Designing Your Speaking Materials

Once you get people laughing, they’re listening and you can tell them almost anything.
~ Herbert Gardner ~

 

Choosing A Topic:

“The secret to picking a topic is to choose something specific enough that you can become known for it, and yet broad enough that everybody needs it”.
Mr. Cavett Robert founder of the National Speakers Association

that most teachers tell you not to do. They talk fast, or talk slow, they have funny gestures or weird styles. The bottom line is learn and understand the many skills so you can employ them as necessary but be yourself. Learn to speak and write from the heart and develop the unique abilities you posses.

From the movie “Saving Forester” when Sean Conery said to the black writer “write the first copy with your heart, and write the second copy with your head”. Of almost all the great speakers I have watched, read about and studied all comment on the importance of being sincere, of being passionate and honest. These characteristics come from your heart. Be yourself, write as you would talk, let it come straight from your strongest feelings so that it captures your deepest convictions and thought. Then you can go back over your speech and fine tune it so that it flows logically, makes your points and will make sense in your audiences mind.

Peggy Noonan closed her book Simply Speaking with some helpful writing tips;

1st. be not afraid.

2nd. think logically about the case you are making and make it.

3rd. your stlye shouldn’t be taller than you are.

4th. the most moving thing in a speech is always the logic.

5th. use humor when you can

6th. give your speech before you give it.

7th. use your own gestures, respect your own quirks.

In the book Success Secrets of the Motivational Superstars Jeffreys records some advice Roger Dawson got from the founder of the National Speakers Association. Mr. Cavett Robert said “The secret to picking a topic is to choose something specific enough that you can become known for it, and yet broad enough that everybody needs it”. This advice parallels the business thinking that says “what makes you different from everybody else in your business”. The first part of this advice (something specific enough that you can become known for it) is something that sets you apart from everybody else giving you a niche you can fulfill and develop your marketing strategy around. The second part (broad enough that everybody needs it) allows you to attract the masses.