7 reasons I hated your speech

No offense, of course. Simply read through and learn how to improve that sleep-inducing speech.

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It’s hard to believe how much I hated your speech.

I hated your introduction. I hated the middle of your presentation. I hated your so-called conclusion. I hated the way you delivered your talk. And don’t even get me started on your PowerPoint slides.

As hard as it is to reduce all of the reasons I hated your speech down to just seven, I’m going to try.

Here are seven reasons I hated your speech:

1. Your introduction failed to interest me.

You opened your speech without doing anything to get me interested in your topic. You didn’t tell me what you were going to talk about. You didn’t tell me why the topic was relevant to my life. You could have started by sharing an interesting story or a surprising statistic. You didn’t. I quickly sensed it was going to be a long day.

2. One thought ran into the next.

You didn’t tell me where one thought ended and another began. You didn’t remember that speakers are supposed to provide clear transitions for their audiences—the verbal equivalent of chapter ends and chapter beginnings. You never said anything such as, “Now that we’ve talked about X, let’s talk about how that impacts Y.”

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