I recently attended a seminar given by a motivational speaker. A few of the things he said and did reminded me of some key “do’s and don’ts” of public speaking that I’d like to offer here. Let’s start with the Don’ts.

Don’t start off by apologizing to your audience for what might go wrong with your presentation. If the airline lost your luggage and you are wearing cutoff shorts to address a banker’s conference, then apologize. But spending the first minute(s) of your time on caveats for your potential nervousness, forgetfulness or other problems only undermines your credibility and makes your audience nervous. So your flight was late, you didn’t sleep. Forget it! And don’t make it the audience’s problem! They are there to be entertained, educated, enlightened. Not to hear about your bad night’s sleep.

Don’t aggrandize yourself and your rags to riches story. Speaking for myself, I am not impressed by knowing that four years ago you were homeless and now you own a bunch of houses. If I am not near homelessness and bankruptcy, I have a hard time relating this experience to my own life.

Don’t spend 90 minutes on 30 minutes’ worth of material, particularly if you are in a hotel that has really uncomfortable chairs. Respect your audience. Give them the information neat and fast. If you were supposed to fill 90 minutes and only have 30 minutes of content, end early and let people ask questions or leave.

If you are going to speak in public, you absolutely, positively have to eliminate annoying speech mannerisms from your act. If you say the word “right” after each sentence, after 200 or 300 times, all the audience hears is “right” and not what you said before it. Same goes for “you know,” “uh,” “um,” and “like.” Get rid of this junk. You have no business getting up in front of an audience for 90 minutes until you have polished this aspect of presenting. Work with a coach and fix the problem.

Don’t use any kind of profanity. It is never, ever appropriate in a public speaking forum unless you are a football coach addressing your team at half-time when you’re down 28-0.

If you are not a good speller, don’t use easels and pads, and don’t write things down as you go. Have everything done ahead of time. Remember Dan Quayle and the “potatoe” fiasco?

Don’t forget to have your name, address, telephone number and website on the handouts you distribute.

And now for the “do’s”, which the speaker I just raked over the coals did well: Have a message that people can remember and reflect on. People will remember very little of the specifics of what you say in your presentation, so if you can give them just one thing to think about, you’ve done them a service. Involve your audience whenever you can–get them to talk to each other, ask questions, and otherwise make your presentation as bi-directional as possible so it’s not a monotonous lecture.