The second P is purpose, be very clear on what you want a speech to achieve. And this works on two levels. The first is what do you want to achieve that serves you? And secondly, what do you want it to achieve that serves the audience? And it's perfectly fine to be looking at both of these things. So first of all, what do you want to achieve that serves you?
What I mean by this is you'll very often be wanting to promote a service or product when you're speaking. People don't love it to feel very salesy. And so a very easy way to see to the sale and that means dropping in almost subconsciously, the idea of something is to just mention what you do. You're not going into a great description about it, but you just throw it away. So when I'm speaking, I will often say when I'm coaching individuals on their speaking, if I want people to know that I coach or I'll say The other day I was hosting a gala dinner, because I want them to know that I'm an MC. So I just wrap it up into a story.
But there it is, it's been said, I don't have to bang on about it. I know it's very effective, because people come up to me afterwards. And whatever it is, I said in the talk is the very thing that they then booked me for. So I have to actually be quite careful with that power, because I get more of whatever I say. The second level today is what is the purpose here for the audience. And this is going to be crucial to how you end up writing your content.
What do you want them to do as a result of this particular speech? It's amazing, I think when I talk to clients, and I find that they don't know what the purpose of the speech is. So be aware that the purpose of a speech is not just to give people a lot of information, they can get that from the internet. Try to come up with a better purpose than that, and particularly think about whether you could put in a call to action At the end. Now, once you know what your purpose is, here's the gem you already write the talk backwards from there. Hardly anyone does this, but it is a really great speech writing tool.
Think about your purpose, and then write your talk. Everything should flow from that. And I want you to be a total slave to that intention. That way, you'll have a really engaging talk