they might find a factual error! This has disaster written all over it.”

***

Your Audience: “One of two things will happen if you send us your presentation in advance. One, we don’t read it, but we are at least impressed that you cared about us so much that you prepared in advance and sent us something. Or, two, we will read your presentation in advance. If we read the whole thing, chances are you engaged us and interested us at some level so that we are even more psyched to hear you speak. You now have more credibility in our eyes, we have a better understanding of your key concepts, we grasp your concept more easily during the speech because we are already familiar with them and we ask even more thought-provoking questions. Either way, you win. So yes, please send us your presentation in advance.”

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 will I know if my speech “worked?”

Your Marketing director: “We will videotape the speech and conduct focus group surveys with housewives in a mall. In six week and $35,000 we will have an answer for you.”

Your speech coach: “Public speaking has a magical, elusive quality. You will know it when you feel it.”

You: “Who knows when my speeches work? It’s just a combination of luck, the mood of the audience and if I am feeling “on” that day.”

***

Your audience: “If you want to know if your speech is working, just ask us. We will tell you. Chances are that some of us will come up to you after your speech and tell you that you were great (we might mean it, we might not). This is your chance. Just asked us specifically what we remembered and took away from your speech. If you had compelling stories, memorable stories and slides that stuck in our brain, we will tell you. Then, you know your speech “worked.” If we simply say “Everything about your speech was great” that means nothing you said was memorable and your speech was a complete failure as a communications exercise.”

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 should I end my speech?

Your Boss: “Once you have finished your main points, then shut up and sit down.”

Your Conference Organizer: “We are running behind schedule. Just sit down quickly after you’ve hit your main points.”

You: “I know I should end with some heart-warming, pithy story, but I can’t think of one. So I will quickly shut up and sit down.”

***

Your Audience: “Nothing is worse than a speaker who just quickly and abruptly finishes the last bullet point on a presentation and says ‘that’s-it-any-questions-thank-you-and-goodbye’ as they run off the stage. End with a purpose. End with finality in your voice. Don’t throw us off guard. Don’t be like a car that is going down the highway at 70 miles per hour and then suddenly runs out of gas. You don’t have to be funny or poignant, but at least re-state your main points, summarize, or ask us to do something. Leave us with one final thought—and that thought should NOT be that you are desperate to get out of the room!”

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 big of a disaster is it if I can’t answer a question during a Q and A period?

Your Public Relations Director: “You will look like a fool! Here is a briefing book with 129 possible questions you will be asked along with a detailed answer for each one. Please memorize them.”

Your Corporate Legal Counsel: “Say ‘no comment’ as often as possible.”

You: “Holy cr*@! This is my worst nightmare. If I can’t answer questions that come my way I will look like an absolute imbecile! I must cram, cram, cram! This question and answer thing has disaster written all over it.”
***

Your Audience: “Ya, it’s possible you don’t know the answer to some question. I vaguely remember that happening to some speaker about five years ago. But if you are going to spend your time worrying about potential problems, why not worry about a real problem: you are going to bore us to death because you are planning on doing a boring data dump instead of sharing with us relevant stories about a handful of key messages. Worrying about not answering some hypothetical tough question makes as much sense as a chain-smoking, junk-food-addicted 295 pound couch potato worrying about the dangers of over-exercise. Sure, both could be a problem, but they are pretty low on the list of likely dangers.”

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 ‘em what I’m gonna tell ‘em, tell ‘em, and then tell ‘em what I told them?

Your Corporate Communications Director: “Your speech needs a clear-cut outline. So yes, you should tell people what you are going to cover. Then tell them the messages, and then tell them what you told them.”

Your Speech Writer: “This is the best structure for delivering a message since God came up with the Holy Trinity.”

You: “Finally there is agreement. I will use this structure for my speech. Great! This makes my outlining easy.”

***

Your Audience: “This is the dumbest advice we’ve heard since ‘Starve a cold, feed a fever.’ We have a better idea: Tell us your idea once in a manner that is so interesting and memorable that we can’t forget even if we tried. Do you want proof that the tell ‘em what your gonna tell ‘em, tell ‘em and tell ‘em what you told ‘em school of thought doesn’t work? Quick, how many emergency exit doors are there on a 747? You don’t know, do you? Even though, if you are a frequent traveler, you have been told scores or hundreds of times how many exit doors there are. You don’t remember because each time you were told, you were told in a boring manner and you weren’t paying attention. Got it?”

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 long should my speech be?

Your Speech Coach: “According to a study conducted by the U.S. Defense Department in 1974, the ideal length of a speech is 18.5 minutes.”

Your Corporate Communications Director: “As a general rule of thumb, the shorter the better.”

You: “I need to make the speech more concise. The sooner I shut up and sit down, the less likely I am to make any mistakes or give people an opportunity to criticize me.”

***

Your Audience: “Sure, if you are going to be incredibly boring, it is better to be boring for a short period of time rather than a long period of time. But why start with such low expectations? If you speak for just a few minutes, but you are really boring, we will zone you out after 30 seconds. However, if you are incredibly interesting, we will hang on yoru every word for hours!”

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 stories in my presentation?

Your Speech Writer: “Yes, you should open and close your speech with a heart-warming story.”

Your Public Relations Director: “Yes, if there is time, let’s put in a few stories to flesh out our points.”

You: “Of course I’d like to put some stories into the presentation, but unfortunately, there’s no time because of all of the data points I must cover.”

***

Your Audience: “It is highly unlikely that we will remember anything from your speech other than your interesting and relevant stories (if you doubt this, just ask us five minutes after your speech is over to tell you what you said during your presentation and you will be greeted with a blank look). If you have an important point or message you want us to remember, you’d b e an absolute fool or imbecile not to tell us a story involving a conversation you had with a real colleague, client, customer or friend that makes this message come alive in a tangible way. If you don’t want us to remember anything from your speech, then by all means, leave out the stories.”