Today we’ll discuss some tips to improve your speech and give you the seven perfect ways to start an impactful speech to involve your audience.
We all know that Speaking is an art, and a good speaker always has an edge over others. A good speaker is a crowd puller both in personal and professional life. No one is born a fluent speaker it comes through practice and will.
What is the Purpose of a Good Speech?
Speech is a component of public speaking, largely, public speech is a formal activity. The purpose varying most of the times, but it is a way of communicating with a mass with an aim to deliver information, regarding any event, health, institution, etc.
Speech-making is a creative process that involves steps like planning, writing, and delivery.
I am assuming you’ve planned and written your piece and now it’s time to deliver it. A good and moving speech is important to leave your audience spell bound, and a relevant and confident speech will help your motive behind the entire hard work successful.
To kick start, the speaker should use a catchy beginning, on an impressive note and greet the audience, it will establish a good rapport with audience. You can begin a speech with some interesting statement, anecdote, a joke, quotation, or something else. Below are some sure-fire ways to start one.
Let’s discuss 7 Proven Ways to Deliver an Impactful Speech and involve your audience.
1.Make Use of Quotes
Opening your speech with a quote or some good phrase will work. You can use any quote, but that shouldn’t be anything, by that I mean it shouldn’t be totally irrelevant to the theme you are on. It should be context related or lightly brushing the context and it will save you to go offbeat.
Example: “It usually takes me more than three weeks to prepare a good speech.” – Mark Twain
2. Make use of “what if” scenario
Make sure to include your audience, to always be a part of your presentation. One way to do this, is by adding some “what if” scenarios, which would magically end up your audience taking interest, since they’re also a part of it now.
Example: “what if, the person seating at your right is invisible, but not to you.”
Perhaps these kind of scenario will eventually add innovation to, topics you thought were boring.
3. Engage Your Audience with “imagine” scenario
Pretty much similar to that of “what if” scenario but this is more relevant as it would lead your audience to visualize, what you’re saying on an extra ordinary scenario, this will capture their imagination and give your speech a boost.
Example: “ imagine swimming in Indian ocean and collapsing into a town as big as Vijayanagar.”
4. Ask Questions
Putting up questions in the beginning can be a smart move, it can do wonders to your speech . Doesn’t matter if the question demands an answer or not, or if the audience know the answer or not, the point here is they’ll still answer (perhaps to own self) and incase they don’t know the answer, they’ll be more curious to know it and end up devoting their attention to your voice.
Example : “where do you see yourself in ten years?”
5. Tell a Story, Fact or a Joke
You can begin your speech with personal humorous/emotional story, which eventually will attract audience’s ears, because that will be something they can relate to and many a times realistic stories draw attention since all of us at some point of our life go through similar events.
Apart from these, narrating a small tale, story, facts or a quick joke would also do the job. Because, one gets involved and tries to understand the main subject of it, due to which the interest will be generated to continue along with the context. Like, “Once upon a time …..”, “When I visited London ……”. So, the more absorbing are there starters, the more will be the reader’s captivating intuition.
6. Provide Realistic facts and numbers
When you start on very informative note sometimes people would actually want to listen to you because of your knowledge about something but this doesn’t mean to switch up to the boring side of yours, always remember to make your speech innovative and worthy of listener’s time.
7. Use Silence as a Tool
Well this point may discomfort you a little but surely this is a great way to draw moths toward your light. So when you’ve finally taken your position and people are waiting to listen you, choose to take a pause. Why? Because they are expecting you to speak and when you don’t for some seconds, eventually, everyone would want to listen you. Easy of all, right ?
8. Use Proverbs to Add Weight
Starting an essay or other writings with a saying or proverb like, “Empty vessels make much noise” adds more weight and broadens the reader’s thought. Because by looking at this he guesses or forms an idea about the subject that it would be related to exaggeration topic.
It’s not the end as you can always discover new ways to do anything. Just remember you don’t have to be boring and speak only facts, always make your public interaction fun and don’t forget your confidence amidst all. Have fun!