Top 7 Ways For Making Your Speeches More Powerful

The following are tips on how to present speeches in a more insightful, provoking way, thereby engaging your audience and drawing attention to the information you are presenting to them.

1. Warm up the audience. Many times speakers go into the subject too quickly. Take at least 30 seconds to three minutes to introduce your material before getting into the heart of the material.
   
   
2. Be a story-teller. Stories are the best way to illustrate points. Use stories and don't totally rely on statistics, data, charts and quotes.
   
   
3. Keep the audience awake. Don't darken the room too much if you use slides or other visuals. Keep the room well-lit to keep the audience's attention.
   
   
4. Stick to four points. Often, presenters have a broad focus and provide too much detail on a subject. Stick to only four points with a narrow focus.
   
   
5. Keep in the present. Speak in the present tense to get the audience to feel involved.
   
   
6. Save hand-outs for last. Don't give hand-outs before you start your presentation or the audience will be distracted.
   
   
7. Ask questions and answers at the end of your speech. Always allow a few minutes to respond to questions and answers.
   
   BONUS TIP
   
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   • Don't say thank you. Use a better tag line. End with an idea or challenge instead of saying a limp thank you. Use humor. When you get the audience laughing, your points hit home and you gain audience control. Give the audience praise. Know something about your audience and find an opportunity to praise them. When addressing a group that has been a part of a worthwhile community project or other important event, acknowledge them for it.

Submitted by Terri Levine, The Comprehensive Coach. Terri is a professional and personal coach who helps leaders, presenters and speakers to become more powerful presenters by sharing key techniques for communicators. Terri can be visited on the Web at www.comprehensivecoaching.com [http://www.comprehensivecoaching.com].

For more information about Comprehensive Coaching, call toll free 888-899-7916. To receive a copy of Terri's free weekly newsletter, The Coaches Corner, send an email to with Subscribe CoachesCorner in the subject line.