It was more than a dozen years ago, it was my first time in Eastern Europe. I was in a former dictators palace, surrounded by armed guards and working with a prime minister. It was no longer a dictator there. And the prime minister said, TJ, do you mind if I practice the speech in my native language? Sure. So he stood up, gave his speech.

I videotaped it. He watched it turned to me and said, TJ, what do you think of the speech? And it was an awkward moment, because I'm thinking, Wow, he was awful. He was boring. He was terrible. But here I am another part of the world.

I'm surrounded by armed guards, remote place. I don't know anyone else in this country, to I really want to tell this person surrounded by guards that he was horrible. So I said, I debated for a minute. I finally said, You know what? He's paying me a bunch of money to give you an honest opinion. Give me an honest opinion.

I said with all due respect, Mr. Prime Minister, I don't know what you said, but you bore the hell out of me. He looked at me. He looked at his arm guards. Then he watched the video again. He said, TJ, you're right. I am boring as hell.

This is awful. You're absolutely right. What do we do? So at that point, we took his speech. just tore it up. We started with a clean sheet of paper.

We brainstormed on half a dozen, really just five ideas, came up with stories. And he gave a speech again, this time looking at people not reading a speech. Anytime you're reading a speech, chances are you're going to be awful, flat, boring, monotone, no eye contact. Now, that happened with Prime Minister but you know, it happens again and again and again with my clients all over the world, in the United States everywhere, because let's face it, most public speakers are boring. And it's so easy not to be. And that's what I help people do.

So I want to thank Mohammed for inviting me today. It's great to be with you in Iran, even though it's virtual. For me, I would love to come come to your country sometime. But it's great to almost meet so many businessmen, so many people of high caliber and accomplishment in your country. And I did want to share with you some of the secrets I've learned by doing public speaking training and media training for the last 30 years, with presidents of countries and prime ministers and Nobel Peace Prize winners and even miss universes. I work with people at every single skill level.

But the number one problem most people have, especially most business people They just convey way too many data points in every single speech, and it's boring. It's abstract. There are no stories. It's exactly like that Prime Minister I was working with. Now the solution that I had for the Prime Minister is the very same solution that will work for you. And that is simply video, record your speech.

And look at it. If you think you are really boring, guess what you are. I mean, think about it. You've seen speakers your whole life, you know, boring speakers, and you know, good ones, and you know that most speakers are boring. Here's the thing. Very few people actually look at video of their own speech, especially in advance, but these days, it's easy to do.

Just pull out your cell phone, you can practice your speech on your own. Phone and watch it. Here's the ultimate test. I mean, I spend eight hours one on one, with executives all over the world, sometimes two days, sometimes a whole week. But far and away, my biggest tip for people is as follows. Practice your speech on video.

Keep doing it and watch it. keep doing it until you can point to the video and say, Wow, that's a great speaker. I want to speak like that person. That person is so interesting. I would want to listen to that person if that person weren't bait. If you just do that one thing, I promise you, you will be a great speaker.

You're not going to have any nervousness, you're not going to be uncomfortable. You're not going to have anxiety, you're not going to have stage fright. All of those things disappear. If you actually do that one thing, practice your speech until you like it. Now, the first response all of my clients have, when they watch the video of themselves, is exactly the same as that Prime Minister in Eastern Europe. They look at video and they think, Wow, TJ, I'm really boring.

Why is that? Well, let's start with the opening. How do most people start their speeches? It's something like this. Good morning. As you know, my name is TJ Walker.

I'm president of media training worldwide. I've been training for 30 years. I am a number one best selling author. I have offices in India, and Portugal and in Lebanon, and very happy to be here today. That's awful. It's boring.

It's generic. And it's about me, me, me, me. That's how most people start their speeches. And it's an instant turnoff. So why don't we as audience members do most of the time when we're at a conference somewhere. But I even think I see one person doing it over there.

What do people do? They get out their cell phone and they check their email, because they're expecting the speaker to be boring. And they're usually not disappointed. So what I recommend you do when you start a speech is just say something interesting. That isn't the normal, your name, your title, your company, where your offices are, and that you're happy to be there. Everyone is expecting that.

And it's not interesting. Now, you don't have to start off with a joke. I didn't start my speech. to you today with a joke. It just needs to be interesting. The best way of starting is by telling a story that directly relates to a point.

That's of interest to the audience that's relevant to your experience. That's what I tried to do with my story about the Prime Minister, and where I was, and how bored he was when he saw his own video. I was trying to make the point that the number one way you can help your own public speaking, is to practice on video until you like it, but if I just said it straightforward, it's not interesting. And it's not memorable by retelling a story, bringing in a little conversation, describing a setting, talking about my emotion, talking about what the problem was and how it was resolved. It only took a minute and get it puts pictures in Your mind, and that's what makes it more memorable. And that's also what makes it less boring for your audience.

So I urge you, anytime you're speaking, think about how can you hook people right at the beginning. Because if you're really, really boring and you do the whole, thank you very much, Muhammad, it's great to be in Iran today. If you do all the normal stuff. People are thinking, hey, this speaker hasn't really started yet. I don't have to listen. Let me check my email.

Now start listening once the speaker gets going, but then you've lost the audience member perhaps for good or you have to work so hard to reel them back in. I don't want to work hard to bring people back into my speech. I want them paying attention right from the beginning. Even those of you in the back Go there, I want you paying attention. Otherwise, what am I doing here? What are we doing?

We're wasting our time. Okay, big secret that most people don't know. And I have data to prove this based on my own surveys around the world for 30 years, I always ask people think of the best speaker you've seen in the last year or the last five years. Now, tell me every message point. You remember from that speaker? Not that you like their style or that they were funny or moved around.

But the content Tell me every message point. Fat statistic you remember from the best speaker you've seen in the last year, and often people say will TJ remember anything? all the speakers are boring in my industry? That's a very common response. Another response why remember this one thing person said anything Passion. And then I also have people.

So I remember two things, occasionally three ideas. Every few months, someone will remember four ideas. And once every six months, I'll have somebody who remembers five ideas. All the years I've been asking that question I've never had anyone remember more than five ideas. And yet, when I'm conducting training workshops and training seminars, for top executives and business people, I always ask them to bring a speech. So the very same person who's sitting in my front row, telling me I only remember three ideas on the best speaker I've ever seen in my whole life.

That person gets up, marches up to the front of the room, they put their PowerPoint on, and what do you know 17 different bullet points on their first slide 22 bullet points on their second slide and on the And on and on, and you go through the whole speech. And it's 197 points. And I'll say, Well, Jim, there's a disconnect here. You're telling me the best speaker you've ever seen in your whole life? You remember three ideas. And now your speech.

You're trying to convey 190 different points on your all your bullet points on your slides. Do you see a disconnect here? Well, yeah, TJ but you know what, my audience is different, or this is just a technical speech. Now. There's no such thing as a technical speech. There's no such thing as a formal speech.

There's no such thing as a financial speech. And there's no such thing as a PowerPoint speech. In my view. There are only two types of speeches that Only two types of presentations in the entire world. Do you know what they are? Do you know what they are?

Only two types of presentations in the entire world from the audience's standpoint. It's either a good speech, and I'm gonna listen, because this person is interesting. They're saying something useful, or it's a bad speech, a boring speech, and I'm going to tune out, and I'm going to check my email. Those are the only two types of speeches in the entire world. great speakers realize that bad speakers give themselves excuses. They tell themselves well, it's just an informational speech or it's a formal that's something that gives them the excuse to do a boring data dump.

Don't do it. Here's the other thing I've gathered from all my years of doing this when I ask people what they remember They remember a speaker's passion. And they remember the stories and the stories help them. Remember the message to psych. I'm hoping you remember my story about the prime minister and all the machine guns because I really just want you to remember, it's important to videotape your speech and watch it so that you can see how awful You are so that you can improve your speech. That's what's absolutely critical.

So please, please keep those concepts in mind. The best thing for most people to do with their speech is brainstorm on every single idea they would want to say. narrow it down to just five ideas. Put that on a single sheet of paper. This is basically a 45 minute speech for me on a different topic. Put it on a single sheet of paper bullet points have been Story illustrating each and every point that will actually solve almost every problem you have with your speech, focusing on a handful of points.

Being able to tell stories because it's not all written out. You're not tempted to read it the whole time. You can actually look at people and engage so narrow your messages to your top five, have a story for each one. And practice on video. I've done 10,000 How To videos on public speaking. I've written eight books on communication at some level, but you really boil it all down to those three points, near your messages down to a handful.

A story for each one. Practice on video until you like it. Now people come to me all the time and say teach I am scared Public Speaking I'm nervous, I'm uncomfortable. And they expect me to say oh, you know, relax, you're gonna be great. Or take this pill, or hypnotize yourself, or visualize the audience giving you a standing ovation. I don't say any of that.

In fact, I think that's horrible advice. If you think that your speech is going to be awful, and you're nervous about it, guess what? Chances are, you're right, because most speakers are awful. Most speakers are boring. They do a boring data dump. Nobody remembers anything.

Now, I've given you some advice today, you can listen to some you can ignore a lot of it. I don't want you to take my word for anything when it comes to public speaking. I want you to be skeptical of me. But I also want you to be skeptical of everything else you've ever heard about public speaking. Because I would submit to you, you don't have a single shred of evidence or proof that gathering lots of data points. Putting on a PowerPoint, sort of reading a bunch of bullet points on a PowerPoint slide or on a script is an effective way to communicate.

Remember, communication isn't about words on paper or a screen. It's not about words out of your mouth. It's about can you have ideas come out of your mouth, your audience, understand it, actually remember it, so they can act upon it. That's what communication is. So I want to leave you with one final huge, huge tip. test every speech you do in advance.

If you are giving a speech to 100 important oil executives or clients on Wednesday, I would recommend finding three of your colleagues Monday, give them your speech at lunchtime. When you were done. Ask them every message point they remember anything. They don't remember, you now have evidence that the way you communicated was awful. You failed. Throw it away and start over.

Now, anything they do, remember, you have evidence that it works. Ask them every slide they remember from your presentation. And don't tell them in advance. You're going to test them. Just give them your presentation. And then ask them what slides they remember.

Any slides. They don't remember. You now have empirical evidence that the way you presented it was awful. You failed. You flunked take that slide, tear it up and throw it in the trash can and increase to noon, so that's the ultimate test. It's not about what I say are my opinions.

It's your audience. If your audience doesn't remember your messages or your slides, they didn't work. If they do remember your messages, and they do remember your slides, congratulations, you have communicated. That is success. Well, duh. I want to thank you for letting me spend some time with you today.

Thanks, Mohammed for organizing this event. I'd certainly love to come to your country and meet with you and work with you in person, whether it's through speeches, or one on one workshops or small group workshops. I help people speak more effectively, how to give speeches, and how to speak to the news media, how to handle yourself in a crisis. That's what I do is a special thank you, to all of you for letting me spend time with you. I'm going to send you at no charge a copy of my book. Secret to foolproof presentations.

This was a number one USA Today bestseller, a wall street journal and Businessweek bestseller. I'll send you that book for absolutely no charge, just send me an email TJ at TJ Walker calm. That's TJ at TJ Walker calm mentioned the speech the book, I'll send you the book. And I'll also give you a 50% discount to one of my online public speaking courses or media training courses. Thanks so much for having me. I hope to see you and speak with you soon.

Take care