1. Come out punching!
Grab your audience's attention. One way is to make a startling statement. For
a recent speech to the National Speakers Association, I walked out and
immediately started building a word picture: "Columbus, Ohio, December, zero
degrees, 2,000 people trudging through the snow to hear four speakers..."
Don't waste your audience's time with trivialities. I heard a speaker
addressing a San Francisco Sales and Marketing Executives audience, starting
with how nice it was to be there, how great the weather was, and how he loves
our restaurants. Who cares? I didn't race across town to hear him talk about
weather and restaurants. I was there to hear about sales and marketing ideas
and he was supposed to be an expert.
2. Monitor your "who cares?" factor
Tape your talks, then listen to them, asking "Who cares?" after every
statement or segment of material. If no one really does, don't say it. This is
a great way to see if you are saying anything of value.
3. Be funny...maybe
Humor can add a lot to your speech, but it must fit you and your topic. If
humor is appropriate to your topic, use it, but go for laughs that grow
naturally out of your content. Avoid old, tired jokes that may not be
appropriate, or that everyone has heard before.
A friend from AT&T called me late one evening. "My boss is giving a speech
tomorrow. He needs a joke."
"Is your boss funny?" I asked.
"Well...not really," he replied.
"Then don't try to make him funny," I said. "Get him to be inspiring." I
looked through my reference books and found quotes that fit the speaker's
points much better than any joke could.
If you decide to risk humor, ask yourself and others, "...but am I really
funny?" Be brutally honest.
4. Organize with a three-part outline
A good way for both beginning and advanced speakers to organize their
material is to use the three-part Alcoholics Anonymous format:
1. This is where I was.
2. This is where I am now.
3. This is how I got from there to here.
It is a great structure because it is so easy for both speaker and audience
to remember. A woman in Yuma, Arizona called me. "I have to give my first
speech in three weeks," she said. "Would you send me one of your tapes so I
can learn how to do it."
"It doesn't work quite like that," I told her, "but tell me, what group are
you addressing?"
"The Yuma Board of Realtors." she said.
"Why have they invited you to speak?" I asked.
"Because I have been very successful in the real estate industry." So I
suggested she use the three-part Alcoholics Anonymous outline. (The first two
points can be reversed.)
1. This is where I am: "Last year I sold $18 million dollars in real estate in a slow
market.
2. This is where I was: Eight years ago when I got my license, I had never
sold anything but Girl Scout cookies.
3. This is how I got here: "First I..."
5 Develop your content
Content I suggested:
- Advice from her sales manager that worked,
- What she learned from other agents,
- What she did well naturally,
- What she did not know that amazed her once she had learned,
- Sales she fell into,
- Sales she almost lost,
- Sales that were out of the unusual,
- What she would do differently based her 8 years experience,
- Anything really entertaining.
I also suggested she keep a pad on her desk and as ideas came to her she
jotted them down. Then, when it came time to sit down and put it all together,
it was fine if she lacked some creativity as most of her ideas were written
down.
She used the structure and reported later that the talk was a big hit.
Even if you add more sections to your speech, keep your outline simple.
You'll remember what you intend to say, and your audience will remember what
they heard.
(729 words)
San Francisco-based executive
speech coach and award-winning
professional speaker on Change, Customer Service, Promoting
Business, and Communication Skills. Patricia Fripp, CSP,
CPAE offers fresh, usable ideas on getting, keeping and
deserving customers. She is Past-President of the National
Speakers Association, author of Get
What You Want! , Make
it So You Don't Have to Fake It , articles,
numerous video
and audio
programs on presentation skills, marketing, sales, customer
service, leadership, team building and more!
If you find this article useful, you will enjoy, appreciate and learn from
Patricia Fripp's audio and video tapes: http://www.fripp.com/forspeaker.html
Patricia Fripp offers one-on-one and group speech coaching
for both professional and business speakers: http://www.executivespeechcoach.com
If you are a professional speaker who needs innovative marketing and strategy
seminars, you need The Odd Couple®: http://www.fripp.com/oddcouple.html
