Writing Your Own Speech? Four Tips to Nail It
Writing Your Own Speech? Four Tips to Nail It
By Christina McKenna
"Standing ovation---and for a very long time!"
That was the jubilant text I received from a successful entrepreneur and CEO who had just delivered her first keynote address to a roomful of business leaders at an industry event.
What made the text even sweeter was that two weeks prior, the CEO had been a nervous wreck, tearing up draft after draft, unable to find words to articulate her ideas and looking for an excuse to back out of her commitment.
Instead, she came to us, where we worked to help her untangle her thoughts and turn her personal journey into a captivating narrative that would not only inspire her audience but help her advocate for the causes about which she cared. She had a great story – we helped her turn it into a great speech.
"It was truly a highlight of my career and life!" she told me later on the phone. "I must have had a hundred people come up to me after just to tell me how much it meant to them!"
In our view, every speechmaker should get a reaction like that after every speech. Which is why we want to share some of our tips for writing powerful, memorable and authentic speeches that captivate and move audiences, while propelling the speaker to new heights.
Have a goal. Don’t look at your speech as an obligation, but rather an opportunity–and not just an opportunity to say thank you or give a forgettable overview. Speeches can inspire. They can motivate. They can change minds. They can change lives! So, make the most of the moment by first identifying a goal: what you want to accomplish with your speech. Then keep that goal front and center (maybe literally, with a sticky note) as you craft your remarks. Setting your goal will improve your odds of reaching it – and ultimately will make your speech much more interesting.
Get specific. Too often speechmakers hover in abstraction, speaking in broad concepts and never getting specific. While it's important to talk about big stuff (ideas, concepts, movements, etc.) if you stay in the realm of the abstract, your audience will disengage. So, give an example, drop some names, or enlist an analogy to help the audience relate to and remember your ideas.
Get personal. In our shop, this is the most critical component of speechwriting – so much so that we actually don’t write speeches for clients as much as we write them with them. We interview our clients about their work, their families, their values, their childhoods, the reason they’ve been asked to speak, and the reason they accepted. Then we weave some of those elements into the speech, careful to always stay focused on the goal.
Tell stories. Audiences love stories of all kinds and will instantly engage when speakers share them. Your stories need not be long. They need not be funny. But they should end with a powerful “landing line" that makes clear the point of the story (and that it's over). We shoot for one story for every three or four minutes of speaking.
By no means are these tips comprehensive. Speechwriters must also consider structure, pacing, a strong open, a powerful close and many other elements. But for anyone looking to take their next speech from uninspired to unforgettable, this is a pretty good place to start.
For more great ideas and tips for rock-solid communication, visit bluestoneexec.com, email us at info@bluestoneexec.com, or call us at 248.514.7085.