By Peter Jeff
The Leadership Mints Guy

Here’s an idea to end your speeches with something more engaging than “Thank you.” Reading time: 3:54

Last words linger. Movie buffs know that. I still cringe when I think of Anthony Hopkins’ cannibal character’s chilling last line in The Silence of the Lambs:

“I do wish we could chat longer
but I’m having an old friend for dinner. Bye.”

And I always smile when I recall then 76-year-old Henry Fonda’s last line to Katharine Hepburn in the movie On Golden Pond:

“Wanna dance or
would you rather suck face?

Yes, last words linger. That’s why I always grit my teeth a bit when public speakers let their last words just drop on the floor, brushed aside and tossed in the proverbial “Thank you” trash pile.

How can you can resist-the point of least resistance: ending your speech with a too familiar and therefore too ordinary “Thank you? “

Try these four steps: 1. Think of yourself as a drummer when you are concluding your speech. 2. Build to a crescendo. 3. End on a high note 4. Use short sentences in your concluding paragraph.

Here’s an example of the crescendo finish: Let’s say you were concluding a speech to persuade your audience to take some action and you want to use an oft quoted poem Life is an Adventure by that famous author — Mr. or Mrs. Anonymous. Notice how the short sentence structure increases the pacing and energy. “And so what we have been saying is that life is:

An adventure, Dare it. A duty, Perform it. An opportunity, Take it.
A journey, Complete it. A promise, Fulfill it. A puzzle, Solve it.
A goal, Achieve it.” Continue reading “Public Speaking: Making Your Last Words Last” →