Write that speech yourself! - page 3
Starting up.
You have the attention of a group of people. They’ve watched you stand up and at this moment they’re genuinely interested in what you’re going to say. So the last thing you want to do at this stage is give them a reason to switch off. Grab them now and the momentum will see you through the remaining twenty minutes or so. Hit them hard and fast.
But not with a joke. It’s a common mistake to try and start a speech with a joke, to show you’re one of the good guys, someone who doesn’t take things too seriously. There are two problems with this. Firstly, if the joke falls flat then just getting the audience back to how they felt before the joke is a major task. Secondly, if your audience wanted funny they could have hired a comedian. And do you really want them to think you’re not serious? How does that sit with what you want to say next?
That is not to say that humour should play no part in your speech. Just bear in mind that most people think they’re funnier than they really are and that they’re funnier than the next guy. That goes for your audience, too. Keep the humour relevant to the topic and gentle and sprinkled lightly throughout the speech. Don’t let jokes become pressure points where you need a laugh to get to the next point. Let the humour drift out and sound like it’s the natural by-product of your familiarity with your subject and your comfort at speaking in public. Wherever possible, make yourself the butt of any jokes, using the story to reveal a lesson learned or experience gained. I guarantee that if you can do that then you’ll get invitations to speak more often and you’ll actually look forward to delivering your next speech.
A good way to start is by asking a question of the audience. I don’t mean some banal ‘How are you all today?’ but some question that gets them thinking. (This is doubly important if the slot for your speech follows a bout of eating.) Unless this is a small audience the question is going to be rhetorical so you don’t need to worry about answers that veer off at a tangent from the typical response on which you have based your next lines.
So think of a question (or three), the answer to which leads you smoothly into the subject of your speech. (See sidebar for using this in presentations, too.) Then tell the audience what you’re going to talk to them about. If the speech has been advertised in advance you may have been asked to provide a title. As with much advertising, the title will have been snappy and full of zest and zing and full of promise but it probably didn’t give a lot away about what you were actually going to say. The title is a teaser: now it’s time to let them know what you really want to say. If that ties in with the question that’s still ringing in their heads then they’ll be happy to come along. You’re in, they’re hooked, and you can start to get the message across.
If a question doesn't seem appropriate (or you can't think of one!) then an alternative ploy is to intrigue your audience with a little-known fact or a new take on something they all take for granted. This works especially well in situations where you are speaking to an audience who are there to hear about a topic they know only vaguely. For instance, you've been asked to deliver a speech about direct mail to a convention of fulfilment managers. You could start by telling them that when it comes to sales letters, the longer the letter the higher the response rate, which is a fact that never fails to surprise those who fail to test their direct mail.
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