Introduction
Organizing your thoughts is one of your most important tasks as a speaker. It's important for four reasons. First, it helps the audience understand your material. Second, it helps them remember what you say. Third, it increases your credibility as a speaker. Finally, being organized helps make you more convincing.
To help your audience understand you, you need to tell them early on what your speech is about, and what you will cover in your presentation. Also, you can use transitions during the body of your speech to show your audience which idea is being addressed at any given moment.
Get and keep their attention
Different people have different learning styles. Some learn by simply listening, some need to see it, and some learn best by experiencing it. If appropriate, try to fit all aspects into the presentation. Visual aides are a great way to keep your audience's attention. No matter what your medium (projector, flip chart, power point), it is important to remember a few rules about visual aides:
Allow for some white space, don't fill the entire paper or slide with details or pictures; Use alternating colors for easier reading; and visual aides support the presentation; do not use them as the entire presentation - be prepared to add commentary to the visual aides.
Entry
Launching your presentation is as important as the takeoff of an airplane. If the liftoff fails, the rest of the trip becomes irrelevant. Determine how you are going to start your speech and commit the first several lines to memory. An excellent beginning includes telling the audience why they want to listen. What is the benefit to them?
If you are particularly nervous, look for a sympathetic face and talk to that person for several moments. Do not begin with an apology… "I didn't have much time to prepare this talk." Or "I'm not really very good at giving speeches." Starting with a negative makes the audience uncomfortable. Remember you feel more anxious than you look. Convert your nervous energy into enthusiasm and launch your speech positively. Look at some of the sample speeches in Podium Note’s Professional Speakers database to get some great openings for your speech.
Rehearse
Practice is essential. Try delivering your talk without using any notes and check your timing during this rehearsal. If you have to use notes, then just jot down your key points. Don't attempt to memorize the entire speech word for word. Mark Twain* said, "It usually takes more than three weeks to prepare a good impromptu speech.” That is the effect you are working toward - a conversational, impromptu style, but with thorough knowledge of the material.
*For more great quotes sign up for a free trial membership to Podium Notes
Prepare mentally
Start by understanding that you'll spend a lot more time preparing than you will speaking.
As a general rule, invest three hours of preparation for a half hour speech, a six to one ratio. When you've become a highly experienced speaker, you may be able to cut preparation time considerably in some cases, but until then, don't skimp.
Part of your preparation will be to memorize your opening and closing -- three or four sentences each. Even if you cover your key points from notes, knowing your opening and closing by heart lets you start and end fluently, connecting with your audience when you are most nervous. Use a tape recorder or videotape yourself. This will help you to get an accurate picture of how you speak.
Prepare Logistically
Go to the room where you'll be speaking as early as possible so you can get comfortable in the environment. Make sure you have the right location (school, hotel, room & time). Make sure you know how to get to where you are speaking. Ask how large an audience you will be speaking to. Make sure you bring all your visual aids and plenty of handouts. Arrive early so you can check out where you will be speaking and make any last minute adjustments. If you will be speaking from a stage, go early in the morning when no one is there and make friends with the stage. Then, during your presentation, you can concentrate on your audience, not your environment.
Know your audience
Know your audience and what you want them to know. Understand the demographics of your audience (i.e. profession, standards of dress, education level). Prepare your presentation to meet their needs. People tend to remember only 3 or 4 points from a presentation. What are the main points you want your audience to walk away with? To help your audience remember those points: Tell them what you will tell them; Tell them; and Then tell that what you told them.
If you forget this, everything falls apart. You can't tell dirty jokes to a Christian women's group. You've seen the commercial where the best man gives the wedding toast and goes on and on about how much of a player the groom was? Remember who's there and what they want to hear. What do they like and dislike? What kind of humor do they like? If they're a mixed audience, you have to be more mainstream in your language and manner. This is the most important part of how to write a speech.
Organize your ideas into an outline
Make sure each idea follows the other logically. Ask yourself if your audience needs to know anything to understand any part of it. Ask yourself if any part needs more fleshing out.
Beef it up
Use examples for difficult to understand points or concepts. Find some jokes. If no one laughs at the first one, be careful, though. You might lose credibility if they think you're an idiot. You can also find great quotes online, even search on whatever topic you're writing your speech about.
Ending
Like the touchdown of an airplane, your presentation must be landed correctly. Begin the end by summarizing your key points. Next ask for audience questions and clarify any remaining issues. Then make your closing statement, which should encourage some action. What do you want the audience to do? Memorizing the last few lines ensures a strong close. Finally smile and nod your head.
If the thought of speaking in public makes you anxious, you probably will be. However if you use the PODIUM Notes process or P.R.E.P.A.R.E., the level of your anxiety will be lower and you will deliver a better, more effective speech. Who knows, you may find you like giving the eulogy better than being in the casket!
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