How to Keep Your Speech Interesting | Public Speaking

So how do you keep your speech from being boring? Because, let's face it, nobody likes to be bored. How many speeches, lectures, presentations have we heard from someone else boring us to tears? Well, here's the first step. Prepare your presentation just as you normally would. Then practice on video and watch yourself. No, I don't want to hear any excuses. Oh, I hate watching myself. I don't like my own voice. Tough. Watch the video of yourself and tell me what you think chances are your reaction is going to be. Good God, tj, that's really boring. Guess what? You're an accurate judge. You've watched speeches your whole life. If you think your speech is boring, guess what? You're probably right. You. You are boring. So just feeling good about it or putting a smile on your face isn't going to help. You've actually got to go in, retool your presentation and make sure it's not boring. The number one thing most people do to make their speeches boring is they try to cram in too many facts, too many bullet points, too many numbers. So, so much of being a great presenter has nothing to do with eye contact or voice or hands. So much of being a great presenter has to do with sitting down in a chair at a desk in front of your computer and simply being a better editor. Taking these 200 facts, narrowing it down to 50 and then 20, and then really just a handful of key points. Then you've got to come up with examples, case studies, stories to make these messages, these ideas come alive, to make them interesting and relevant. If you do that, you won't be boring. But the final test, again, you've got to practice your new speech, your new edited speech on video. Watch it, keep doing it until you can watch a video of yourself and say, wow, that speaker is fascinating. I would love to watch that speaker. When you do that, your boredom worries are over.