By Peter Jeff
The Leadership Mints Guy

Here’s an idea to awake and enlighten your audience at your next speech. Reading time: 4:13.

The next time you deliver a speech think of yourself as Prince or Princess Charming. And think of your audience as Sleeping Beauty (or your Sleeping Significant Other) locked in a 100-year deep sleep. Then you will be even more apt to AWAKEN your audience to your point of view.

After all, leading public speakers recognize they have to first gain and retain the attention of the audience with a verbal kiss that touches and stirs.

They work at developing their verbal kiss with a focus designed to incite an emotional response from the audience, a verbal kiss designed to flame the audience’s collective hearts to care as deeply as you do about your message. In fact, that verbal kiss is so important that without it, your message will fall on deaf ears.

No wonder the most effective leaders I know work at perfecting their verbal kissing technique well beyond a lip service that only goes through the motions with none of the emotion; beyond a lip service that fails at making “love” with only words that are heard but not felt.

How can you make “love” to your audience with more than words? How can you awaken your audience with a verbal kiss that stirs them into action with feeling ? Try using the 7Ws of Effective Speaking:

1. WAKE UP

TEASE your audience. Open your speech with a Testimonial, Example, Anecdote, Statement or Evidence.

Testimonial-— (Use an historical figure or a reference to an expert to add credibility to your point).
Example -(The more specific the better).
Anecdote - (Storytelling that adds impact to both the testimonial and the example techniques).
Statement —(A point of view that commands attention because of its catch—phrase directness).
Evidence —(Based on a third-party resource for added credibility.) See previous TEASE post by The Leadership Mints Guy on Sixminutes.com

2. WARM UP

Reach out and let the audience know you are just like them. Show them you care about them and they will care about you. Show them how your ideas will be meaningful to them because your thinking is in tune with their thinking.

3. WHAT’S UP

Tell the audience what this speech is about. Billboard the essence of your message in 10 words or less. Write a headline that embodies the theme of your message; sets the tone and foreshadows the conclusion. Use this headline to anchor your point of view tp specifically establish where you are coming from and where you are heading. Develop this headline as a guideline the audience can follow to better understand, assimilate and act on your message.

Facts Tell But Stories Sell

4. WHIP UP

Tell the audience how important this message is to them. Get the audience as excited as you are about how your speech is going to make a meaningful difference in their lives. Be sure to tune in to the needs of the audience and answer the question : What’s In It For Me (WII-FM). How will it make a difference in my life?

5. WELL UP

Use personal stories and humor to flesh out your message with an emotional appeal. Facts tell but stories sell. Sell your message by increasing its PH count — P for personal stories and H for humor. Use stories and humor to be sure your audience FEELS your speech more than just hears it.

6. WRAP UP

As you conclude, restate the headline (see What’s Up) and summarize the highlights of your speech.

7. WIND UP

Close your speech with a strong call to action. See 10 Ways to End Your Speech With a Bang. What do you want the audience to feel, think or do? Reference the title of your speech as you conclude. And BOOKEND your speech: refer back to something you said to open your speech. And resist the tendency to end your speech with a “Thank you.” Of the 217 speeches listed in William Safire’s anthology: Lend me your Ears: Great Speeches in History only seven conclude with “Thank you.”

Use those 7W’s of Effective Speaking the next time you have to deliver a speech. And wake up your company’s performance. With a kiss well beyond lip service.

Today’s ImproveMINT

Wake up your audience to keep your leadership thinking in mint condition.

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