15 TIPS to WOW Any Pattern your speech after this. I will not promise you the world, but I promise you re closer to being a person who s worth listening to. Audience Speech Format Guide Statements With Your Introduction A shocking, gut-wrenching, opening that will truly catch their attention. Sample phrases: Speech Here are some easy hacks too: HERE is why you are fucking over your life (or anything as shocking) with a Bonus Worksheet! by Karla Singson There was a day I made very angry. Promise a really good story. And follow through. My biggest love/ life/ business/ friendship mistake was You are implicitly telling them how much they will learn from your speech. Have you ever wondered why / Have you ever thought of/ Have you ever dreamed Show compassion and empathize with your audience. There are 3 Ways to Tell / There are 3 Warning Signs.. Keep them at the edge of their seats. karlasingson.com
15 TIPS to WOW Any Audience With Your Speech It has been a few years since my TEDx talk, and I still keep reading, learning, practicing, and observing other speakers. I am still a huge fan of the TED concept, and how I ve known a lot of the people I follow from watching TED videos online. In the TED format, in under 18 minutes, every speaker gets to captivate an audience, capture their interest, educate them, entertain them, and leave a mark on them. So I ve decided to study TED s best practices, plus add some of the things I learned from being a university educator, a workshop facilitator, debate varsity coach, and hanging out with my friends who are highly skilled lawyers, toastmasters, teachers, and coaches. Here s a neat 15-prong guide to WOW any audience with your speech. 1 2 3 4 2 Keep your pre-speech introduction concise but impressive, otherwise you ll only look like a has-been who has a self esteem problem. Only mention the highlights of your career based on the topic for the day. Nobody cares that you were President of the Book Lovers Club in High School or your kindergarten pageant experience if you re already 40. Give the host a one-pager with a maximum of 300 words. Stop dilly dallying, talk about your topic or tell a story RIGHT AWAY, don t say Today, I will talk about. DUDE WE GET IT WE READ THE POSTER. Know your speech by heart. Never read, never fumble, never rely on your slides. In public speaking, people come to see you not only to learn from you, but also to experience your confidence, certainty, and conviction. They want that shit. You are allowed to tell YOUR stories and YOUR experiences, but avoid lengthening that first part of the speech where you are introducing yourself. I saw one speaker do 38 slides to introduce himself and everyone was already squirming in their seats. Establish who you are and what they can learn from you in less than 2 minutes. karlasingson.com 1
15 TIPS to WOW Any Audience With Your Speech It has been a few years since my TEDx talk, and I still keep reading, learning, practicing, and observing other speakers. I am still a huge fan of the TED concept, and how I ve known a lot of the people I follow from watching TED videos online. In the TED format, in under 18 minutes, every speaker gets to captivate an audience, capture their interest, educate them, entertain them, and leave a mark on them. So I ve decided to study TED s best practices, plus add some of the things I learned from being a university educator, a workshop facilitator, debate varsity coach, and hanging out with my friends who are highly skilled lawyers, toastmasters, teachers, and coaches. Here s a neat 15-prong guide to WOW any audience with your speech. 1 2 3 4 2 Keep your pre-speech introduction concise but impressive, otherwise you ll only look like a has-been who has a self esteem problem. Only mention the highlights of your career based on the topic for the day. Nobody cares that you were President of the Book Lovers Club in High School or your kindergarten pageant experience if you re already 40. Give the host a one-pager with a maximum of 300 words. Stop dilly dallying, talk about your topic or tell a story RIGHT AWAY, don t say Today, I will talk about. DUDE WE GET IT WE READ THE POSTER. Know your speech by heart. Never read, never fumble, never rely on your slides. In public speaking, people come to see you not only to learn from you, but also to experience your confidence, certainty, and conviction. They want that shit. You are allowed to tell YOUR stories and YOUR experiences, but avoid lengthening that first part of the speech where you are introducing yourself. I saw one speaker do 38 slides to introduce himself and everyone was already squirming in their seats. Establish who you are and what they can learn from you in less than 2 minutes. karlasingson.com 1
15 TIPS to WOW Any Audience With Your Speech 5 Read your audience well. The goal is to get and keep their attention, keep them nodding, smiling, laughing, or taking down notes. If they re not doing any of these or they re on their phones, you re fucked. 6 Tell stories rather than lectures. Stories make us feel alive, and that s why we re absolutely attentive when hearing gossip about the most popular girl in class, rather than listening to the teacher in class. 7 REFUSE to hide behind a podium. Have impeccable stage presence. If you can, request a lapel instead of a handheld mic, and if you have slides, request a (or bring your own) clicker. 8 Start strong. My go-to ways are telling a surprising statistic, an action- or drama-packed story, or a funny anecdote. Guide phrases at the worksheet below! 9 End even stronger. End with a memorable, value-packed quote, which concludes all the learning your audience will have made by the end of your speech. Don t say so that s it, that s all I have, or and that s the end of my speech. You ll only look like a pussy. 10 Care about your audience enough to give it your all. Be passionate and let it show. Remember, at the farthest corner of the room is a person that you can help today. I swear, this tip easily blows other public speaking tips out of the water. 11 Keep your slides minimal in words. Photos work best, but not too many. I only use a maximum of 15 slides when I give speeches, and it s ALL photos. And some quotes. Remember the visual aid is an AID. YOU ARE THE AVP. 12 Practice controlling your eye contact, voice tone (DON T BE MONOTO- NOUS!), and hand gestures (minimal, away from your face, not too distracting. If you are too nervous to do real eye contact, just look at someone s eyebrows. karlasingson.com 2
15 TIPS to WOW Any Audience With Your Speech 13 Constant correct practice makes perfect. I ve realized that the best way to go about this is to write down your speech, break it down in bullet points, practice saying it out loud, shooting a video, evaluate and improve. Rinse and repeat. 14 When preparing for your speech, always ask yourself: what things do my audience give a fuck about? Craft your speech around it + boost it with things your audience will NEED to know. There is a huge difference of what they need vs. what they want, and you have to do your best to give both to them anyway. 15 Always be ready to throw a speech away. Trust your gut and don t mind the deadline. You don t have to keep a speech just because you ve taken weeks to prepare for it, but it feels wrong or you get a better idea 12 hours before you have to give your speech. You can also ask the advice of a friend that you can trust. Now that you re pretty much set for your next speech, I m thrilled to hear about your improvements. Learning public speaking is a skill that will be very useful for any relentless entrepreneur who s eager to improve the impact they make not just to the market, but to the society. I ve pretty much saved you 10 years of trial-and-error JESUS I EMBAR- RASSED MYSELF DOZENS OF TIMES ALREADY and let me tell you, nothing excites me more than seeing other people get the shortcuts to amazing learning. To better speeches, karlasingson.com 3
Pattern your speech after this. I will not promise you the world, but I promise you re closer to being a person who s worth listening to. Speech Format Guide Statements Introduction A shocking, gut-wrenching, opening that will truly catch their attention. Sample phrases: Here are some easy hacks too: HERE is why you are fucking over your life (or anything as shocking) There was a day I made very angry. Promise a really good story. And follow through. My biggest love/ life/ business/ friendship mistake was You are implicitly telling them how much they will learn from your speech. Have you ever wondered why / Have you ever thought of/ Have you ever dreamed Show compassion and empathize with your audience. There are 3 Ways to Tell / There are 3 Warning Signs.. Keep them at the edge of their seats. karlasingson.com 4
Speech Format Teasing Lead in Guide Statements Give them a teaser about what you re going to talk about. Answer one or two of these questions: Why is it important for them to know these? How do you think they will feel when hearing your intro? Acknowledge it. Which wrong problems are they having? (Ex: Most of you might think the problem is X, but it s actually not, because.) Story # 1 Flesh out the learnings Tell them a story. How you discovered these learnings, how you had an AHA! moment What kind of person you were before you learned these things Connect to the audience, divulge your hardship story, and emerge as protagonist. + re-justify why they needed to know this RIGHT NOW NOW, it s time to actually share the heart of your talk. What is the main objective of your talk? What solutions are you offering? Keep your slides few and memorable. Remember, your visual aid is just an aid, YOU are the AVP. karlasingson.com 5
Speech Format Tease them to the ideal situation Guide Statements After you re done teaching them the lesson, you can now make them imagine the ideal situation. Now that they know these things, what will their life be like? Story #2 Give them a *success story* about how knowing these things changed someone s life for the better. Make it vivid, exciting, and something that matters to the profile of the audience. Recap Remind them what the lessons were. Bonus tip: insert inside jokes that are relatable to the stories you told. End Stronger Summarize the learning in less than 100 words. Your last line should be very memorable. Speak slowly, build up the thrill. It doesn t matter if your talk is 30 minutes long or 3 hours long. The only part which will lengthen is the part where you re actually fleshing out the lesson and teaching them something. If it s a full-on workshop, I also suggest exercises and icebreakers. It keeps the audience awake, and helps them remember the experience as a fun experience, rather than a boring, school-like activity. karlasingson.com 6
Practice with this format in mind and you ll see how easy it is to deliver a speech! Don t forget to do constant correct practice so you ll go faster. I m 100% sure if you just put in the work, you ll be at least 200% better with this new set of learning at hand. If you need 1:1 mentorship, let me know. To speeches for success, karlasingson.com 7