My previous article focused on Relevance.
But while being relevant will help you convince your audience to listen for a while, it’s not enough on its own to hook them. So once you’ve decided what your key message will be, you need to wrap it up in an original way.
Do not worry. This does not mean that you should wear a strange costume, Morris dance or sing. But whatever event you are speaking at, you need to convince your audience that they are going to learn something new from you. And the best way to do that is to communicate a little differently.
There is obviously a catch here. If I give you an original idea, it will immediately cease to be original. But I can give three examples of people who have managed to present relevant ideas in ways that have really made an impact on interested audiences.
Like the energy consultant who flew into a meeting in Cape Town last April and linked the various elements of a new technology that his firm had released to the preparations for the Royal Wedding. This allowed less technical members of the audience to enjoy the speech and understand their role. He was congratulated the next day for being the most impressive speaker at the conference that year.
Then there is the example of the accountant who was given fifteen minutes to talk about the difference between tax evasion and evasion. Obviously, this is a technical problem with important consequences. Avoidance leaves more money in your personal account. Evasion earns you a stage behind bars. And then he started by telling a story about life in the Ford Open prison. His audience was captivated. And their interest grew when she explained that that was exactly what they might be facing if they didn’t hear some of the finer details that would come next.
Finally, there was a father of the bride at a wedding. His speech was relevant enough, but it lacked a bit of a bite. Until he mentioned that his daughter had spent the first twenty years of her life obsessed with the musical Grease. As a result, he wove the key stories and characters of his life using song titles and lyrics sung by John Travolta and Olivia Newton John. The following week, he and his wife began receiving letters of appreciation for the wedding. And the vast majority referred to his speech as the best they had ever heard.
Obviously these examples are pretty random. Unfortunately, there is no formula for originality. It disappears the moment you try to adhere to a template. And that’s why every speech we write in Great Speech Writing begins on a blank sheet of paper.
But if you can combine a relevant approach with an original way of getting your message across, then you are well on your way.