One of the most effective ways of improving your public speaking and presenting is doing research and analyzing other great speakers. There are numerous types of keynote speeches and various aspects that determine whether the speech impacts every person or falls flat and becomes irrelevant. The experts at Shapiro Negotiations have delivered many speeches – most of which have had a lasting impact on the audience – and understand what components make a great speech.
Shapiro’s General Outline of Great Speeches
All speeches are different, and there are many ways to craft and deliver an effective speech. However, as one of Shapiro Negotiations’ leaders, Jeff Cochran, describes at SAMA in 2017, there is a formula that often leads to a great speech.
The first step is building credibility, so your audience likes and trusts you. If you come off as impersonal or apathetic, they are less likely to feel connected to your message.
The second objective is to engage emotions. The bottom line of all human interactions, including business exchanges, is emotion. People often make decisions and judgments based on emotion. If you can use emotion in your speech, your audience is likely to feel connected to and empathetic about your message.
Third, you need to demonstrate logic. In business, logic is the second aspect people use most when making decisions. Follow up your emotional argument with logic to convince the room.
Finally, you must facilitate action. Make people feel motivated to act on your message. You want to end your speech having given them the desire to act.
Steve Jobs: Stanford Commencement Address 2005
Steve Jobs’ commencement address at Stanford in 2005 is renowned as one of the best speeches in recent years. He begins his speech with a joke, which gets the audience laughing and feeling comfortable with him. Jobs continued to tell three anecdotes from his life; these served as the emotional aspect. The first was about his experience as a young boy and teenager; the second addressed his young adult life and struggles with Apple; and the third talked about his experience with pancreatic cancer and the role of death.
Amongst all these stories, Jobs layered moments of humor and seriousness together. He came off as vulnerable, making an extremely accomplished, successful man seem human and relatable to the audience.
Jobs finished his speech by summarizing the lessons he learned from his experiences and, thus, what the audience should take away. He encouraged the listeners to act, finishing the speech with the mantra, “stay hungry, stay foolish.”
Mel Robbins: TEDx San Francisco 2011
Mel Robbins is a criminal lawyer, career and relationship expert, and speaker. She gave a speech in 2011 called “How to Stop Screwing Yourself Over.” She began with some jokes, even engaging the audience by asking them how they were doing.
One of her clear strengths is her passion. She speaks with endless enthusiasm and confidence, immediately establishing herself as a trustworthy source. Her speaking style is assertive but casual, making her more personable. She talks candidly to her audience about relatable issues and situations. By bringing up circumstances many relate to, she engages listeners and increases the relevance of her point.
During the first half of her speech, she left the stage, physically putting herself on the same level as her audience. She even picked out a member of the audience and personally addressed him. Throughout her speech she showed pictures of her children in casual situations – which many parents in the audience can relate to.
Throughout her speech, she continuously reinforced the idea that you must force yourself to do things. She suggested something for the audience to try as a first step into forcing themselves to be productive and succeed.
Mel Robbins is an effective speaker for many reasons, but the two main ones are her enthusiasm and relatability. She does not focus on using academic, professional language; she instead appeals personally to the audience members. As a result, she comes off as a strong, confident, credible, and trustworthy person.
At Shapiro Negotiations, we understand the traits that make speakers like Steve Jobs and Mel Robbins effective. We help people learn how to appeal to many different audiences and drive home ideas in their speeches.
