A Blog Designed to Help You Become a Better Speaker

I’m going to be honest—I don’t think everyone can be funny. We’ve all sat through someone trying to be funny, and it was awkward and painful, like watching a slow-motion car crash. Shoot—I’ve even been awkward and painful at times when trying out a new joke.

But there is one technique I believe anyone can do. And even if it doesn’t make you hilarious, it will at least make your storytelling dramatically more engaging—whether humor is your goal or not.

 What’s at Stake?

 This is a question actors ask themselves almost immediately when given a role. A story must have conflict in order to be a story. What a character stands to lose or gain shapes how they react—and that’s where the magic happens.

 There are different levels of stakes:

• Deep emotional stakes: Love, pride, significance, revenge. (Think: "If I don’t confess my love, I’ll die alone!")
• Medium stakes: Job security, finances, major life changes. ("If I don’t land this job, I’ll have to move back in with my parents.")
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How do you get someone to fall in love with you the first five minutes they meet you? I don't know that answer, which is probably why I'm single. However, I do know a few "tricks" to get an audience to fall in love with you within the first 5 minutes of taking the stage.

Your Intro:

Your intro is often wasted real estate space for audience connection. If your bio/intro is filled with a bunch of accolades such as you hold a PHD and won the Olympics after falling off a cliff and now are a CEO of a multi billion corporation...you've probably lost me already.

Why? Because you're obviously a better person than me. You may be interesting and I may get a nugget or two, but we have nothing in common. You don't know my life, so why should I trust you with telling me how to make it better?

When creating your intro it's fine to showcase your knowledge or experience, but throw in some things that are relatable. Examples could be that you are the proud owner of two dogs, you once threw up...

Some cations from video: "Sit down, write it. It will suck. Here's some things that do need to be in a keynote. A captivating intro. You have to catch your audience. If you don't have them within the first 3 to 7 minutes, you've lost them for the whole hour. So it either needs to be a captivating story. It can be anything. You could be a musician. It could be anything that helps you be likable and connect to the audience.

Now here are some tips on writing your keynote that other speaker coaches are not going to talk about. Okay, first thing is when you go to sit and write your keynote, a lot of people rely on formulas. They will say every speech needs to have, you know, an intro and 3 points with the story and then practical application and then a conclusion. And I am going to tell you that I hear so many speakers and the problem with me with a lot of the formulas where you can just kind of plug and play your information into just like a That formula that they've created is I can h...