Passionate Speaker Beware the Dark Side

Be Passionate about your message - but don’t turn to the dark side

It’s important to express your passion when delivering your presentation. Your passion can be a powerful force delivering your message.

Naturally, your audience still expects you to tell the truth.

Perhaps you’ve witnessed speakers commit this mistake. Maybe in the heat of the presentation you’ve been temped.

It’s dangerous when your passion seduces you into stretching the truth by exaggerating or lying. Don’t get seduced by the dark side.

When you’re excited or anxious it’s easy to fall into the trap of grasping at false facts, claiming absolutes or simply lying. Why might that happen? Because you are eager to convince your audience about the significance of your message and you’re getting desperate.

You believe that your point is valid and relevant but in your desperation to build a stronger argument you fabricate facts.

Astute listeners will see the flaw in your delivery. Others may feel uncomfortable because they might not immediately identify the weakness but your message “doesn’t feel right”.

Those who believe you might discover the falsehood later and feel betrayed.

Perhaps you believe your honest passion should persuade them but the result is that your dishonest “facts’ dissuades them from believing you.

Learn from the speaker who conveyed lies in these two ways. He was clearly passionate about his message but…

Vague Statements

Don’t be vague. The speaker said, “I hear this all the time.”

What does that mean? Does that mean you heard it today, last week, last month or last year? What does “all the time” mean?

That statement is vague, unprovable and lacking substance. It adds no value to the message and easily distracts the listeners with unanswered questions.

It would be more effective to be specific. Did you hear it three times this week, from five clients in the past month or three times last year?

Don’t be vague – be specific.

False Statistics

Don’t claim a specific that is untrue. The speaker stated that “99.9% of the time”…

It’s good to be specific but don’t fabricate facts. That’s considered false facts. Even though there’s a lot of that going around, it’s not acceptable.

The claim of “99.9%” was thrown at us without a source of reference and the circumstance was unbelievable.

Too many people make up statistics to support their point. Some merely repeat unsubstantiated statistics. Perhaps you’ve heard an indignant person defend their claim with “I saw it on the Internet so it must be true”.

Be specific. Confirm and clarify your statistics.

A passionate lie is still a lie.

If it’s not true – it’s a lie. Who wants to be known as a liar? Even if the point is valid, the lie sullies both the point and messenger.

The next time you’re on-fire while delivering your message don’t be tempted by the dark side.

Remember this school yard taunt…

Liar, Liar pants on fire.

Presentation Tips on Twitter  
Presentation Skills Club on Facebook  
Executive Speech Coach,  
Business presentation tips from George Torok, the Speech Coach for Executives

The World's Worst Presentation? What do you think?

This video will be painful to watch "the first time". But, it's worth watching all the way for the suprise and as a test of your observations skills.

How many lessons and notes can you make about what not to do during a presentation? How would you use these lessons to help yourself and other presenters? You might need to watch it more than once.



Presentation Tips on Twitter Presentation Skills Club on Facebook Executive Speech Coach, Business presentation tips from George Torok, the Speech Coach for Executives

How to Have Better Conversations

In this 11 minute video from a TEDX talk, radio show host, Celeste Hendlee offers ten powerful points to help you become more productive in conversations.

Imagine how this skill can make you shine in business and personal relationships.

The ten conversation tips summarized below for you

Watch the video to appreciate the context.

1. Be fully present
2. Assume that you can learn from this person
3. Ask open-ended questions
4. Stay with the conversation
5. When it’s true – admit that you don’t know
6. Don’t equate your experience to theirs
7. Stop repeating your point
8. Leave out the unnecessary details
9. Listen
10. Be brief

Do you want to Communicate more Effectively in Business?
Discover how you can get personalized coaching from an experienced business professional communicator.
Check out the online coaching here.




Presentation Tips on Twitter Presentation Skills Club on Facebook Executive Speech Coach, Business presentation tips from George Torok, the Speech Coach for Executives

How to Answer Questions...or Not?

How to answer questions or not?

Many presentations include time for questions from your audience. This offers the opportunity to clarify key points and nurture trust.

There might be questions that are irrelevant. Naturally, you don’t need to answer that type of question. But what happens when the question is valid and the answer from the speaker is irrelevant?

In this video, Anderson Cooper points out the ridiculous response from Florida Governor, Rick Scott.

Watch this video to see how ridiculous a speaker looks and feels when he persistently avoids the question.

Does this man feel slimy?

Presentation Tips on Twitter Presentation Skills Club on Facebook Executive Speech Coach, Business presentation tips from George Torok, the Speech Coach for Executives

Body Language from your hands?

Body language is the combination of messages conveyed by all parts of your body. Your hands are certainly a noticeable and powerful channel for your body messages. Study this video of Allan Pease speaking at the TEDx Macquarie University. 

What might your hands say about you?



Presentation Tips on Twitter Presentation Skills Club on Facebook Executive Speech Coach, Business presentation tips from George Torok, the Speech Coach for Executives

Sloppy TEDx Presentation Opening

"Hi Everyone, ah, Thank you for your time today. It’s, ah, very daunting to get up here after those wonderful talks this afternoon. Ah, I’m here to talk to you about the next generation of the Internet, the way we see it, ah, in particular, the mobile internet, um, I have mobile internet here with my notes, (held up his phone) hopefully the mobile internet keeps working …"

He continued his talk with many more ums and aahs. I wondered if he had prepared and rehearsed his presentation. He cleared up that question by admitting that he had created his presentation on his phone while on the plane. Clearly, he didn’t rehearse.

He seemed proud of that lack of preparation and yet the TEDx organizers still let him speak.

Naturally, I couldn’t stand listening to anymore. I quit that TEDx video after 2 minutes…

There was nothing in his opening to grab our attention, demonstrate that we should listen to him or even respect him.

Presentation Tips on Twitter Presentation Skills Club on Facebook Executive Speech Coach, Business presentation tips from George Torok, the Speech Coach for Executives

Casey Brown at TEDx Columbus Women

"Know Your Worth and then Ask for It"

In an eight-minute presentation, you need to grab the attention of your audience, establish rapport and deliver your message clearly.

Casey Brown succeeded in meeting those three criteria in this presentation. Watch her presentation and notice these powerful techniques in action.

Grab Attention

Notice how she grabbed attention with the first words of her opening. “No one will ever pay you what you’re worth.” (pause) Then she repeats the phrase. After another pause, “They’ll only pay you what they think you’re worth.”

All of that was delivered with a calm and clear manner with a (I’ve got a secret) smile.

That opening grabbed attention, and piqued the curiosity of the audience to listen for more. That’s the purpose of an effective opening. There were no wasted words in her opening.

Establish Rapport

The best ways to connect with your audience are to demonstrate that you understand them and that you are like them.

She was speaking to a predominantly female audience. She pointed out that women are generally underpaid compared to men. She quoted statistics to back up that statement. She identified herself as a female business owner and single parent of two beautiful daughters. Those statements are likely to connect with the women in the audience and many of the men.

Most importantly she used the one powerful technique to connect with the audience – she confessed that she was flawed and afraid. She was hesitant to take her own advice. Many of us appear wiser when we give advice but we often seem to ignore our own advice.

Deliver the Message Clearly

Her message was “You’ll only be paid what they think you’re worth. That was in her opening statement and repeated in her close.

She illustrated that concept in her personal story and in a story from one of her clients.

Casey Brown delivered on these three presentation criteria. Watch the video below.

Presentation Tips on Twitter Presentation Skills Club on Facebook Executive Speech Coach, Business presentation tips from George Torok, the Speech Coach for Executives