3 Steps to Create A Speech that Stands Out
If you feel like you’re spinning your wheels a la Wile E. Coyote without any forward momentum on the road to being a paid speaker, I think it’s time for you to learn my little secret for speaking success.
It’s the magic elixir to catapult you past the other speakers in your industry to become a sought-after, well-paid speaker who is THE.ONE.TO.BOOK in your field. The secret is your Unfair Speaking Advantage.
Table of Contents
- 1 From the Shallows of Speaking Sameness
- 2 Create a Speech that Stands Out in 3 Steps
- 3 1. What is your speaking personality? What’s the one adjective that describes your speaking?
- 4 2. What’s your strong viewpoint?
- 5 3. The reason you speak is your audience. What result do you deliver for that audience?
From the Shallows of Speaking Sameness
The notion of nurturing an Unfair Speaking Advantage came to me as I participated in a networking event—for the umpteenth time—and witnessed everyone dutifully complete their elevator pitch and nearly all of them asked for the SAME thing for their business: more speaking gigs.
Naturally, when someone says they are looking for more speaking gigs, the next question that pops up is, “What do you speak on?” Most of the time, the answers you get are plain vanilla, generic and broad topics such as, “I talk about marketing {or social media or conflict or insert-your-topic-here}.”
While there’s nothing wrong with those topics, there’s certainly nothing that makes you stand out as offering something unique from the masses. There’s nothing in those responses that make people’s ears perk up and think “Man, I’ve got to hire her.”
Since your little magic bundle of DNA creates the one-and-only you, it’s time to celebrate your uniqueness and deliver a speech that only you can make by approaching your topic differently than others in your industry. It’s time to tap into your Unfair Speaking Advantage.
Go from secret to sought-after speaker by discovering your unfair speaking advantageDiscover Your Unfair Speaking Advantage
Create a Speech that Stands Out in 3 Steps
As Elizabeth Gilbert says in her book, Big Magic, “Most things have already been done—but they have not yet been done by you.” How true is that?
The effort you put into discovering your Unfair Speaking Advantage will result in a speech that you and only you can give, even when others have already delivered speeches on the very same topic.
It will be how you talk about your speaking at networking events or in pitch letters. It highlights how you are different (and we know what our friend Sally Hogshead says, “Different is better than better.”) and will compel agents to book you on stage (and pay you for speaking) because it will make you stand out. All you need is to work through these three steps and you’ll have your Unfair Speaking Advantage.
1. What is your speaking personality? What’s the one adjective that describes your speaking?
There’s a certain sumpin-sumpin that only you can deliver on stage. By focusing on discovering the one adjective to describe your speaking, you will uncover what makes you personally unique as a speaker. What does your own personality and your personal communication strengths bring to the stage?
My adjective is audacious, because no matter if I’m delivering a speech or podcast or writing a blog, I’m bold and I push boundaries. Audacious. It’s me, and it makes me stand out.
How do you figure out that one adjective? You can either dig into your “love” file to look for themes or take Sally Hogshead’s Fascination Advantage Assessment.
What’s a love file? Props to my friend Marie Poulin who shared this concept with me; a love file is a compilation of emails, Facebook posts and compliments received from people who like what you’re doing. As you look through your love file (also quite powerful to get you through a bad day), what themes seem to be popping up?
A more scientific way to find your adjective for under $50 is to take Sally Hogshead’s 5-minute Fascination Advantage Assessment. This assessment helps you identify your communication superpowers and how the world sees you at your best. After you answer the questions, you will get a report that shows you what two languages of fascination you excel at.
2. What’s your strong viewpoint?
You must develop your own unique viewpoints to find your Unfair Speaking Advantage. Don’t worry if your viewpoint is accompanied by a bit of controversy. Controversy helps you be memorable. A strong, unique viewpoint prevents your speaking business from getting lost in the crowd of competition. Consider what the authors of Rework say, “A strong stand is how you attract super fans. They point to you and defend you and they spread the word farther and wider and more passionately than any advertising could.”
You want your audience to be your super fans, right? So, how do you create a message that’s different from other speakers?
Uncover your rants and your raves.
If there is something in your industry that is irritating you, it’s a sure bet that your audience feels the exact same way. When you are the one who FINALLY says something about it, you will be remembered for it. Rants are ravishing to our ideal audiences.
If you’re not much of a ranter, turn to your raves—the topics that totally make you geek out and gush about. What is it that you can spend hours and hours discussing? That’s golden material to develop your strong viewpoint.
3. The reason you speak is your audience. What result do you deliver for that audience?
Most people think about what’s in it for them personally or professionally to speak in front of a crowd. But, if you become a “giver” and focus on what you will give your audience, you have the key to unlocking your Unfair Speaking Advantage. Your most important job as a speaker, beyond engaging and inspiring, is to produce results.
Why is that? Speeches that stand out to audiences are the ones where the audience is changed by what the speaker says. Do you want your audience to have a mindset shift, a new opportunity or possibility they never thought of before or to adapt to a new behavior?
When you get clear on the results that you produce, it's a lot easier to pitch and position yourself, and even to write your speech.
Once you’ve identified the one-word that makes you unique, your rants or raves and how you change your audience, you can write a statement that gets you known for your speech. Which makes it easier to pitch speaking and book speaking gigs, and allows you to charge more because only you can deliver that speech.
How do you write that one sentence that describes what only you can to deliver?
You upgrade your access and download my Unfair Speaking Advantage blueprint. It gives you everything that you need to discover your advantage so that you can write a speech only you can give and stand out to book more gigs. Go from secret to sought-after speaker by discovering your unfair speaking advantage
Discover Your Unfair Speaking Advantage
Michelle, thank you so much for sharing the tips on creating an outstanding speech! As a media communications student, I put speeches high on my list. You’re 100% right that the main idea is to deliver a speech for your audience, taking into account their needs and expectations. If you know how to solve their problem, they will never forget you. However, to do it efficiently, you need to know your audience from A to Z. Thus, do an audience analysis. To learn more about it, pay attention to the following link: http://presentationskills.me/audience-analysis/
As for me, being a speaker who stands out from the crowd is a kind of dream, so I move forward to it 🙂 Thanks for helping!
I love the term “rants and raves”! Plenty of great material (and passion) in those two, for sure.