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10. Know Your Audience
Are you an economist speaking to your colleagues? Have at it with the technical jargon. But if you’re speaking to a more general audience, focus on ‘translating’–sharing the bottom line of what you do and why it’s important in illuminating, but straightforward language. The same holds true for academics, financial experts and scientists. If you want to impress people outside of your field, speak to them in a language they can understand. Otherwise, you won’t impress them with big words: You’ll lose them.
9. Don’t Be Too Stuffy (Be Yourself)
Nobody likes a self-important person. If you’re a high-profile figure, impress people with your down-to-earth, personable style. If you are trying to make a name for yourself, do it as the nice up-and-comer with big ideas rather than a big ego.
8. Watch the Clock
Unless you discovered life on Mars, keep it short. Your audience will love you for it. Very few things in life take longer than 20 minutes to say. If you are signed up to speak for an hour, open up the rest of it for questions-and-answers. Your audience will stay lively and appreciate the opportunity to interact. Tip: No matter how great the speech was, nine times out of 10 an audience walks away more excited about the Q&A. Why? It allows for a genuine back-and-forth exchange.
7. Make a Personal Connection
Public speaking books warn of the many perils of having a sense of humor. I highly recommend it with one vital caveat: bounce your jokes off a few different folks first (no ‘yes men’ need apply). If they have to think twice about whether it’s appropriate, take a pass. But an audience does like to be entertained, and injecting a healthy sense of humor into a formal speaking engagement is endearing.
6. Look People in the Eye
Don’t do the old stare-at-the-wall-above-their-heads trick. People can tell. Look folks in the eye when you talk to them. It keeps you on your toes. It keeps you from reading your text too closely and delivering a robotic ‘People of Earth’ reading. It also makes the audience feel more involved and connected to you and to your message.
5. KISS your audience
Keep It Short and Simple. It’s harder to do than it sounds, especially when you’re dealing with technical material. A good way to make sure you’re on target is to talk to a friend or family member who’s not in your line of work and tell them what you’re going to say. Until they don’t just understand but are interested, you’ve got some work to do.
4. Write Your Own Headline
The best way to organize a speech and keep it on target is to decide before you write anything down what you want people to take away as the basic message. Most folks won’t remember 10 things (unless you write a top 10 list and hand it out). They will likely remember one or two major points. Why not decide what you want them to remember and focus on those points rather than leave that all-important goal of your speech to chance? So before you write your speech, write the headline you’d like to see about your remarks in the next day’s paper. It will help you keep your focus.
3. Don’t Forget the Hook
The best way to be newsworthy is to be timely. Anything you can do to link your speech to current events, to the subject of a new movie that’s been released, to a headline in the morning newspaper, to the fact that it’s Father’s Day, Memorial Day, Valentine’s Day, helps you make a connection. Instantly, you have something in common with your audience. I start every speech project with a list of current pop-culture happenings, from movie releases to sporting events to what’s leading the nightly news. Most times I don’t use the material, but it gets me thinking from a broader perspective. These exercises help you make the link between what you’re saying and what’s happening in the world. Unless you can make that same connection for your audience, they aren’t likely to care.
2. Move Your Audience
Perhaps the most common mistake in speeches today is that people deliver all kinds of interesting and useful information, but they often fail to put it into any kind of context. They fail to connect the dots for the audience, and state the conclusion that in the speaker’s mind seems, well, OBVIOUS. Never use a statistic without saying why it is important and what it means. Numbers alone won’t move people. Show the faces behind the numbers; tell the human story. Tell your audience what your facts, stats, charts mean and why they are relevant and important.
1. Be Comfortable
Double space your text. If you use normal letter-sized paper, blow the text up to 24 points. If you use vertical 4×6 cards, go to 18 or 20 points. Number your pages. Make sure each page’s text ends at a natural speaking break (end of sentence, comma, etc.). Underline words you want to emphasize. Practice speaking the words out loud. Do everything you can to make yourself as comfortable, organized and polished as you can at the podium (then consider not using one).
Most of all, don’t forget to have fun!