Creating a Speech Part 5

Great day here in Colorado. Sunny, cool, snow rapidly melting and spring is everywhere! Wowsers!

I will end my exploration of speech writing for awhile by talking about "The Importance of Rhubarb". I was told long ago that when a Hollywood movie was being produced and they wanted the sound of a large crowd or mob in the movie, they had all of the extras say "Rhubarb" It does do an amazing job of making that sound. Here is why you care: when you have your participants do a live exercise and it is a good one, as I hope yours will always be, they get very involved and excited and it is nearly impossible to get their attention to continue your presentation. In larger group, I have spent 15 minutes walking around quieting noise so I could begin the seminar again, but that was before "Rhubarb".

Now, at the start of every presentation, I tell everyone to be aware that I will be raising my hand when it is time to return to the seminar and their job is to immediately raise theirs when they notice my hand go up and then to get quiet. We practice saying "Rhubarb" and having them get quiet as my hand is raised. This technique is so effective, I have seen it quiet a room of 500 participants in less than 60 seconds and all I did was raise my hand and smile. Cool huh?

Happy speaking!...Jack

Creating a Speech Part 4

Howdy. Snowing here in Colorado. No one predicted it, but woke up to 8 inches on my car. No big deal, spring snows don't last long here.

So why am I talking about speaking anyway. Simple. Once you can do it, there is a huge market of places hungry for speakers and you get great, awesome publicity. It is one of the single most powerful ways to promote your business. And you can learn to speak! If I could learn, you can learn.

So, your material. Here are my suggestions, in no particular order. Take a stand. Be controversial. Use humor as much as you can. Involve the audience. Use live demos if you can. Use your agenda to keep yourself on track. If you are using PowerPoint or something similar, use it sparingly, the most boring presentations I have ever attended were all driven by PowerPoint. Use lots of emotion...be big and broad and not afraid to be loud. Some people won't like you, but most will and those are the ones that you care about. Finally, walk out into the audience...people will like you for it.

I am not spending lots of time on your material. You will need less of it than you imagine and by no means should you attempt to memorize a speech in its entirety. This is a complete waste of time. Create talking points, that you know lots about, put them on easel sheets in the front and back of the room and just look at the talking points and talk!

Bye for now...Jack

Creating a Speech Part 3

How is everyone today? Excited to learn a bit more about creating a speech? Hope so. I am excited to share the next step that I follow...creating my agenda.

I use the agenda that I create for every speech as the framework that I build around and then as the topic reminder and timer when I present the speech.

Let's say that you have a 90 minute presentation. 5 minutes at the front for your hosts...this goes on your agenda. 5 minutes at the back for your hosts...this goes on your agenda. If the group size is not too large, then you can do live Q&A. In a 90 minute presentation, I like to do 3 of these and schedule 5 minutes for each.

What else to schedule? How about your introduction from your hosts or your assistant and a bit of how is everyone casual chatting with the audience? 5 minutes for this.

How about talking about your offer? I hate speakers that spend too much time using the platform as a place to abuse the audience with an extended commercial for their products or services, but I assume you would like more business or why not stay home? So, put together an offer, that is simple, elegant, and clear and talk about it at the end of your presentation...before your last Q&A session. I call mine "The Let's Stay in Touch" handout and it works quite well and takes around 5 minutes for me to explain and just a couple of minutes for my audience to fill out and return to me. I collect newsletter subscribers, testimonials and permission to use the testimonial and people wanting to have a get acquainted meeting about coaching or consulting from this sheet.

You should also have a priming session somewhere in your speech, allow about 5 minutes for this and also a get up and stretch session...even if your presentation is only 1 hour...again 5 minutes or so.

We haven't even talked about your material yet. You will fit that in only after you have laid out these other elements first.

• Host time at the beginning
• Your Intro
• Priming
• Your material
• First Q&A
• Your material
• Stretch and move time
• Second Q&A
• Your material
• Your offer
• Third Q&A
• Wow them time, if you have a way to wow them
• Host time

So, that is the agenda and next time we will talk about your material.

Upcoming topic in the speaking category in my blog include your material, priming, The Importance of Rhubarb, Your offer and Wow them time.

Bye for now...Jack

Creating a Speech Part 2

Step into the shoes of your audience. What would really serve them to know? What would wow them? If there were just 3 pieces of great information about your topic that you could get across, what should those 3 be? Ask yourself these questions. You will get some good answers, especially after you have been speaking for awhile.

Now, ask the person that booked you for the engagement, or the person that you would like to be booked by. Ask them these same questions. They know their audience. They know the wants and needs of their membership.

Finally, ask for the names and an introduction to 2 or 3 critical people that will be in the audience. Ask them these questions. "I want to make sure that I cover the most important information...the information that your membership would really like to hear about. I can't always fit everything in, but if I can, what would you think would be a great piece of information to cover?" Then find a way to present this information or at the very least give a resource in your material where participants can go to learn about this. Since you asked for input, do your best to use it. This will pay off nicely in good testimonials and future bookings.

Bye for now...Jack

Creating a Speech Part 1

Sick for the past couple of weeks and behind on my entries. Sorry about that. Today I will start talking about building a speech. I am going to assume that you have the fundamentals of speaking under your belt. You can get up in front of a group and talk. If this is not the case, then may I recommend Toastmasters? It is how I got my start in public speaking and what a gift that was!

So, assuming the very basics, how to begin? Let's assume that you get hired, or want to get hired, to talk about a topic that is not currently in your field of mastery. Congratulations! You are now going to get paid to increase your knowledge base, add a product for sale to your inventory and have a blast! At least you will if you work the way that I recommend.

So, go to your local library, new topic in hand, and start gathering information. Lots of information. For a 1 hour presentation, kind of a natural starting place, you should collect and master enough information for at least 4 hours of chatting about this new topic of yours. This extra depth will serve you very well indeed. The Internet can flesh out your collected data with the latest and greatest and then you are ready for the next step...putting yourself into the minds and shoes of your target audience. We will talk about that in the next entry...bye for now...Jack