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Let’s face it – sometimes our speeches just don’t “click” with our audience. We get up there, we deliver our speech, they hear what we have to say, but nobody is moved. Nobody is motivated. We really have not changed the world by giving this speech. We’ve not been able to show this audience the importance of public speaking. Dang. This was a wasted opportunity. What we need to do as speakers is learn how to make our next speech really connect with our audience. If we can make this happen, then our time will have been spent well.
Creating A Speech That Will Connect With Your Audience
Ok, so to start things off we’re going to want to create a speech that will have the best chance of allowing us to connect with our audience. In order to make that happen you are going to have to start to think about your speech just a little bit differently than perhaps you normally do. The first change is that you need to stop thinking about your speech as being “one thing”. Instead, you are going to want to mentally divide the speech that you will be giving up into three different parts.
The first part of your speech will be where you grab them. You want to bring everyone in your audience into your speech and get them to unite behind you. This is the “universal theme” part of your speech and it has to be the first part of the speech that you will be giving. Once you’ve done this, you need to deliver the emotional shift where you get your audience to think differently about the theme that you have presented to them. You’ll need to work with their emotions here because that is what is going to make your speech be something that they will be able to remember. The third and final part of your speech will deal with the intended outcome that you want. Your audience has just sat through your speech, now you want them to take action. What do you want them to do? You are going to have to be very clear about what they need to do now that they have heard your message.
If you think about it, dividing your speech up into three parts makes it easier for you to have an impact on your audience. The first part is where your universal appeal is going to turn your speech to your audience into everyone’s speech. The emotional appeal will be supported with evidence which will boost the emotional impact that it will have on your audience. Finally, since your speech has had an impact on your audience’s lives you’ll be able to inspire them to take action based on what they have just learned.
Creating A Presentation That Will Connect With Your Audience
Having a powerful speech to deliver is great – but it’s only part of what you are going to need. In order to make sure that when you give this speech you have the maximum impact, you need to take the time to practice giving this speech. One of the takeaways from this practice is for you to record and transcribe your speech. Yes, this can be a very excruciating thing to do but trust me, it’s worth it. By doing this you’ll realize what the words that you meant to say, but didn’t, were.
Once you’ve written your speech out, you’ll be able to read it back to yourself. By doing this you will now have the ability to choose the exact words that you really want to say at specific points in the speech. Do keep in mind that you should never memorize your speech. The reason that you never want to do this is because if you try to deliver a memorized speech, it is going to come across as unauthentic and flat. Your goal is to know your topic so well that you can interact with your audience in a conversational style that will allow your content to come across as being fresh.
The final part of getting ready to deliver your speech is to think about your presence in front of your audience. You may not know how much room you will have to work with so it’s always better to assume that you are going to be required to remain standing in one spot for the majority of your speech. What this means is that you need to spend some time thinking about what gestures you can include in your speech to clearly communicate your point. You’ll also have to spend some time when you are practicing your speech determining the best time to add these body movements to your speech.
What All Of This Means For You
When we go to the effort of creating and delivering a speech, we want it to mean something. We want to really connect with our audience and, with a little luck, change their lives by sharing with them the benefits of public speaking. However, all too often a speech that we give will be listened to and then not acted on. What we need to do is to learn how to both create and deliver a speech that will provide us with an opportunity to connect with our audience and have an impact on them.
In order to do this, we need to be able to create a powerful speech. That speech needs to not just be a single thing, but rather be divided into three different parts. The first part will contain your universal theme that grabs your audience. The next part will have your emotional content and you’ll back it up with any evidence you have. Finally, you’ll conclude your speech with a call for action that will tell you audience the next steps that they need to take. Having a great speech is just the start, now you have to prepare to give it. One way to do this is to practice giving your speech. Record yourself and transcribe what you said. Use this transcription to review your words and make changes so that you’ll use the most powerful words that will connect with your audience. Once you have this worked out, practice the body movements that you’ll use when you are delivering the speech.
The key to delivering a speech that will connect with your audience is to start things off by creating a powerful speech. Once you have that, practice, practice, practice. If you can bring both of these parts together, then you will have the tools that you are going to need to connect with your audience. Once you’ve been able to do that, then the speech that you’ve given really will change the world!
– Dr. Jim Anderson
Blue Elephant Consulting –
Your Source For Real World Public Speaking Skills™
Question For You: How do you think that you can tell if your speech has really connected with your audience?
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Note: What we talked about are advanced speaking skills. If you are just starting out I highly recommend joining Toastmasters in order to get the benefits of public speaking. Look for a Toastmasters club to join in your home town by visiting the web site www.Toastmasters.org. Toastmasters is dedicated to helping their members to understand the importance of public speaking by developing listening skills and getting presentation tips. Toastmasters is how I got started speaking and it can help you also!
What We’ll Be Talking About Next Time
The reason that an audience will come to listen to what you have to say in your next speech is that they understand the importance of public speaking and they hope to learn something new. The thinking is that you have had an experience, done some research, or experienced something that changed you in a way that you will now be able to share with your audience. It is through your words that your audience hopes to experience what you have experienced and by doing so change their lives. However, when you are pulling your speech together you will probably do some research. You’ll find facts and include them in your speech in order to lend more weight to what you’ll be telling your audience. What if the information that you add to your speech is fake news? What does this mean for your speech and your message?