13 Killer Speech Starters, Learn to Smile, Long Form Twitter
Beyonce's New Song and 'The Great Resignation'
WELCOME
The Knowledge Workers’ Club is for those who seek to win at work and school.
SPEECHWRITING
13 Killer Ways to Start a Speech - If You Dare
Ask the audience to imagine something. Get them to paint a mental picture relevant to the speech. "Imagine if you were ....."
Start with humour that you know will create a laugh.
Shock the audience. Pattern interrupt. Such as feigning to light a cigarette, or arriving on stage on a bike.
Bring on stage and use a prop. Possible an unusual article of clothing.
Pose a challenging question. Or even just some open-ended questions that prompt the audience to reflect.
Quote some knockout stats.
Pause for as long as you dare.
Tease a story, "Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to make a confession."
Make a provocative statement - "If you listen to what I'm about to say, you will live 60 minutes longer than expected."
Be physical - shape up to challenge, seek applause when you come on the stage, gee up the audience.
Set up a problem - then spend the rest of the speech solving it.
Show an interesting picture or image.
Quote someone famous, or something powerful.
LIFE
6 Rules
When you are alone, mind your thoughts.
When you are with friends, mind your tongue.
When you are angry, mind your temper.
When you are with a group, mind your behaviour.
When you are in trouble, mind your emotions.
When you experience success, mind your ego.
COMPERING
Your Conference Takes a Break, Now to Get Everyone Back Into the Room
Letting the audience go to a break after a few hours of discussion or presentation, and then getting them back into the room can be a struggle.
People lose track of time, get caught in another conversation, catch up on some office talk - and the scheduled reconvene time passes.
I use a bell.
Just a small bell. I ring the bell and everyone knows it's time to return.
They used to do that at school, and still do it in the theatre.
And in parliament. "Ring the bells!"
What really hurries people along is a threat I often use. It's to get the last person back in the room to sing a song.
That always gets them moving.
🔔🔔🔔🔔🔔🔔🔔🔔🔔🔔🔔🔔🔔🔔🔔🔔🔔🔔🔔🔔🔔🔔🔔🔔🔔🔔🔔
"Synergy - a term widely used in business to explain an acquisition that otherwise makes no sense." — Warren Buffett
BODY LANGUAGE
A Speaker Only Needs to Do this One Thing to Keep the Audience Engaged
When a speaker smiles, it lights up the room. 😊
A speaker can be quite earnest in their delivery, concentrating on the message and remembering what needs to be shared. They are focussing on the next section of their speech.
The concentration appears on the face - furrowed and frowning.
I put a symbol on the top of my speaking notes to remember to smile. I put the smile emoji. Something simple.
Competitors in speaking competitions often deliver passionate speeches. Which means they miss a chance to smile.
The audience feels more closely engaged with the speaker when they smile. It opens the speaker up.
Passionate speeches can be stirring, but a connection is not always made. Smiling makes that connection.
I always make sure I include smiling in my bag of speaking techniques.
RANDOMS
Fascinating series sampler on newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst
Twitter is trialling longer-form tweets via its Notes function. (Will accept up to 2500 words)
Beyonce’s new song is about ‘The Great Resignation’, Here
What to do when you are stressed.
The Knowledge Worker is a free subscription service for all my Knowledge Worker friends. If you would like to support my efforts with a small donation, that would be most appreciated.