My boss in college said, “KISS means Keep It Simply Simple.”

Below is one of the most basic speech writing formulas. However, many do not use it and may take the audience on a meaningless safari and leave the audience saying “Huh? What was the point?”. Those who do use this are easy to follow and audience’s appreciate the clarity.

1. Grab attention with the intro and preview your speech.

Read these articles for more info:

• How to Write a Good Speech Intro
• 4 Ways to Start a Speech
• The Hook & Reel Intro

2. Have 2-4 main points and label them

If I am talking about overcome fear of public speaking, I have 4 keys. In the presentation I’ll say, “Key #1: Act Confident”. Audiences can easily follow you when you have main points and label them. See this article for more info.

3. Review the points and conclude with a story or call to action

I call this a home-run ending. Your circle your points and head for home plate with a story or call to action.

Simple speech formula and follows the rules of KISS. Results can be outstanding.

Learn more in this public speaking training.

Arlen Busenitz

Arlen Busenitz is an experienced speaker with over 650 presentations. He is Author of several books, CD's,and creator of Become a Better Speaker in One Evening™

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It’s a technique which creates a memorable section of your speech which audiences love and remember.

Here is the speech writing technique:

Tell a personal story and then share two or three lessons or tips.

Read this real world speech example of how I used the technique:

Recently our family went on vacation. We were anticipating the fun and relaxation, but dreading the airport security.

We approached security lugging five carryon’s, a laptop computer, a stroller, an active 18 month old, and two bottles of apple juice over the three ounce limit.

After clearing the initial identification checkpoint, you know what happened next. The security-check dance began.

Belts are removed. Wallets and shoes tossed into tubs. All the while seeking to keep an 18 month old corralled.

My wife and I make it through the scanner, start collecting our personal belongings and keep an eye out for anyone accidently grabbing one of our bags.

A tall dark haired TSA agent approached.

In one hand he held our daughter’s pink diaper bag and in the other hand he held two bottles of apple juice. Clearly more than three ounces.

Busted.

The TSA website claimed the that having a toddler allowed us a green pass on the juice.

Mr. TSA looked at me and said, “Sir, you can either open the apple juice and let us test them for explosives or we can pat you down and search all your bags.”

I paused.

Glanced at our overstuffed bags, the blue gloves, and made the no brainer choice.

“You can test them!”

Surprise, surprise. The apple juice was found non-explosive.

This experience illustrated of three tips in getting people to do what we ask.

1. Be polite and treat people with respect.

We like to be treated with respect. Politeness makes us more willing to follow the another person’s wishes.

Combining a respectful attitude with “please”, “thank-you”, “Sir”, “Ma’am”, and other polite words increase our persuasive powers.

2. Give people a choice

Mr. TSA did not order me to open the apple juice. He gave me two choices. I may have internally bulked at the thought of opening the sealed Juice, but suddenly it seemed like a great choice when compared with a pat down and search.

A friend of mine used to work as a babysitter. She said she would give the kids choices instead of orders.

“Would you like to read this book or that book?”

“Would you like to go to bed now or stay up and washes the dishes with me?”

This is a powerful persuasive technique for adults and children.

3. Make requests instead of orders.

Earlier a TSA agent said, “Could you take your daughter out of the stroller?”

Sounds better than, “Take your daughter out of the stroller!”

Requests can still have the same authority as orders, but are much more palatable to us.

Turn your orders into requests.

“Could you pick up this report?”

“Would you have time to…”

I’ll never forget that experience nor the persuasion tips it illustrated.

Do you see how this technique will keep the audience’s attention?

When you get stuck in speech preparation or want to spruce up your speech, choose a personal story and then share several lessons from it.

Your audience will love it.

Arlen Busenitz

Arlen Busenitz is an experienced speaker with over 650 presentations. He is Author of several books, CD's,and creator of Become a Better Speaker in One Evening™

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My friend went to speaking boot camp on getting paid to give presentations. In other words, how to become a professional speaker. There he learned three steps on how to get paid to speak. With travel, registration, and lost work time it cost him more than I paid for my first car.

Virtually every book and product I have read on the subject, mentions the same three steps.

You don’t have to pay $2,000. Here are these paid speaking tips for free:

Step #1: Write a good speech and practice it well.

If you don’t deliver a good speech, you will not be asked back. For more info on this, check out Become a Better Speaker in One Evening

Step #2: Call up your local service clubs and tell them you will speak for free (Lions, Kiawans, etc)

Mention your credintials and how they will gain value from your speech.

Step #3: Keep giving these free presentations as you hone and tweak your speech.

Eventually, you’ll start to receive referrals and people will give you paid speaking engagements.

Is there more to this? Yes, but every course or book I have seen the subject, says to follow these steps.

Arlen Busenitz

Arlen Busenitz is an experienced speaker with over 650 presentations. He is Author of several books, CD's,and creator of Become a Better Speaker in One Evening™

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The Rule of 72 states:

Divide 72 by your interest rate and that will tell you how many years it takes for your money to double.

72 / 6% = Your money will double every 12 years

I know this is a speaking blog, but hang with me.

If you an I improve in an area of our life by just 2.5% a day, we will be twice as good in 29 days. (72 / 2.5% = 29)

Today, could you be:

• 2.5% more positive?
• 2.5% more efficient?
• 2.5% more loving?
• 2.5% more disciplined?
• Watch 2.5% less TV?
• Spend 2.5% more time with your family?

Sure you can. Grow by 2.5% every day and in 29 days you will have improved by 100%

Same applies to public speaking.

With every speech if we are just:

• 5% better with our vocal variety
• 5% better with our pauses
• 5% better with making eye contact
• etc…

Then after 15 speaking engagements we will be twice as good as we are now. We will have improved our public speaking skills by 100%

Have some fun with the rule of 72.

Small changes done consistently over time create massive results. Learn more about this concept in  The Compound Effect (aff Link)

Arlen Busenitz

Arlen Busenitz is an experienced speaker with over 650 presentations. He is Author of several books, CD's,and creator of Become a Better Speaker in One Evening™

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I used this next speech internalization tip:

Speech Preparing Tip #17: Mentally rehearse your speech before bedtime.

At 10:45 I delivered the presentation in my living room. Next, I shut the light off, crawled into bed, told my wife I would be concentrating, and rehearsed the speech in my mind. Another alternative of this is to visualize yourself in the front of the room with an audience. Now deliver the speech in the theatre of your mind. Why is this public speaking tip so effective?

I have read various researchers who claim that what you think about before bedtime stays on your mind all night. Plus this is a relaxed learning enviroment.

Try it and see if it works for you. My speech came across pretty smooth and I attribute some of that to how to I internalized my presentation with this tip.

Arlen Busenitz

Arlen Busenitz is an experienced speaker with over 650 presentations. He is Author of several books, CD's,and creator of Become a Better Speaker in One Evening™

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Are there things we can do as speakers to encourage response? Yes. Here are six ways to connect with the audience and elicit responses.

Play Music Ahead of Time

Pop in a motivational music CD and have it playing as people enter the room. Turn it up enough so people have to talk a little louder. This raises the energy in the room. Darren Lacroix taught me this and it is very effective. Seek to use music with no words.

Movies use music to significantly alter your mood. You can do the same to prepare people for your presentations.

Plant Questions

Getting the first question from the audience can be like pulling teeth. Help this process by giving out a couple questions to different people. Make them good questions that relate to your speech. Instruct these individuals to ask them within 10 seconds of the Q/A period staring, unless someone jumps in first. This will get ball rolling.

Start with a Personal Story

Start with a personal story that the audience can relate to. This helps connect you with the audience.

Give Out Free Gifts

“I have a question for you. There are several good answers, but one I am looking for. The person who gives that answer will get a free copy of my book.”

I recently tried this and it was like offering free lemonade on a hot day. Responses came flying in. The first person gave the answer I was looking for but I took 4 more answers, before I gave her the book.

Tell People Ahead of Time there will be Q&A

Let people know they will have a chance to ask questions and they will have time to think of them.

Don’t Wring Question out of the Crowd

After washing dishes my mom would wring out the dish rag. She would squeeze it to get every last drop of water out so that it could dry.

Sometimes as speakers we can do the same to our audience.We try to wring out questions from the crowd. Avoid long pauses and continually saying “Any Questions.”

“Surly you got questions.”

Not good.

By the way, never, never end with a Q/A session. Instead put the Q/A before the 5 minute conclusion. You want to control what people hear in the last five minutes.

Lets wrap this up.

One weekend I was doing several workshops. With one group I used these techniques and the other group I did not. The difference was tremendous. Use a few of these public speaking or workshop tips and you’ll get more response from the audience.

Arlen Busenitz

Arlen Busenitz is an experienced speaker with over 650 presentations. He is Author of several books, CD's,and creator of Become a Better Speaker in One Evening™

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It was 20 minutes into the presentation and boredom hung like heavy smoke. Some individuals fought to stay awake. Others sought to stay polite and not walk out.

Mr. Boredom continue to drone on and on. His message took off like a plane from the podium, crashed and burned before it reached the front row. A few sentences that made it to the audience floated right past the audience’s ear and bit the dust.

Though I felt like sleeping, I tried to stay awake to analyze why Mr. Boredom was having this negative, hypnotic experience on the room. Unfortunately, it reminded me of how I have also been boring at times because I have made three public speaking mistakes.

Here are three mistakes he was making and ones we should avoid as speakers.

Public Speaking Mistake #1: He was reading 90% of the time

Think of our eye contact as being like a curtain between the speaker and the audience. When the speaker is looking at the audience, the curtain is open. When their eyes are glued to the notes, the curtain is closed and connection is being lost with the audience.

A few second glances now and then are acceptable, but if that curtain is closed at least 30% of the time, your audience may lose attention.

However, great eye contact does not negate the need for compelling content.  I have seen speakers make 100% eye contact, but they bored the audience because they rambled and had weak content.

Compelling content will hold the audience’s attention. Lack of eye contact can hurt it, but compelling content is key.

Know your speech and have a a detailed outline to jog your memory.

Mistake #2: He was bored with the material

If the speaker is bored,  the audience will be also. Fascinating fact, isn’t it. We must choose topics that we can get excited about. What if we don’t like our topic? Act excited anyways. That enthusiasm will transfer to the audience.

Mistake #3: He had a monotone message, voice, and body language

Think of a great piece of classical music. The music speeds up and slows down. The volume is high and low. That variation keeps our attention. Our message should vary also. Sometimes, we tell facts and other times stories. Our voice should be fast and sometimes slow.

When it comes to body language, change it up. Step out of the podium box on certain points. Raise the hands. Step forward or maybe step back at times. As Patricia Fripp said, “Sameness is the enemy of the speaker.”

Being a boring speaker can be suicide to a speaking career and hinder our career advancement. Don’t make these mistakes and you can keep the audience on the edge of their seats.

(C) Arlen Busenitz. All Rights Reserved

http://www.SpeakingInfo.com

Arlen Busenitz

Arlen Busenitz is an experienced speaker with over 650 presentations. He is Author of several books, CD's,and creator of Become a Better Speaker in One Evening™

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Just five hours ago, I was listening to a speaker who grabbed my attention and held it. Yes, he was good, but it was not because he was using a lot of slick or advanced public speaking tips.

He was using one of the most powerful public speaking formulas a speaker has in his/hers arsenal.

Tell a Story and Make a point.

Hour after hour, this speaker would tell stories and make points. Sure, he took time to define his content, use quotes, and make some humorous comments. However, He probably had a different story every 5 minutes or so.

After telling a story using effective story telling techniques, he would pause and drive home his point. Next, he would pause to let the point sink in.

Did it work? Yes.

Why is this public speaking tip powerful? Stories automatically hold people’s attention, especially if we use some good story telling techniques. All we have to do as speakers is weave our point into the story or bring it home at the end in a powerful way.

However, we must be careful not to make the mistake that many advertisements make. Do you remember the commercial about cowboys herding cats? How about a more recent one that features a white duck? Here is the million dollar question: what are those stories/scenes representing or selling? I must confess I have no clue about the herding cats commercial and just recently remember what the duck stood for.

We must tie the story and point together so well that if the audience remembers the story, they’ll for sure remember the point.

How can we apply this tip?

• Use stories throughout our presentations.
• Tie the story and point together so people remember both.
• Use effective story telling techniques to help our stories hit home.

(C) Arlen Busenitz – 2011

http://www.SpeakingInfo.com

Arlen Busenitz

Arlen Busenitz is an experienced speaker with over 650 presentations. He is Author of several books, CD's,and creator of Become a Better Speaker in One Evening™

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As a class we sat stunned at this announcement from our teacher. I was taking a public speaking class at the local community college. Over 12 weeks we had read a 200 page book, given 4 different speeches, and laughed in the face of public speaking fear.

"Take out a sheet of paper"

Rustling filled the classroom as we each pulled out a sheet of paper.

"Here is the question. What is the Number one Secret to Being a Great Speaker?"

Quickly some of the class wrote down the answer. Others thought and thought.

What would you say? How can a speaker go from boring to interesting? What will wake audiences up instead of putting them to sleep?

Here was the one word answer:

"Enthusiasm"

The Dictionary says, "Great excitement for or interest in a subject or cause."

If the speaker is excited/interested in what they are saying, it will affect their performance and it will excite the audience. This does not mean you have to talk excitedly or run around the stage (though if that is your style, go for it!). The audience should see that you are deeply interested in what you are talking about.

Wait! Not just deeply interested, but excited about it!

What if you don’t feel enthusiastic about what you are talking about? Simple. Apply the old saying, "Act enthusiastic and you will feel enthusiastic." Put some enthusiasm into your voice. Have vocal variety. Do this and you will fire up the audience.

Here are 3 ways you can add enthusiasm to your presentations:

• Choose topics you are interested in
• Lean forward slightly when speaking
• Act enthusiastic

An enthusiastic speaker can make boring topics interesting!

(C) Arlen Busenitz 2009. All Rights Reserved

Learn to "Make the Audience Laugh".

Arlen Busenitz

Arlen Busenitz is an experienced speaker with over 650 presentations. He is Author of several books, CD's,and creator of Become a Better Speaker in One Evening™

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