The Best Way to Structure Your Presentation: The Fripp Speech Model

How often have you sat in an audience and been mesmerized by a speaker? Was it their compelling content? Were their stories scintillating? Were they able to reach out and grab you in such a way that you thought, “Wow, the speaker is talking JUST to me”?

Be honest. How many life-changing, career-building, or truly unforgettable presentations have you heard? Have you ever been that speaker? At this point, you realize what that ability means to you and your career.

To review: Your content or material is everything that makes up what you say in your presentation. Your structure is the order and framework of the presentation.

Success, One Frippicism at a Time: “Good structure gives you the confidence to be creative.”

Your delivery is how you communicate your message, personality, and authority.

These are the elements of your presentations we use for the Fripp Speech Model

• Strong Opening: How you launch into your presentation and engage the audience.
• Premise: The subject or result you are persuading the audience to embrace.
• Points of Wisdom: Your key talking points that reinforce your premise.
• Transitions: How you seamlessly transition from one idea to the next.
• Review: Remind your audience about your points of wisdom, subpoints, and the characters introduced through your stories.
• Q & A: Answer your audience’s questions.
• Call-to-action: Challenge your audience to act on what they have learned.
• Strong Closing: Final story, thought, or quote that leaves your audience wanting more.

For more formal presentations you have an introduction. This is what is said about your background and why you were selected to speak. In some circumstances, especially in Canada and England, an outro. This may be a review of your key ideas and the meaning they have for the emcee.

For professional speakers, the emcee may invite you back for more applause or to discuss your book which will be made available. They may thank you and then tell the audience when they will meet and greet you.

The best, easiest, fastest, cost-effective, Presentation Skills online training is FrippVT.

If you look at the diagram of the Fripp Speech Model, you will see the circle at the top and the circle at the bottom.

These represent the first 30 seconds to 3 minutes strong opening and the last 30 minutes to 3 seconds strong conclusion. It’s important to begin and immediately connect with the audience and close on a high point. You may not necessarily write the opening of the presentation first, but you do need to be aware of how important it is. The purpose of your presentation opening is to arouse interest in the subject.

We compare the importance of the opening of your presentation to the opening scene of a movie which gives us the flavor of the movie. Comedy, drama, romance, thriller, or horror, we want your audience to elbow each other and say, “Wow, this is going to be good.” Or “What an interesting approach.” Or at least, “This is better than I expected!”

As you are putting together your remarks, ask yourself, “What do I know about this audience?” “What is the purpose of this presentation?” “Based on the title or event, what is this audience expecting?” “Are they interested in my subject, or do I have to persuade them of the importance?” “Why am I the best person to address the subject?” “How does my presentation fit into the overall meeting or event?”

You need to be aware of who they are. Are there different segments of the audience? If so, you need to make sure they know that you know they are there.

After your opening, introduce your premise, the importance of the subject, or the result of acting on your advice. As you now know, that is your premise and clarity.

A premise is defined as a basis of argument leading to a conclusion.

After your opening, you have plenty of options to transition into your premise, central theme, or subject. Use whatever phrase makes most sense to you.

You could say “Welcome Under the Magnifying Glass: Good to Great Presentations.”

Or “My premise is that every ambitious professional can deliver Great Presentations.” Or

“Thank you for the opportunity to help you drive more sales.”

Or tie in your message to the conference or meeting theme. “Your Connection to the Future (the meeting theme) is with Super Star Sales Presentations.” (Your subject)

Once you have decided what content is going to be included in your speech and you have focused on your premise, you are ready to organize your content into a strong structure. Stay tuned.

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