When agreeing to do a presentation or preparing to deliver a speech always be clear on why you are delivering it and what you want to achieve.
I always teach that there are two key questions that you must ask yourself and be clear about before you undertake a speech. If you are not clear on either of these questions then you may not have the impact and leave the message that you planned.
Question one. What is my one big unequivocal message? There is no doubt about it, everyone will get this message. Be clear on this as this is your core message. Think, if I bumped into an audience member in the street 3 months after I have spoken and they come up to me and say I loved your speech, I loved …………….. What would that be?
Question two. Why should they care? What is in it for them, what problem do you solve for them. If you speak passionately about something that you think is important and it is not what the audience is interested in or they don’t care, then you will not have the impact that you wanted. And in fact you may just be entertaining them, which is fine, but the new way of thinking, the behaviour change the information you wanted to impart, may be lost.
When you answer these two questions you will have clarity around your core message and your core purpose for presenting and the audience will be open and probably ready for what you have to say.
