Your message should be amazing, not a maze!

A road without a clear direction is misleading. And the same happens with your speech.

If you don't have a clear structure of where you want to go with your message, both, you and the audience, will be lost.

Lee Iacocca, the former CEO of General Motors, once said,

“You can have brilliant ideas

but if you don’t get your message across

your ideas will take you nowhere.”

FIRST THINGS FIRST

What is the purpose of your presentation, in the first place?

Before even get started crafting your speech, you need to define what you want to achieve with such speech; what do you want the audience feel, and why.

Here are some questions you should ask yourself before even considering writing a sentence of your speech:

• What type of speech, or performance, it will be? Is it a forty-five-minute "crash workshop"? Or, a thirty-minute keynote? Or, a fifteen minute TED talk? Or, a pitch to investors? Or, a sales report to your department? What is it?
• Who is your audience? What are their interests and concerns? Are they at the senior or junior level? What would be their expectations? How many will they be, twenty or one hundred?
• What do you want the audience to think, and feel during your presentation? What are the benefits they will get from your performance? Will you be educating, motivating, informing, selling a product, raising awareness, or a combination of them?
• What is your call to action? What do you want your audience to do after your presentation?

Now that you are clear about where you want to take your audience, you have to define how you will pave the path to get there. And here is when the structure of your speech is built.

BE BOLD, BE SURPRISING, BE AUTHENTIC

Be creative!

How many times we see professionals starting their presentation saying, "Hi, I'm Ana, I'm a project manager of XYZ, and my presentation is about...." ARRRGHHH!

I mentioned this before, and I repeat: "don't use the precious time of your speech to give an introduction of yourself!"

In most cases - if you are presenting in a professional and well-organized event - your BIO will be at the event's website or printed, or both. Therefore, the participants have the opportunity to know about you beforehand. And, even if they didn't look at your profile before, starting your presentation by spelling out your C.V. instead of catching their attention will, in most cases, make them disconnect from you. 

Let me tell you a secret: "the audience doesn't really care about you. Any audience. Believe me! What they do care, and the reason they come to your presentation is to have an experience with you. They come to get something from you. How you will do it, how well you will be able to engage with them is what really matters."

As the old adage says, "you don't have a second opportunity to make a first good impression", make sure your opening is interesting, surprising, and bold enough to catch their attention.

TAKE YOUR AUDIENCE IN AN AMAZING JOURNEY, NOT INTO A MAZE

After getting the audience's attention with your awesome opening, you will take them on a journey with you. As in every journey, you must be clear about where you want to go with your story, because if you don't, both you and the audience will be lost, and your message will reach nowhere.

Here are some ideas on how you can organize your presentation. You can use the following frameworks

• Numerical - for example, "The 3 steps to write an outstanding presentation." It allows you to break down your ideas/content into easy-to-understand chunks
• Problem/solution - used quite often for sales presentation, and when you want to persuade your audience to follow your ideas. You show, and dramatize, the problem and provide a compelling solution
• Chronological - use time - past and future - but also, a logical and consistent sequence of events
• Modular - for example, I offer a "2-Day Speak Up Masterclass", then, the next module after the masterclass is a "Speak Up & Lead 6-Month Mentorship Program", and then a "Speak Up & Scale Up Training the Trainer Program"; therefore, when talking about how to master communication skills, how to become an influential public speaker and the benefits of working with me, I make sure my audience understands that there is a process (modules) to follow to achieve optimum results
• Compare and contrast - it works well when you are bringing two major subjects or thematic points where you will be showing their differences
• The three-act structure - created by the Greek philosopher, Aristotle, the three-act structure is a model used in narrative fiction that divides a story into three parts (acts), often called the Setup (act one), the Confrontation/Tension (act two) and the Resolution (act three) 

HAVE CONCLUSIVE CONCLUSION 

It is one of the most important parts of your presentation! It might even be more important than your opening, depending on the purpose of your speech. For instance, if you want to end your presentation with a CTA (call to action) you need to make sure that it is clear to the audience what you expect them to do. 

To make sure your conclusion is conclusive if anything feels like it was left unsaid, it needs to be said before the applause.

Avoid closing your presentation with a Q&A. If there is no extra time for Q&A, make sure you shorten your presentation, to allow time for it as a new segment, not as the end of your presentation.

In other words, finish your presentation first, then open a new segment for Q&As.

My dear friend Cecile Bastien Remy will be one of our judges at the Stand Up & Speak Up Challenge in Zurich next June 20th, and she will be in charge of checking "speech structure". Take a look at her video below to learn what she has to say about it.

To your success!

 Stand Up, Speak Up & Shine! 

Tulia Lopes

Helping women to find, own and unleash their authentic voice became Tulia Lopes mission. Her signature event, the AWE Summit, has been "giving voice to women" in Zurich, Barcelona and Porto since 2014. Her Speak Up & Lead Academy has a systematic four level development approach which allows women to develop a confident presence, craft effective presentations and become influencial leaders and world class public speakers. Her latest creation, the Stand Up & Speak Up Challenge is bringing on stage speakers from all over the globe to compete and raise the bar for qualified speakers. She is the author of Leading in High Heels. 

Tulia is Europe's Leading Communication, Public Speaking and Leadership Expert with over a decade of experience. She believes communication is key for success in any field.

To find more about Tulia, visit, www.tulialopes.com

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