The Goal

Greatest Goal II
Originally uploaded by scottwills

The Goal

Before we deliver or even begin crafting our speech there is that one thing to consider that could make all the difference. What is the goal of the speech? Is it to inform, persuade or simply narrate a story? Make your goal as specific as possible. Before giving any speech, presentation or workshop I write out the goal, call it statement of purpose if you will in a single sentence. For e.g I want to inform the audience about the latest features of product XXX or I want to motivate my audience to take action XXX
It is only after I have set a clear goal do I research data and structure my speech. Needless to say without a clear goal, a speech may end up as a rambling account of loose facts leaving the audience confused.

Crash diet Ah Ums Ehs- Tara

Recently I heard a speech that distracted me totally .It was not a bad speech, in fact the contents were good, and the speaker promising but his speech was littered with unnecessary fillers like ahs, ums and ehs.
Speakers use Ah-Ums-Ehs to fill those small pockets of silence after sentences, transitions or when they are simply thinking of what to say next. They feel the need to fill these gaps with meaningless sound making the speech bulky and clumsy.
Remember that the audience needs more time to process what the speaker has said than the speakers mind needs to create it.
These little pockets of silences should be used to connect with the audience breathing calmly, thinking of what to say next while maintaining eye contact. Subdue those Ah-Um-Ehs into power pauses where the relieved audience member also has the chance to process what you have said.
It is said that speech is silver, silence is golden tweak it to speech is silver, power pauses are golden! Take a crash diet in eliminating these fillers. Your delivery will be lean, to the point and powerful.