How to Create Sizzling Speech and Book Titles

Do you know the name of the book that was written in 1937 and outsold every book except the Bible? It was How to Win Friends and Influence People. This is a great title that is timeless because it focuses on two benefits that most of us want all the time: winning friends and influencing people. Another example: What’s Holding you Back? Thirty days to Having the Courage and Confidence to Do What You Want, Meet Whom You Want, and Go Where You Want by Sam Horn. The benefits are: having courage and confidence to meet and go where you want.

Five ways to design your speech and/or best-selling book titles.

1. Use alliteration [the same letter starts successive words]
Monday Morning Mindfulness
Living Your Life
Sense and Sensibility

2. Ask a question
Are You Getting the Love You Want?
Does Everything Get Better After Fifty?
Have You Hugged Your Kids Today?

3. Write a Rhyme
Niche and Get Rich
The Cat in the Hat
Be Funny and Make Money

4. Use words such as "How", "Secret", "Power"
How to Succeed in the Speaking Business
How to Write a Novel in 100 days or Less
The World’s Best Known Marketing Secret
The Power of Now

5. The Rule of Three
Monday Morning Mindfulness
No Honor, No Guts, No Glory
Shake, Rattle and Roll

Tell me a Story After you craft your sizzling speech title, you then need to tell stories to your audience so that you grab and hold their attention. As an engaging speaker, you will want to relate your story to your content. Your own personal stories will make your content very vivid and interesting.

Screenwriter, Robert McKee says, Stories are the creative conversion of life itself into a more powerful, clearer, more meaningful experience. They are the currency of human contact. Most of us delineate our thoughts visually, so use very descriptive words to help the audience see what they hear from you.

Use coaching stories that relate to the needs and interests of your audience. For example, if you are trying to enroll small business clients, tell exciting stories about how your satisfied clients benefited from your coaching sessions.

It’s okay to be funny. If you think funny thoughts, you will live and relive your story as you tell your story. It is best to be in the now. Your words need to create an image in the audience’s mind so that they will remember your story.

When telling your stories, be dramatic, maintain eye contact, use theatrical gestures, vary your tone and above allBe a Model of Excellence!

Ten Fatal Flaws Frequently Found from the Podium

1. No clear purpose for the presentation. What is thepoint and focus of the speech?

2. Not starting and stopping on time. Be flexible andbe able to cut the talk short if asked. Be in control.

3. Not dressing appropriately. Always be a step abovethe audience. If it’s business casual, be a littledressier than casual.

4. Not knowing the audience. Make sure you know whatthe audience expects.

5. Not checking out your room. A/V equipment and seatingfor any potential problems. Give yourself enough time tomake the room right for you.

6. Not having good platform skills. Knowing your subjectis not enough. You must have the ability to excite the audience and keep their interest.

7. Not having rapport with the audience. Not doing your research to find out what really interests them. You will know that magic moment when the audience is nodding with approval.

8. Not knowing when to stop. Too much information can not be absorbed by the audience.

9. Not having enough information. The talk should have substance and knowledge of the client's business.

10. Not being sensitive to the audience. Do not use ethnic stories or off color remarks. Politics and religion should be avoided unless you are a member of the clergy.

POINT: The effectiveness of a talk is whether the audience enjoyed it and found it useful. Did the talk influence their behavior positively and productively once they returned to their jobs?

The Ten Habits of Highly Effective Speakers

Successful speakers do not do all the right things all the time. They often take risks and risk bombing. But all top speakers take daily action, to move towards their goals with many adjustments. Here are ten ways to be a highly effective speaker.

1. Have a passion for your subject(s). If you don’t care about your topic, who will? Make a list of five topics you love. Choose two and be willing to develop a program you are willing to stay with for at least two years.

2. Be persistent in your quest to be a speaker of excellence. You must be perceived as an expert with expertise. Demonstrate this through your life experiences,research and the way you customize your material for each audience. You are only as good as your last speech!

3. Have the patience to succeed. Is persistence your middle name? Don’t expect to be a success over night. Get support, mentors, a coach to help you master your presentation(s). One speaker said, This is a hard businessto make an easy living.

4. Speak from your heart. Be authentic. Be vulnerable. Share your mishaps and idiosyncrasies. You won’t be perceived as real until you do this. When you are truthful, your audiences will trust what you are saying. Let your message provide hope for your audience.

5. Connect quickly with your audience. You only have 30 seconds to make your connection. So pay attention to your opening remarks. Don’t use jokes they may offend people in your audience. Do use short quotations, a funny story that is relevant to your message, a question or two to get their attention quickly.

6. Prepare 24/7 you don’t write speeches, you find them everywhere in hotels, from family experiences, in the supermarkets and restaurants. Retrieve them and retell them. Don’t lose out on great material because you didn’thave your note pad near you. Why not invest in a mini-taperecorder and record ideas as they occur throughout your day.

7. Speak to the ways people learn; auditory, visual and kinesthetic. Know your audience so that you can offer theright mix. Research suggests 40% are visual, 40% are kinesthetic, and only 20% are auditory. If you don’t useprops or visuals, you will not reach 80% of your audience.Be inclusive and find ways/tools that will speak to 100% ofthe people in your audience.

8. Support your main points with stories most people delineate their thoughts visually. People learn best from your personal stories. They will also do a better job in retaining your message if you tell them a story. Remember when you were a kid. . .you said to your parents, tell me a story. When an adult hears your story, they are only a step away from their own story. Become a good story teller and watch your referrals and repeat business increase.

9. Make it fun learning is directly proportional to the amount of fun your audience is having laughter is like internal jogging. Inject some humor along the way. The audience wants to lighten up even with serious matters. Reminder---mature adults do not take themselves too seriously.

10. Have a reverence for the work you do. It is a privilegeto be on the platform. And with this comes an awesome responsibility to your audience. Speaking is an art and askill. Tap in to your creativity, your wholesomeness, your playfulness. Live/speak from the inside out.

Top 10 E’s to Motivate and Influence an Audience

Speak with E’s. Be a speaker of influence not control or guilt. With the privilege of the platform comes the awesomeresponsibility of motivating and influencing your audienceto feel/think/act differently.

1. Educate provide your audience with extensive informationon your topic. This will empower attendees to feel competent and knowledgeable. Support your points with stories. Stories help us see through the eyes of other people. Adults delineate their thoughts visually.

2. Entertain give them the facts laced with a good dose ofhumor. Adults learn better when they are lightening up! Here’s the place for some magic tricks, handwriting analysis or a song.

3. Experience get the audience involved. When they interact, they get it better and retain it longer. Group exercises, simple questions and answers, role-plays.

4. Enthusiasm vary your tone of voice, smile often, and show passion for your subject matter. Make your body language reflect your comments.

5. Example be the speaker/person who motivates the audience to admire and respect you. You have succeeded when people say, I want to be like him/her.

6. Encourage be supportive to your audience believe in them. Acknowledge them Say, I did it and so can you

7. Excellence hold yourself accountable for excellence. And then help your audience be accountable and live up toits potential. Speakers need to give audiences what they need, not what they want.

8. Expertise demonstrate that you know your stuff. Speakabout what you know from your business background, personal experiences and research. Be perceived as an expert on your topic.

9. Eloquence deliver your speech with high energy, sincerity, inspiration, and a sense of humor. Are you one of a kind? What makes you different from your competitors?

10. End result you want to energize your audience to take some risks, some action, go to the edge and execute. . .make their dreams come true, or get the job done. Your information should be useful and immediately applicable to their lives.