The 12 Things Every Public Speaker Must Know and Understand

For many organizers, the selection of the speaker or the call for speakers, is so crucial that they have a committee setup and dedicated to picking just the right speaker or speakers. This is one reason why a speaker must be able to elicit the reason or reasons for his or her selection.

After this lecture, students will be able to write out steps that a speaker must take to know why they have been chosen in order to meet the client's expectations for the speech delivery.

You speak at an event, and they decide never to invite you again; why?

Many speakers fail themselves and fail event organizers and fail the speaking profession because they never find out why they were chosen for events - so they deliver poor speeches.

Many events are organized to help solve problems, increase motivation or drive-up revenue - hence, those reasons determine the choice of the speaker - when a speaker fails to meet those expectations, the speech is a failure.

After events, the faces of some organizers paint one word, "disappointment"; in most cases, this happens because the speech fell well below expectations. Don't disappoint your organizers - every speech is you advertising your speaking business - don't drive money and connections away from you because you failed to find out why you were selected to speak. After the lecture, students will be able to list actions they can take to know why they were chosen for a speech.

Events are projects and so are speeches. At the end of this lecture, students will know how to manage speech delivery like project managers mange projects.

True Story: A few years ago, an event organizer told me that he watched on of my videos online where I spoke about governance, and he found himself regretting again why he had invited a professor to his last event to speak about the same subject. I explained to him that effective public speaking is not about the academic qualifications of the speaker but about the calling to speak and an understanding of the purpose of the event. He lamented that the professor merely gave an academic lecture on governance rather than a speech on the subject - participants and organizers were dissatisfied. This is one reason why the topic of this lecture is so important and why this course is necessary for people from different demographics and backgrounds.

Events are organized to achieve specific purposes and speakers are selected to be the chief agents to bring about the actualization of those purposes.

Understanding the purpose of the event in addition to knowing why you were chosen as speaker is liberating as you give your speech on the platform.

Your speech has a chief purpose, and the purpose was chosen before you were selected to speak; failing to realize that, brings speaking failure.

After this lecture, students will be able to follow specific steps to understand the purpose of an event in order to prepare an effective delivery.

Speaking is leadership. At the end of this lecture, students will be able to explain why speaking is about leadership.

Whenever you see a speaker delivering a boring speech, you should know that they fell into that pit because they failed to fall in love with the topic of the speech - watch one or two videos of public speaking icon, Les Brown on YouTube and see what it means to fall in love with the topic of your speech.

A topic loved, is a topic well prepared which powers a speech eloquently delivered.

Love is probably the strongest emotion known to humans - speakers need it to thrive.

Speaking is about love - it is about falling in love with what you have to speak about. At the end of this lecture, students will be able to identify steps to take to help them fall in love with the topic of their speech for effective delivery.

Some organizations or event organizers might request for a banner or poster or brand cover, send something like this. Design you own as a course activity.

Being effective in sales is about love. At the end of the lesson, students will define falling in love with the speech in relation to being a salesperson.

Audience members take their seats for your speech - some are happy with their lives, some are extremely sad about lives, some are confused and some need direction - these are personal distractions - you must purchase audience attention - if you don't, you fail. 

Speaking is about the audience - a distracted audience would perceive a great speech as a poor speech - you must learn how to purchase the attention of your audiences.

Your secret weapon – quote a well-liked speaker - this always purchases audience attention.

In many cases, the audience is not under any obligation to be attentive to the speaker. Attention is a scarce commodity and thus, the speaker must purchase it at the beginning. After this lecture, students will be able to list steps they can take to purchase the attention of any audience.

Money. At the end, students will know that speaking can be about helping businesses make more money.

If don't demonstrate belief in your own words, no one will believe you,

Speakers believe that their words can make people change and move in different and better directions.

Believe in the power of your own words to produce great change is irreplaceable. At the end, students will appreciate their own words in perspectives.

Speakers believe people’s capacity to change by words

Words. At the end of this, students will be able to define the power of their words.

Speakers manage crises by speaking. At the end of this, students will know their role in helping clients manage crisis by their speeches.

It is folly to expect zero distractions or interferences - thus, effective public speakers often have arrest weapons in place to immediately arrest them when they appear.

At the end, students will be able list specific actions they can take to arrest distractions and interferences.

Focus on speech goals and stakeholders’ expectations.

Proper preparations arrests distractions in advance.

To ignore distractions and interferences, sadly sells you out as an incompetent speaker - take these enemies of your speech and use them as your allies. At the end of this module, students will be able to demonstrate specific actions that they can take to handle distractions and interferences

These are pragmatic solutions. At the end, learners will outline steps to arrest specific distractions.

Leadership leads by speeches. At the end, students will know why speaking is leadership.

A poor start is like shooting oneself in the foot - unless you have become an expert speaker, you may never recover from a poor start. A good start is so important. At the end of this module, students will be able to list different starts and use them appropriately when needed.

When audiences remember the event, they should remember your speech.

Be an unpredictable starter.

Some event clients will ask that you submit a Professional Speaker Resume. Use this sample and further research and prepare your own as a course activity.

Every speech is a mini project. At the end, students will know how to treat their speeches as projects.

There are speakers because there are audiences. Speaking is about the audience; learners will be able to list up to 5 ways to impact an audience.

Make the audience join you in your delivery - Know why the speaking profession exists.

Celebrate the audience. At the end of this lecture, students will be able to know how to prioritize their audience especially the most important part of audiences - the event organizers.

Open audaciously to prioritize your audience.

Many speakers fail because they make speaking about themselves. At the end of this lesson, students will be able to list steps to prioritize the audience.

Politicians have to speak very regularly whether they like it or not. At the end of this speech, students will be able to explain why is soc crucial to make their speeches about their audiences.

At the end of this module, the students will be able to define different kinds of speeches and decide what kind of speech will be their favorite going forward.

Use repetition, rhythm & apt gesticulations based on the type of delivery demanded.

Know when to entertain, inform, educate, motivate or when to give a strictly business speech. At the end of this lecture, students will be able to identify their preferred speech type.

Uncover the purpose of the chosen topic. Great speech deliveries advertise you to be booked over and over again.

The key to successful deliveries, is to understand the type of speech that suits your event needs. At the end of this lecture, students will be able to differentiate speeches and how to choose one type or a combination of types for their speeches.

Variety spices up deliveries. At the end of this lecture, students will be able to define how they will bring in variety to their speech deliveries.

BIO. Some organizers request a bio. Use this sample to prepare yours as a course activity.