9 Tips For An Ultimate Speech

Tips that will totally change your presentation skills

This article contains:

• 4 basic elements of a speech
• 3 keys for an ultimate
• 1 golden advice
• bonus on how to handle stress
• my favorite talks of great speakers
• useful sources on presenting and body language

Please, let me share some of the crucial elements of a speech with you.

Quite off topic… but do you remember when you were a small kid and your parents would have visits from time to time?

Let’s call this ‘visit’ a GUEST and imagine the following situation, try to visualize it.

In some cases, you would shake hands with the guest but not look in their eyes because you were shy.

They would look at you pho sho and tell how cute you are.

Each of these visits, people, had different taste in fashion, different style of talking.

If you were smart enough, you could read the text on their T-shirt or whatever they had.

Why this story and why using a word GUEST?

Acronyms and scene; easy to remember, that’s why.

Gu — GestUres (shaking hand)

E — Eye contact (being shy, not looking into the eyes)

S — Style, the way you talk (style of clothing, behavior)

T — Text, the content of the speech (letters on visitor’s T-shirt)

Now, I will talk about each element more in depth.

1. Gestures

It is very important what you do with hands while talking.

Not moving your hands at all is the worst thing that you can do.

In addition, bumping your fists into each other or making annoying movements with fingers should be reduced to a minimum.

On the other hand, symbolic pointing, opening palms, or drawing words with your hands in the air is beneficial.

In my opinion, gesticulation is one of the most important keys to an ultimate speech.

Hint:

If you are nervous hold a pen in your hand. A little bit (I’m stressing a little bit) of playing while talking will relieve the stress.

2. Eye contact

Again, ultra important!

Look at the whole audience, each part of the audience needs the same attention.

A huge (YuuUUGe) no no is turning back to your listeners.

You may wonder “Sometimes I really need to turn back”.

That’s true but what you can do is to face people and then turn just 90 degrees to left or right.

What if you have to talk to somebody for the audience but people are behind you?

Solution: Well, in this case it’s okay to turn your back, but also turn to the other part of the audience few times. Show them, that you care about them!

Myth

To look at the end of the room or to look at people’s foreheads when you are nervous is a pure myth. You should be able to make eye contact with most of the people.

To tackle nervousness, check the bonus at the end of this article.

3. Style

Style of your speech, the way how the words come out of the mouth. Quite self-explanatory.

YOU CAN SHOUT!!!!

You can give STRESS some SPECIFIC words.

You can build ………………. a moment ………….by being silent for few seconds.

You can S-P-E-L-L it out.

Just play with the tone of your voice, be creative.

Advice

Never be monotonous. It is so boring. You lose people’s attention and they fall asleep.

4. Text

The content of your speech, your message.

Consider your audience in advance: young/old, one nationality/ internationals, beginners/ professionals, etc.

Prepare your speech, let it sink in your head for few days and work on in again.

Rewrite even 3 times.

It might occur that you will prepare something and then write something completely different.

Ask your friends, family, mentor or teacher for a feedback.

Furthermore, writing a speech is individual.

Some people like to write down the speech word by word, some people like to make notes/bullet points, some people work on their speech in the head.

On top of that, there are people who can talk without any preparation and I admire that skill #respect.

A must

An ultimate speech should be prepared in advance.

AAAAAAAAlright!

Basic part is behind us. Remember GUEST, it should help you to prepare for every speech.

Now, I will introduce you into 4 tremendous speech essentials.

I will use a memory tool again so try to visualize following scene.

Imagine that your host is a passionate golf player.

When you greet him, he pulls out 3 golf TEES from his pocket and gives you one.

Then he tells you a boring story about his recent experience from golf tournament.

He says that he played three days in a row and it was really exhausting.

The third day he did not have enough energy at the 17th hole, he collapsed and had to end.

When he came back home he was so frustrated that he cried for the whole day.

T — Three the rule of 3 (three golf tees)

E — Energy (he did not have enough energy)

E — Emotions (and then cried for the whole day)

S — Story (his ‘awesome’ golf story)

Let’s elaborate more on these 4 essentials.

5. The rule of three, no. 3, #3, III.

Number 3 is magical. Don’t you know why?

LET.

ME.

EXPLAIN!

Using words, phrases, sentences in groups of 3 sounds more energetic, effective, and engaging.

Veni, Vidi, Vici!

Coach before a match:

Today, we will show them who worked hard!

Today, we will do our best!

Today, we will win!

Got it? Easy peasy, lemon squeezy!

6. Energy

My fave! Energy is closely related to emotions.

Small intro: Each brain operates at a wide range of frequencies. When you, as a speaker, step on the podium, a brain of each listener is at a different frequency. Your goal should be to tune and create only one frequency in the room.

By doing this, you will get attention and generate feelings. Something remarkable, something memorable.

How?

If you ever have been to a concert, especially rap one, you must have experienced hyping of the audience.

“When I say Hey! you say Ho!”

“Hey!”

“Ho!”

“Hey!”

“Ho!”

A simple example of you to get attention and force people to do the same thing.

Tuning the same frequency and Wuala! We are ready to listen to you.

You can also try repeating 3 times:

“Is everybody in the house?”

“Yes!”

Each time hype the audience to say ‘yes’ louder and louder.

To give you one more example, once I have started my workshop about speech with the very well-known humming from the movie The Wolf of Wall Street.

It makes people hype, it makes people going!

They will want to listen to you.

There are no boundaries for creativity; shouting, clapping, or anything.

The goal is to make an atmosphere.

7. Emotions

Charge your speech with emotions!

For example:

- say an emotional story

- be passionate

- show excitement

Why?

The brain does not pay attention to boring things.

When the brain detects an emotionally charged event, the amygdala (part of a brain) releases dopamine into the system.

Dopamine greatly aids memory and information processing.

It’s like a mental post-it note that tells your brain ‘yo,remember this bro’.

8. Story

When I was smaller, I would go into mountains with my father. There was a magnificent lake where we would fish for days.

Once while sitting in the boat, he says:

“Rony, when you will be in the university and will write an article about speech, use a story. It is easy to remember, more natural, people love stories.”

Did you get how I used the story to describe how to use a story in a speech? :D

To think about

you can use any story as a part of your speech or story as your whole speech. It does not matter which one you choose, both work perfectly.

Golden advice

Practice, practice, practice,

&

rehearse, rehearse, rehearse.

This is my last and MOST IMPORTANT advice that I can give you.

Repeat your speech as many times as you can.

Both in your mind and out loud. Do not be afraid to ask anybody for feedback or record yourself on video.

Personally, I hate watching myself presenting but it is an effective way how to see what your strengths and weaknesses are.

Furthermore, you will be an awesome speaker only by practicing.

Do one small presentation in class.

Next, bigger presentation for more people.

Next, speech at TEDx.

Next, speech in front of your country.

Okay, that escalated quickly, but you get my point.

Look at the presentations of speakers who are outstanding, who are better than you. Analyse their movements, words, tones and ask them for an advice.

BONUS — How To Handle Stress

Honestly, stress is my biggest enemy.

Here is a tip on how to kill stress.

Before your talk, do the winner pose.

Exercise the winner pose, like one Bernie in the picture.

For 2 minutes.

Why?

Winner pose is defined as high-power pose which changes the hormones in your body.

High-power pose increases testosterone, a hormone which controls dominance and confidence.

On top of that, it decreases cortisol, a hormone which is responsible for stress. You can find more about this topic below in sources.

2 minutes

That is all you need get the feeling of a winner and nail your speech.

Last note

Whether you will use these tips or not, being great in giving a speech is all about practice.

Lots of speeches and hours of rehearsal

EQUALS

Outstanding and memorable performance

Good luck! If you have any questions or need advice, just hit me up :)

You can find awesome (and my fave) talks below.

2014 World Championship of Public Speaking 1st Place winner

Dananjaya Hettiarachchi killed his presentation…I love him. His speech is so simple, yet so enjoyable. You just want to listen to him.

Btw there is also a breakdown of his speech by Business Insider.

How to sound smart in your TEDx Talk | Will Stephen | TEDxNewYork

Will Stephen is pure genius, his TED talk is about nothing.

However, by using his tone and presentation skills, this 6 minute video is pure gold. Currently, there are almost 4.5 million views. Enjoy.

Useful source, if you want to get even more information

Slides about Steve Jobs and his presentations.

TED talk about body language — Amy Cuddy: Your body language shapes who you are