BY TJ Walker
I have written several books on how to be a great public speaker and have produced more than one thousand long and short videos on the subject, but here are the key points you need to follow if you truly want to be a guru who speaks in a memorable and authoritative way.
- Narrow your points to just a handful (five) for any one speech or presentation.
- Tell at least one story for every point you make. Make sure each story contains a point, a dialogue, a setting, a character, a problem and a feeling.
- Be passionate.
- Be funny.
- If you use PowerPoint, use photos and images, but don’t use text.
- Never read a script.
- Always use a simple one-page paper outline with bullet points of 3-4 words per line.
- Rehearse on video.
- Watch your rehearsal video.
- Keep rehearsing and watching your video until you absolutely Love, Love, Love your own speech.
I could go on another thousand pages, but if you follow these ten tips, you will be a better speaker than 99.9% of the would-be gurus in the world.
You will greatly enhance your chances of becoming a world-class guru if you become a world-class speaker first. You can’t always force the world to recognize your expertise quickly, but you can become a great speaker relatively quickly, so please devote the necessary time and energy needed.
How will you know when you’ve become a great speaker? Ask. Just ask people want they remember from your presentations. If they say you were great, wonderful and inspiring, that means you were terrible! Instead, people need to be able to tell you specifically what stories, anecdotes and principles they remember from your presentations and how they will apply them in their own lives. When that happens, you will k now that you have become a great speaker.