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.”

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 I need to memorize my speech?

Your Public Affairs Director: “Yes, you will seem more professional if you memorize your speech.”

Your speech Coach: “Yes, with enough hours of rehearsal, you can memorize your speech.”

You: “Ugh!!! I guess I have to memorize my speech. This is going to be long, hard, difficult work, but I guess I have to do it. Goodbye family, friends and fun for the next two weeks!”

***

Your Audience: “Of course we don’t want you to ignore us or read to us or have your head buried in a bunch of papers. But don’t give us too much credit. We can’t really tell if you have memorized your speech or not, and, frankly, we don’t care. If you’d like to use a single page of notes that you refer to from time to time, we certainly won’t hold that against you. Of course the less obvious about looking at your notes, the more you will fool us into thinking you simply know your subject matter cold. There’s certainly nothing wrong with using a cheat sheet. After all, you aren’t taking a geometry test.”

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 bugs my audience the most?

Your Speechwriter: “Not having perfect transitions and a clear enough outline/structure.”

Your speech coach: “Audiences are bothered by excessive hand movement and shuffling of the feet.”

You: “I’m sure they are bothered by my ‘uhs’ and ‘ums’, less than graceful transitions,  an unclear structure and by going on too long.”

***

Your Audience: “What bugs us the most is when you bore us with tons of abstract details, numbers and facts that seem disconnected from anything with a real world application. We are so easy to please: just tell us a few interesting messages unsung stories and examples. Throw in a little passion and we’ll be telling people for years what a great speaker you are.”

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 take questions during my presentation, or ask people to hold them until the end?

Your Speech Writer: “Wait until the end of the speech to take questions. This way the logic and flow of the speech won’t be interrupted.”

Your Director of Marketing: “Wait until the end. We want to make sure we get out all of our marketing points up front.”

You: “This is freaking me out! It’s all I can do to get through my presentation without people interrupting my training of thought. Of course we should hold all questions until the end. If people interrupt me, I might forget what is coming next in MY presentation.”

***

Your Audience: “With all due respect, it’s not YOUR presentation, it’s OUR presentation. We aren’t likely to remember our questions if we have to wait half an hour. Who do you think you are, the Queen of England? How can we focus on what you are saying now if we don’t understand something you said a minute ago and you didn’t let us ask questions? Here is the one thing you know about us audience members: if we are asking you a question that means we are not falling asleep or reading emails at that moment. Isn’t that a condition you’d like us to stay in as often as possible during your presentation?”

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 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?

Your Speech Coach: “Yes, this will be a lively way to show you’re unscripted.”

You: “Yes, I’ll certainly look friendly and “interactive’ if I engage my audience right off the bat.”

***

Your Audience: “Gag us with a spoon. We hate this sort of manipulative cliché. Thanks for making us feel like we are back in second grade. I case you have forgotten, you have been assigned the task of presenting and we have been assigned the task of listening. So don’t treat us like we are trained dogs that bark on command!”