Writing and Presenting Great Speeches

A spark can create into a great idea for a fantastic speech. Sometimes, we are so confident that we can deliver our speech with ease as it is something that we already know. Yet, after our presentation, we always feel that the speech can be better crafted and presented.

Time after time as we present, we know that our speech can be better and we just don’t understand where have we gone wrong. How can we write great speeches and presenting powerful speeches?

The fact is a great speech is like a lady wearing a mini skirt. Yes, the speech needs to be like the mini skirt. Short enough to arouse the interest of the audience and yet, long enough to cover all the vital points.

When we have an idea for a speech, we would definitely have the opening and conclusion for the speech in mind. Therefore, to give your audience powerful facts that support your speech, we need to build a great body for the speech.

For example, if we are meeting some friends and we reached the venue early and we have to wait for them. As we looked around, we spotted some people and by the look of the body structure, we know if they are the friends we are waiting for. Then, we will double confirm by looking at the faces before we concluded that they are friends.

In another view, a speech as I have said that it is like a lady wearing a mini skirt. The lady in mini skirt will capture attention specially from the men. Imagine, if the lady take of her jacket and pop off a button at a time in front of the audience. Their eyes will pop and their jaw will drop. Each button popped the audience will get much more interested to see and want to know what’s next.

Having the idea on how to write your speech, it is now about practice, practice and practice your delivery. Rehearse and make that speech again and again to make that speech part of you. Every time you need to present that speech again, rehearse it over and over again so that it can only be better.

The art of writing a great speech and presenting a fantastic presentation is not about what you wants to deliver but what your audience wants to hear as well as how you can add additional values to empower your speech and presentation.

Hence, if you are planning to write you next speech, do take some of my sharing into consideration. Having some careful thought, understanding and concentration in the preparation, orgainisation, and ultimately your way of presentation is important.

“Thinking without doing is dreaming. Doing without thinking is dangerous.” – William Lim T.C.

It’s in The Mind.

We may witness happening with our eyes but sometimes our eyes can deceive us. At times, our mind play tricks on what we thought we saw but it may not be true sometimes.

The mind can only start thinking correctly if we keep our mind clear. We can only start seeing the right picture when we clearly understand what had actually happened. With the right concentration, we can then make the right choice on what to do and how to do things right.

Whether we think we are right or wrong, we are right. The speed of our brain waves is so much faster than the speed of lightning. Hence, we can imagine things, see imaginary images, or sometimes dream.

Therefore, it’s a double-edged sword which either give us success or failure.

Whatever the mind thinks, we project thru our facial expression, gestures and body language. If you don’t believe in yourself, others around you can see, feel and know it because it shows. A sales person who doesn’t believe and sold to the products they are selling will not have confident to sell the products at all. People with lack of beliefs and confident will not be able to attract friends and opportunity.

Therefore, one need to learn how to believe before one can achieve anything in life.

Yes, it is hard to think positive, feel positive and act positive. Our mind will always question ourselves if what we are doing it right or is it wrong. Hence, we go no where in life as we are not sure of where we are heading in life.

Life is meant to be this way unless we start understanding what life is all about. As the word spell as L-I-F-E, L stands for Living and E stands for Ending of Life. What’s left behind is I-F which is the remaining of the word LIFE. The IF which confuse us, that creates uncertainty and therefore creates procrastination in life which in turn creates the road to nowhere.

Unless we learn to control our life by focusing on the positive in our life and take positive actions to achieve our dreams, we may not achieve anything. Successful people don’t do different things, they only do them differently by seeing the different perspective in achieving their goals.

Likewise, many love explain things, make excuses on why they are not successful or even blame others for causing their failure in life. Sometimes, people even blame the government of all their wrong doing but what about those things they did right? Are they commented by you publicly?

John F.Kennedy once said: “Ask not what the country can do for you but ask what you can do for the country.”

Explaining, giving excuses and blaming will not help us progress instead it will only create a door for us to run away from the truth. Pushing the wrong doing, and everything wrong to others will only make us more irresponsible.

Take the courage and face every problem that comes to you. That is the only way we grow and become wiser with everything problem we solved and conquered.

Your mind can make you successful or make you a failure with the kind of message you sent to your mind. Therefore, so long as your mind can conceive and you believe, you can achieve.

Christopher Columbus had made up his mind that he would want to be a successful seaman since 7 years of age. He learnt the art of sailing and managing when he was 21 and master the art after years of sailing. With all the persistency and perseverance he managed to organise his own fleet of ships at the age of 41, to sail for the first time to the West on 3 August 1492 while others who didn’t believes in him sailed only to the East.

Learn the art of positive thinking and you will be able to achieve your dreams. It’s all in the mind. Once you believe whatever your mind conceive, you can achieve and conquer anything in your life.

The Mirror of Life.

We have seen and heard many speakers and sometimes we try to model them. But are you learning the right skills from the right masters.

There are many great speakers in the world and as we listen to their speeches, we are impressed with the way they put their words across. We are persuaded, inspired and aspire to be like them.

Since the birth of radio many decades ago, we have been listening and learning thru hearing. Until today, some people still learning thru listening to the MP3, MP4, radio, CDs and etc. Hence, we build in our mind that language is the most important in any presentation. We need to perfect our language before we can use it. But is there perfection in this world?

The late Dr. Albert Mehrabian did a study to find out the differences and effectiveness of Verbal, Vocal and Visual in presentation and found out that the Visual (Body Language) take up 55% while Vocal 38% and Verbal has only 7%. It was a great surprise to everyone when announced to the public. But time after time, when a simple test has been done, the audience get to understand instantly how true the findings are.

But some people still thinks that language is the most important in presentation and because they focus so much on the language usage, they neglected the importance of vocal variety and body languages.

Therefore, when we attend any seminar, we can easily judge the speaker with their performance on stage, the kind of skills they possesses and how effective can they be. It mirror their life.

I always say that how you do anything is how you do everything. How you do anything on stage is how you do everything in your life.

If the speaker focus on the language so much, they are only focusing on the smallest part in the whole presentation. It is just like when a mosquito bite you and you kept scratching the small little part of your body that was bitten. There are plenty of things you can do and with other part of the body but you insisted on scratching the part that was bitten. Aren’t you wasting time and efforts on things that are minor in life and forgotten that there are plenty of things should have been done if you would have not concentrate on the wrong part at the wrong time?

The usage of vocal variety is not just about the ability to pronounce the words properly but it is all about creating excitement, feeling and authority at any moment of time during presentation. It is how you make the audience feel when you get that message across to them and winning their heart.

Many speakers aren’t able to trigger the emotion of the audience because they focus too much on the right usage of the language that they forgotten even to use the right word at the right time with the right vocal variety and the right body language during presentation.

If you focus only the small things, these small things will be the biggest thing in your life. If you focus of the bigger things, the bigger things will create the world in your life. Because I focus on the bigger things in life and they creates the world for me and I am invited to many parts of the world to share my experiences and knowledge. If one only focus on the smaller things, than they will only be invited among the smaller circle of certain group.

The mirror of life is powerful as it reflects you to life, your efforts to what you will achieve in life and your understand to what others can see you as a master in life.

So, if you are looking forward to become a greater speaker and a greater leader, learn from the right speakers and the right leaders. Change your image and adopt the right understanding and you will change your life. The reflection of your life will be changed so long as you change yourself now.

Attracting Audience Attention

Knowledge on the topic alone is insufficient. You must have authority. Until you have convinced the audience that you are an authority on the subject you are delivering, you will not have their complete attention. Your task then is to impart your authority (experience, qualifications, etc.) as soon as possible via a brochure, a flyer and etc. Therefore, the introduction is important to arouse the interest of the audience and create the desire for them to listen to you. The introduction is the bridge connecting the speaker and the audience. It sets the tone and creates the environment best suited to receive the message of the speaker.

A good speech starts with a great “attention grabbing” introduction – an introduction that generates curiosity as well as alerts the audience. For a successful speech, it is important to attract your audience early in your talk. An inattentive audience suggests that the speaker and his message are not important. If the audience isn’t listening to what you are saying, the purpose of your speech will never be achieved. If you plan to motivate or inform or sell your ideas and people are not paying attention, you won’t achieve your goal.

First Things First

Before you start to write the introduction, make sure you know the steps for giving a great presentation. Make sure you know the purpose of your presentation, understand who the audience is and research the topic thoroughly. Once this is done, start thinking about how to organize the presentation.

The Four Simple Ways to Start your Speech

After the first things are done, start writing an attention-grabbing introduction. Given below are some ways to grab your audience’s attention. These tips, if used properly, will improve your speech by a great degree.

Here are the four simple ways to attract your audience’s attention –

1. Ask them a Question – Asking questions is a great way to start a speech. Questions engage people. Questions start our thought process as we tend to find answers for questions. One thing to keep in mind – questions asked should be appropriate to the group. Keep your audience in mind and ask the right questions.

2. Tell them a personal story – A personal story connects the speaker and audience. When the speaker talks about a personal story or an experience, it creates a sense of belonging and the audience will be attached and attentive.

3. Use a Quote – A quote from a famous personality is a great way to attract attention. Most famous personalities have made some comments that have become famous quotes. People can relate to those quotes. They are moved by these quotes because the quotes force them to redefine their perspective. Quotes are thought-provoking. This technique is especially useful when used in motivational speeches.

4. Present Interesting Facts – Presenting statistics and facts tells people that the speaker has done some research. Data are perceived as more authentic than most other methods. Everyone loves surprising facts. People like to be surprised and this makes them more attentive. Facts are very useful in informative and persuasive speeches. Once you have an attentive audience by delivering good introduction, next step is to keep the attention.

To keep the attention of your audience, present an equally good body and end with a punch. There are seven more ways to grab your audience’s attention.

We have briefly talked about what makes a great speech and how to organize your talk. We also discussed the importance of a good introduction. Let’s see some more ways to attract attention.

1. Show a Picture – The first tool in this list is using pictures at the start of your presentation. Using pictures as an introduction is a powerful way to attract the audience. A picture generates curiosity. It makes people wonder, what will be this speech about? They say “A picture is worth thousand words”, when used in introduction, people tend to ask “Which words?”

2. Draw on a Whiteboard – Whiteboard, flipcharts or the old blackboards, using them for introducing your speech is another unusual and uncommon way of starting your presentation. Draw or write something relevant to your topic and interesting for your audience.

3. Tell a Joke – Jokes ease tension and stress in almost any situation. Telling jokes during the first 30 seconds of your presentation can relax the audience and you – the speaker. Everyone likes to laugh, people like things that are funny and in general, people like people that are fun. But remember, choose jokes that are clean and appropriate, or this technique might fall on face and you might hamper your credibility. This technique works great for humorous speeches.

4. Share some News – Sensational news or an unexpected news interests people. If you start your speech with a recent news report on a related topic, audience will turn their radar on for more similar content which interests them. Alternatively you can also share some interesting facts, as discussed in previous post.

5. Create Drama – Dramatizing openings make a presentation very lively. Even before you greet your audience with a formal “Hello”, if a little drama is created, it will grab attention instantaneously. This is often a good start if your speech is a storytelling type.

6. A video – Just like showing a picture, a video can also do magic too. A short video about the topic, something that will generate some questions in the audience’s mind. Asking questions is one of the basic tools that was discussed earlier. Videos are very helpful in building a foundation of the talk and when used effectively, can make a speech successful.

7. Give a Freebie – This last tool, in this post, is the most uncommon of this list. This technique involves declaring that there are some freebies at the end of the speech for anyone who meets a certain criteria. I have seen this trick mostly used by people in sales. The criterion set for getting the freebie is usually answering a quiz, question or something similar to that.

8. Involve Your Audience – Engage your audience as and when you can to keep them involve in whatever you are delivering. Do some exercises, play some games or to sing a song are good ways to involve your audience. These will interest your audience by having hands-on on the things they are about to learn. On the other hand, it also allows your audience to remember what you had shared with them.

“I hear and I forget, I see and I remember, I do and I understand.” – Proverb

The doing is much more powerful. Therefore, it is wise to involve your audience to do something together with you to drive the message into them.

9. Use Gesture Effectively – Gestures are like words. Use them only when they mean something. Experienced speakers use gestures to: o Emphasize o Elaborate points o Describe o Express emotion, etc. Don’t flap your hands when there’s nothing else to flap. Best to let your hands follow your line of thinking so as to gesture naturally.

10. Vocal Variety – Speak fast, slow, high, low, loud, soft, clear and most importantly, speak to be heard – don’t ramble in a monotone. Your voice can be trained. You can emphasize a point by raising your volume or by whispering. Sometimes a whisper well executed is much more effective.

For further information on how you can power up your presentation skills, get your personal copy of Instant Guide for Instant Speaker today…

The 3Vs in Presentation

Albert Mehrabian (born in 1939 to an Armenian family in Iran, currently
the Professor Emeritus of Psychology, UCLA) has become known best for his publications on the relative importance of verbal and nonverbal messages. His findings on inconsistent messages of feelings and attitudes have been quoted throughout communication seminars worldwide, and have also become known as the 7%-38%-55% rule.

In his studies, Mehrabian came to two conclusions. First, there are basically three elements in any face-to-face communication:

  • Words/Language (e.g. English, Mandarin, Malay)
  • Tone of voice (e.g. pitch, rate, quality)
  • Non-verbal behaviour (e.g. facial expression, gesture)

Secondly, the non-verbal elements are particularly important for communicating feelings and attitude, especially when they are incongruent. This means if words disagree with the tone of voice and nonverbal behaviour, people tend to believe the tonality and nonverbal behaviour.

Please note emphatically it is not the case that non-verbal elements in all senses convey the bulk of the message, even though this is how his conclusions are frequently misinterpreted. For instance, when delivering a lecture or presentation, the textual content of the lecture is delivered entirely verbally, but the non-verbal cues are very
important in conveying the speakers’ attitude towards what they are saying,
notably their belief or conviction.

Attitudes and Congruence

According to Mehrabian, these three elements account differently for our liking for the person who puts forward a message concerning their feelings. Words account for 7%, tone of voice accounts for 38%, and body language accounts for 55% of the liking. They
are often abbreviated as the “3 Vs” for Verbal, Vocal & Visual.

For effective and meaningful communication about emotions, these three parts used in expressing the message need to support each other – they have to be “congruent”. In case of any incongruence, the receiver of the message might be irritated by ‘two
messages’ coming from two different channels, giving cues in two different directions.

The following example should help illustrate incongruence in verbal and non-verbal communication.

  • Verbal: “I do not have a problem with you!”
  • Non-verbal: person avoids any eye-contact, looks anxious, has
    a closed body language, etc.

It is more likely that the receiver will trust the predominant form of communication, which according to Mehrabian’s findings is non-verbal (38% + 55%), rather than the literal meaning of the words (7%). This is known as “the 7%-38%-55% rule”.

It is important to say that in the respective study, Mehrabian conducted experiments dealing with communications of feelings and attitudes (i.e., like-dislike) and that the above, disproportionate influence exerted by the tone of voice and body language
becomes effective only when the situation is ambiguous. Such ambiguity appears
mostly when the words spoken are inconsistent with the tone of voice or body
language of the speaker (sender).

Non-verbal communication is usually understood as the process of communicating through sending and receiving wordless (mostly visual) messages – i.e. spoken language is not the only source of communication. There are other means too. Messages can be communicated through gestures and touches (Haptic
communication), by body language or posture, by facial expression and eye contact. Meaning can also be conveyed through object or artifacts (such as clothings, hairstyles or architectural designs).
Speech contains non-verbal elements known as paralanguage, such as voice quality, rate, pitch, volume, and speaking style, as well as prosodic features such as rhythm, intonation and stress. Dance is also regarded as a form of non-verbal communication.

Non-verbal communication is the most important skill that a presenter needs to develop to enhance his speech quality and make it to be easily understood. The results of Prof. Albert Mehrabian’s study shows:

Visual

55%

Vocal

38%

Verbal

7%

During a presentation, a vast amount of information is visually conveyed by your appearance, manner and physical behaviour as you deliver your verbal message. Your body lanuguage is an effective tool for adding emphasis and clarity to your speech. It is the most powerful instrument for convincing an audience of your earnestness, sincerity
and enthusiasm.

However, if your physical actions are distracting or they contradict your verbal message, your body language can rule over your words. Whether your objective is to inform, persuade, entertain, motivate, or inspire, your body language and the personality you project, must be appropriate to what you want to say.

If you want to be a better speaker, you must understand how your body can speak. You must learn how to manage and control your body language.

For more information on how you can be a better communicator or presenter, click and get you copy of Instant Guide for Instant Speakernow.

Decide Yourself

Your destiny is in your hands and you need to make the right decisions yourself.

Most of the time, decisions are made without us but we need to fulfil them.

At work, your superior tell you about your duties and responsibilities in the company. How you should do your job and what to submit to him/her first or as and when he/she wanted it. Sometimes, your superior would even decide what time you go home by giving you more work just when you are about to leave for home and tell you the time he needs them.

At home, your parents and siblings would expect you to help to clean up the house, cook the food, or even to wash the things. If you are married, you may have that experience with your spouse and children too. You are expected to be doing something all the time but most of the time you are doing for someone else.

With friends, family, and at work, everyone would want you to do something for them. They would direct you, persuade you or even inspire you to do all the things for them.

Are you living for yourself or for others?

An old man once told me many years ago when I was only 10 years old that his only regret was not to have time for himself, to do things he really wanted to do and achieve his own dreams. He elaborated by telling me that everyone wants a piece of you, your time, your efforts, and everything they can get you to do. You would only be doing things for others and carry out their tasks for them.

My friend, it’s not about them. It’s all about YOU!

Do you really plan for your future, your destiny and how you can leave a legacy for your family and descendants? Have your really plan what you want to achieve in this life?

Take charge of your life! You need to wake up and live your dreams.

Failing to plan is planning to fail.

Set a Goal for yourself and your family. Share with your family on your dreams and how you and your family can take part to achieve those dreams together as a team. Because Together Everyone Achieves More.

Organise your plans and goals so that you can achieve them step-by-step, one-by-one and enjoy the process as well as the happiness on the results of the individual goal achieved.

Take massive Action to achieve your goals and dreams. Because vision without action is only daydream and action without vision can be a nightmare. Therefore, once your goals are set, take massive action on them and results will follow.

Lastly, remember to Learn and keep learning. May it from mistakes we have done along the way or experiences from others which we can learn and enhance from. Learning can only make you better each day. It can also helps you to achieve your goals and dreams much faster.

In conclusion, decide your destiny and shape your life now. Set your Goals, Orgainse them, take massive Action and Learn as much as possible during the process. You owe your success to yourself and your family. Decide yourself your life, your destiny and your legacy today because there is always a tomorrow and it will never end.

The Truth Can Be Seen.

Who you are and how you react to things show the truth in you.

Many thought that they know themselves well but most of the time, those around you can see the true you. Whether they are willing to tell you or not and help you to improve is another question.

Most people don’t like to be told and many don’t tell either.

Imagine having people telling you how bad of a person you are and what lousy character you have will make you feel negative for the rest of the day. Some may take weeks, months or years to recuperate.

We choose not to tell because most of us are afraid that we will hurt them and lose a friend or two. Most of us are not expert in communication therefore the more we feel that we might hurt those we spoke frankly to. We simple don’t really understand those around us. Haven’t we experienced having friend or friends who turn their back on us suddenly and we don’t even know what happen? Have we sometimes unconsciously agitate our spouse and we don’t even know it?

Truthful communication is important among family, loved ones, friends, colleagues, superiors and those around you. Thru the sincere truths, we change and become better person whom others would love to be with.

Some people has unique characters which they don’t even know. While others may have bad temper, bad habits, or too possessive, or any other unwanted character. I have experienced seeing people rubbing their private part or digging their nose or ears while talking to others.

These are habits and they are unconsciously done in the presence of others. Those around you can see what you did but you may not notice it at all. Therefore, it is always good to be conscious of what you are doing at any time.

Recently, I was called to meet a “true leader” by a friend who has been involved in Multi-Level Marketing / Network Marketing for more than 10 over years. He was happy to have such a great leader in his organisation and he made the arrangement for us to meet. Hoping that this “true leader” can arouse my interest in joining him but I ultimately said “NO”.

I warned my friend about his organisation. With the kind of uplines and the “true leader” whom I know, the organisation will collapse in a short period of time. True enough, the uplines offer the “true leader” a position to be my friend’s upline instead, at a price of S$5,000.

Imagine, if this upline goes around and start offering all the downlines the same offer, he will be rich without working on his Multi-Level Marketing business. Moreover, he can move each group in his organisation to balance up so that he can make more money for himself. On top of that, he will also snatch away some of the great builders for one of his leaders from one of his binary legs (group) to another which is weaker to maximise his own profits.

What if everyone does the same thing? What will happen to those who have work so hard to build his group but to find out that the uplines are snatching away good people in his group to be transferred to another group to support the selfish uplines.

This is common in Asia but not so in U.S.A. or Europe. American and European will duplicate the system accordingly to what they are taught. While Asian will think of ways to out-smart the system and be greedy over their own immediate success in Network Marketing or Multi-Level Marketing then to bother about building a great relationship with his organisation so that everyone is happy so as to build a long-term business.

Croaked stick produce croaked shadow. People can be judged by the cover, by the way we talk and act. That is why we need to have the right concentration, right understand, right thought, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness.

So, Friends. I can only urge you to learn to art of living and the truth about yourself. It is the inner you that shows the outer you. Upgrade and improve yourself daily and project the best in you to those around you. You will feel the difference once you have the change in yourself as the world changes with you.

Speaking from the Heart.

If you lie, you will need to lie till you die.

Being earnest and sincere in the sharing is the most important thing any speaker must have. It is most important because if it is from your heart, you will understand the feeling and will be able to relate and deliver with passion as well as making your audience feels with you.

The audience can feel your sincerity and your believe level in your delivery. Thru your presentation, the audience can detect if you are lying or speaking the truth.

We can learn from the experience of others but we need to understand and digest what we have learnt before we use any of the ideas and knowledge.

There was once a speaker who was invited to deliver a keynote address. He was too confident about himself and didn’t go thru the materials the company wanted him to touch on although he received them a month ago.

On the day of the presentation, the speaker rush thru the scripts while flying to present at the Dinner and Dance at night. As he was reading the script, he noticed that there were some of the statements which he don’t believe in and some not sure. There was no one to whom he can talk to and he needs to be at the venue for the presentation once he arrive at the airport.

There were lots of things in his mind by the time he reached the venue for his keynote address. The person in-charge of the script wasn’t there to welcome him and he had no one to discuss the script with.

Shortly on his arrival at the venue, he was escorted to the waiting area to get ready for his presentation. After the Master of Ceremony announced his name and invited him up to the lectern, he felt that he wasn’t ready to deliver what he don’t believe and can’t even open his mouth to say his first word. Staring at the audience, he felt totally lost and don’t know what to do.

Minutes later, he tried to deliver the speech but there was no passion and sense of believes in whatever he delivered. It was the worst scenario any speaker would want to be in. He failed due to over-confident and being too proud.

A great speaker must be able to talk his way out of any situation with his wisdom. Therefore, we need to be prepared at all times.

Read lots of magazines, books and newspapers. Understand what you have read and think of what you have read and connect what you have learnt with your own experience. Recall the lessons learnt and how to improve on them.

Even from movies, drama, radio, you will have lots to learn from. Keep learning but you need to understand what you learnt to be able to relate yourself with all the learning.

Once you learn, understand and relate yourself with the learning, you will be able to create your own views. If you don’t understand or believe on what you have read or heard, you will need to ask till you understand it.

It’s thru the understand and the ability to relate that gives you the abilities to present with the passion, sincerity, earnestness and with power.

Learn to speak from the heart to connect with the heart of your audience so that you can win the heart of your audience.

Moving Toward Professionalism

It is commonly said that “To start, you don’t need to be good but to be good, you need to start.”

The world is lack of people who are willing to share and train those around.

Many have ideas, concepts, and experiences to share but  or too shy to share.

Speakers and trainers fail or not progressing because they think that they know too much. There is no room for improvement so long as they think that they are the best. These people are in the world of themselves, just like the toad in the well.

I have seen highly qualified and competent speakers unable to make a living as full-time professional speakers. Their programs were well put together, contained worthwhile information, and their presentations were highly suited to a successful career in the speaking and seminar business.

On the other hand, I have seen speakers who had mediocre material and a poor presentation make big money as professional speakers. On the surface this seems unfair, until you are aware of the key factor that determines the greatest success or failure in the speaking and seminar business.

In essence, you will experience the best life has to offer. In order to do that, you have to learn the rules and tools.

I train speakers from practitioners to professionals and I am willing to show you the way toward financial freedom thru speaking. Do get in touch with our sales team at sales@williamlimtc.com for further information on the next course.