4 more public speaking techniques to wow your audience

What is the goal of professional speaking?

The goals of professional speaking are to entertain, inform, inspire, and to get the audience to take action.

The truth is, in order for your presentation or speech to have its greatest effect you need to be able to entertain and wow your audience.

I'm going to give you eight ways that I use in my speeches to keep my audience on the edge of their seats until the end of my talk, here are four more:

3) Tell the audience how good they are.

Throughout the talk I will loop back and say:

"Because you're in the top ten percent, you know this…"

"People in the top ten percent like yourself do this…"

"People who aspire to be in the top ten percent set goals or manage their time this way."

So, I'm always linking back and telling them that they are in the top ten percent and that's how good they are. Now that's one way to make it entertaining and enjoyable, because people will all smile and feel happy.

They're thinking: "Boy, this guy's really smart. I didn't even realize I was in the top ten percent until he told me."

4) Link back to your opening during your speech.

Starting with a strong opening line or a really good story that you can link and hook your whole talk back into, is very, very powerful. And I've done this year after year.

5) Relate to the audience's self-interests.

What motivates people to be really interested in your talk, aside from the subject, which many of them may have to be there for?

Many people have told me that they were forced to come to my seminar. They didn't want to come, because they didn't think they would learn anything.

So they weren't there because I was such a wonderful person. They were there because they had to be. The question you have to ask is, what are the motivations that you need to appeal to so that they will really listen?

Truthfully, I've found is that one of the great motivations is self-interest. That's why I ask how many people would like to double their income. They all raise their hands spontaneously.

Then I say:

"Well, in the time we spend together, I'm going to give you several ways that you can double your income. These are ways that have been tested and proven by people all over the world. They've done these things over and over, and I've used them myself to go from rags to non-rags. I'll give you those same ideas. Would that be a good use of our time together today?"

And they all say "yes." I have their total interest.

If you're speaking about golf for example, you ask if they would like to reduce their score by five strokes, every single game, consistently, and I'll then say something like this:

"Well I'm going to show you how to do that using psychological and physical techniques."

6) Entertain your audience with stories.

The key to entertaining an audience is stories. Stories are the most important part of a good presentation.

You can tell very short stories, and they can be your stories or someone else's stories. If it's your personal story, that's even better. But, if it's someone else's story, that is just fine.

Start by saying, "I heard a story just the other day." And then you tell the story. Or, "Let me tell you a story," or "This is something I heard recently that really moved me."

Whenever you start to tell a story, the whole audience pays 100 percent attention.

When you're giving facts and figures and details and strategies, methods and techniques, they will pay a certain amount of attention. But when you tell a story, they will listen intently.

And if you can design your talk around three stories, you'll be amazed at the response. More on that below…

Below is a video from my good friend Phil Town of Rule #1 Investing. He does a great job of explaining investing, a complicated subject, using simple terms and a great story.

Listen closely to how he tells his "mink coat" story.

Design your talk around three stories:

When you think about your talk, remember that "less is more." This should be the basic structure of your talk:

Your opening.
Your three key points.
Your close.

You have a strong opening, first key point, and then a story.
Transition, second key point, and a story.
Transition, third key point, and a story.
Summarize, and then a close.

The stories link it all together. And you can tell stories that are inspiring, or emotional; that make people feel very strongly. You can tell stories that are motivational that have to do with greater success and achievement as the result of persisting.

Come back for the last set of great public speaking tips!

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4 more public speaking techniques to wow your audience

3) Tell the audience how good they are.

4) Link back to your opening during your speech.

5) Relate to the audience's self-interests.

6) Entertain your audience with stories.

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4 more public speaking techniques to wow your audience

3) Tell the audience how good they are.

4) Link back to your opening during your speech.

5) Relate to the audience's self-interests.

6) Entertain your audience with stories.

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Resource Center

Trending Stories