There's a topic I wanted to address at the very beginning of this course. But I didn't want to turn you off. I didn't want to scare you away. But the topic is, what is your decision process for actually deciding to use a teleprompter? Again, there are plenty of good reasons to use a teleprompter. If you're a newscaster every day, well, you've got to use one.

There's no way you can get the names and the facts straight of brand new stories of news that just happened. Yes, if you're getting a political speech, and millions and millions of people are watching you, and you've got exactly seven minutes and 28 seconds for your slot on prime time, that may be a good reason. But many people use a teleprompter because they think it gives them greater control. Not really, because if you do a bad job of the teleprompter, you're not controlling the outcome. The outcome of any speech is not what comes out of your mouth. It's what do people remember?

What do they retain, so they can act upon it. So if you're reading a teleprompter and he wouldn't stiff follow any way, the only outcome is people have a negative impression of you and don't remember anything you said. So that's an illusion, to think that that's somehow safer. It's not safer and it's not saving you time many people use the teleprompter because they think it will save the prep time as we talked about in the previous lecture. It doesn't save time. For most people most the time.

They're far better off using a simple page of notes to speak. For most business executives in the world, and for that matter, most politicians, the real danger of a speech is not that they got one word wrong, one comma wrong. And suddenly there's tremendous criticism that does happen for presidents of countries or heads of of federal banking systems that can happen. But for most people most of the time, the biggest problem in our speech is not that we got one word wrong. And there's a lot of criticism, the biggest danger for most of us is we're so boring. Nobody remembers anything we said.

So that's why I would urge you focus your time on making your speeches interesting, and memorable. And I've got other courses to deal with that that's not the point of this course. But that should be your focus, having an interesting speech and delivering it in the best possible way. Don't use a teleprompter because everyone else is don't use a teleprompter because there is some technician who's sort of running the conference and says what everyone else is you have to be there. The only reason to use a teleprompter is you've decided that will help you communicate most effectively with your audience. That's the only reason to use teleprompter.

So for example, I've been speaking to you for this entire course. And I'm not using a teleprompter. There are plenty of times when I do use teleprompters. But I didn't need one for this course because this is all material. I've given hundreds of times to my clients in real life. So I know this, so I didn't use a teleprompter.

So please give real thought to what is the best way for you to communicate with your audience. And it may in fact, be notes and not using a teleprompter but make the judgment based on what will help the audience, not what might save you time.