How Not to be Boring
Feb 25, 2023
Whether it's a one-to-one conversation or a full presentation, you owe it to yourself and to your audience not to be boring.
The number one reason people bore their listeners is being too focused on themselves or their topic. Sometimes that's nerves. Sometimes it's simply not having realized a fundamental truth, often attributed to Theodore Roosevelt:
"People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care."
3 Strategies for How Not to Be Boring
1. Be Curious
A great maxim for connecting with people and not boring them to death: if you want to be interesting, be interested. Be interested in the people you're speaking with, ask questions, and actually listen to what they say. Once you do, you can connect what you want to say to their worldview instead of yours.
Curiosity and open-mindedness also mean you can hold a conversation across multiple topics and bring an interesting perspective to each one.
2. Be Passionate
A near-guaranteed way to avoid being boring is to be passionate, but not overly so.
"People buy what you do. They buy why you do it."
That's Simon Sinek, author of Start with Why. Everyone has something they're passionate about, whether that's their career, a cause, or a hobby. Sharing it makes you more interesting because it gives people a glimpse of what actually drives you. When you're passionate, you're usually more knowledgeable and more enthusiastic too, and enthusiasm is contagious.
3. Have Fun
The antidote to being boring is fun. People who are playful, who can find the humor in a situation, are interesting people. Developing a sense of humor doesn't require being a comedian. It means being willing to laugh at yourself and find the funny side of things. Once you stop taking yourself so seriously, people relax around you, and connection follows naturally.
How Not to Be Boring as a Presenter
We've all sat through a boring presentation, in person or virtually. The photo above was taken when the conference speaker before me was so boring, they'd put the sound engineer to sleep.
The three strategies above apply just as much on stage as in a one-to-one conversation. Here's what else keeps a presentation or speech genuinely engaging.
1. Storytelling
Our brains are hard-wired to pay attention to stories, because that's how our ancestors passed on life-saving information. Weaving storytelling into a speech or presentation makes it more engaging and more memorable. Use anecdotes, personal experience, or case studies to illustrate your points and make them relatable.
The best speech openings transport the audience to a specific time, place, and emotion.
"People won't remember what you said. They'll remember how you made them feel."
2. Be Authentic
When you're authentic, you're true to yourself and your values, which makes you more relatable. Authenticity means being honest and transparent, even when that means admitting your own flaws and mistakes. People trust that, and trust is what earns their attention.
Presenters who project self-importance or arrogance reliably bore, or worse, alienate, a large part of any audience. Don't be that presenter.
3. Keep It Tight
A common trait of boring presenters is rambling on and on. You will not be boring if you keep your speech or presentation concise and to the point.
If you have a lot of ground to cover, break it into digestible chunks and use visuals to carry some of the weight, so the audience isn't relying on your voice alone for an hour.
In Conclusion
There's a lot more I could share, and with nearly 25 years of experience as a global conference speaker, I have plenty of stories. But I wanted to practice what I preach and keep this tight.
You may also notice I grouped the advice into sets of three, twice. There's a reason for that, and I explain it on my YouTube channel.
So now you know how not to be boring. If you're looking for a motivational speaker in London, Lisbon, Barcelona, Amsterdam, Stockholm, or Singapore, feel free to contact me.
