When giving a speech, many speakers seem to be in a hurry to get through to the end of their speech. It’s like they are driving a race car, trying to get to the finish line as directly as possible. No stops, no pauses, no breaths!
I like to think of my speeches as a Five Course Meal.
Each course should be enjoyed in a relaxed friendly manner.
With a speech, each section and story of your speech should allow the audience to enjoy and savor it, regardless of what comes next.
Imagine you were sitting in a fine restaurant enjoying a delicious meal. The waiter serves the first course, which in this case is the salad. You would expect the waiter to leave and allow you and your friends to enjoy the delicious mix of vegetables and some good conversation.
But the waiter stays and hovers over you pressuring you to eat faster! As soon you finish your salad, he slides a bowl of soup in front of you and pressures you to eat that.
Needless to say, you probably would not enjoy the meal or return to the restaurant!
A lot of speakers are in a hurry to get to the next course of the speech and do not allow the audience to enjoy what they just said.
Imagine that your first course is your Opening. You should relax and enjoy giving your opening to the audience. Allow the audience to enjoy receiving your opening.
Then move on to the first section of the body of your speech. Enjoy telling it to the audience. Allow the audience to enjoy hearing it. It is almost like there is no next point to your speech, you are so enjoying telling the audience the first point!
Then move to the next point of your speech and let the audience relish it.
There are two skills I had to develop to be able to do this.
- I had to know my speech so well that I was not worried I would lose the next word if I did not say it immediately. I knew the next word would be there for me when I was ready to say it!
- I had to be able to stand in front of an audience and say nothing and still be as comfortable and in control as I was when speaking.
Once I managed to do these two skills, I could relax into my speech and serve my audience a Five Course Meal that they would always remember!