any time you want to self-disclose, ask yourself if it helps EXPAND the learning of your audience in some way. Too many speakers self-disclose and it can create a distance with the audience, can be embarassing (being “too much information!”), can be too grandious or putting down of ones self

less is more. You can’t share everything you know, so hone it down to a few main points.

Trust the reaction of the crowd and your own emotional sense of how the speech/presentation went. It MAY not be worth reading the evaluations because you will likely focus on the 2 negative comments and ignore the 900 positive ones!

You must alter your energy level for the size of the crowd. For smaller crowds (under 15) it’s almost ALWAYS better to be highly-interactive, any bigger it’s better to be more formal. But either way, you can’t be uber mellow to a small crowd and with a big crowd you have to be EXTRA animated

Pay very close attention to the ups and downs of your voice. If you have to, underline the word in the sentence that should be emphasized (in a very large keynote speech.) It will help the audience know what is important, will come off much more professional and be less distracting to your message if your tonality and “beat” is strong.

Be VERY protective of your subject matter and why people came. It is perfectly fine to tell someone, “that is a great question but not in the scope of today’s presentation.” You don’t have to answer everything!

Always think about your “desired outcomes” FIRST, before planning the talk. It should greatly inform what you should say, how to say it, and the flow.