5 Speaker Mistakes Review

1. Memorizing Memorizing or reading your entire presentation is a grave mistake. Your audience came to hear you speak to them – not read or deliver a rote, memorized performance. Your responsibility is to communicate with your audience, not at them. By treating your audience as if you were having a conversation in your living room, you will find that you are much more comfortable and in better control of your nervousness. Nancy Daniels is The Voice Lady and I am reviewing her article 5 Biggest Mistakes Made by Public Speakers. Those of you who have worked with me know that I despise memorization of all kinds. I am not a big fan of power point presentations either, although I will admit that in certain stodgy corporate settings they have their place. But not in my world. My world is dynamic, off the cuff, in your face, theatrical speaking and those who want to be forever remembered become my students. 2. Not knowing your material is another serious blunder. If you are not familiar with your words or how your speech or presentation flows, then you are likely to make more errors. Making a mistake or two is not the issue – making a lot of them is! This isn’t dress rehearsal. I want my speakers to be passionate about their subject. You can’t fake passion. If you don’t know your material inside and out, why should your audience be interested in what you have to say? 3. Speaking too fast. Controlling your speed is extremely important if you expect your audience to be able understand what you are saying. Listening to someone move at 100 mph takes much more energy than speaking at 75! Incidentally, talking at a furious pace saps the energy of you, the speaker, as well. Many speakers, even the good ones have this problem, including me. If you find your audience having trouble keeping up with you, it should be like a neon caution side on the highway. SLOW DOWN! You can do that by clearly hearing yourself begin to enunciate your words. Stop and pause after key sentences and let your words sink in. It will automatically slow you down. Speaking is not a race. It is a performance. Treasure your time in front of an audience and make every word count! 4. Staring at an object on the wall. By no means should you focus your attention on a spot on the wall or above the heads of your audience. Look them in the eye. Make the contact with your listeners and you will then be aware of their reaction to you. Remember, public speaking is a form of communication. If you are not making eye contact, then you are not communicating. This is a common mistake for all speakers. It is not good enough simply to get through your speech. To be a good speaker, you must be an entertaining speaker. This begins with you engaging with your audience and eye contact is crucial to making that happen. 5. Running Out of Air. Breathlessness on the podium is one of the most common mistakes made because many novice – and even some professional – speakers do not think to breathe. If you wait until you are totally out of air, you will then be required to inhale a huge amount in order to fill your lungs. In doing so, you will experience breathlessness and a tightness in your chest. My advice is to learn to breathe with the support of your diaphragm – truly the best means of controlling nervousness – and then practice supplementing your air supply before you are depleted. This one baffles me because it is not in my experience, but it does remind me of one of my crucial requirements for great speaking, so with respect for Nancy and her worthwhile article, it’s now story time with Steve. If you don’t tell entertaining stories in your presentation, you are missing the opportunity to have your audience share you with others by sharing that unforgettable story. When I was in college in the time of Lincoln, I took a speech class with Miss H and it was the first and last speech course I took in college. Always an outgoing and gregarious guy, with two plays under my belt in high school (Rebel Without a Cause and Charley’s Aunt) where I had leads, not to mention my own radio show, I figured that a speech class would be a walk in the park. Not so fast, drama boy! I can’t recall what my subject was for that first speech, but I do remember that there came a time during that speech that I noticed that my body was trembling and when I investigated, I found that my knees were shaking uncontrollably. I realized at that moment that public speaking was a different animal and what I have brought to my students over the past 40 years, is the recollection of that moment and my dedication to making you the most entertaining speaker possible. One footnote to my story. Maybe a year later or so, I returned to Hofstra and that classroom, perhaps to brag about my speaking laurels to Miss H and was met by a small man in a wheelchair, who shocked me with these words when I inquired as to the whereabouts of my former professor. “Why, Steve. Don’t you recognize me? I am Miss H. Over the summer, I had a sex change operation.” Once again, I started shaking. The imposter had me totally fooled and my imagination went into overdrive. For a moment, I thought I was in the Twilight Zone. Believe me, that is a story my audience will never forget, nor will I.