Ted Sorensen is one the the greatest speech writers of all time. He was even the mastermind behind JFK’s moon speech. The secret to his success? Just…
4 words and 5 lines
4 words…
Brevity ⏱️
Less is more.Levity 🪽
Keep it light - even the heaviest topics need humour.Clarity 💡
Make your subject accessible to everyone in the room.Charity 💝
Every talk should have a greater purpose.
To challenge a status quo, create change, start a movement.
I wonder, which one of these do you find the most challenging to implement?
5 lines:
An outline
The journey you’re going to take your audience on.
A Headline
A political speech writer’s goal is to create tomorrow’s headline. Your goal is to ensure your audience leaves with the message you want them to.
Challenge: Can you distil your presentation down to one single sentence?A Front Line:
The Hook: How are you going to get the audience’s attention?
❌ ‘Before I start, let me give you a little background on me.’
✅ Set the tone with a statement (or question) that piques curiosity.
We meet in an hour of change and challenge,
in a decade of hope and fear,
in an age of both knowledge and ignorance.
A Sideline
Think quotes, unexpected anecdotes and analogies. How can you make your subject fun?A Bottom Line
The call to action. The one big takeaway. The feeling you want to leave your audience with.
❌ ‘Does anyone have any questions?’
✅ Capture your audience’s imagination.
A big thank you to IBM’s communication designer Jeremy Connell-Waite for this inspiration for this week’s article. (Highly recommend giving him a follow!)
Inside MicDrop, we don’t help our members communicate like politicians, but we do help them communicate like thought leaders.
Why?
So that when they are invited to speak:
At conferences (like TEDx, Slush and WebSummit) 🔴
At internal company events (where they are getting paid) 💰
And on podcasts (to build their personal brand) 🎧
They’re ready.
If you’re ready to take your public speaking skills from good to great, our October intake is filling up... Click here to find out more.
Alex
