For starters, stop trying to just wing it. You’re not an improv actor, OK?<\/p>\n

Your goal as a speaker should be to have inscribed on your tombstone, “He Made His Point, and Bored Them Less.” To accomplish this lifetime achievement, adhere to the following.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

[ctt tweet=”Your goal as a speaker should be to have inscribed on your tombstone He Made His Point, and Bored Them Less.” coverup=”86Xdy”]<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

1. Ditch the Slides<\/h2>\n

OK, maybe in your business culture you need to have slides, but please don’t make them the star of the show. You are the star. Your slides are your aides–your backup singers. Use them intermittently. In show biz, backup singers get fired if they take attention away from the star.<\/p>\n

Make your slides clear.<\/a> Write headlines that make a point. Control the eyes and minds of your audience by pointing to items on the screen. On each slide, you can begin and end with the big idea. (Just don’t get too repetitive.)<\/p>\n

2. Stuff the Bag<\/h2>\n

If it’s a five-pound meeting, prepare five pounds of content and end on time. Good teachers create class lessons with a beginning, middle, and end, and you should do likewise. To end on time is to be divine.<\/p>\n

Keep the nature of the occasion in mind as you prepare your message. Every situation and audience<\/a> is different. Don’t be tone-deaf. Your antennae must be sensitive to the need for formality or informality, seriousness or humor, words that work and words that won’t. Pack for the climate of your destination.<\/p>\n

3. Begin, Be Brief, Be Seated<\/h2>\n

There’s no correlation between the length of a talk and its impact. Have a good beginning, a strong ending, and put the two as close together as possible. Or as Mrs. Humphrey said to her husband when he was running for President in 1968, “Hubert, for a speech to be immortal, it need not be interminable.”<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Next…Beginnings, Cycling, and Making it Stick<\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For starters, stop trying to just wing it. You’re not an improv actor, OK? Your goal as a speaker should be to have inscribed on your tombstone, “He Made His Point, and Bored Them Less.” To accomplish this lifetime achievement, adhere to the following.   [ctt tweet=”Your goal as a speaker should be to have… Read More »How Not to Bore an Audience (1 of 3)<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9734,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","_ti_tpc_template_sync":false,"_ti_tpc_template_id":""},"categories":[960,336,24],"tags":[891,88,628,345,618,600,117],"yoast_head":"\n