What is the purpose of having you create a speech, practice it until you have got it “just right”, and then go through the mental and physical challenge of actually delivering the speech? Hmm, perhaps our purpose for going through all of this effort should always be the same –we want to change the world.
The trick, of course, is to figure out just how to go about making this happen. It turns out that there’s really only one way – you’ve got to find a way to inspire your audience. As you might well imagine, that’s easy to say, but hard to do. Maybe I should offer you some hints…
Enthusiasm Counts
How much energy can your audience detect coming off of you from the stage? What you say is actually less important than how you say it. If you are giving a lackluster performance or if you are just going through the motions in order to get this over with, then you’re audience will detect it and there’s no way that you’re going to inspire them.
Find your passion for the message that you are giving. After that, make sure that it shows when you are speaking: in your words and in your actions.
Tell Them Where To Go (In A Good Way)
If you want your audience to do something, then you’re going to have to tell them what to do. This means that you’ve got to use your speech to describe to them where they want to get to. You many not have all of the answers for them, but if you can describe what the future will look like for them, they will be more than willing to follow you.
What’s In It For Me?
If you want to get an audience behind you and your ideas, then you’re going to have to be able to answer the age-old question: what’s in it for me? As you are creating your speech you need to be asking yourself one simple question: “why should anyone care about what you are going to be saying?” If you can answer this question, in a convincing way, then you will have found the key to inspiring your audience.
It’s All About The Stories
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: the most powerful tool that a speaker has is the stories that we tell. Our stories, unlike the rest of our speech, have the ability to connect with our audience at a deep emotional level. This is exactly the kind of connection that you want to make and stories are the tool that will allow you to make it.
Be Optimistic
No matter how bad things might either be currently or might become in the future, your speech needs to hold out the chance that there is a better tomorrow somewhere down the road. You don’t need to gloss over the obvious – everyone can see tough times or big challenges. Instead what you need to do is to show everyone how optimistic you are about their future. By doing this what will happen is that your optimism will spread and soon everyone will be sharing it.
What All Of This Means For You
When we think about changing the world, we always seem to think that it is something that “other” people do. Well guess what, there is absolutely no reason why you couldn’t be that person who makes a difference with your speech.
In order to cause a change to occur, any sort of change, you are going to need to find a way to inspire your audience. This isn’t nearly as scary or intimidating as it sounds – yes, you really can do it.
As long as you are going to go to the effort of preparing and delivering a speech, you may as well make sure that you are going to end up changing the world. Take the time to do this the right way, and your audience will leave your speech forever changed…
– Dr. Jim Anderson
Blue Elephant Consulting –
Your Source For Real World Public Speaking Skills
Question For You: How do you think that you could tell if you had been successful in inspiring your audience?
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What We’ll Be Talking About Next Time
Have you ever had the misfortune to hear yourself talking? Can you remember what your facial expression was as you heard your voice come out of the recording device – pain, anguish, disbelief? Almost universally we all dislike the way our voices sound and we just can’t imagine that an audience would be willing to sit through one of our speeches. What’s up with all of this…?