Communication is the hallmark of our society. Those who know how to communicate well ascend the ladder of success with much ease.

Doors open up to them. They get to meet people. They shake hands with the nobles, and they have Kings and Queens lean forward on their chairs to hear them speak.

In all of human history, no skill has been able to catapult a man to a realm of splendor, respect, and grandeur in a short while as does the ability to stand and speak confidently.

As a rule of thumb, all students of public speaking and all public speakers must know that

Every opportunity to stand and speak before a known or an unknown audience is an opportunity to create or to mar another opportunity.

That they will ever invite you again to speak at their event is a function of how you made them feel in their first encounter with you.

So, here are the three fundamental reasons your host will never invite you to speak again at their event.

These reasons are what I have experienced and I make bold to say that they are brightly true as the noonday sun.

Reason 1: Reading from paper verbatim.

This is the most obvious egregious error most people make in public speaking. They fail to understand that public speaking is not public reading. 

Give them a topic to speak on and they appear on stage with a clip of printed papers.

Even when they don’t use paper but use PowerPoint slides, they overload slides with many words and they end up reading the content of the slides to the audience.

They see public speaking as a series of rules and sequences that must be followed one after the other and not as an in-depth expression of one’s heart on a given subject.

They see public speaking as what you can write down in your office and go read it out to your audience at the meeting venue.

If you’re doing this, or if you hope to do this, then know assuredly that what you’re doing is not public speaking but public reading.

There’s no element of heart-to-heart conversation there. Everything is just paper-to-ear conversation.

Do this in an event and I bet, you would never be invited to speak there again.

Here are my reasons:

1. Reading your paper to your audience verbatim makes them wonder why you came and why they are there. 

Because you could as well have sent the paper to them in their offices for them to read and they would understand. Or you could have sent your secretary to go read your words to their hearing instead of coming. Presentations where the speaker reads from paper verbatim lack enthusiasm and life.

2. Sleep inducement: Since you didn’t think the audience worthy of your time to prepare and speak to them from your heart when you start reading paper for your audience, some will consider sleeping a little while you continue your news casting!

3. It is a show of lack of preparation. There’s no better way to show your audience that you’re prepared and that your presentation lives right inside of you like when you appear on stage with only a microphone or a little piece of paper to guide you as an outline.

Poorly prepared speakers write out all of their words on paper including the way they are going to greet the audience.

This is a very beautiful nonsense. This is not public speaking.

When you speak to your friends during the daytime, do you read your words from paper? When you are at the dinner table with family, do you need a script to participate in the conversation?

I was shocked in an Inaugural lecture when the inaugural lecturer came on stage with a blue spiral-bound paper.

The inaugural lecturer committed two conspicuous offenses. 

1. His slides were not PowerPoint slides but WordPoint slides. Each of the slides was powerfully worded. Information overload.

2. He printed the slides in book form and he appeared on stage to read the entire content of each slide to us. The only time he looked up was when he concluded his public reading and he said “thank you.”

If you want to be invited to speak again and again, never read your presentation from paper to paper verbatim. Use an outline instead to guide you if need be.

Reason Two: Poor time management

As a rule of thumb, every public speaker must *know when enough is enough.*

As my dear friend Dale Carnegie rightly affirmed, “For a speech to be immortal, it does not have to be everlasting.”

Look at Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address. 272 words, 10 sentences, 3 paragraphs and it lasted for 2 minutes.

The speech was so brief that before they could set up the olden days camera to take a photograph of Lincoln, he had finished delivering the speech.

Today, that speech is a founding document of the United States of America.

Be brief! Be brief!! Be brief!!

Have something to say, say it and go have your seat.

I was at a TED Talk Conference in Port Harcourt in 2017 and I will never forget that one speaker. Yes. That one speaker that spoke until the stop clock finished and she was still speaking. Even when the organizers were making signs at her, she was still speaking.

Not only will the organizers never invite her to speak at any of their high-class events again but no one in the audience will ever hand her an invite to speak at their upcoming event.

Use your time well. If they told you you would be speaking for 30 minutes, prepare to speak for 20 or 25 minutes.

The maximum you can go on TED Talk is 18 minutes.

Any message that you cannot pass across in 18 minutes, forget it. Even if we give you 2 hours you would still need more time.

Remember, the more idea a man has, the lesser time he requires to pass it on.

Stop eating into the next speaker’s time. Stop frustrating organizers. Stop letting the moderator slash the next speaker’s time because of you. Even if he doesn’t say it, know that he is not happy.

Every event is planned to last for a number of hours. Respect the decision of the organizers and adhere to the time allotted to you. 

Reason Three: Overpromising. Under delivering.

While these words may not sound grammatically correct, what it is is what it is.

As Larry Page, CEO of Google once mentioned:

Always deliver more than expected.

This is the most self-defined advice of the 21st century for public speakers.

If you want to be invited the second time, then, do what it says. Give your life in the preparation. Commit yourself to leave the audience with unforgettable memories. Leave your host or organizers with a breathtaking experience that they can’t avoid you when next they have an event.

Deliver content. Deliver quality. Deliver experience.

These are the words. If you want to be invited. 

But if I invite you from Lagos, paid your flight ticket, lodged you in a hotel and you spoke and the audience was like, “where is the speaker they said was coming from Lagos?”

My Dear Sir/Ma, if this is the case for you, then forget it. You will never see that stage again. 

First impression matters a lot. There maybe no second chance. So use the first chance very well.

So Ladies and Gentlemen, there you have it:

Three (3) Reasons They Will Never Invite You Again

I hope you find sense in this!

If you have questions or comments, please do let me have them via the comment box. Cheers!!