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So let’s all agree on something: not all speeches that we give are the same. Some speeches we give are just being delivered because we promised somebody that we’d get up there and give a speech. However, then there are the other speeches. These are the ones that are very important. It may be our big idea that we’re trying to get support for, perhaps it’s something that we need people to vote on, or it’s important information that we need to somehow communicate to our audience. No matter what the reason, we believe that we are trying to deliver very important information that reflects the importance of public speaking. When we find ourselves in this situation, we need to take steps to make sure that we’re ready to deliver a very good speech.
Always Start With The Ending In Mind
The really smart people who study how we give speeches have determined that if we can picture an outcome, then we have a much better chance of being able to achieve that outcome. This is why when you are in the process of creating a very important speech, you are going to want to start things out by picturing how things are going to look when you are done giving your speech – what do you want your audience to be doing?
Take the time and picture the best possible outcome in your head when you are creating your speech. Picture your success before you achieve it. If it is possible for you to visit the room where you’ll be giving your speech, then go there. Practice your opening and closing statements so that when it comes time for you to give them, you will feel more confident.
Remember That Stories Are The Star Of Any Speech
What a lot of speakers who are pulling together an important speech don’t realize is that what is going to be the most important thing that they do is deciding what information to leave out of their speech. It’s going to take creating many different revisions to slim your speech down to the size that it needs to be. The cuts that you’ll have to make will be necessary, but painful. What you are trying to do is to make sure that your core message can shine through your speech. Keep in mind that if you try to pack your speech with too much information, you won’t leave any room for your audience.
When we want to “show” our audience something in our speech, the best way to go about doing this is to include a story. Your audience is going to love any stories that you share with them because they are wired to have their attention captured by stories and it allows you to connect with them on an emotional level. When you give a speech that contains stories, your stories are the things that your audience will be able to most easily remember.
What’s In Your Speech For Your Audience?
Somewhat surprisingly, we don’t give speeches for ourselves. Instead, we need to keep in mind that the reason that we’re giving a speech is to find ways to benefit our audience by sharing information with them. If your audience is unable to determine what is in your speech for them, then they will quickly tune you out. One way that we can communicate that our message is designed for our audience is to make sure that when we are speaking we speak as if we were talking to individual people in the audience.
What we need to realize as speakers is that if we are able to create a speech that has an audience-centric message, then our speech can have a real impact. This is in contrast to if we created a speech about what we wanted to share which would have much less impact. What we need to do is to take the time to decide what we want our audience to feel and what we want them to do when we are done talking. Once we know this, we can then create a speech with these thoughts in mind.
What All Of This Means For You
Not all speeches that we give are the same. Some are normal speeches given for normal reasons. However, then there are the other speeches. These are the important speeches that we give for important reasons and when we give them we want to maximize the benefits of public speaking. When we are creating one of these important speeches, we want to make sure that we spend our time wisely and create a speech that is going to allow us to really connect with our audience. What’s the best way to go about doing this?
When you are creating an important speech, you always have to begin with the end in mind. If you can picture how you want your audience to react to your speech, then you’ll be that much closer to making it happen. In order to create an important speech, you are going to have to cut a lot of information out of it. You’ll need to include stories so that you can connect with your audience. It will be your stories that your audience will remember. Remember that you are giving this speech for the benefit of your audience. You always need to be asking yourself what is in it for them. Keep your speech’s message audience-centric.
Whenever we have a chance to deliver an important speech, we always want it to go well. We need to understand who our audience is when we are creating an important speech. Our goal is to craft a speech filled with important content, deliver it well, and then have our audience walk away fully understanding what we were trying to communicate to them. Use the points that we’ve discussed the next time that you are building an important speech and then go out there and really connect with your important audience!
– Dr. Jim Anderson
Blue Elephant Consulting –
Your Source For Real World Public Speaking Skills™
Question For You: How many stories do you think that you should put into an important speech?
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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
Wouldn’t it be fantastic if every speech that we gave was a great speech? I mean we can almost picture our audience standing up once we were done and giving us a standing ovation. That would truly be magic to our ears. Now, this is a great concept, but just exactly how should we go about making it happen? It turns out that it is really not all that hard to make a great speech. The trick is that you have to understand the importance of public speaking and know how to go about doing it. That sure sounds like something that we need to talk about.