Because I speak for a living, I watch a lot of other speakers at the same event. The one thing many of these speakers have in common is: they’re boring. Intelligent content….but so hard to pay attention to for a full hour.
When I watch these speakers, the fact they are boring is easily fixable. They seem to make the same mistakes in regards to “engagement”.
Here’s how you’ll know if you are accidentally a snoozer on stage.
- You have graphs and a lot of words on your slides. No-one will remember all of your stats. No-one. Slides are valuable real estate for making an emotional connection with your audience, as well as reaching your visual learners. One image or one powerful statement is way more impactful than 6 points with numbers on the same slide. One powerful piece of art – hits you emotionally. One powerful quote – hits you emotionally. Facts and data make many wonder when lunch and recess is.
- You think your job is to educate and inform. If I ask you to name 3 presidents in the 1800’s vs something mean someone said to you in grade school – what do you remember more clearly? The mean words. Why? Emotional impact. You can’t educate well if your audience is not on board with you emotionally and ready to receive what you have to say.
- You stand behind the podium. “You’re killing me, Smalls!!!” If you stand behind the podium you are assuming everyone in the audience is an auditory learner. Auditory learners looove podcasts and can listen and stay tuned in. 60% of the rest of your audience, including me, are not. I need movement or visuals or SOMETHING in order to pay attention. Other people may need to fidget, think or move. In addition, the podium becomes a wall – a nice cozy, protective blanket – between you and the audience. If you step outside the comfort of the podium you literally feel exposed to the audience. You want that. You want to be exposed and open and vulnerable to the audience.
- You use sports stories or stories anyone can find off the internet. Off all the billions of sermons I have listened to as a child, and many talks – what is it about Male speakers and talking about sports?? UNLESS you are an athlete or it is specifically important to your story, don’t alienate half your audience by thinking everybody cares about football as much as you do. Not only this, but as a meeting planner, if I can find the story you are going to share on the internet, then what am I paying you for? Your stories should be unique and your own.
- You don’t have control of your body movement. It’s normal to be nervous when you speak. Because of that, your body wants to move to let out your LITERAL nervous energy. This is where we get swayers, knee poppers, foot shufflers, backward walkers, rigid standing, pacing frantically, or repetitive arm gestures. No body control over the nerves. When you let your nervous energy out like this, it puts the audience on edge. They feel uncomfortable because you are not comfortable. If you have stage fright – like I still do – learning to control your body so your energy goes ONLY up and out vocally without excess sloppy movements, is necessary for the audience to relax because you at least give the illusion you are in control.
- You are emotionally stagnant with no range or growth. Audiences need an emotional journey to stay connected with you for an entire hour. If you are strictly focused on facts without taking the audience’s emotions in mind, you are soooo boring. Audiences are emotional. Some may be late. Some may be excited. Some may be annoyed they have to be there. You need to take the audience where they are at EMOTIONALLY in the beginning of your speech and get them to where you want them to be EMOTIONALLY by the end of your talk so that they will put into action what you shared.
- You have no range in your pacing or rhythm. One well placed pause can make a statement that is interesting turn into something that is powerful and striking. So much of keeping an audience engaged is your delivery style which includes your pacing. If you speak the same the entire time, you are missing SO MUCH IMPACT you could have if you simply delivered it differently with the vocal tone and the pacing.
- You have no stories. For a bajillion years we did not pass down information to younger generations through powerpoint slides with facts – we did it through stories and music. Why? Because they have an emotional impact that helps us literally remember. Stories are necessary in taking the audience on that emotional journey and to help give them something visual in their minds to hang on to. They won’t remember all of your facts, but they will remember one of your stories.
- You speak off of a vague outline because you like being in the moment. This is code for you rabbit trail and are random. Whatever comes to your mind in the moment should not always be spoken out loud. We know that if we have ever been in a romantic relationship or lived a public life. You keep your mouth shut or if you let things fly out of your mouth, you’re eventually will say something totally random, off point, cringy or flat out wrong. You need a beginning, middle and well defined end. You need take aways. This means you need to have thought some things out beforehand rather than relying on your knowledge in the moment.
- You’re too perfect on stage. We as humans can’t relate to the overly polished, perfectly outfitted, elite worded individuals on stage telling us if our life isn’t perfect that’s our fault. We have hate that person since 2020. Times have changed. People want REAL. The best speakers are authentic and relatable. The audience would much rather listen to you in the pajama, cup of coffee in hand with baggy eyes style, than the instagram filtered version of you on stage. We simply can’t relate because our lives have real struggles. Social media right now is all about raw and real with the younger generations who are NOW IN THE WORKPLACE. They are completely turned off by perfectly polished “know-it-alls”. Be real so you can be relatable.
I am holding a live webinar on, “How to Become a Paid Motivational Speaker” on January 11, 2025. I also have some new year’s specials on my coaching packages. You can check all that out at: https://www.boringtosoaringspeeches.com/store
