A Common Thread in All Great Speeches
Expectation. Spark. Surprise
The beginning of a speech should be powerful as any other part of the speech.
It's the beginning of a speech that you make first impression, and connect with your audience as quickly as possible.
The quality and effect of your speech will be measured by the first few words that introduce it.
If the words aren't resonating with your audience in terms of shared beliefs and values, if they lack the element of surprise or fail to trigger in the audience why they should listen to you, your audience will get bored.
A common thread in all great speeches is EXPECTATION. You can also call it SURPRISE or SPARK.
SPARK is defined as the wisdom that your audience will take home with them and use it to overcome conflicts in their lives.
Introduce the surprise in the beginning of your speech.
And there are many ways to do that.
One of them is to begin your speech with protocoling.
Another is with a story.
A story
A story arouses our natural curiosity to want to know what happens next. A story contains images, actions, and a key message. And a story has a conflict.
Beginning a speech with a story makes it hard for your audience to guess what the speaker wants to say. It gives you flexibility on how you want to create your surprise or spark. And it also makes your key message less predictable, which, for the least, means that the opening of your speech may not be boring!
By beginning your speech with a story, you also engage your audience members’ six senses—sight, sound, taste, touch, smell, and imagination.
... (to be continued)