Magical Phrase for Every Speech

• 00:00 Are you looking for that magic little phrase that will help each and
• 00:07 every presentation you'll ever give?
• 00:12 Well, here it is.
• 00:14 For example.
• 00:17 That's right, just say for example, and then give an example.
• 00:22 You'll actually see heads come up and eyes come up,
• 00:25 cuz people are trying to understand what you're talking about.
• 00:28 They're trying to visualize it.
• 00:32 Once you give an example, it's easier for people to see it in their own mind's eye.
• 00:37 So don't just say there was dangerous wildlife.
• 00:43 Outside, say it was a grizzly bear who's tearing away at my tent.
• 00:47 Be specific.
• 00:48 Now it doesn't have to be as dramatic as that.
• 00:53 But keep this in mind.
• 00:54 Abstraction is your enemy, as a public speaker.
• 00:58 It's not because your audience is dumb.
• 01:01 I don't care if every single person in your audience has a 200 IQ and
• 01:05 a PhD from Harvard and Oxford.
• 01:08 Human beings do not remember
• 01:11 abstractions when they're simply hearing them in a speech.
• 01:15 They remember really, really specific examples.
• 01:21 I've never yet, in all of my years of asking people what they
• 01:26 didn't like about presentation and speeches, I've never seen anyone
• 01:30 coming out of a convention hall saying, wow, I hated the way that speaker gave so
• 01:35 many interesting and relevant examples in his speech or her speech.
• 01:40 It's never happened.
• 01:42 Now I often hear people say, well, that was a real snooze.
• 01:46 I should have stayed home and just read an email.
• 01:49 Or thank goodness I was near the back so I could catch up on my email the whole time.
• 01:55 That's what I hear.
• 01:58 So, here's what I need you to do.
• 02:01 Look at every single important point you have, and make sure you have
• 02:06 a specific example for every single point.
• 02:12 Ronald Reagan was known as the great communicator.
• 02:16 And most Americans, and many around the world would say, even if they liked or
• 02:20 didn't like his politics, would admit and concede he was a great speaker.
• 02:25 Well, Ronald Reagan had a rule with his speech writers.
• 02:28 He would say to them, I don't ever wanna talk for
• 02:31 more than two minutes without talking about a real person with a real problem.
• 02:38 He knew the power of example.
• 02:42 And that's what you need to build into your own presentation as well.
• 02:46 Now, if you're saying well, TJ, this is just a technical speech.
• 02:50 I don't have an example.
• 02:51 If there's no example, maybe it wasn't an important point in the first place.
• 02:58 If you can't think of a single example where this issue is a problem,
• 03:02 where a real client, a customer,
• 03:03 a colleague, a federal executive wanted to talk to you about this.
• 03:08 Maybe it's not an important point after all.
• 03:13 So when you're coming up with your speech outline and your structure or
• 03:18 whatever it is, make sure you have lots and lots of examples that are relevant.
• 03:23 And flesh out these key messages so
• 03:26 that people can't forget them even if they tried.

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