Episode #67: How To Come Up With Speech Content

Their request arrives. “Would you please give a presentation to our group?”. You check on what they would like you to talk about. Usually, the answer is a bit vague. The content will not be so finely or specifically designated. It may cover a broad subject area or they may mention what people usually speak about or they might just throw it back to you completely. Okay…. So how do we come up with a speech title and description?

We need both to be decided rather early because they want to promote the event and get the message out about the coming talk. That is a pain for a procrastinator like myself. I now have to think! The problem is that you need a snappy title that will attract an audience. People in marketing and advertising get paid a lot of money to come up with these brilliant little gems but we are doing it ourselves. It can’t be too long, has to reflect the content of what we will speak about and it has to have a hook that will grab attention. Copywriting is a finite skill and we are usually rank amateurs. We need a title and supporting text that is going to get people motivated to turn up.

We need a theme though first and so how do we choose that? While we were discussing the request to speak, we should take the opportunity to enquire about their target audience. Are they hard-core professionals in this area, dilettantes, aspirants, fans or rent-a-crowd? What is the age and gender demographic? Once we know who we are going to be talking to, we can start to consider the subject we will choose.

Now we may have many and varied interests, but our subject guide should be what will be of the greatest interest to the largest number of punters in the audience. Obviously it has to cover an area which we can actually speak on, but our personal devotion shouldn’t be choice. That talk content will be fascinating for us and perhaps lost on the audience members. Having honed the choices down to one, we now consider what is the punch line of the talk.

This punch line is also known as the close of the talk. Ironically we don’t start with the title, flag the key things to be covered and then start to build the slide deck. We start with the finish and work our way backwards toward the title. As we roughly form up the content we start to get ideas about a possible title. The title can be straightforward and descriptive, like this piece or it can use other hooks. If we think about how the content will be found by search engine algorithms, it is best not to use something too illusive and arty. Speaking gigs are advertised somewhere and they do get added to your personal search results, so we should maximize that chance we are given.

The title can also be fascinating, such that people will want to hear all about it. Sounds good but this is not that easy to do and as mentioned, copywriters are trained to get the words right. We are amateurs in that regard. We can spend some time tossing around various title possibilities until we find one we like. The point is to toss around a number of them rather going for the first one to pop into our brain. Think of the title from a potential audience member’s point of view. What would grab their attention and hold their interest.

The supporting description is usually only a few paragraphs long so we have to again be working hard wordsmithing the content. This is not where we spell out the content we will cover, like an agenda in a book. This part needs to be crammed to gunwales with value from the audience viewpoint. We need to be telling them what they will get out of this talk, how it will help them. We don’t have so many words to do this in, so we have to hit the high notes hard.

There will also be a short bio about us to explain why we have the authority, capacity and expertise to talk on this subject. It is not a job CV. It again should be a powerful couple of sentences that reeks of “expert”.

Once we have done all of this we can start working on the detail of the talk and getting the slides together. If we take our time to plan this way, we will give a much better talk, have a far greater impact with the audience and be regarded as a quality expert in our field.

Engaged employees are self-motivated. The self-motivated are inspired. Inspired staff grow your business but are you inspiring them? We teach leaders and organisations how to inspire their people. Want to know how we do that? Contact me at greg.story@dalecarnegie.com

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About The Author

Dr. Greg Story: President, Dale Carnegie Training Japan

In the course of his career Dr. Greg Story has moved from the academic world, to consulting, investments, trade representation, international diplomacy, retail banking and people development. Growing up in Brisbane, Australia he never imagined he would have a Ph.D. in Japanese decision-making and become a 30 year veteran of Japan.

A committed lifelong learner, through his published articles in the American, British and European Chamber journals, his videos and podcasts “THE Leadership Japan Series”, "THE Sales Japan series", THE Presentations Japan Series", he is a thought leader in the four critical areas for business people: leadership, communication, sales and presentations. Dr. Story is a popular keynote speaker, executive coach and trainer.

Since 1971, he has been a disciple of traditional Shitoryu Karate and is currently a 6th Dan. Bunbu Ryodo (文武両道-both pen & sword) is his mantra and he applies martial art philosophies and strategies to business.