ractive exercises with your audience, question and answers, or maybe even a song or two. This is where we look at our speech as a melody. You will strategically place each element depending on when you need to change the energy of the piece. For example, you might want to use your joke after a particularly serious segment of content. You may want to have a question and answer session when they have had to sit and listen for a while and Welcome to the era of the all-you-can-eat speaker buffet where clients have unlimited choices and the bar has been raised to the point where audiences no longer expect a speech, they expect a performance. Where do you stand in the buffet line? Are you serving up potted meat when they ordered prime rib? It’s time to see your speech as more than a speech. It’s time to see it as a performance – a piece of art that touches all the emotions – a melody as unique as its creator.

Without emotion or energy, stories, humor, or the addition of the human element, a speech would resemble a flat line – dead – just like the audience will feel after sitting there for five minutes. But we have the ability as speakers to take that flat line and give it peaks and valleys – to take the audience on a journey – a journey that surprises and delights them at every turn. And it’s not as hard as you might think. It’s all about changing the energy.

You must first understand the attention span of today’s audience. It’s short. And getting shorter. Your speech must change at regular intervals and there are several ways that you can do that - mainly in your delivery, content, and props.

But first let’s back up and review the backbone of a speech. Most speeches do four things: identify the problem, present yourself and your information as a solution to the problem, qualify who you are and why they should listen to you, and tell them what they need to do. This is the part of the speech that is written first. This is what your speech is about and the basis on which everything else is formed around.

In addition to the basics, you will want to add other elements to your speech such as jokes, anecdotes, stories, power point presentations, interactive exercises with your audience, question and answers, or maybe even a song or two. This is where we look at our speech as a melody. You will strategically place each element depending on when you need to change the energy of the piece. For example, you might want to use your joke after a particularly serious segment of content. You may want to have a question and answer session when they have had to sit and listen for a while and

– a melody as unique as its creator.

Without emotion or energy, stories, humor, or the addition of the human element, a speech would resemble a flat line – dead – just like the audience will feel after sitting there for five minutes. But we have the ability as speakers to take that flat line and give it peaks and valleys – to take the audience on a journey – a journey that surprises and delights them at every turn. And it’s not as hard as you might think. It’s all about changing the energy.

You must first understand the attention span of today’s audience. It’s short. And getting shorter. Your speech must change at regular intervals and there are several ways that you can do that - mainly in your delivery, content, and props.

But first let’s back up and review the backbone of a speech. Most speeches do four things: identify the problem, present yourself and your information as a solution to the problem, qualify who you are and why they should listen to you, and tell them what they need to do. This is the part of the speech that is written first. This is what your speech is about and the basis on which everything else is formed around.

In addition to the basics, you will want to add other elements to your speech such as jokes, anecdotes, stories, power point presentations, interactive exercises with your audience, question and answers, or maybe even a song or two. This is where we look at our speech as a melody. You will strategically place each element depending on when you need to change the energy of the piece. For example, you might want to use your joke after a particularly serious segment of content. You may want to have a question and answer session when they have had to sit and listen for a while and

hard as you might think. It’s all about changing the energy.

You must first understand the attention span of today’s audience. It’s short. And getting shorter. Your speech must change at regular intervals and there are several ways that you can do that - mainly in your delivery, content, and props.

But first let’s back up and review the backbone of a speech. Most speeches do four things: identify the problem, present yourself and your information as a solution to the problem, qualify who you are and why they should listen to you, and tell them what they need to do. This is the part of the speech that is written first. This is what your speech is about and the basis on which everything else is formed around.

In addition to the basics, you will want to add other elements to your speech such as jokes, anecdotes, stories, power point presentations, interactive exercises with your audience, question and answers, or maybe even a song or two. This is where we look at our speech as a melody. You will strategically place each element depending on when you need to change the energy of the piece. For example, you might want to use your joke after a particularly serious segment of content. You may want to have a question and answer session when they have had to sit and listen for a while and

lf and your information as a solution to the problem, qualify who you are and why they should listen to you, and tell them what they need to do. This is the part of the speech that is written first. This is what your speech is about and the basis on which everything else is formed around.

In addition to the basics, you will want to add other elements to your speech such as jokes, anecdotes, stories, power point presentations, interactive exercises with your audience, question and answers, or maybe even a song or two. This is where we look at our speech as a melody. You will strategically place each element depending on when you need to change the energy of the piece. For example, you might want to use your joke after a particularly serious segment of content. You may want to have a question and answer session when they have had to sit and listen for a while and

ractive exercises with your audience, question and answers, or maybe even a song or two. This is where we look at our speech as a melody. You will strategically place each element depending on when you need to change the energy of the piece. For example, you might want to use your joke after a particularly serious segment of content. You may want to have a question and answer session when they have had to sit and listen for a while and are starting to fidget. You may want to work your way up in degrees of humor to a hilarious apex or take them on a more moderate up-and-down journey. There is no strict rule. This is your masterpiece and it will change over time or as your audience changes. You will learn to ride the swells and dips of your piece based on where you want to take your audience.

Where you place your material will not only depend on the energy of the piece, but what emotion you want to evoke from your audience. For example, here are some of the things that you may want your speech to accomplish and when it should happen.

 Who am I and why I am here – beginning of your speech
 Examples of your humanity – beginning of speech
 Show your lighter side – anywhere
 Funny Music – to open or end
 Chart or diagram – tucked in between two elements of high energy
 Explain your vision – beginning to middle
 Encourage them to take action – end
 A game to play with the audience – after heavy content
 Present a problem – beginning to middle
 A story that represents a point – before the point is made. Remember when using stories that stories come first and points come second because stories don’t reiterate your fact; the fact reiterates your story.

Sometimes it helps to map out your speech on paper and to plot where the elements of your speech should be by drawing a line that travels up and down like hills and valleys. The peaks, or highest points of your speech, will be those moments of fast pace, high energy, laughter, passion, louder tone, and jokes. The middle points of your speech map would be those moments in your normal