TJ Walker argues teleprompters make most speakers sound robotic and hurt memorability, even though they seem easier. He says use a one-page outline instead, except for presidents and central bankers who need the safety net.
Chapters
Do you want the truth about teleprompters? You can't handle the truth about teleprompters. Okay, I'm having a little fun here, and that's a horrible Jack Nicholson impression, but here is the truth about teleprompters. It's actually more work and will take more time to use a teleprompter than to use a simple piece of paper for your notes. People often get sucked into using teleprompters for two reasons. Number one, they think it's somehow easier and will save them time because they won't have to memorize. Number two, conference organizers think it somehow will give them more control and everything will be structured and everyone will know what's happening. So it's going to make a convention or an annual sales conference run more smoothly. But both of those things are false assumptions. If you want to use a teleprompter effectively and you're not a news anchor, reading a teleprompter three hours a day, it's an unnatural thing. It's a weird, strange thing. You're used to reading your whole life by holding a piece of paper or a cell phone or a computer screen this close. You're not used to looking at a screen 3, 4, 5, 10, 15ft away where text is scrolling up with a camera behind. That's just not how you're used to reading. So if you're doing that for the first time in front of a bunch of people, here's what happens. You get scared and you start to think that, oh, if I slow down, I'm going to miss the words and I'm going to be standing here naked, and you're getting each word just right now. But you sound like a robot. Awful. The only thing anyone's going to remember is that you sound strange, drugged, zombie, like. Like a robot. So if you want to get better at it, you have to take more time to rehearse and practice. If you are a conference organizer, you think this is about, well, we'll have all the speeches in a row. We'll organize everything and we'll vet everything. Think again. I've seen it, and it typically makes most speakers really boring. And it's because most speakers in business and in politics are not professional news anchors reading from teleprompters every day. They're not willing to put the time in. For most people, most of the time, I'm giving the exception of being a President of the United States, head of a Federal Reserve, a Secretary of State. Those three positions, quite often one wrong word and you've caused a war or controversy because so many people are analyzing every word you say, picking it apart, looking for conflict. But for most people in business, civic life, social life, our biggest problem in life is not that we get one word wrong. The biggest problem we have when we speak is that it's instantly forgotten. Nobody remembers anything we said. And by using a teleprompter, you often make yourself blander, more boring, harder to remember. That's why, even though I teach people how to use a teleprompter, I have an online course on how to use a teleprompter. So I'm speaking against my interest now and I certainly have clients who are heads of state who have to know how to use teleprompter. For most people in business, political, civic life, I recommend don't use the teleprompter. Just use a simple one page outline of notes. You'll be much more effective as a speaker. I'm TJ Walker. I help people speak more effectively whether they're using a teleprompter or not, because I believe how you present your ideas is the number one factor in your success. If you'd like to be a better speaker, I've got several options for you. We have online public speaking and media training courses available where you can start learning. Right now we have public workshops every month for public speaking and media training here in New York City and also anywhere in the world. I'm available to you for private one on one and group training sessions. If you're interested, give me a call or check out the website now.
