Speak with Impact

by Allison Shapira

  Read the Speech Out Loud

  I can always tell when someone has written a speech but never read it out loud, because it will contain words that are written for the eye and not the ear. Journalists know how to write a beautiful, eloquent sentence that provides history, context, and nuance. Read a newspaper article out loud and you’ll see what I mean. Writing for the eye and the ear are two very different methods and require different phrasing, pacing, and language. When you write a business report, you tend to use your organization’s jargon. Yet a speech is an opportunity to build a relationship with your audience, so your spoken language should be more authentic.

  Once you finish the first draft of your speech, read it out loud and ask yourself how it sounds. Does it sound natural? Do the words feel comfortable? Is there a more concise phrase you can use?

  If you’re giving a speech in a foreign language, pay extra attention to the words you use. Because that language doesn’t come naturally to you, it’s important to find words that feel comfortable to pronounce. If you stumble over a word while practicing, you’re likely to stumble over that word in the speech itself. Chapter 11 provides more strategies for speaking in a foreign language.

  I was once coaching an international student at Harvard University who was giving the Graduate Student Oration at commencement. This is a huge honor and also a very high-stakes experience, speaking in front of thirty thousand students and parents in Harvard Yard while the event is streamed live on Harvard’s website. Intimidating? Just a bit.

  This young man, a scientist, had a heavy foreign accent and, during our coaching, was getting tripped up on the word “manipulate.” We practiced it a few times, and he always stumbled. Finally, I asked him, “Is there another word you could use instead?” He furrowed his brow as he thought about it for a minute; then his face brightened and he said, “Control!” We changed the word in his speech, and he breezed through the sentence.

  Trust yourself. Read your speech out loud and if something doesn’t feel right, change it. The less you concentrate on those individual words, the more you can focus on your message.

  Once you brainstorm your speech, go through it to determine the best structure. Plan your transitions from one point to the next, and do extra research if you need to shore up your knowledge. Read it out loud to make sure it sounds like your natural language.

  ADDING AN OPENING AND CLOSING

  Now that you’ve written the body of your speech, it’s time to think strategically about your opening and closing phrases. They could each comprise one sentence or one paragraph; it depends on the tools you use.

  Think about the last time you heard a speech or presentation. What were you doing while the speaker was walking onstage or preparing to present? You might have been checking your phone to make sure your spouse dropped off the kids at school or to see if your prospect had responded to that big proposal you sent.

  The opening of a speech grabs the audience’s attention and tells them to stop what they are doing and listen. The opening piques people’s curiosity, convinces them of your authority to speak, and starts to build a relationship with the audience.

  The First Eight Seconds

  I once interviewed a venture capitalist named David Wells, who was a partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, as I prepared to coach a group of entrepreneurs on their pitches. I asked David what he was looking for when listening to a pitch, since he listens to hundreds of pitches and makes decisions that affect millions of dollars. He said something I will never forget.

  David said, “Within the first eight words, I’ve decided whether or not to keep listening.”

  I paused, unsure I had heard right.

  “Eight words?” I repeated uneasily.

  “Eight words,” he responded firmly.

  “What are you looking for in those eight words?” I finally asked.

  He replied, “The core innovation. If it’s not in the first eight words, it’s probably not there. That’s when I either stop listening or interrupt the speaker to ask.”

  Does it sound unfair that someone would give you so little time before making a decision about your future? I agree with you; but let’s step back to look at David’s larger point. The first sentence of your presentation is critical, especially if you’re speaking to an audience that doesn’t know you and that is listening to dozens of other people just like you.

  A couple of years after that meeting with David, I was on a flight from Washington, DC, to Sarasota, Florida, and sat next to a professional comedian. Tim the Dairy Farmer speaks at agricultural conferences around the country. Fascinated by both his line of work and his specialization, I peppered him with questions about his technique, his strategy, and his experience. He said something that made me recall David’s point years before.

  Tim said that, when he walks onstage, he has to bond with the audience within the first eight seconds of his act. He sets the mood for the entire show in those first eight seconds. “If you walk onstage looking nervous, then the audience will feel nervous. If you smile, on the other hand, it invites your audience in.” In fact, his goal is to make the audience laugh every eight seconds throughout the entire show.

  While the average adult attention span is up to twenty minutes, continuous attention spans can last as short a time as eight seconds.4 Those eight words were starting to look less extreme and more logical.

  Let’s imagine that you’re a government contractor pitching to a federal agency. There are a half dozen other contractors bidding for the same project, presenting one after the other. Should you pay close attention to your first eight seconds so you can demonstrate how you are different? Let’s ask the client.

  A friend of mine works for a US government agency and has been listening to pitches for over fifteen years. He says, “We know that capabilities are often similar across service providers. What we’re looking for are indicators that we’re going to work well with this team: the intro, the follow-up, and their ability to connect with their customer. The relationship is important to us.” For him, the first eight seconds happens before the contractors even start talking. He looks at how they interact with his administrative assistant before they start. She’ll come in with an expression on her face based on how she was treated in the lobby.

  Don’t let this focus on eight seconds overwhelm you when you think about your opening. Instead, let it remind you of the importance of being purposeful in your opening. More than “So . . . yeah.”

  Ways to Open Your Speech

  Your opening depends on the audience and the goal of the speech.

  Greeting. Many people ask me: Is it okay to open your speech with “good morning” or “good afternoon”? Yes, there’s nothing wrong with a warm, confident greeting that tells your audience you are ready to begin. When I’m speaking to an audience in a foreign country, I like to greet them in their language as a sign of respect, making sure to pronounce the words correctly. Personally, I don’t like it when speakers say “Good morning! I can’t hear you. GOOD MORNING!” It makes me feel like they are chastising the audience, and it puts me on the defensive. I also don’t recommend starting with thank-yous. It doesn’t grab people’s attention, and it doesn’t support the main message of your speech. Leave the thank-yous for the end.

  Quotation. There’s an incredible energy that comes from walking onstage, pausing, looking directly at your audience, and using a powerful quote. Remember your audience and your goal when choosing a quote. If you’re speaking at an internal conference, you can quote someone well known within the company. If you’re speaking to a religious community, you can quote religious scripture. You can also use a surprising quote to startle your audience. I remember visiting a Toastmasters meeting where the speaker started with a series of illogical misstatements from an unnamed US presidential candidate on the campaign trail. The mostly Democratic audience smirked, assuming the misstatements had come from Republican president George W. Bush. Then the speaker revealed that those statement
s came from Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama. The audience’s surprise made them pay attention to what the speaker said next.

  Visualization. I’d like you to close your eyes for a minute and imagine that you are walking into the local branch of your bank. You know your banker by name and usually wait only a couple of minutes before you can speak to her. But this time is different. You walk into the bank, and there’s a long line of people impatiently waiting for their turn. You wait for twenty minutes and start to feel like you’re no longer a valued customer. One of my banking clients came up with that visualization when preparing to speak to colleagues about the importance of client satisfaction. It served as a powerful reminder to focus on the client experience instead of simply cutting costs. Visualizations help you transport the audience to a different place and time, enabling them to see what you see and feel what you feel. Our brains react to those visualizations as if we had experienced them ourselves, as we’ll see in Chapter 4 when we talk about storytelling.

  Statistics. Used in moderation, statistics can capture your audience’s attention and elaborate on the message of your speech. They can be used to create urgency: “Look around the room. One in three of you will be diagnosed with cancer during your lifetime.”5 Or to pull at people’s heartstrings: “Over half of the world’s refugees are children.”6 A few well-placed statistics can set the stage for your message.

  Story. Several years ago, I was struggling to write the intro for a workshop I would give in McAllen, Texas. I was born in the northeastern US, and this was my first trip to Texas. I was trying to think of a way for a Northerner to connect with a southern audience. So I did a little research on McAllen and realized that I had distant relatives there whom I had never met. So I started my speech with the following story:

  “My great-grandmother had eight brothers and sisters. In the early 1900s, each one left Poland and settled along the Americas: New York, Mexico, Cuba, Costa Rica, and Argentina. A few weeks ago, I told my father about my visit here, and he revealed that part of our family had actually moved to McAllen! I don’t know where they are, and I’ve never met them. So although this is my first trip to McAllen, it feels like coming home.” The audience relaxed, and I felt like I was able to connect with them immediately.

  And it didn’t end there. After the program, a man approached me. He whispered intently: “Are you Jewish? There aren’t many of us here in McAllen. What’s your family’s name?” I provided the name, and his face brightened immediately: “He’s my neighbor! Would you like his phone number?” Later that afternoon, I met one of my distant cousins for the first time. He told me the backstory of our family history, filling in details from the past hundred years. I was stunned and appreciative. Using a personal story has the immediate benefit of helping you connect with your audience. It can also lead to surprising connections.

  How Not to Open a Speech

  Performers live by the saying “The show must go on.” If you’re sick or didn’t get a chance to practice the day before, you can’t use that as an excuse. Many people will start with, “I just found out last night that I had to give this speech,” or, “Bear with me, I’m not feeling that well today.” We use these statements to lower people’s expectations, but what we’re really saying is, “I’m sorry, you are not going to hear a good speech today.” Most of the time, the audience doesn’t know when you feel sick or when you’re unprepared. Most of the time, they don’t know you’ve made a mistake until you tell them—either with your words (an apology) or your face (a grimace). In our workshops, people have ten minutes to write a speech that they will deliver on the spot. Half of the speeches are so good that no one would have ever known they had been written within the past hour. Pause and breathe before you speak, then get out there and speak. The show must go on.

  Ways to Close Your Speech

  The end of a speech is a powerful time to underscore your message and leave your audience with a compelling call to action. In my experience, people don’t spend enough time preparing that last part of their speech. They expect a stroke of brilliance to come in the moment, but they wind up rambling as their voice trails off, repeating the same thing while the audience wonders when the speech will end.

  The end of your speech is an opportunity to make your audience feel, think, or act in a certain way. Depending on what you want them to feel, think, or do, choose the speech closing accordingly.

  All the speech openers we discussed above can be used to close a speech.

  Do you want them to feel a sense of hope? Use an inspirational quote or a visualization, painting a picture of the world as it could be. Look for quotes that are unique, as opposed to something the audience will have heard many times before.

  Do you want them to feel more connected to you personally? Use a story that helps them relate to you and that also reinforces the message of your speech. If you used a story in the beginning, then reference that story again at the end, especially if there’s a twist that you can use to support your message. One of my students started her speech with a story about a time when she was a little girl. The speech then focused on her goal of eradicating poverty in her country. She ended the speech by referencing how that little girl would feel today.

  Do you want them to do something? Include a call to action that’s logical and easy for the audience to take. This is where the goal of your speech is critical. Do you want the audience to vote for you? Make the request at the end of your speech. Do you want them to invest in you? Make a clear ask for funds and say what you’ll use them for. Do you want them to understand an issue? Summarize the main points of the issue and talk about the implications for the future.

  When you near the end of the speech, speak slowly and clearly. You’ll be tempted to let your voice trail off at the end, but resist that urge. What you say will be powerful, and you want people to hear and feel it. Let your voice rise and fall for each sentence, and slow down in the last sentence so it can really sink in.

  Should You Say “Thank You”?

  Sometimes I like to thank audiences at the end of the speech. It’s a clear way of telling people that you are done, although your tone of voice should also reflect the end of the speech. If you didn’t thank the organizers in the beginning, right before your conclusion is a good place to do so; the thank yous should precede your conclusion. What you shouldn’t do is quietly mumble “thank you” and then run off the stage. If you’re going to thank the audience, pause, look at your audience, and say it with purpose.

  Once you’ve written the bulk of your speech, focus on your opening and closing statements. Use the above techniques to capture your audience’s attention, reinforce your main message, and provide a call to action. It’s hard to sit down and find inspiration for the opening and conclusion; you might need to get up, go for a walk, and see if inspiration hits. Give it time.

  HOW TO WRITE A SPEECH IN THIRTY MINUTES

  What do you do when you only have thirty minutes to prepare a speech? The Speechwriting Roadmap is a quick-and-easy formula I’ve developed for my clients. For a fillable PDF version, visit www.speakwithimpactbook.com.

  1.Focus: Find a quiet place and silence all your digital devices and notifications.

  2.Ask yourself the Three Questions: Who is your audience? What is your goal? Why you?

  3.Determine your main message: In one sentence, what is the main message of your speech?

  4.Brainstorm: Write out your main points. Don’t worry about the order, just brainstorm.

  5.Structure: From those main points, choose three that best reinforce your main message; this is your structure.

  6.Cut: Cut out all the extra information that doesn’t reinforce your main message.

  7.Write your opening and conclusion: Think about how you will open and close the speech to capture your audience’s attention.

  8.Create bullet points: In bullet points, create a final document with your opening, three main points, and closing. Think about how you will transitio
n from one point to the next.

  9.Read it out loud: Print out your bullet points, read your speech out loud, and make sure it sounds like your words, your voice.

  10.Practice, practice, practice: Practice the speech in front of a mirror, colleague, or video.

  You are ready to go!

  CHAPTER 4

  Empower Your Audience

  Critical Tools to Connect with Your Audience

  THE POWER OF PERSUASION

  Every speech is an opportunity to influence people’s behavior: the way they think, the way they feel, or the way they act. Sounds like manipulation, doesn’t it? Unfortunately, sometimes it is. For centuries, dictators and bigots have used speech to incite people to violence, turn them against one another, and foster hatred. And they still do, both online and in person. Public speaking is a tool, and it can be used for good or for evil. I present here tools of persuasion that you can use in your speeches, presentations, and conversations, and I ask you to use them responsibly. Recognize the power you have when you speak in front of a group, and use that power for good.

  The second of the Three Questions is, What is your goal? That goal usually involves some sort of influence. Even an informational presentation should persuade your audience that you are a credible source and that your information is accurate.

  Thousands of years after it was written, we continue to reference Aristotle’s Rhetoric and the three modes of persuasion he describes.1 He writes that speakers persuade an audience through a combination of three elements: ethos, logos, and pathos.

  Ethos

  Whenever you speak in front of an audience, your credibility and authority do a lot of the talking. If you are viewed as credible and knowledgeable, then your audience will be more inclined to listen to you. Perhaps it’s your title of CEO that led to the speaking invitation you received. But your ethos doesn’t just come from your title. It comes from your experience. Maybe you’re new to the company but you have twenty years of experience in the field: that experience is part of your ethos.