Whenever you hear someone saying “blah blah blah blah” you know it’s not positive. It’s usually something like this… “So he told me about his company, and he told me about his product, and blah blah blah blah…” When you give a pitch or presentation, one thing is for sure. You don’t want your audience to think it is all… you guessed it… ”blah blah blah blah”.
The utter fear and terror and embarrassment of that happening are what inspired us to create our speaker coaching company Noblahblah. It’s also why we have written the Ten Noblahblah Commandments.
Read them. Honor them. Apply them. Love them. And you will be well on your way to wonderful no blah blah presentations.
The Ten Noblahblah Commandments
1. Thou shalt tell the audience what’s in it for them. It’s all about the audience. Audience! Audience! Audience!
2. Thou shalt not use fluffy, flowery, bloated, inflated, bombastic, verbose, grandiose language. Just talk normal.
3. Thou shalt not use long, complicated, convoluted, complex, difficult-to-follow sentences. Keep ‘em short and simple.
4. Thou shalt present with passion and energy. Passion persuades and energy energizes. Go for it.
5. Thou shalt use utmost care with abstract business buzzwords. So minimize the maximizes, the optimizes, the productizes and the leveraged added value. Stop the buzzword madness.
6. Thou shalt tell them what thou art going to tell them, tell them, and tell them what thou hath told them. Use the power of structure and repetition.
7. Thou shalt use vivid language that evokes the senses. Help them see, hear, taste, smell and feel your message.
8. Thou shalt be brave and dare to present with humor. Humor connects.Humor convinces. Humor gets attention. Relax and smile.
9. Thou shalt use the power of storytelling. Capture their imagination with “Once upon a time…”
10. Thou shalt not be boring. Never be boring!
These Ten Noblahblah Commandments will help you cut the blah blah, connect with your audience and present with impact.
In upcoming blogs, I will work out each commandment in more detail. Is one of particular interest to you? Let me know at howard@noblahblah.nl, and I’ll give that one priority.
Don’t give a presentation. Put on a show.