This is part II of the guest post from my good friend Douglas Kruger (part I is here). Douglas is a professional speaker, trainer and 5-time winner of the South African Championships for Public Speaking. Not only does he excel at speaking, but he has an amazing voice that keeps you engaged. Hope you’ll pick up great tips from his sharing.
2. Extend your Metaphor into a Theme
A theme is an idea that you continually reiterate throughout your presentation.
Take the conclusion from my metaphor above: ‘Dump the bricks and carry gold.’ The more often you say that phrase, in various incarnations and backed up by various story-examples, the more you will drive your point home.
There is something very polished and professional about repeating a theme throughout a presentation. It adds cohesiveness.
3. Leave them with Memorable Sound Bites
Sound bites are short, poignant segments of your speech that are easily remembered and repeated. They are generally the small portion played or quoted by the media, as representative of what you were saying.
Your goal in using sound bites is to achieve what US speaker Brian Walter describes as ‘going verbally viral.’ You want your phrases quoted, used as tweets, inscribed upon memories, and in a best case scenario, emblazoned as article headlines.
When George Bush senior said, ‘Read my lips: no new taxes,’ he created a memorable sound bite. So did Franklin D. Roosevelt when he declared, ‘The only thing we have to fear – is fear itself.” Some are created quite by accident, as in Bill Clinton’s, “I did not have sexual relations with that woman.”
Sound bites are so powerful that they may enter into the public consciousness. Hollywood tries to capitalize on the self-perpetuating power of sound bites by creating them for their characters. Phrases like, “I’ll be back,” and “Show me the money!” spring to mind.
For your presentations, the repeated theme from your metaphor will work as a sound bite. But you’re by no means limited to just that. You can have any number of sound bites in your speech; a clever turn of phrase here, a memorable line there.
You can create sound bites by:
- Being dramatic: “I have nothing to offer but blood, sweat, toil and tears.”
- Twisting a common phrase: The cooking show that said, “this is a country with no time to stop and stir.’
- Using alliteration: as in the phrase ‘verbally viral,’ or ‘the wheelbarrow way.’
- Being novel: ‘Now go crush the Cinderella in your financial thinking!’
- Using musical phraseology: “Never and never and never again…!”
So, if we put it all together, a memorable presentation that creates lasting impact might start like this:
– Tell them how things used to be
Introduce the idea that previous generations held certain beliefs about work and wealth. Make it come alive by using specific story examples that include humour and emotion. Introduce the wheelbarrow metaphor.
– Tell them what things they should be paying attention to now and why:
Explain, using specific story-examples, how this thinking no longer works. Explain why we need to ‘dump the bricks and carry gold.’ Give practical examples of what that means and how to do it.
– Tell them what it means to them; pitfalls and opportunities:
Provide strong views on dangers and opportunities for modern thinking about wealth. Reiterate the phrase: ‘Dump the bricks and carry gold,’ so that it develops into a theme.
…and so on
Memorable presentations are immensely self-actualising. You get to use creative techniques to express your strongest opinions to an audience that will thank you for not playing it safe. You get to benefit their lives by telling them what you think they should do. Speak strong.
Douglas Kruger is a professional speaker, trainer and 5-time winner of the South African Championships for Public Speaking. He specializes in motivational speeches at conferences, and presentation skills training for executives.
Learn more on Public Speaking from Douglas in his book, available at amazon.com: 50 Ways to Become a Better Speaker
Check out his website to view more motivational speeches and skills-development articles: http://douglaskruger.co.za
Douglas is very active on Twitter. Follow him for tips and interesting ideas: @Douglaskruger
