Most of us get nervous about making a speech, whether it's to 2000 convention delegates or a PTA meeting at our child's school. Often, though, people find that's the worst part of the whole process - the anticipation. The reality is often a lot easier to handle and can even be quite enjoyable, provided that you take the necessary precaution of doing your homework beforehand - preparation.
There are very, very few people who can get up at a moment's notice and give a good speech totally impromptu and on the spur of the moment.
1.Define exactly not so much what you want to say, as what you want your speech or talk to achieve - ask yourself, "what do I want the audience to be thinking as I come to the end of my speech?"
2.Find out as much as you can about your audience and ensure your content is very, very relevant to them and their needs.
3.Use language and tone of voice that the audience will understand and identify with - and blend that in with your own natural style of speaking.
4.By all means use a bit of jargon and a few "in" phrases as long as you're certain the audience understands them, but never use jargon others may not know.
The only extra point I would make here is, remember that people can't rewind/replay or re-read you. For that reason you can't expect them to absorb as much detailed information as they would if you were to write it in a document or CD-ROM, which allow them to refer back to details as often as they want.
Knowing your audience is also unusually important here - you'll find out very quickly if you've got it wrong, because you'll see it in their faces and their body language.
Cut the clutter
Depending on the nature of the presentation you're making, sometimes you will be giving out delegate packs or some other form of permanent record of your material, so details, expansions, etc can go in there. With live speeches, your success is almost entirely dependent on what your audience remembers of what you say. People have very bad memories, and if a speech has been boring or complicated or both, they will remember even less of its content and only recall how terrible it was.
Often senior managers are called upon to give speeches - usually to internal audiences - which cover a wide range of topics, for example a review of the company's performance over the past year, announcements about new developments, etc. These presentations sometimes last for nearly an hour and attempt to cover more topics than a fat Sunday newspaper. At the end of it the audiences have absorbed very little, having been mesmerized by the drone of the boss's voice and an increasingly urgent desire to leave the meeting and go to the washroom.
The answer? Split a one-hour speech down into four fifteen-minuters, interspersed with the other presentations throughout the day or half-day session. (Or if you can't do that, split the one-hour presentation across four different speakers.) Fifteen minutes is much more comfortable for the audience's attention span. And the fact that there are more, shorter presentations creates variety which, to totally misquote an old saying is the spice of live communication.
Start by writing yourself a list of points - a structure. This should cover the usual story-telling technique of a beginning, a middle and an end, although the old soap-box principle of "tell 'em what you're going to say, say it, then tell 'em what you just said" is a bit repetitive. Try if you can to keep the main issues in your presentation to fewer than five, no matter how long your speech is. If you can't actually put it together as a traditional story, what you must do is ensure that one topic leads logically on to the next using some good, workable links.
The right order
It is possible to change direction abruptly in a presentation, but you need to be a practised speaker to pull it off and know how to use your stage body language as well as that other wonderful presenter's tool, silence. Nothing gets an audience's attention faster than a few seconds of total silence when they're expecting a stream of words. All of this carried out by a novice speaker who can't quite get the nuances right, however, can be a disaster.
Links are actually quite useful even if they are a little abrupt, because they act as punctuation to your material.
Openers and closers
Many people will tell you that a powerful opening and close of a speech are terribly important and in fact as long as those are good you can say pretty well what you like in between. I've seen (and written for) many speakers who have agonized during several sleepless nights over how to start their speech with a big bang at the company sales conference, when all the time a simple, sometimes gently humorous opening is far easier - and more effective.
It helps here if we re-examine just why openers and closers are important in the first place. To put it politely, they help to locate the audience, to act as a signal that you're about to start talking to them about something interesting or that you've just finished telling them something interesting.
To put it crudely, sometimes the opener at least has to act as an alarm clock - waking the audience up after a narcolepsy-inducing previous speaker - or as air-raid siren, warning the audience to settle down, shut up and pay attention.
But even if the speaker prior to you has been intensely boring and has had the whole audience shifting from one numb seatbone to the other for 45 minutes, you don't necessarily have to go out there in a top hat and false nose riding a unicycle and playing a trombone at the same time. Say something amusing, heart-warming, witty, whatever, as long as it's something you would say in "real life." You probably don't want to say something rude about the previous speaker, although it will be tempting, but an in-company joke if it's an in-company audience, or even a relevant quote by a famous person (there are numerous books and websites where you can find quotes) will instantly signal a major change and have the audience looking forward to what you have to say.
The opener and closer don't have to be earth-shattering, but they do have to be part of you and your material. If you're naturally a quiet, private sort of person there's no way you should struggle with a passionate, emotive ending to your speech, even if others think you should be able to carry it off. One very important rule about giving speeches is if you don't think something will work for you on the night, you're right - it won't. Don't be talked into retaining anything you're not comfortable with, because something that's a small hiccup in rehearsals will become a major stumbling block on show day.
On-stage nervousness greatly magnifies any little glitch. If a few, self-effacing words of "thanks for listening" are all you think you will feel comfortable with at the end of your speech then that's what you say, even if you use a speechwriter who tells you otherwise (and some of my colleagues would.)
Spoken speech
Once you have created your structure and decided how best to open and close your speech, the best way to ensure it sounds natural is to switch on an audio recorder, talk through the structure to yourself, and transcribe the recording. (It's a terrible job, but worth it.) Long sentences in speeches can leave you gasping for breath and losing the plot. Spoken speech is simply, only, what it says it is. It is monologue or dialogue as you would speak, not as you would write the same information or thoughts down on paper or screen. Then commit those words to paper or screen, a few at a time or in short phrases and sentences.
If it sounds right, it is right, and if it sounds wrong it is wrong even though it may look right on paper or screen.
Even great playwrights interpret spoken speech in exactly the same, uncomplicated way. Think Molière, Anton Chekhov, Henrik Ibsen, Tennessee Williams, Jack Rosenthal, Alan Bennett and many more. Their characters' dialogue may seem unnatural to us when we hear it but that's because the character is surreal and extraordinary - and the dialogue is, in fact, perfectly natural for that character.
I've lost count of the number of speeches I've listened to (not written by me I hasten to add) that came over as completely different from the personality of the speaker. This happens because many people believe that giving business presentations is a serious artform where the grander the verbiage and more ostentatious and self-important the oratory the more points they'll score with their audience. It also happens because people write bad speeches so they are virtually indistinguishable from bad brochure copy or website text or any other manifestation of overstuffed corporate-babble.
Okay, you shouldn't give a speech in the same ribald style you might use to tell a joke to your friends in the changing rooms at the gym or the 19th hole at the Golf Club. Unless you're a trained actor, the only way you're going to come over well is if you are as at ease as possible with your material. This won't happen if you write words and phrases that may look very eloquent on paper, but which are lumpy mouthfuls to say.
The right style is always conversational. The best speakers always talk to audiences as if they were talking to a friend over a cup of coffee - a natural, friendly, personal style. Gone are the days when being in a business environment meant that you should never use a short word where a long one would do.
Why a full script?
You notice that I say you must write your speech, even though I know you may deliver it from bullet points or entirely from memory. Highly experienced public speakers often do not write their speeches but work only from a memorized opening and close. This is fine if you're a very experienced public speaker. If you're not, don't risk it.
A full script offers a number of advantages:
¨It provides a detailed framework if you're an inexperienced speaker
¨It allows you to develop and balance your content more easily
¨It means you don't have to make anything up as you go along
¨It acts as a safety net if you do speak from memory then forget something
¨It keeps you to your allotted time (most speakers present at an average of 120 words per minute, so divide the total wordcount of your written speech by 120 to get its rough presentation length in minutes.) ¨It allows others to cue your visual support accurately (if relevant)
The downside of creating a full script is that other people in your organization can tinker with it, if they know it exists. However this is a small price to pay for the reassurance and confidence a full script can give you. As you get more practised at speaking you will probably find that you become less dependent on the script and may work off bullet points or notes, but I still think it's worth writing the whole thing out initially.
Anecdotes and humor
Unless your presentation is an information-heavy financial report or other totally factual speech, a few anecdotes (preferably personal ones) are highly effective in helping to illustrate the points you make. Especially in England where self-deprecation and extreme modesty are the required penances to be paid by the successful, audiences warm to speakers who tell stories against themselves. It's also because audiences are naturally voyeuristic and love to feel they're getting an inside glimpse of the real you. Whatever the reason, though, anecdotes work, as long as they're short, to the point, and totally relevant to your other material.
Humor is something to be approached with caution, although used wisely it works superbly well. There is a big difference between being witty and telling jokes, and unless you are a first-class raconteur you must avoid the latter in your speeches, even if they're for "after-dinner" or other social purposes.
If you're not a naturally "funny" person you won't suddenly transform yourself into one just because you're standing up in front of a group of people. If anything that tends to make you less, not more funny. So whatever happens don't be persuaded to tell a few jokes if that's something you would never dream of doing informally at a social gathering.
If you do feel comfortable telling jokes, then use them sparingly, as punctuation - unless you're to be "best man" at a wedding or the entertainment after a social dinner, wall-to-wall jokes are usually inappropriate. Jokes in a speech should always be tailored to the audience and material. Gag writing is a specialized writing technique and there are quite a few good books around on comedy writing, if you're interested in learning how to do it.
If you're looking for jokes to adapt there are some good joke books available in bookstores (including one or two written by yours truly...) and of course you can find them online via the usual big sites - try keying in +JOKES+(YOUR SUBJECT). If you key the same thing into a search engine you'll also come across jokes archived on websites devoted to the subject concerned.
If you're at all concerned about the copyright implications of using jokes in your speeches you should ask your legal advisers for guidance.
Rehearse, rehearse
I don't want to be depressing, but once you've finished all the hard work of preparing your material, writing your speech and (if relevant) organising your visual support, you then get down to the really hard work - rehearsing. You've got to practise, practise, practise.
Not too soon before the event, or you'll be so stale and fed up with the speech you'll lose interest. Memorize the speech as well as you can, but don't worry if you forget the odd "and" or "but." If you say "er" and hesitate slightly now and again, it will make your speech sound more natural. If you're giving your presentation in a large conference environment you may find yourself working with a show crew and a very sophisticated set and equipment. Novice speakers can feel daunted by all this stuff but what you must always remember is that it's there to make your job easier, not harder.
Oh yes, cue cards.
Keep them in separate places - e.g. one in your pocket and one in your car - so if one set gets lost you know you've got another handy.
And two, ensure that both sets are irrevocably tied together in correct order via a securing device looped through a hole in the corner of each card. The securing device does not have to be sophisticated, as long as it's strong.
I once confounded the CEO of a major European telecomms company who, fortunately for me, was an engineer by trade, when I showed him the high-tech fasteners I'd used on his cue cards. "Good stuff," he said, "they work well.
Persuasive Writing Strategies That Grab the Readers Attention and Get You Results
As a writer, you have the challenge of communicating without feedback and without the benefit of voice characteristics, facial expressions or body language. Wow! You need to make your words come alive in the readers mind to compensate for their inability to hear your voice or see your body. It's like the author just sat down and threw up on the paper. Bottom line, determine what you want to accomplish. Are you trying to convey an idea, influence decisions, convey information or move people to action? How will this influence your message? You need to decide on your desired outcome right up front.
What I mean is, you need to ask these questions: "What are my reader’s wants, desires, needs, characteristics, concerns, problems? What do I need to know to help influence them?" If you are writing to an individual then understand that person, if writing to a group then understand the general characteristics for that group. If part of influence is to appeal to desires (and it is) then knowing your reader(s) is part of the desire equation.
One step people often fail to consider is the impact of the writing media. Is your communication electronic or is it on paper? Is it an e-mail, forum posting, newsletter, paper mail, printed book, magazine article or something else? How will it be distributed, will it be e-mail, website, postal service, flyer, in a package, etc. Consider how each of these will influence the perceptions of the reader. Is your writing just one of many messages being received all at the same time or will the reader just receive yours? Well, if you really want to be persuasive, these steps are important and the effort will pay off.
At this point, you know what you want to accomplish, you know a little or a lot about the background of the reader, and you know the media you'll be using for the written communication. Now it's time to determine what your messages are. If you don't think of your message in terms that are acceptable to your reader, you're efforts will sink faster than a heavy rock in a pond of water.
1. A common copywriting formula is AIDA (attention - like a grabbing headline), interest (capture and keep the readers interest), desire (build desire), and action (move the reader to action).
2. Another formula used in selling is Neil Rackham's SPIN Model. That is S (understand the Situation - as a writer you might describe the situation in a way that gets the reader to relate to your persuasion perspective perhaps by appealing to desires - especially unmet ones), P (identify the problem), I (show the implication of the problem), and N (lead the reader to realize he or she needs what you are persuading towards).
3. Case studies can be very effective for influencing. The simple model works well. Problem - Actions - Results: state the problem (and implications), provide the actions taken to resolve the problem, and then describe the results achieved (and relate these to the reader).
4. Break your writing up into key topic areas (this may mean messages or information) and then have several bullets to support each. Make sure your material has a logical flow (typically, this would be either chronologically, along the lines of your arguments logic, or in a series of steps).
5. Use metaphor/stories where the characters and situation mirror people and situations you are trying to influence. This is a great way to let the reader come to the "right" conclusion on his or her own.
At this point, it is time to start writing, so...
STOP! NOW! Okay, keep reading. You want to get the readers attention quickly right up front. It could be a bold claim, something bizarre, a big promise, a statement creating curiosity or a statement highlighting a major problem. All of these tied to the reader in some way.
A great example of a starting sentence that really captures the imagination is at the beginning of Charles Dickens book A Tale of Two Cities: "It was the best of times. What does that conjure up in your mind? Here is a fantastic e-mail subject line from Jason Potash (a true internet marketing genious): "Top Marketer Gets Mauled In Public Bathroom..." I sure did and opened it right away and had a great read.
You also want to immediately establish upfront that what you are writing about is relevant to the reader. If you have any doubts, just take a quick look at your newspaper and read the first paragraph of a couple of articles, or take a look at the first sentence of a good novel.
Your challenge is to make the what, why, when, how, where, and who pertain to the readers interests. Build credibility, early on if possible. You can use social proof by mentioning endorsements, alliances with people who are respected, and testimonials. You can use the power of authority by mentioning your professional designations, licenses, certifications and other credentials. If appropriate, list designations next to your name under the title (for example "by John Doe, PhD, MD"). Be careful not to go overboard in tooting your own horn. For example, I might mention something like "while doing research in persuasion for my doctoral thesis, I discovered ..." This tells you several things, I am either a PhD or working toward my doctorate (the latter is true in my case), and I am an expert in persuasion.
Citing facts and statistics with references to back them up can all help credibility. If quoting numbers, the more specific you are the more credible. For example, if discussing non-verbal communications as a key factor in communications you could say "according to a research study done at UCLA, 93% of communication is non-verbal."
Research has shown us that case studies are even more effective than facts at building credibility and persuading. As noted earlier, a great case study method is Problem - Actions to resolve problem - result achieved.
Do you really want your readers to finish reading what you worked so hard to write? THEN KEEP THEM INTERESTED. How? Well, I already mentioned one key technique and that is to establish relevancy early on.
Would you like to learn one of the biggest secrets to persuasive writing? Brace yourself. ASK QUESTIONS. Asking questions forces the reader to think about answers. Questions open up "mental file cabinets" in the readers mind. You can lead the reader with questions. You can get the reader to consider key issues. You can tap into emotions. You can ask the reader simple questions that require a small mental commitment related to what you are trying to influence and then tap the desire to remain consistent to previous commitments when asking the reader to consider something bigger.
Next tap into the readers emotions. You can do this with a story or metaphor that is likely to touch someone’s heart or trigger remembrances of similar reader experiences. See the "Chicken Soup for the Soul" books for great story ideas.
Another way to trigger emotions is to ask the reader to remember a past experience. STOP for second. Can you remember a time when you accomplished something really significant, really important? The excitement? The sense of achievement? Now imagine using these written persuasion strategies successfully for the first time and realize that this is how you will feel now.
What I just gave you was an example of tapping into the readers emotions (hopefully I tapped into yours - this stuff really is incredible and you will feel an incredible sense of pride and accomplishment when you learn it).
Paint vivid mental representations for the reader that make the senses come alive. This will help your reader remember what was said and will bring your message to life in the readers mind. If you were selling beachfront property you might say something like "imagine stepping out your back door onto the warm sand and looking out to a brilliant orange sunset, feeling a warm breeze on your face as gulls fly overhead, and then walking along the beach, taking in that special smell of the salt air, watching the deep blue water well up into giant frothy waves breaking along the coast for as far as the eye can see ..."
Remember how I promised to share with you one of the biggest secrets of successful writing? I was listening to an audio program by the great marketer Joe Vitale. I kept listening to audio after audio for that second great headline. Create curiosity with questions and statements that leave the reader wondering what the answers are or wondering what happened.
Use linguistic patterns of influence in your writing. These are things like presuppositions. Here, either you question your ability to use the techniques and find they are effective or you feel they are effective up front. Kind of weird, huh? You can learn more about language patterns by studying any decent NLP course.
Forget perfect grammar and punctuation, communicate with your readers the same way you would talk to them, the same way you would talk to someone standing right in front of you. There may be hundreds of other people reading this article, maybe even thousands, but as you read this, I want you to know I am talking to you.
If you get creative with your punctuation, you can do amazing things to direct the rhythm of your writing, to create pauses, to emphasize key points and much more. You can use capitalization, bolding, italics and color to emphasize key points. You can use a coma, a colon, a semi colon, a dash, or a "..." to create pauses. You can use parenthesis to place sub-ideas or explanations within a sentence and so much more. Take advantage of punctuation. It's a great way to give the reader a sense of how your writing would be spoken.
Appeal to the reader’s universal core desires. You may or may not know your individual readers. If you don't, it can be difficult to write to their desires. But, you can appeal to universal core desires (these are desires everyone has). Universal desires include reproduction/sex, food, and power. You can learn more by studying Kevin Hogan's great course "Covert Hypnosis" were he discusses in detail each of the 16 basic desires identified by Dr. Steven Reiss.
Build up the value of the information you are sharing. For example, if an idea you provided could earn the reader an extra $20,000 in sales in the coming 12 months, say so. If you had to spend thousands of hours doing research, invest thousands of dollars buying courses and reference material, if you had to walk six miles up hill each way barefoot in the snow to get to the library to do that research (OK just having fun with you) tell the reader what it took to provide the information. This creates value.
Let me share with you one of the most powerful secrets of successful writing (remember, the one I promised you earlier). It may surprise you. It might disappoint you if you take it too lightly. Perhaps the greatest barrier to persuasive writing is that most people quit before they start or once they get started, they keep stopping and trying to make each word and sentence perfect ... and never finish. Don't worry about the details, don't worry about missing facts (you can find them later), don't worry about references (you can find these later also) and don't worry about grammar.
Well friends, that about wraps up this overly verbose writing session. Obviously, there is much, much more to persuasive writing, but hopefully, I've given you a basic framework to make your writing task easier and your written work more effective.
If you want to learn more about persuasion and influence strategies that can really give your writing more impact, I would highly recommend two course by Kevin Hogan. The first is "Covert Hypnosis." It goes into great detail on how to persuade at an almost unconscious level through story and appealing to core desires. The other course is "The Science of Influence" series which provides the latest research and cutting edge persuasion tools. You can learn more about both courses along with many other persuasion resources at http://www.PersuasionToolbox.com.
There are very, very few people who can get up at a moment's notice and give a good speech totally impromptu and on the spur of the moment.
1.Define exactly not so much what you want to say, as what you want your speech or talk to achieve - ask yourself, "what do I want the audience to be thinking as I come to the end of my speech?"
2.Find out as much as you can about your audience and ensure your content is very, very relevant to them and their needs.
3.Use language and tone of voice that the audience will understand and identify with - and blend that in with your own natural style of speaking.
4.By all means use a bit of jargon and a few "in" phrases as long as you're certain the audience understands them, but never use jargon others may not know.
The only extra point I would make here is, remember that people can't rewind/replay or re-read you. For that reason you can't expect them to absorb as much detailed information as they would if you were to write it in a document or CD-ROM, which allow them to refer back to details as often as they want.
Knowing your audience is also unusually important here - you'll find out very quickly if you've got it wrong, because you'll see it in their faces and their body language.
Cut the clutter
Depending on the nature of the presentation you're making, sometimes you will be giving out delegate packs or some other form of permanent record of your material, so details, expansions, etc can go in there. With live speeches, your success is almost entirely dependent on what your audience remembers of what you say. People have very bad memories, and if a speech has been boring or complicated or both, they will remember even less of its content and only recall how terrible it was.
Often senior managers are called upon to give speeches - usually to internal audiences - which cover a wide range of topics, for example a review of the company's performance over the past year, announcements about new developments, etc. These presentations sometimes last for nearly an hour and attempt to cover more topics than a fat Sunday newspaper. At the end of it the audiences have absorbed very little, having been mesmerized by the drone of the boss's voice and an increasingly urgent desire to leave the meeting and go to the washroom.
The answer? Split a one-hour speech down into four fifteen-minuters, interspersed with the other presentations throughout the day or half-day session. (Or if you can't do that, split the one-hour presentation across four different speakers.) Fifteen minutes is much more comfortable for the audience's attention span. And the fact that there are more, shorter presentations creates variety which, to totally misquote an old saying is the spice of live communication.
Start by writing yourself a list of points - a structure. This should cover the usual story-telling technique of a beginning, a middle and an end, although the old soap-box principle of "tell 'em what you're going to say, say it, then tell 'em what you just said" is a bit repetitive. Try if you can to keep the main issues in your presentation to fewer than five, no matter how long your speech is. If you can't actually put it together as a traditional story, what you must do is ensure that one topic leads logically on to the next using some good, workable links.
The right order
It is possible to change direction abruptly in a presentation, but you need to be a practised speaker to pull it off and know how to use your stage body language as well as that other wonderful presenter's tool, silence. Nothing gets an audience's attention faster than a few seconds of total silence when they're expecting a stream of words. All of this carried out by a novice speaker who can't quite get the nuances right, however, can be a disaster.
Links are actually quite useful even if they are a little abrupt, because they act as punctuation to your material.
Openers and closers
Many people will tell you that a powerful opening and close of a speech are terribly important and in fact as long as those are good you can say pretty well what you like in between. I've seen (and written for) many speakers who have agonized during several sleepless nights over how to start their speech with a big bang at the company sales conference, when all the time a simple, sometimes gently humorous opening is far easier - and more effective.
It helps here if we re-examine just why openers and closers are important in the first place. To put it politely, they help to locate the audience, to act as a signal that you're about to start talking to them about something interesting or that you've just finished telling them something interesting.
To put it crudely, sometimes the opener at least has to act as an alarm clock - waking the audience up after a narcolepsy-inducing previous speaker - or as air-raid siren, warning the audience to settle down, shut up and pay attention.
But even if the speaker prior to you has been intensely boring and has had the whole audience shifting from one numb seatbone to the other for 45 minutes, you don't necessarily have to go out there in a top hat and false nose riding a unicycle and playing a trombone at the same time. Say something amusing, heart-warming, witty, whatever, as long as it's something you would say in "real life." You probably don't want to say something rude about the previous speaker, although it will be tempting, but an in-company joke if it's an in-company audience, or even a relevant quote by a famous person (there are numerous books and websites where you can find quotes) will instantly signal a major change and have the audience looking forward to what you have to say.
The opener and closer don't have to be earth-shattering, but they do have to be part of you and your material. If you're naturally a quiet, private sort of person there's no way you should struggle with a passionate, emotive ending to your speech, even if others think you should be able to carry it off. One very important rule about giving speeches is if you don't think something will work for you on the night, you're right - it won't. Don't be talked into retaining anything you're not comfortable with, because something that's a small hiccup in rehearsals will become a major stumbling block on show day.
On-stage nervousness greatly magnifies any little glitch. If a few, self-effacing words of "thanks for listening" are all you think you will feel comfortable with at the end of your speech then that's what you say, even if you use a speechwriter who tells you otherwise (and some of my colleagues would.)
Spoken speech
Once you have created your structure and decided how best to open and close your speech, the best way to ensure it sounds natural is to switch on an audio recorder, talk through the structure to yourself, and transcribe the recording. (It's a terrible job, but worth it.) Long sentences in speeches can leave you gasping for breath and losing the plot. Spoken speech is simply, only, what it says it is. It is monologue or dialogue as you would speak, not as you would write the same information or thoughts down on paper or screen. Then commit those words to paper or screen, a few at a time or in short phrases and sentences.
If it sounds right, it is right, and if it sounds wrong it is wrong even though it may look right on paper or screen.
Even great playwrights interpret spoken speech in exactly the same, uncomplicated way. Think Molière, Anton Chekhov, Henrik Ibsen, Tennessee Williams, Jack Rosenthal, Alan Bennett and many more. Their characters' dialogue may seem unnatural to us when we hear it but that's because the character is surreal and extraordinary - and the dialogue is, in fact, perfectly natural for that character.
I've lost count of the number of speeches I've listened to (not written by me I hasten to add) that came over as completely different from the personality of the speaker. This happens because many people believe that giving business presentations is a serious artform where the grander the verbiage and more ostentatious and self-important the oratory the more points they'll score with their audience. It also happens because people write bad speeches so they are virtually indistinguishable from bad brochure copy or website text or any other manifestation of overstuffed corporate-babble.
Okay, you shouldn't give a speech in the same ribald style you might use to tell a joke to your friends in the changing rooms at the gym or the 19th hole at the Golf Club. Unless you're a trained actor, the only way you're going to come over well is if you are as at ease as possible with your material. This won't happen if you write words and phrases that may look very eloquent on paper, but which are lumpy mouthfuls to say.
The right style is always conversational. The best speakers always talk to audiences as if they were talking to a friend over a cup of coffee - a natural, friendly, personal style. Gone are the days when being in a business environment meant that you should never use a short word where a long one would do.
Why a full script?
You notice that I say you must write your speech, even though I know you may deliver it from bullet points or entirely from memory. Highly experienced public speakers often do not write their speeches but work only from a memorized opening and close. This is fine if you're a very experienced public speaker. If you're not, don't risk it.
A full script offers a number of advantages:
¨It provides a detailed framework if you're an inexperienced speaker
¨It allows you to develop and balance your content more easily
¨It means you don't have to make anything up as you go along
¨It acts as a safety net if you do speak from memory then forget something
¨It keeps you to your allotted time (most speakers present at an average of 120 words per minute, so divide the total wordcount of your written speech by 120 to get its rough presentation length in minutes.) ¨It allows others to cue your visual support accurately (if relevant)
The downside of creating a full script is that other people in your organization can tinker with it, if they know it exists. However this is a small price to pay for the reassurance and confidence a full script can give you. As you get more practised at speaking you will probably find that you become less dependent on the script and may work off bullet points or notes, but I still think it's worth writing the whole thing out initially.
Anecdotes and humor
Unless your presentation is an information-heavy financial report or other totally factual speech, a few anecdotes (preferably personal ones) are highly effective in helping to illustrate the points you make. Especially in England where self-deprecation and extreme modesty are the required penances to be paid by the successful, audiences warm to speakers who tell stories against themselves. It's also because audiences are naturally voyeuristic and love to feel they're getting an inside glimpse of the real you. Whatever the reason, though, anecdotes work, as long as they're short, to the point, and totally relevant to your other material.
Humor is something to be approached with caution, although used wisely it works superbly well. There is a big difference between being witty and telling jokes, and unless you are a first-class raconteur you must avoid the latter in your speeches, even if they're for "after-dinner" or other social purposes.
If you're not a naturally "funny" person you won't suddenly transform yourself into one just because you're standing up in front of a group of people. If anything that tends to make you less, not more funny. So whatever happens don't be persuaded to tell a few jokes if that's something you would never dream of doing informally at a social gathering.
If you do feel comfortable telling jokes, then use them sparingly, as punctuation - unless you're to be "best man" at a wedding or the entertainment after a social dinner, wall-to-wall jokes are usually inappropriate. Jokes in a speech should always be tailored to the audience and material. Gag writing is a specialized writing technique and there are quite a few good books around on comedy writing, if you're interested in learning how to do it.
If you're looking for jokes to adapt there are some good joke books available in bookstores (including one or two written by yours truly...) and of course you can find them online via the usual big sites - try keying in +JOKES+(YOUR SUBJECT). If you key the same thing into a search engine you'll also come across jokes archived on websites devoted to the subject concerned.
If you're at all concerned about the copyright implications of using jokes in your speeches you should ask your legal advisers for guidance.
Rehearse, rehearse
I don't want to be depressing, but once you've finished all the hard work of preparing your material, writing your speech and (if relevant) organising your visual support, you then get down to the really hard work - rehearsing. You've got to practise, practise, practise.
Not too soon before the event, or you'll be so stale and fed up with the speech you'll lose interest. Memorize the speech as well as you can, but don't worry if you forget the odd "and" or "but." If you say "er" and hesitate slightly now and again, it will make your speech sound more natural. If you're giving your presentation in a large conference environment you may find yourself working with a show crew and a very sophisticated set and equipment. Novice speakers can feel daunted by all this stuff but what you must always remember is that it's there to make your job easier, not harder.
Oh yes, cue cards.
Keep them in separate places - e.g. one in your pocket and one in your car - so if one set gets lost you know you've got another handy.
And two, ensure that both sets are irrevocably tied together in correct order via a securing device looped through a hole in the corner of each card. The securing device does not have to be sophisticated, as long as it's strong.
I once confounded the CEO of a major European telecomms company who, fortunately for me, was an engineer by trade, when I showed him the high-tech fasteners I'd used on his cue cards. "Good stuff," he said, "they work well.
Persuasive Writing Strategies That Grab the Readers Attention and Get You Results
As a writer, you have the challenge of communicating without feedback and without the benefit of voice characteristics, facial expressions or body language. Wow! You need to make your words come alive in the readers mind to compensate for their inability to hear your voice or see your body. It's like the author just sat down and threw up on the paper. Bottom line, determine what you want to accomplish. Are you trying to convey an idea, influence decisions, convey information or move people to action? How will this influence your message? You need to decide on your desired outcome right up front.
What I mean is, you need to ask these questions: "What are my reader’s wants, desires, needs, characteristics, concerns, problems? What do I need to know to help influence them?" If you are writing to an individual then understand that person, if writing to a group then understand the general characteristics for that group. If part of influence is to appeal to desires (and it is) then knowing your reader(s) is part of the desire equation.
One step people often fail to consider is the impact of the writing media. Is your communication electronic or is it on paper? Is it an e-mail, forum posting, newsletter, paper mail, printed book, magazine article or something else? How will it be distributed, will it be e-mail, website, postal service, flyer, in a package, etc. Consider how each of these will influence the perceptions of the reader. Is your writing just one of many messages being received all at the same time or will the reader just receive yours? Well, if you really want to be persuasive, these steps are important and the effort will pay off.
At this point, you know what you want to accomplish, you know a little or a lot about the background of the reader, and you know the media you'll be using for the written communication. Now it's time to determine what your messages are. If you don't think of your message in terms that are acceptable to your reader, you're efforts will sink faster than a heavy rock in a pond of water.
1. A common copywriting formula is AIDA (attention - like a grabbing headline), interest (capture and keep the readers interest), desire (build desire), and action (move the reader to action).
2. Another formula used in selling is Neil Rackham's SPIN Model. That is S (understand the Situation - as a writer you might describe the situation in a way that gets the reader to relate to your persuasion perspective perhaps by appealing to desires - especially unmet ones), P (identify the problem), I (show the implication of the problem), and N (lead the reader to realize he or she needs what you are persuading towards).
3. Case studies can be very effective for influencing. The simple model works well. Problem - Actions - Results: state the problem (and implications), provide the actions taken to resolve the problem, and then describe the results achieved (and relate these to the reader).
4. Break your writing up into key topic areas (this may mean messages or information) and then have several bullets to support each. Make sure your material has a logical flow (typically, this would be either chronologically, along the lines of your arguments logic, or in a series of steps).
5. Use metaphor/stories where the characters and situation mirror people and situations you are trying to influence. This is a great way to let the reader come to the "right" conclusion on his or her own.
At this point, it is time to start writing, so...
STOP! NOW! Okay, keep reading. You want to get the readers attention quickly right up front. It could be a bold claim, something bizarre, a big promise, a statement creating curiosity or a statement highlighting a major problem. All of these tied to the reader in some way.
A great example of a starting sentence that really captures the imagination is at the beginning of Charles Dickens book A Tale of Two Cities: "It was the best of times. What does that conjure up in your mind? Here is a fantastic e-mail subject line from Jason Potash (a true internet marketing genious): "Top Marketer Gets Mauled In Public Bathroom..." I sure did and opened it right away and had a great read.
You also want to immediately establish upfront that what you are writing about is relevant to the reader. If you have any doubts, just take a quick look at your newspaper and read the first paragraph of a couple of articles, or take a look at the first sentence of a good novel.
Your challenge is to make the what, why, when, how, where, and who pertain to the readers interests. Build credibility, early on if possible. You can use social proof by mentioning endorsements, alliances with people who are respected, and testimonials. You can use the power of authority by mentioning your professional designations, licenses, certifications and other credentials. If appropriate, list designations next to your name under the title (for example "by John Doe, PhD, MD"). Be careful not to go overboard in tooting your own horn. For example, I might mention something like "while doing research in persuasion for my doctoral thesis, I discovered ..." This tells you several things, I am either a PhD or working toward my doctorate (the latter is true in my case), and I am an expert in persuasion.
Citing facts and statistics with references to back them up can all help credibility. If quoting numbers, the more specific you are the more credible. For example, if discussing non-verbal communications as a key factor in communications you could say "according to a research study done at UCLA, 93% of communication is non-verbal."
Research has shown us that case studies are even more effective than facts at building credibility and persuading. As noted earlier, a great case study method is Problem - Actions to resolve problem - result achieved.
Do you really want your readers to finish reading what you worked so hard to write? THEN KEEP THEM INTERESTED. How? Well, I already mentioned one key technique and that is to establish relevancy early on.
Would you like to learn one of the biggest secrets to persuasive writing? Brace yourself. ASK QUESTIONS. Asking questions forces the reader to think about answers. Questions open up "mental file cabinets" in the readers mind. You can lead the reader with questions. You can get the reader to consider key issues. You can tap into emotions. You can ask the reader simple questions that require a small mental commitment related to what you are trying to influence and then tap the desire to remain consistent to previous commitments when asking the reader to consider something bigger.
Next tap into the readers emotions. You can do this with a story or metaphor that is likely to touch someone’s heart or trigger remembrances of similar reader experiences. See the "Chicken Soup for the Soul" books for great story ideas.
Another way to trigger emotions is to ask the reader to remember a past experience. STOP for second. Can you remember a time when you accomplished something really significant, really important? The excitement? The sense of achievement? Now imagine using these written persuasion strategies successfully for the first time and realize that this is how you will feel now.
What I just gave you was an example of tapping into the readers emotions (hopefully I tapped into yours - this stuff really is incredible and you will feel an incredible sense of pride and accomplishment when you learn it).
Paint vivid mental representations for the reader that make the senses come alive. This will help your reader remember what was said and will bring your message to life in the readers mind. If you were selling beachfront property you might say something like "imagine stepping out your back door onto the warm sand and looking out to a brilliant orange sunset, feeling a warm breeze on your face as gulls fly overhead, and then walking along the beach, taking in that special smell of the salt air, watching the deep blue water well up into giant frothy waves breaking along the coast for as far as the eye can see ..."
Remember how I promised to share with you one of the biggest secrets of successful writing? I was listening to an audio program by the great marketer Joe Vitale. I kept listening to audio after audio for that second great headline. Create curiosity with questions and statements that leave the reader wondering what the answers are or wondering what happened.
Use linguistic patterns of influence in your writing. These are things like presuppositions. Here, either you question your ability to use the techniques and find they are effective or you feel they are effective up front. Kind of weird, huh? You can learn more about language patterns by studying any decent NLP course.
Forget perfect grammar and punctuation, communicate with your readers the same way you would talk to them, the same way you would talk to someone standing right in front of you. There may be hundreds of other people reading this article, maybe even thousands, but as you read this, I want you to know I am talking to you.
If you get creative with your punctuation, you can do amazing things to direct the rhythm of your writing, to create pauses, to emphasize key points and much more. You can use capitalization, bolding, italics and color to emphasize key points. You can use a coma, a colon, a semi colon, a dash, or a "..." to create pauses. You can use parenthesis to place sub-ideas or explanations within a sentence and so much more. Take advantage of punctuation. It's a great way to give the reader a sense of how your writing would be spoken.
Appeal to the reader’s universal core desires. You may or may not know your individual readers. If you don't, it can be difficult to write to their desires. But, you can appeal to universal core desires (these are desires everyone has). Universal desires include reproduction/sex, food, and power. You can learn more by studying Kevin Hogan's great course "Covert Hypnosis" were he discusses in detail each of the 16 basic desires identified by Dr. Steven Reiss.
Build up the value of the information you are sharing. For example, if an idea you provided could earn the reader an extra $20,000 in sales in the coming 12 months, say so. If you had to spend thousands of hours doing research, invest thousands of dollars buying courses and reference material, if you had to walk six miles up hill each way barefoot in the snow to get to the library to do that research (OK just having fun with you) tell the reader what it took to provide the information. This creates value.
Let me share with you one of the most powerful secrets of successful writing (remember, the one I promised you earlier). It may surprise you. It might disappoint you if you take it too lightly. Perhaps the greatest barrier to persuasive writing is that most people quit before they start or once they get started, they keep stopping and trying to make each word and sentence perfect ... and never finish. Don't worry about the details, don't worry about missing facts (you can find them later), don't worry about references (you can find these later also) and don't worry about grammar.
Well friends, that about wraps up this overly verbose writing session. Obviously, there is much, much more to persuasive writing, but hopefully, I've given you a basic framework to make your writing task easier and your written work more effective.
If you want to learn more about persuasion and influence strategies that can really give your writing more impact, I would highly recommend two course by Kevin Hogan. The first is "Covert Hypnosis." It goes into great detail on how to persuade at an almost unconscious level through story and appealing to core desires. The other course is "The Science of Influence" series which provides the latest research and cutting edge persuasion tools. You can learn more about both courses along with many other persuasion resources at http://www.PersuasionToolbox.com.
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