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Speak for Success!

"Be a voice not an echo." - Albert Einstein

Speak to Win! How to Transform Your Ideas into a Powerful Speech

Speak to win, how to transform your ideas into a powerful speech.

Want to be an exciting speaker who turns on audiences? Learn this technique for making your notes or slides come to life!

Are you interested in giving presentations that wow audiences and make you and your message memorable? If you are, learn this truth that’s so obvious we often don’t even see it:

Spoken language is fundamentally different from written communication.

Sure, you knew that. But do you know it in your bones so that it informs and animates you as a speaker? Think about it: How do you prepare a presentation? You write out your notes—on a legal pad, your keyboard, baking them into a PowerPoint deck, etc. Then you edit and refine what you wrote. And in the end, you have a beautifully written document.

Need to create a presentation when you’re under the gun? Use my free cheat sheet, with think-on-your-feet tips for crafting a talk in no time flat! Learn how to analyze your audience, decide on a central idea, and choose an organizing format fast. Download “How to Prepare a Speech in 15 Minutes.”

That’s how you proceed to prepare a presentation, isn’t it? But then you’re faced with a fundamental problem: you have to deliver that speech in person in front of an audience.

You’re about to enter what I call the oral arena. And chances are, you’re not prepared to dynamically deliver that presentation you’ve just written.

Acting techniques like in the ancient Greek theater can create effective business presentations.

Public Speaking and the Oral Arena

That's because you conceived and created your talk in another world entirely—the universe of writing. You did it because the schools you went to taught you to think and express yourself through writing, not giving you any of the tools you need for effective oral communication.

Some of those tools involve your performance, of course. But others have to do with the way language operates when you’re speaking rather than writing. So here are eight ways that spoken language differs from its literary cousin. They all have to do with the special way your message needs to be delivered when you move from notes, slides, or a manuscript into the oral arena. Use them as you’re preparing your next speech or presentation.

Incidentally: develop the habit of expressing your thoughts out loud as early as possible if you’re preparing a speech. You’ll hear whether something sounds right and delivers the power-punch you want it to. You’ll also save an enormous amount of time later, when you realize that what you wrote doesn’t sit in the ear as effectively as it should and needs to be revised.

Spoken language is fundamentally different from written language.

1. Long sentences vs. Short Sentences: You simply don’t have the luxury of delivering long sentences in a speech. Because you’re speaking in real time, audiences need help in processing the information you’re giving them. That means speaking in short impactful phrases and ideas. To learn how to rouse an audience with your fine phrases, discover the Churchill Method of becoming an exciting speaker. 

2. Complex vs. Simple Structure: Listeners can’t go back to an earlier chapter or paragraph to reacquaint themselves with the antecedent that allows them to decipher what you’re saying at this moment. (See my last point about not using sentences like that one in your talks.) Stay simple, though not simplistic.

3. “Dollar” Words vs. "Nickel" Words: The biggest ideas are the ones best expressed with short simple words. When he spoke to the Second Virginia Convention in 1775, Patrick Henry could have closed his speech with a rhetorical flourish common to that era. But what he said was this: “I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!” Flourish? Not needed. Goose bumps? Check. 

4. Concepts vs. Images: Concepts are usually wispy ghost-like things that are hard to visualize. Images never are. You’ll have to spend time explaining the idea or theory you’re expounding; but use an image and your concept instantly crystalizes in listeners’ minds. And of course, I mostly mean speaking in images, creating word-pictures—“a shining city on a hill”—rather than displaying actual photos, etc.

5. Building Arguments vs. Telling Stories: Building an argument takes time. By all means, speak logically and use the examples you need to prove your points. But the more you wrap it all into the story you’re telling, the more powerful your argument becomes. Like pictures listeners see in their mind’s-eye, a story makes your point more quickly, vividly, and convincingly—and in human terms. Want to tell great stories as a speaker? Here's how!

6. Data and Evidence vs. Comparisons and Metaphors: Data can be the most soothing of comfort zones to wrap oneself in when speaking to a big, bad audience. But here’s the thing about giving a talk: the idea is always to influence listeners by giving them something they don’t already know. A key part of doing that is relating it to something that they’re familiar with, so they truly “get it.” Comparisons, metaphors, similes, and analogies are your tools for allowing that to happen. Nelson Mandela said, “As I walked toward my freedom, I knew if I didn’t leave my bitterness and hatred behind, I’d still be in prison.”  

7. Extended Time vs. Real Time: When you’re given a memo, report, white paper or book to read, when do you do so? It’s hard to say, right? But audiences listen to you in real time. So it’s essential you give them time to absorb what you say before you go on. That means not only pacing your presentation in performance, but preparing your material in bite-size pieces to help listeners both comprehend and retain what you’re saying.

8. Verbal vs. Nonverbal: Your speech is like an iceberg (speaking of metaphors): most of your influence lies below the surface. In every phase of your preparation, think about how nonverbal communication will affect your audience’s experience. Remember that the way you say things, not just the information you give, is how you and your message will be remembered. (To learn more, download my free presenter's guide on the 7 deadly sins of nonverbal communication.) So stay human, emotional, and visual, and tell a great story. Do that from the time you put your ideas together to the moment you deliver your powerful speech. 

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How to persuade people through the power of your voice.

 

 

 

Tags: presentation skills,public speaking,public speaking tips,The Genard Method,Dr. Gary Genard,speech writing,speak to win,how to write a speech

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