TJ WALKER - THE HABIT INFLUENCER - Personal Development | LIVE STREAM

29 Dec 2017 · 3 min

Watch on YouTube

2:33

TJ Walker delivers a concise public-speaking tip advising presenters not to read speeches except in high-stakes, legally/administratively mandated situations (e.g., heads of state, central-bank announcements). He explains that reading destroys eye contact, vocal variation, pacing, and audience engagement; recommends brief bullet prompts as an alternative. The clip closes with a brief self-introduction and a CTA directing viewers to mediatrainingworldwide.com for books and trainings.

Chapters

Public speaking tip of the day. Reading your speech should always, let me stress this, always be your last resort. It should never be the first resort. Why do I say this? It's because it's really hard to do. It's virtually impossible to read a speech in front of an audience without putting them to sleep, without robbing your ability to have good eye contact, good conversational flow in your voice. So there are times when you have to read a speech. If your boss says, read this speech word for word, as written or you're fired, well then read the speech. If you are a brand new president of a country or a newly appointed minister of a national bank and anything that you say, or the Federal Reserve, anything you say, one wrong word, you're causing international problems, you're ruining an economy, you're starting a world war because of something you said wrong. Well, then it makes sense to read word for word because so many people presumably have vetted this speech to get it just right, to not offend anyone or cause problems. So if you're president of a country or a finance minister, it makes perfect sense for everyone else in the world. And I'm assuming you're not a president of a country or a finance minister. Reading a speech is a bad idea because it virtually guarantees you are boring. But Teache, I don't want to try to remember anything. My memory's bad. I want to get everything just right. That's what I hear. Guess what? You're not getting it just right. If you're reading, you've instantly destroyed your eye contact, you've instantly destroyed volume change, you've instantly destroyed speed change. You typically destroy pausing. So don't read your speech if you're worried about forgetting something. A couple of notes, a few bullet points, something in two or three words to give you a roadmap. But don't read your speech. I'm TJ Walker. I teach people how to communicate effectively to live audiences and the media. If you want more tips, go to mediatrainingworldwide.com and I'll send you a couple of my books free of charge. Or learn more about our online trainings and our live public trainings as well.