Speeches That Will Leave Them Speechless: An ABC Guide to Magnifying Your Speaking Success

FOUR A’S TO ANCHOR YOUR POINTS

"WHAT’S LOOSE IS LOST

AND WHAT’S TIGHT

STAYS IN SIGHT."

–CRAIG VALENTINE,

1999 WORLD CHAMPION OF PUBLIC SPEAKING

When was the last time you heard a speech that needed to be tighter? As a result, the message was quickly lost and forgotten. Was it your speech? It’s likely that we’ve all been there and done that, right?

PROMISE: By tying your point(s) to one or more anchors, depending on the time allotted for your talk, your speech will be tighter, your message will be more memorable, and you will be in greater demand as a speaker.

ROADMAP: According to master teacher, coach, and mentor Craig Valentine, there are four ways to anchor a point. We’ll look at all four.

The key to a memorable takeaway message is to anchor it to one of the Four A’s and to follow that with a solid foundational phrase (message) that people can clearly remember and repeat. (See pages 43–48 for an in-depth look at foundational phrases.) Examples of these phrases are:

Walk Your Talk

How to Affect Not Infect Others

To Gain You Need to Feel the Pain

FOUR A’S TO ANCHOR YOUR POINTS

1. Anecdote: a story. A personal story that taught you a life lesson is the most important anchor. Stories make points stick. When your listeners remember your story, they remember your point.

2. Analogy: the use of comparison. Compare something with which a general audience is familiar to something they may not know. This clarifies the point succinctly and precisely. If a picture says a thousand words, then an analogy shows a thousand pictures. For example:

A speaker compares the experience of immediate, unexpected change in our lives to what householders go through after a hurricane

Speaker Peter Legge compares our life journey to a runway at an airport. The tarmac will run out, he says, so we need to value and make the best of our time while we’re on it

3. Acronym: a new word created by using the first letter of each word in a phrase. Acronyms help people remember a formula and/or a process. Some speakers use acronyms in their roadmap at the start of their speech.

Do you remember a teacher using the acronym HOMES to help you remember the names of the five Great Lakes?

Are you familiar with the acronym LOL, used online to represent Laugh Out Loud?

A speaker helping people aspire to greater heights might suggest that they invest in TEA—the qualities necessary to reach their potential: Tenacity, Enthusiasm, and Attitude. Isn’t it easier for people to remember steps or points when they can call an acronym back to memory?

4. Activity: There’s time in a 45- to 60-minute keynote to involve the audience in an activity or two. Activities give an audience a kinesthetic experience, helping them learn by doing. Activities are appropriate ways to drive home a point, as long as they are brief and relevant, and add value. Don’t forget to follow an activity with a debriefing time so your audience grasps the full value of the activity.

Mixing anchors in your content provides variety, holds your audience’s interest, and helps them remember your point or message.

Before and after anchors, use reflective, open-ended questions (who, what, when, where, why questions). Give the audience quiet times to ponder and be introspective. Remember: Wisdom comes from reflection (Patricia Fripp).

Next time you speak, tighten your speech by anchoring your points so they will be remembered and repeated.

FROM BORING TO BRILLIANT

"IT IS CRIMINAL

TO BE BORING!"

–ED TATE, CSP

2000 WORLD CHAMPION OF PUBLIC SPEAKING

NEVER BE BORING AGAIN!

–DOUG STEVENSON,

SPEAKER AND AUTHOR

It’s safe to assume that we’ve all glazed over during certain speeches. Worse still, most of us, on occasion, have looked out and seen a glazed-over look in our audience’s eyes.

PROMISE: Commit yourself to going from boring to brilliant and you will look out on interested, enthused, engaged faces, instead of a room full of screensaver eyes.

ROADMAP: To commit to being brilliant as a speaker, examine both the ways to be boring and the ways to be brilliant sections that follow and determine which speaking techniques you need to change in order to enhance your speaking level—techniques related to your:

Structure

Content

Delivery

WAYS TO BE BORING

Your Structure

Open with unpleasant pleasantries, e.g., nice to be here, lovely weather,