What did you expect when you wrote your speech?

You wrote your speech, prepared it, presented it. Was it successful? Did you get some response?
 
What did you expect?
 
If it was not successful, if it did not get response, then possibly it did not meet your expectations. What were your expectations? Did you have expectations?
 
Expectations are vitally important in creating a presentation.  And they need to start before the speech, be a part of the planning stage, not just a part of the finale. If you do not know exactly what you want, or if you don’t plan your speech/presentation around what you expect, then you are playing Russian roulette with your speech – shooting it off without knowing if it will work or not – without preparing for it to succeed in the way that you want it to.
 
Every successful speaker knows, before they even start writing their speech, what it is that they want to achieve with that speech.
 
When we build a house, even though the part of the process that seems more important is creating the rooms, first a foundation has to be laid. Eventually it will be out of sight, but without it, the house is lost. So it is with a speech. Before we start putting together the words and phrases, there are things to be done.
 
First ….If the words and phrases, the body language and the visuals are to have impact, that impact has to be defined. What is it that you want to achieve? What is it that you would see as success for this speech?
 
The public speaking literature lists “impacts” as things like
 
· To inform or educate
· To persuade or motivate
· To thank
· To inspire
· To entertain
· To provoke thought
 
And you can think in those terms. Or maybe you have your own personal view of the impact you want to make – to impress the boss, to gain funding for a new project, to sell a product – the list of possibilities is endless.
 
Whatever that impact is, it is vitally important to keep it in the forefront of your thoughts, and make it the basis of all the processes involved in creating your presentation.
 
Visualisation works. It does. Visualise what you want at the end of the speech. How do you want to feel? What do you see the audience doing? Are they flocking to buy your product? Are they cheering? Are they coming to you with quiet admiration? Are they asking questions? Are they signing up for your course or ezine? Are they hiring you for the job? Are they heading for the polling booths to vote for your candidate, or vowing to be more attentive to environmental issues in future?
 
When you have a picture of this outcome, when you know in detail what it is that you want to achieve in this presentation, then you can go ahead and put together the words, gestures and facial expressions that will make up the speech. But not before. Impact is not an accident. It is something that is planned. For experienced speakers it may be an instinctive process, but it happens nevertheless. If you want success for your speech or presentation, plan for it and let that plan permeate everything you put into the presentation, and you have the foundation for success.

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© Bronwyn Ritchie If you want to include this article in your publication, please do, but please include the following information with it:
Bronwyn Ritchie is a professional librarian, writer, award-winning speaker and trainer. She is a certified corporate trainer and speech contest judge with POWERtalk, a certified World Class Speaking coach, and has had 30 years experience speaking to audiences and training in public speaking. Get her 30 speaking tips FREE and boost your public speaking mastery over 30 weeks. Join now or go to http://www.30speakingtips.com