Craigstrachan.com – Keep talking!

In the last newsletter, we gave a brief summary of how to SPEAK your way to an effective presentation. The five steps are:

• Subject
• Preparation
• Energy
• Attitude
• Know your Audience

Over the next five posts, we will discuss each of these topics in more detail. So, let?s get busy with the subject.

Subject

In general when speaking at a function, you have either been asked to speak on a particular subject, or you can choose the subject yourself. In either case, the same question applies: What do I want to leave the audience with?

The point is that your speech should have a purpose, and you need to clearly define for yourself what that purpose is before you begin crafting your presentation. Most subjects cover a huge volume of information, so it is almost impossible to cover everything in a single presentation. You must decide what to include in your speech, and what to leave out (this can be the difficult part ? don?t try to cram everything in)!

So for example if you are speaking about compound interest, your purpose might not be for the audience to have a detailed understanding of how compound interest works. It may simply be for them to understand how powerful it can be. Alternatively, if you are speaking to a knowledgeable audience, you may wish for them to have that detailed understanding.

As Stephen Covey says in the 7 Habits of Highly effective people ? (when preparing a presentation) begin with the end in mind. So, what do you want to leave your audience with?

In the next post, we will discuss the preparation of your speech.

Craig

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