Conclusion

• 00:05 We're coming to the conclusion of this public speaking course, and
• 00:08 I certainly hope you've learned a lot.
• 00:10 I've got some very specialized techniques that I believe in, but it's not about
• 00:15 you doing everything the TJ way or what anyone else says in a book or a course.
• 00:20 It is about you, constantly trying new things,
• 00:24 holding yourself to high standards and trying to get better and better.
• 00:28 In fact I believe you should have a lifetime improvement plan for
• 00:33 your public speaking.
• 00:35 And that includes like regularly watching TED Talk speakers you admire,
• 00:40 or political leaders you admire, and
• 00:42 really analyzing what it is they're doing when it comes to public speaking.
• 00:47 It includes reading more public speaking books, going to public speaking blogs and
• 00:52 analyzing every speaker you see trying to figure out what works, what doesn't work.
• 00:58 I've given you an awful lot of principles to think about.
• 01:03 I've tried to demonstrate best practices.
• 01:06 It really all comes down to one thing.
• 01:09 If I had to leave you with one final thing to think about, it is to simply practice
• 01:15 every presentation, every speech you give, on video.
• 01:20 Watch it until you're happy with it.
• 01:24 That's really what it comes, if you do that, believe me.
• 01:28 You will be better off than 99.99% of your competitors,
• 01:33 of the people in your company, your organization,
• 01:37 any competitors in the political arena.
• 01:40 You'll be so much better than they,
• 01:42 are because most speakers really aren't very good.
• 01:45 That's the good news about you being here trying to improve,
• 01:48 is most people don't really try to improve.
• 01:52 But also keep this in mind, no matter how good you are, you can't win them all.
• 01:57 I don't care how good a speaker you are.
• 02:00 If you speak often enough, somebody's gonna dislike you,
• 02:03 somebody's going to give you a bad review, somebody's going to fall asleep.
• 02:08 You can't worry about that.
• 02:11 If 30 people in the room are on the edge of their seats listening to every word you
• 02:15 say and there's one person sort of sitting in the back like this, don't ignore the 30
• 02:20 people who are really into you and give all your attention to that one person.
• 02:25 No, that's a huge mistake.
• 02:28 Occasionally give that person attention but no more attention than anyone else.
• 02:34 You want to reward everyone in your audience.
• 02:37 Don't get discouraged if you lose one or
• 02:40 two, nobody is beloved by every single audience.
• 02:45 Do the best you can, do what works for most people.
• 02:49 Most of the time, is my research shows,
• 02:52 as I think your own in the field research will show, what works best for
• 02:58 most people, is if you narrow the messages you have down to a handful,
• 03:04 and then illustrate every single point with a key story.
• 03:09 A story that's personal to you, that's relevant to your audience,
• 03:13 that isn't generic, that doesn't sound like it came from a book.
• 03:18 A story will really help that message come alive.
• 03:21 If you're using PowerPoint, use one image
• 03:26 per slide to really make that idea come alive.
• 03:31 If you got a traditional PowerPoint, deck lots and lots of data, give it as
• 03:35 a handout, email it to people, that's what I do here with a couple of my books.
• 03:42 Don't project it and force everyone to read it in front of you.
• 03:48 Do all these things and I guarantee you you're not going to be a good speaker,
• 03:53 you're going to be a great speaker.
• 03:56 So, please, please, please, don't ever be one of these people again who gets up,
• 04:01 good morning, I'm happy to be here today.
• 04:03 I'm sorry I didn't really have any time to prepare.
• 04:05 My assistant didn't really put these slides together.
• 04:07 You're not ever going to apologize again.
• 04:10 You're not ever going to have bad slides again.
• 04:13 You're not going to give a data dump again.
• 04:15 You're going to be great with every single presentation you give from now on.
• 04:23 So, good luck and let's get to more rehearsal.

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