Tuesday, March 4, 2025
If I ever needed a sign that I wasn’t cut out for something, I’d have an easy one: I’m Boise’s most “Why don’t you just give up?” comic. That’s not an official title, but it should be. If there were an award for resilience bordering on stubbornness, I’d have a mantle full of them. And maybe you would, too.
When I started doing stand-up, there were plenty of nights when the audience made me question every life choice I’d ever made. Silence. Stares. That one guy checking his phone in the front row. The kind of reactions that make you wonder if your mic is even on. But my dad always told me, “You’ve got to be better than average.” And not in the hustle-culture, grind-your-way-to-burnout kind of way. He meant that in anything worth doing, there’s a vast sea of mediocrity—people showing up but not standing out. And the way out of that sea? Freshness. Enthusiasm. An outsider’s edge.
The Outsider’s Perspective: Your Secret Weapon
When you’ve been speaking for years, it’s easy to settle into patterns. The stories that work. The jokes that land. The beats of a keynote that get applause every time. And while that consistency is a sign of a polished pro, it can also be a trap. You’ve seen speakers who are technically perfect but somehow… lifeless. They’re delivering a script, not an experience.
The outsider’s perspective is what keeps you sharp. It’s what stops you from becoming predictable, even to yourself. If you were hearing your keynote for the first time, would it still feel electric? Would you still be excited? If the answer is no, your audience will feel it, too.
Here’s how you keep that first-time energy alive, even on your ten-thousandth delivery.
Find a New Lens for Your Material
Great comedians—and great speakers—never stop refining. Even if a joke has killed for years, I’ll test a new setup or shift the timing just to see if it makes it stronger. The same goes for your keynote. Try telling the same story from a different angle. Instead of starting at point A and leading to point B, what happens if you start with the moment of impact and work backward? Fresh structure creates fresh energy.
Action Step: Take a story you always use in your talks and rewrite it from a different perspective. What if you told it as if you were the audience, not the speaker? What if you framed it as a “what if” scenario instead of a personal anecdote?
Anchor to the Room, Not the Script
Have you ever seen a musician on autopilot? Technically perfect, but just… there? Speakers fall into the same trap when we lean too heavily on muscle memory. The audience picks up on it instantly. They know when you’re performing at them instead of with them.
The fix? Stay present. Engage with the specific people in front of you, not just the hypothetical audience you rehearsed for. Your best line might change based on what just happened in the room.
Action Step: Challenge yourself to make an in-the-moment connection in every talk. Reference something that happened earlier in the event or call out a reaction from the crowd. It forces you to stay engaged—and keeps the audience locked in, too.
Keep a “First-Timer” in Mind
There’s always someone in your audience who’s never heard you before. To them, this isn’t your hundredth talk—it’s your first. They don’t know what’s coming next. They don’t have the luxury of nostalgia for that story you’ve told a hundred times. Their energy is fresh. Yours should be, too.
Action Step: Before stepping on stage, take a deep breath and remind yourself: “For someone out there, this is the first time.” Let that shift your energy. Let it reignite your excitement for your own material.
Reignite Your Enthusiasm (Like a Street Performer on a Tuesday)
I once heard a street performer say that the hardest part of his job wasn’t the weather, the crowds, or even getting people to stop. It was keeping himself excited about a routine he’d done thousands of times. Because the second he wasn’t excited, the crowd lost interest.
As speakers, we have to find ways to make our own material new to us again. Sometimes that means changing the format. Sometimes it means throwing in an unexpected element just to challenge ourselves. The enthusiasm has to be real, or the audience will check out.
Action Step: Before your next talk, identify one thing that genuinely excites you about it. Maybe it’s a new angle you’re testing, a different opening, or just a particularly engaged audience. Hold onto that excitement—it’s contagious.
Never Be Too Experienced to Experiment
The best in any field—comedians, musicians, athletes, speakers—never stop experimenting. That’s why they stay great. They aren’t just delivering. They’re exploring. Trying. Tweaking. Taking risks. And in doing so, they keep their work alive.
Action Step: Try something new in your next talk. A new story. A different way of pacing your delivery. A shift in how you engage with the crowd. Don’t play it safe—play it alive.
The Takeaway: Be More Than Just Better Than Average
“You’ve got to be better than average.” That’s what my dad always said. And in speaking, that means more than just being polished. It means staying fresh. Staying present. Keeping the excitement alive, even when you know your material inside and out.
The moment your keynote becomes just another keynote—to you—is the moment it loses its power. So, keep the outsider’s perspective. Stay curious. Make it feel like the first time, every time.
Your audience deserves nothing less.