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How Do I Make My Speeches Memorable? · The Expert's Journey: Helping Speakers & Authors Succeed!

• 0:14
  SPEAKER_01: Welcome to the Experts Journey Podcast.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_01: Ever walked off stage thinking you nailed it, only to realise that no one can actually repeat what you said?
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_01: In this episode, we're looking at what it really takes to make a talk memorable.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_01: With most people only remembering three to five key points, structure matters more than ever.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_01: We'll share how to shape your content so it sticks using simple storytelling, contrast, and vocal variation.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_01: Ooh, I like that term.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_01: Because at the end of the day, it's not what you say, it's what they remember.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_01: Good morning, Dixie.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_00: Good morning, Grad.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_00: Sounds like a fascinating conversation we're about to have.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, sounds like a lot of fun.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_01: I suppose we always go on stage and then we come off stage, and there's that question you can't always tell from the audience, as we've discussed in the past, where you look at the audience, you're not getting any real feedback.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_01: And you're kind of like, oh, did anyone catch anything?
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_01: There's obviously things that we can do in structuring our talk and things that we can say to help make things memorable.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_01: So, what are some things that you think from your perspective that are important in a talk to make it memorable?
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_00: I like to follow a simple process of ensuring that I've got three main points so that I can talk to those points.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_00: What I find when I'm speaking is that if I've covered each of those points adequately, then I'm going to trust that I've hit the right mark.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_00: And if I know who my audience is and I know what I'm saying and I'm watching what they're doing and getting some level of engagement hopped in there as well, then I feel reasonably confident.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_00: But as you say, there are always those times where you think, oh, but did I?
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_00: And is it, has it really landed?
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_00: And I think there's three interesting ways of saying, okay, these are my checkpoints.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_00: Did I get any people responding or asking questions when I offered uh question and answer time?
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_00: If I didn't, I'm gonna feel bad.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_00: If I did, I'm gonna feel good.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_00: Do I get anyone standing and waiting to talk to me after the event?
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_00: Do that's usually a good sign.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_00: If I didn't, that's gonna leave me wondering as I leave the room whether or not in fact I nailed it.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_00: And of course, you can't always guarantee you're gonna get that opportunity because there may be another speaker coming on straight after you.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_00: I'll hang around at the end of the whatever sessions and see if there's anyone wants to talk to me over lunch or in the corridors.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_00: That's always a good sign.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_00: And again, if it's just quiet, then you think, oh, maybe I was at the wrong event.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_00: But uh but the third most critical one is do I get anyone signing up or you know, rating their perspective on the event from the system that I use for that.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_00: So for example, at the end of an event, I will usually throw it open to if you want to grade this QR code, you can download free this particular whatever.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_00: And I use a system called Book Talk, which means that they get to rate me or rank me while they're putting in their their URL or their sorry email address to get the freebie.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_01: So a lot going on there.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_00: A lot going on.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_00: But I always do think to myself, okay, one, two, three, did I get all of those things?
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_00: Is anything okay?
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_00: And we're always our own worst critic, right?
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_00: Unless we get some kind of feedback, we will go home thinking that everybody didn't enjoy what we had to say.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_00: In reality, there might have only been one person that actually had anything negative to say.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_00: So we need to learn to not beat ourselves up so much and have a bit of confidence in ourselves, perhaps.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I think it's true.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_01: Coming back to probably one of the first points you make, the three to five points or the main three points in your case that you cover, I try to have one main point, in other words, that's what I want them to take away.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_01: And then I have the three subpoints.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_01: So I think of it that way.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_01: So it's like you come to speech, and if I'm talking about AI, for example, the understanding is when you leave here, you'll know that there's AI that you should be using to help you speed up what you do in your marketing or something like that.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_01: And then I might break it down into three points.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_01: I used to do the 10 ways that you can do this, but 10 ways is it doesn't sound like a lot.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_01: It sounds like you're getting a lot when you come to the room, but from a speaker's perspective, it's too much content, I've found.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_01: But I think it just depends on what you're delivering.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_01: So if I have 10 sites that you can use, let's not say bad, but if it's 10 ways to be a better leader, that's entirely different.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_01: That's way too much information.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_01: I think it really does depend on the topic and what the content is that you're delivering as well as to how many points you can have.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_01: But I think I, as I said, I like to run from one main point.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_01: So when they leave the room, they're like, oh, okay.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_01: So there's multiple ways of doing this.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_01: Or if I apply that, I've got multiple ways of implementing it or whatever it is.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_01: So I kind of take that.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that's a really good thing.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_00: You go in thinking, if everybody just takes one thing away, that's cool.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_00: I've managed to achieve what I was here to do.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_00: Just one key point.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_00: I think we have to maybe spend quite a bit of time thinking about what those main things are that we want people to take away.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_00: And I like your simplic, you know, the simplicity of what you're describing.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_00: If you can take away one thing, that's great, job done.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_00: Ten things, as you say, too many things.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_00: And again, this comes back to how you structure the whole keynote anyway, or keynote or workshop or training event.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_00: How you structure it means that you have to think really critically about what are the main one, two, or three things.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_00: You can't expect people to take screeds of notes and remember everything you said.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_00: Someone once said to me when it comes to keynotes, people will remember your introduction and your summary, but they won't remember most of what else is in there.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_00: But one of the things that I know you do well is that you will say to people when you're presenting, if you take away only one thing, this is it.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_00: And actually leading people through that process of this is the main thing I want you to leave with today.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_00: So I started doing that very successfully too, because I thought that was a really good way to do it.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_00: So I learned that from you, and I think that was a good lesson.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_00: Always lead them to the critical point and make sure that they know that this is what you're leading them to.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I also think that the other side to it that I've had a lot of trouble with over the years, of course, is storytelling.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_01: And often people will remember the stories you tell more than all the points you make.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_01: So the other side is too, if you can bring a story in, and often we'll start with a story traditionally.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_01: You say something, and then you're like, the other day I was walking down the street and off you go, and you do your story or whatever it is.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_01: But storytelling, it can be really hard.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_01: And because I started out talking about search engine optimization, it's a pretty technical topic in a way, and telling a story wasn't good.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_01: So I had to learn to try and bring some story into it.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_01: Now I've got better at storytelling.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_01: I'm still not there, obviously.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_01: It's a it's something I've got to get better at.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_01: But I found by say bringing in client stories I could tell stories, and then that would stick because I'd go, look, I had this client and they're an accountant and they had this problem.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_01: And applying reason one or step one, we did this, and this is the result.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_01: So this is before and this is after.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_01: So I was able to create a story around the point I was making without having the great stories that really good storytelling.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_00: I always like to say stories make the facts sticky.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_00: So if you can tie anything into a story, or even weave one regular story all the way through the whole presentation, so you can dip and dive back into what someone else has done or how someone's done something or how this related to the Titanic sinking or the motor car being born or Edison creating the light bulb.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_00: Even those big stories, if you can find some way to tie your thing into either a story, something that's specifically close to you, or a big one that everybody gets, but you tie the pieces back to the story, then again, those facts will become stickier because of the stories.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_01: So I think like when I was taught to write a speech, it was one main point, three subpoints that support that and illustrate the point.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_01: You start off with an introduction, and it's not like the usual, hi, how are you doing?
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_01: It's great to be in Cleveland.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_01: You should launch straight into it with a like a fact or a kick in the pants or something like that.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_01: In other words, an attention grabber and often a really wild fact.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_01: Do you realize that 50% of the people in Australia have this problem or something like that?
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_01: And everybody goes, No, is it that high?
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_01: And then off you go.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_01: Then go into a story and then break it down into how to talk about the problem and then break it down into how to fix the problem.
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_01: I suppose the way I was taught traditionally.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_01: And look, there's a lot of stuff online that you can look up on how to make a speech.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_01: But I think the key thing more than anything is don't stuff too much content into it.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_00: I agree.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_00: And I think if you allow for a good introduction and a good presentation, we'll have someone else introducing you.
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_00: So you can put some of the background stuff into that.
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_00: But then also thinking about what are your best assets.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_00: If I've seen people who are jugglers, for example, come on stage and start juggling chainsaws.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe juggled the chainsaw second or third after they doubled the bowling balls, but juggling something interesting can be a good way if you're a juggler.
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_00: Not if you're not a juggler, if there's no relevance.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_00: But if you've got something that is relevant, that is a prop to use or a relevant statistic or something very serious, then you know, you've got a good way of standing out right from the beginning.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_00: And again, what you ultimately want is for people to lean forward and start to open their ears and say, oh, this is going to be interesting.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_00: And if you're a speaker that's the fourth or fifth one in the lineup for the day, by this time, or just after lunch, by this time people are starting to say, Oh gosh, I've already heard so much.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_00: Am I ready for this next one?
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_00: You want to engage in that level immediately.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_00: An author who is a great speaker, and she speaks about being a helicopter pilot in Afghanistan.
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_00: And so she starts her whole session with a video in the background, and she's talking about the drama of what was going on during this particular piece of video footage.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_00: And it's really powerful and very compelling.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_00: But she's put a lot of thought into that and how she does that.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_00: And if you ever get a chance to hear Kate Minari speak, she's incredibly interesting.
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_00: That's a really cool thing that she has as a strength to lend to her particular presentation.
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_00: Not everybody has that.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_01: No.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_01: And it's really hard people do those things and you think, oh wow.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_01: And it's fantastic if you're a keynote speaker.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_01: You're gonna have the big stage and you're gonna have the big screen and the sound and all that.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_01: But if you're like me, I have some of that, but then I have others, which is just small rooms at networking meetings where I'm lucky if I get a projector.
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_01: If I don't get a projector, I'm in real trouble.
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_01: So you've also got to realize that you have to be able to be flexible depending on what tools you've got available to you.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_01: So sometimes like the big displays are fantastic.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_01: If you're a top-of-the-game keynote speaker and you can do all of that, it's awesome.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_01: You talk about juggling, for example.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_01: I see people like that, and I'm in awe of them because I'm flat out walking straight, let alone juggling.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_01: And they come out and they juggle and then they get people to juggle.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_01: And I think you've got to remember that's good for them.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_01: You know, we learn from each other and all that, but realistically, if you went out and learned to juggle and then thought, oh, that will fit in with my speech, and you brought juggling in, is that authentic to you?
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_01: Depends on how you look at it.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_01: We're talking about stagecraft here.
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_01: And stage and craft are two words that go together.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_01: We're talking about acting.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_01: So people putting on a facade, they go out onto the stage and they embrace that role and they become bigger than life, and then they come off stage and they become normal again.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_01: So it's a bit like being an actor.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_01: So, yes, you if you want to go that way, you could do it if you wanted to.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_01: On the other hand, is that you?
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_01: Can you keep it up?
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_01: Is it really what you want to do?
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_01: I think sometimes I look at it with the when I talk about leadership and firefighting, I use images from fires and I've got some pretty wild video.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_01: But on the other hand, I can give people who have survived wildfires PTSD with that video.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_01: So I've got to be careful how I use it.
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_01: So I tend to use still shots, not video.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_01: And I could talk it up and I could build it up like that, but my question is, is it authentic to who I am?
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_01: So it's very much a battle that goes on inside yourself.
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_01: And does it really fit with my audience?
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe it will if I work with bigger audiences all the time, or maybe it won't.
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_00: So, how do you know when you've finished presenting whether it's been a success for you?
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_00: How do you rank a successful outcome for you as a speaker?
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_01: I think it's often the conversations afterwards with people who come up and see you later and ask questions and things like that.
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_01: But I really think that you've got to try and build some stuff into it to try and see the success.
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_01: For example, putting a QR code.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_01: You bring up a picture and you're talking about a topic, you put a QR code up there.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_01: You can watch the audience.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_01: You can actually get physical feedback because they'll get their phones out and they'll do it.
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_01: You'll also see people taking photos of slides.
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_01: That's always a really good indicator these days.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_01: People taking photos, and I'm pretty sure they never look at them again, but who knows?
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_01: Um I'll often take those slides.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_01: I actually feed those slides into Chat GPT and it'll type them out for me as bullet points.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_01: So I can then keep a text file of that information and come back to it later.
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_01: You can do that.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_01: But I think if you can build a few things into your speech that get people to take an active part or show that they're interested, not so much take an active part as in talk to your friend about this or whatever, but actually see them, as I said, scan it with their phone, that can be an indicator to you that you're maybe getting some cut through, that they want more information about that, or that you found a point.
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_01: Like, for example, if just say you have five points in your speech, and you're going through number one, number two, number three, and everybody's not doing much.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_01: And then number four, everybody takes their phones out and takes a photo of that.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_01: Probably worth noting, that is actually a really pertinent point.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe that should be number one, not number four.
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_01: And maybe you should dig down into that rather than the other ones.
• 14:38
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe that's actually what the speech should be about.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_01: So there's something to be learned there, I think, also.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_00: How much assessment do you do after the fact?
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_00: Do you create a new presentation every time you present, or do you basically roll out a lot of similar content but tailored to someone?
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_00: And therefore, how much time do you spend reevaluating or assessing what you've done?
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_01: I think it depends.
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_01: With the leadership stuff that I was doing, I have used the same speech a few times.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_01: And that was really good because I've never done that before.
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_01: I've always done different topics based on what the conference was about, because I'll often speak at conferences and then they say, Oh, this is the topic.
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_01: So you write something that's basically around the same topic.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_01: So I'll often create unique speeches every single time because of the fact that I work in conferences where they have themes or it's for an organization, rather than being, say, a keynote speaker where I'm brought in to deliver a specific message.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that's the difference is understanding whether you're a keynote speaker or a conference speaker.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_01: And people might say we're the same thing, but they're not.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_01: They're entirely different in my mind.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_01: I'm there to provide training and help and things like that.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_01: Whereas a keynote speaker, like when I talk about react or respond when it comes to leadership, well, that's to deliver a specific message like that.
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, great.
• 16:03
  SPEAKER_00: Wow.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_00: It's an interesting summation of how we assess whether or not we are successful at what we do and reflect on whether or not it works and the efforts that we put in to get to that point.
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_00: It's always interesting to also get the reviews that come from the week or so after from the conference organizers or the event organizers and their feedback is always worth paying close attention to as well.
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_00: Do you often do follow-up events like a webinar to follow up something if you've delivered it that sort of brings the audience back to you?
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_01: I've offered it.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_01: Sometimes I do them, sometimes I don't.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_01: It just depends on the conference or whatever I'm doing realistically.
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_01: It's not a big part of my business, but I do enjoy doing those follow-up ones, and I'm quite happy to do them because I enjoy speaking at any time and helping people.
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_01: So I guess that brings us to the end of this podcast episode.
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks for tuning in to the Expert's Journey podcast.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_01: If you picked up some useful tips today, take a moment to subscribe and share this episode with a fellow speaker or expert in your network.
• 17:06
  SPEAKER_01: It really helps us reach more people.
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_01: And don't forget to check out our books on Amazon, Dixie's Start with the Draft, How to Easily Plan and Write a Nonfiction Book.
• 17:14
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• 17:18
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• 17:22
  SPEAKER_01: We'll catch you next time.
• 17:24
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks, Brad.
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_00: That was great.