October 22, 2020
Getting your point across in a clear and concise manner is an essential communications skill for any career path. Whether you are speaking to the media in an interview, the American people from a presidential debate stage or making the case as to why you should try the new restaurant down the street – you should feel confident. Here is a one-minute read on writing a one-minute talk.
When preparing a talk, keep in mind that no matter how long your talk is, the structure of your message remains the same.
Here are four rules to follow when creating a talk:
1. What’s your message?
If your audience could remember one thing from the message, what would it be? Write this down and make sure your talk clearly states this message early and often.
2. Keep it simple
Have you ever listened to someone speaking and wondered, “spit it out already!?” When preparing a talk, remember Occam’s razor – the idea that the simplest and shortest way to get your point across is best for effective communication. Your audience does not have time or energy to listen to you dance around a topic – get to the point.
3. Repetition is good
Remember the key message you stated earlier in your talk? Since your audience can’t rewind and go back to hear it again, make sure it’s repeated throughout to ensure your audience remembers it.
4. Practice
Practice giving your speech to nail down your timing and delivery. If practicing makes you nervous, try practicing your talk in front of a furry friend.
So those are the four rules, now, create a checklist to make sure your talk has:
An Introduction: A story, statistic or another anecdote to grab their attention.
A Takeaway: Let your audience know what they should remember from the talk.
Sign Posts: Use effective transitions to leave breadcrumbs throughout your speech to make sure you don’t lose your audience along the way.
Examples: To establish credibility, share evidence as to why your reasoning is sound to show the audience why you’re right.
A conclusion: One last chance to nail your message! Send your audience off with a different statistic, quote or anecdote to make your key message memorable.
Congratulations! You are one minute closer to nailing your next talk, but now you know it will take more than a minute to prepare, practice and present your next speech.
Think you could use some extra help preparing for your next talk or media interview? Drop me a line.
