Giving a Formal Speech

00:00 Folks, I'm here to tell you there is no such thing as a formal presentation or an informal presentation or a PowerPoint presentation or a financial presentation.

00:11 There are only two types of presentations in the entire world.

00:15 Do you know what they are? That's right.

00:18 It's either good or it's bad.

00:20 From the audience's perspective, the only thing they're ever thinking is, Wow, this T.J., he's really boring.

00:26 I'm not really going to pay attention.

00:27 Let me check my email or James over here.

00:32 He's interesting. Let me pay attention.

00:33 This is useful. That's the only thing going on in your audience's mind.

00:37 So great speakers adopt the mindset of their audience, not the mindset of the speaker.

00:46 You've got to put yourself metaphorically in the chairs of your audience, so you can experience this as they do.

00:52 So here's the big problem.

00:55 When I hear someone ask about formal versus informal one, somebody tells themselves, Oh, I'm now giving a formal speech.

01:03 They tend to make their speech awful.

01:05 They tend to throw away examples, humor, case studies, interesting stories.

01:12 They tend to stop moving naturally.

01:15 They tend to literally stiffen up, stand behind a lectern, or read a whole bunch of boring bullet points on a PowerPoint.

01:24 So now I'm not anti PowerPoint.

01:26 I use it all the time, but I don't use it in a so-called formal way.

01:32 I use it in an interesting, memorable way.

01:35 So everything you do for your audience needs to be looked at from the standpoint of is this interesting, useful and memorable to their audience? Yes, I understand if you're with three friends having a beer, you may use curse words or certain language you wouldn't use in a boardroom setting.

01:55 But beyond that, the things that make you interesting and informal conversation will also make you interesting as a speaker.

02:03 So don't throw it away just because you now have to give a formal speech.