Public Speaking Technique - Turn Your Stories into an Effective Speech

The strongest public speaking technique is to turn your personal stories into effective showpieces you can use professionally.

Make a list of all the stories, incidents and obstacles that you can recall from your time in your industry and in your personal life. We're now going to turn them into a talk.

You will find the whole speech falls into place much easier when you have a title for your presentation and you know it's theme.

There are many possible structures for a talk. Here is one  of the simplest and also one of the best.

• Dynamite opening which gets into the theme of the talk
• Make a point
• A story to illustrate the point
• Make a point
• A story to illustrate the point
• Make a point
• A story to illustrate the point.
• Wrap up and powerful close.

Now you can't get much simpler than that and the structure should give you a 25 - 30 minute talk. I'll also show you how to expand the same structure into a 45 - 50 minute talk.

The backbone of your talk is the stories you tell. That is what sells you to the audience. That is what they will remember. The greatest teachers use stories. Jesus taught with stories. Stories touch people emotionally. People love stories. Get the point? Use stories!

And the stories you use should be from your own personal experience. That's why I asked you to write down all the stories, problems and funny incidents from your business. (You can of course use stories from any aspect of your life - but I'm assuming this particular talk will be to do with business).

And when you use events from your own experience, they are unique to you. Your audience will not have heard them elsewhere. And because it is your unique story it will ring with authenticity.

Your story can be anything from a simple incident to something  more involved. At the beginning it shouldn't be more than five minutes. It will grow as you tell it, but at the start keep it short.

And it's not enough just to tell a story. At its conclusion you must give your audience the lesson you learned from the story. Then you must show them how they can apply the lesson to their lives.

For example one professional speaker has a trademark story of turning up at a hotel for a speaking engagement only to discover he hasn't packed his cufflinks. He then describes a mad rush as he takes a taxicab to different menswear shops looking in vain
for cufflinks. By the fourth shop he's in a major panic and the  assistant calms him down. Hearing the problem, the assistant suggests why doesn't he just buy another shirt that doesn't need cufflinks? Problem solved.

Now the lesson:

He then makes the point about rushing  to solve a problem without  properly analyzing it and looking for alternative solutions.  Then he talks to the audience about applying the point to their own lives.

Note as well he is not the hero of the story. The shop assistant is. Don't be the hero of all your stories. It adds to your humanity.

An important point here is that really this story has been embellished from what might otherwise be perceived as a minor incident. Yet it packs a powerful message. Any incident can be turned into a good story.

You can expand the talk by using extra stories to illustrate your points. Top speaker Zig Ziglar frequently uses three stories to make a point. One story will be from his own personal experience, one from an article he read in a newspaper or magazine and the third is usually based on a joke and is used specifically to get a laugh.

Turning your personal story into a powerful message is one of the most powerful public speaking techniques you can use.

Putting Your Speech Together