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99 Descriptive Public Speaking Words You Should Know

8/1/2019

Authority:
Authority is speaking about a subject as if you are the expert, or experienced enough to share your knowledge as someone who’s been there and done it. That is Les Brown for motivation, Tony Robbins for transformational strategies and Kanye West for his music.
Authenticity:
Coming from the heart, the audience knows that truth is being told and it’s effortless. This is the opposite of ‘Fake it till you make it’ and you’re presenting yourself as you are with all your strengths and weaknesses. This allows the audience to really get to know you and know that you’re sharing from a genuine place.
Anxiety:
Any fear that builds up inside your body and generates friction which leads to nervousness, uncertainty and being worried about the outcome. Anxiety can stem from something as small as meeting a new person for the first time or as big as facing a large audience for the very first time. It’s very personal and often difficult to share anxieties with others.
Body Language:
Non-verbal, using your body as a communication device. ‘First impressions’ are a form of using body language to build up a character sheet for the person we’re dealing with. A closed, static body tells us that the person is shy or has something to hide. On the other hand, animated body language is a sign of energy and enthusiasm. To see the effectiveness of body language, look at a mime artist who exclusively uses body language to narrate a story without using words. Check out this video https://youtu.be/6EnkEm2egIM
Bridge:
Transitioning smoothly from what you don’t know to something you know quite well. In competitions, a speaker may start out by repeating the question then say something like ‘let me tell you about this story’ thus creating a bridge from what they don’t know to something they’re well rehearsed in. ----
Conversational style:
A natural style of speaking; as if you were talking to a friend. We naturally use more gestures, vocal variety and expressions in our everyday conversations. However, when we’re conscious of being on stage we hold back on these gestures and emotions which creates a watered down experience for the audience. Conversational speaking style is effective for humorous and entertaining speeches because it lightens the mood in the room and makes it okay for people to join in the fun.

Not every speech can be conversational although, even a scripted speech delivered word to word can have elements of conversational breaks to ease the audience.
Clarity:
Clear purpose or aim with which you’re delivering your speech, using signposting, props and visual aids you could make it very clear at every stage what the center of focus is. The reward for clarity is improved retention rate with your audience. It’s much easier for us to remember one key point repeated throughout the speech than to try and cram months of data into our heads.
CRC:
Standard feedback technique in Toastmasters, CRC stands for Commendation, Recommendation & Commendation. Also known as the feedback sandwich or the sandwich method, you first tell the receiver something good that they did, then a method for improvement and finally what you liked the best about their speech. CRC is the perfect balance between flattery and overwhelming someone with too many things they can improve on.
Conclusion:
The closing part of your speech, to conclude is to bring home everything you’ve been building up to and leaving your audience with something they can take away with them. This could simply be a summary of what you talked about or you may ask them to take a particular action (sign up now or visit this website). A conclusion brings your material to a full circle and instead of finishing abruptly you could use conclusion to remind the audience what the main purpose of the talk was and what you’d specifically like them to act upon or remember. This could also be a project conclusion where you explain the results or learnings from a specific project that you worked on.
Context:
Taking into account your surrounding, the date, time, location or the events that happened before you started speaking. These can have an impact on how well you deliver your message. The more in tune you are to the surrounding, the more you’ll be able to use the elements around you and relate to your audience. Think about a speaker who was promised an audience of 50 people and timed the structure to work with 50 people however, only 5 people turn up to the seminar. This speaker will have to be dynamic enough to change the structure to make it work for these 5 people as the context of what was expected is no longer relevant.
Call to action:
What would you like your audience to do with the information you’ve just given to them, make it very clear using a call to action. Is it sign up for a class before they leave, subscribe to my YouTube channel (link) or buy a course. Without a call to action your audience will be left wondering what the point of your speech was? To avoid any confusion a speaker will get to their conclusion and just say ‘sign up’ or ‘who’d like to...’ that is a call to action or CTA.
Cue card:
Similar to a bullet point on a powerpoint slide that reminds you to speak about the next topic, a cue card is usually a piece of paper you use as part of your presentation so you can quickly look at the next thing you want to talk about. Index cards work best for this as they’re equally lined and come in really funky colours. Quizlet has a flashcard app which allows you to place things on flashcards and try to memorise them.
Clicker:
A clicker is a device that allows you to change slides from anywhere in the room. By not using a cable mouse you open the whole space to be used for your talk and you don’t have to keep finding the cursor. A decent clicker has a good wireless range and allows you to send a signal from any angle and distance within the room. It’s worth investing in one that won’t fail you in the middle of a talk. I recommend the Kensington Wireless Presenter .
Curated:
To select, organise and present the information from different credible sources. A government Census is curated information that tells us how the majority behaves in a given area. In speaking you may curate a research piece, a review or an interview to form your own opinion and then deliver it in your own style.
Death by powerpoint:
Hiding behind creative slides or showing too many slides while leaving out the presenter leads to death by powerpoint. Using too much information on your slides can also leave your audience baffled, bored and you’ll lose their attention. Hard data without interpretation is available online and so there is no reason for you to get in front of an audience to share that. We’d like to know what this information means to you, us and the organisation, what can we do about it and all this in a distilled method that takes the big data and compresses it into a single answer or a couple of options.
Distraction:
Anything that takes the audience attention away from the speaker and their message, it could be a certain gesture that we repeat too often, loud sound in the background, people talking in the back row thinking that no one can hear them (you know who you are). To avoid distraction it may be necessary to set expectations by asking audience members to turn off their devices, leave questions till the end and write down any questions they have so you can batch process them at the end of your talk.
Dialogue:
Two or more people talking to each other, it could also be one person imitating or pretending to be someone else. The opposite of dialogue is monologue which is just one person talking.
Eloquent:
A word used to describe a confident, polished and smooth speaker. Someone who takes the time to think carefully, plan well and delivers with ease. The meaning of eloquent is subjective but usually means a well polished speaker delivering with ease.
Eye Contact:
The eyes are the window to the soul and there are levels of eye contact, each with different meanings attached to them. Different cultures interpret eye contact differently; in India staring into an elder’s eyes is seen as rude whereas in England, not maintaining direct eye contact is rude. Check out this blog for 9 levels of eye contact for attraction.
Engage an audience:
How well the audience is interacting with your content or your message. A fully engaged audience will give you their full attention, whereas a distracted audience will be secretly checking their phones or passing notes to one another
Evaluation:
Structured feedback. Typically given by a mentor or someone who has done what you’re trying to do, an evaluation is a systematic way to determine how well you delivered your message and what changes can be made for next time. If done properly it can empower you to find out more, tweak and enhance your next delivery.
Glossophobia:
Translates to a fear of public speaking and is used by the pharmaceutical industry to prescribe drugs to patients. Xanax being the most common one. These antidepressants come with their own set of side effects and usually a temporary solution to a permanent issue. There are ways to overcome glossophobia and with training you can learn to control the fear and use it to enhance your speech instead of letting it hold you back.
Examples:
Showing what you mean by giving a tangible illustration, clarifying the point for the audience. A demo is a form of an example where you literally walk your audience through stages so they can see how something is done.

An example brings home the point for your audience so if you were talking about fear, you may talk about World Trade Center, if you were talking about rags to riches you may use the example of celebrity that had nothing and now has everything. Anecdotes and metaphors are examples of literary device used for giving an audience something tangible to relate to.
Extrapolate:
Probably my favourite word in this list, it means taking something that works in one area and applying it to another. So if someone delivers a really nice story about fishing and the audience is moved, you could use the way the talk was delivered, just change the topic. Parody videos are great at taking something that already works just adding the element of humour to cater to a different audience. Extrapolation is not the same as copying, which takes the elements as is and copy and pastes them.
Entertain:
To entertain is to interrupt the thought train inside their head and providing them an escape. Think about the last good movie you watched in cinema, chances are the directors and producers planned intensively to give you a good time and make you forget about your own worries and problems. Entertainment usually takes us into an imaginary world full of stories, visual eye candy, and positive and moving alternative universes.
Feedback:
Getting another perspective on your delivery and your content. Although it is possible to progress without feedback, getting it allows you to check your blind spots and ensure your work is perceived in the manner you intended it to be. A positive feedback loop keeps you moving in the right direction with incremental improvements whereas a negative feedback loop (inner voice) can make us feel worse about who we are. It’s always good to surround ourselves with people we trust so we can get quality feedback that helps us grow faster and in a positive way.
Fear:
A physical change in our body due to a perceived threat or danger. Our brain has evolved to protect us from things that could lead us into hot water and so the physical changes affect our behaviour and causes us to freeze, hide, become nervous or flee the situation. The definition of fear changes depending on your own personal upbringing and experiences.

Our brain is really good at exaggerating tiny things into a huge problem. A fear of spiders for example, yes a black widow can kill you but ordinary spiders are no match for a grown human being. Yet, many people fear spiders. Similarly, being scared of the unknown stops us from saying yes to a keynote or hosting a workshop, even though we know that the results are likely to be positive.
Facilitate:
Co-creating an environment of learning by using your audience and providing some input to keep the interaction going. A workshop facilitator will explain the task and then allow the attendees to get on with it, only dropping in to provide assistance where required. A good facilitator will create a fun environment where everyone feels like they’re part of the creation and everyone has an equal part to play in the session.
Flow:
The general direction, speed and comfort at which a speech is delivered. A smooth flowing speech introduces one element at a time peppered through its length for greater attention and interest. Break the flow where a sudden jolt is necessary, like a scary story or to create laughter and maintain the flow when taking the audience on a smooth journey across different points.
Filler:
Thinking audibly, hesitating between words or dropping in meaningless words are all forms of pause fillers. Uuuuum, sooooo, buuuuuut, these are types of filler words you’ve seen many people use. A simple pause at the end of every sentence allows a speaker to catch their breath and allow the information to sink in for the audience is the recommended method which is simple yet requires practise to successfully incorporate it in front of an audience.
Gestures:
Using our hands, face or other parts of body to communicate a particular message. Using our hands while talking is quite natural, the trick is to implement it as a storytelling element so it enhances your speech.
Humour:
The experience your audience gets which provokes laughter and amusement. Good humour is infectious and builds more rapport than a truck full of salesmen. I’ve tried!
Hook:
Similar to a hook used to catch a fish, a hook is used to catch an audience’s attention. Once hooked, they’ll pay full attention to what is being said. When two people geek out over their favourite hobby they’re hooked for hours on end. You just have to find a hook that catches most people in the room. A few examples:
1. Entrepreneurs- 10x your income, outsourcing, motivation
2. Salespeople - Brian Tracy, Tony Robbins or Les Brown
3. Fitness buffs - Gym workouts
4. Scientists - The next big invention or whatever else they like
Handouts:
Usually a printed piece of paper or booklet given during or after a talk so people can follow up, take notes or just glaze over the main points delivered.
Impromptu/ improv:
Being spontaneous with your response. In speech this is handling any questions from the audience or creating stories on the go that support the point you’ve made.

Professionals and advanced speakers will often prepare short stories and quotes that they can use for impromptu challenges and situations. A bridge is used to go from the first thought to a well rehearsed story or anecdote.
Inspire:
To move someone away from their way of thinking by showing them the larger vision or a difference in approach or perspective. To inspire is to instill hope in an individual about the outcome and showing them the end goal without even knowing how to get there. John F Kennedy inspired a whole nation by planting a seed of space exploration and not only did America succeed in their space exploration but children today are still looking forward to continuing that mission and becoming astronauts when they grow up. Check out this animation short of a little girl with a big dream here.
Educate:
Making space for learning. The best facilitator/ trainers co-create the learning environment in which the students feel like they are exploring a topic at the same time as the presenter and the conclusions are reached together. As an educator, this means distilling down the information in an easy to digest form, making it interesting and then planting twists and turns to keep everyone engaged. May take some hard work at first but if done well completely changes the trajectory of the receiver.
Introduction:
What do we know or need to know about a person before they get up in front of an audience. Usually done by an MC or Toastmaster, a great introduction is like a social media bio giving us access to a gamut of information in less than a few lines.
Icebreaker:
Breaking the barrier between you and others for the very first time. We only work with people who we understand a little about and an icebreaker is one way of finding out the things you and others share in common.
Inform:
To give someone information. The main difference between informing and persuading or storytelling is that you seperate yourself from any biased opinion and allow the audience to make their own decision without taking a stance either for or against a subject.
Leading the Applause:
Building up to the big moment just before someone appears on stage. This sets up the room for the speaker and gets the whole audience prepared for the showdown at the front of the room. The MC or Toastmaster usually builds up excitement in the room and then transfers the authority over to the speaker (sometimes with a handshake) at which point the spot light goes to the only speaker on stage. Without this a speaker walks on stage to a cold audience that is busy talking away and the speaker has to waste precious time getting attention.
Memorise:
The ability to remember information like lists, data, quotes, names etc. Having a good memory is a learnable skills proven in a book by Joshua Foer called ‘Moonwalking with Einstein’. There is also a link to a complete memory workshop I delivered recently where I talked about a few methods used by memory experts to remember everything from a shopping list to a whole deck of cards in a few seconds check out Toastmasters: Advanced Memory Techniques Workshop (Complete).
Motivate:
To motivate is to get people into action. Similar to inspire, to motivate is to get people from thinking stage to doing stage. A motivational speaker will often quote verses and quotes from influencers or leaders from the past to illustrate a point and get us excited about action. They’re tasked to get us over the obstacle and keep on pushing in the face of defeat and failures. Famous motivators include Les Brown (storytelling), Tony Robbins (strategy) and Gary Vaynerchuk (straight talk with lots of swear words).
Message:
The main purpose of your speech and the reason you’re delivering it in the first place. Message is the overall package that the audience receives and when asked they can usually distill it in a line or two like ‘That was a speech about climate change’ or ‘she persuaded us to think differently about recycling’.
Mentor:
The person responsible for pointing you in the right direction, helping you clarify things and provide you a unique perspective. A mentor has walked the path that you’re embarking on so could point out the potholes ad dead ends to save you some time.
State:
Your mental focus before and during a speech. What are you focused on? if you’re focused on prosperity, delivering value and helping others you’ll be in the different state to let’s say, if you’re nervous, scared and in a state of fear.
Notes:
Written text on a piece of paper or index cards to jog your memory when in front of people. It’s ‘cool’ to deliver a talk without notes but depending on the seriousness of the situation it might be more sensible to use notes then to rely on your memory. Winston Churchill famously used notes but the impact of his words demanded it.
Oratory Skills:
A retro phrase used to describe someone's ability to communicate an idea to a large group of people. Check out 7 Ways to Improve Your Oratory Skills for some examples and Top 9 Characteristics of Effective Public Speakers here.
Opening:
The first minute or two of a presentation or speech. It’s important because your audience is searching for the purpose of the talk and deciding whether they should stay tuned or zone out. A great opening combines elements such as dialogues, questions and quotes to relate to and hook the audience. Also check out 15 Ways to Start a Speech by Brian Tracy.
Originality:
Being original simply means approaching things from a different angle, perspective or viewpoint and showing your audience something they haven’t seen or heard before, at least not from this angle.

Originality = tested concepts + your perspective = a fresh take on a familiar idea

A completely unique idea not derived from any other source is definitely 100% original but isn’t necessarily more engaging or entertaining than one which the audience knows a little about already.
Presentation:
Sharing your ideas in front of an audience. Typically done using a demonstration, lecture, introduction or a speech meant to inform, educate or persuade them around an idea or a product.
P.R.E.P:
Acronym which breaks down to Point, Reason, Example & Point. This provides a complete picture in the shortest amount of time. Effective for impromptu and short speeches- this method opens up with a definite Point you’re making. The 2nd step is to talk about the ‘why’ or Reason behind you making that point. The 3rd step is to give an example to back up what you have said. The 4th step is to remind everyone what the Point was and you’ve also repeated it twice for emphasis and clarity.
Pause:
Pauses are used to provide a break in thinking. It allows the audience to soak in the information and the speaker to gather their thoughts. It’s much better to pause than to use filler words and lose the attention of the audience.

Pausing is effective to build authority as it shows the speaker’s level of knowledge in their ability to take a break and comfortably pick up the next point.
Pace:
The speed at which your material is delivered. When a speaker finds their time is cut short they speed up to cover the whole material in half the time. A better approach is to just slice the material in half and then focus on the main points. You may then ask them to follow up by bringing you back for more or sending them a link to more information.
Props:
Using objects to compliment the oral words. Recently, at a seminar, the presenter used a bar stool by lifting it over his head and trying to carry it down the stairs to illustrate how we carry our past worries as a baggage that stays with us. He then used the same stool to illustrate a conversation with his wife by kneeling down onto the floor and looking up as if his wife was there on the stool. At some point he also used the same stool as an object to hit someone he didn’t like in a story and then stood behind it to illustrate a court scene. Comedians do this all the time using just a mic or bar stool.
Rule of three:
A device borrowed from literature and art, this composition gets rid of the symmetry and replaces it with thirds which give us a complete picture. Past, present and future or before, during and after. There is an opening, a body and a conclusion. Two provides us with stark contrast like black and white or good and evil but three is a complete image. The three little pigs is one example of a good story based on ‘contrasting three’ literary device.

Adding odds to your speech makes it more dynamic and adds interest. 3,5,7 are good numbers to use. However due to attention span for most people, 3 is a good number to keep someone engaged without boring them.
Pitch:
The highs and the lows in your voice, a high pitch is usually used to show child like, cartoony or funny characteristics while a low voice is used for seriousness and masculinity. If you were pretending to be a child or pretending to be a female celebrity you might enact a high pitch voice as a man and if you are a women trying to illustrate a man’s voice you’ll deepen your voice.

Changing the pitch of your voice is best used sparingly to add new characters or illustrate a dialogue between two characters. Extensive use can easily annoy your audience and/or offend people.
Phobia:
Another word for fear, ‘phobia’ is used by therapists to describe a person who is scared of something. Being scared of ghosts or spiders is a natural thing for many people but a phobia is when it starts to affect your life and it is definitely curable. Shock therapy, systematic desensitization and NLP are some of the ways that psychologists help their patients to cure their phobias.
Persuade:
Building a big enough desire so a person is compelled to take action. To persuade is to change the thought pattern a person has so they are in line with what it is that you want them to do. A salesperson will persuade you to pick their product over their competitors. Life insurance is an example of a product everyone needs but people don’t buy until something goes wrong. Life insurance companies have to persuade people to buy this product and they use persuasion.
Presence:
Your presence is how the audience feels when you are in the room and speaking to them. The overall feeling the audience gets after seeing you for a few minutes. It’s not that hard to see who is comfortable and who is trying too hard. Motivational speakers have a transparent presence that says ‘I’ve been there and I’m not afraid to tell you the truth’. That’s an authentic presence.
Practise:
The art of doing something before the real deal. It also means focusing on small parts to improve them for the final run. Practise includes delivering small speeches before the final big talk or standing in front of a mirror rehearsing a line at a time. Steve Jobs was known to spend hours and hours on stage a few days before the Apple keynote to painstakingly tweak the lights, the transitions between slides and double testing everything to ensure the final delivery and he impressed everyone.
Participation:
Taking part in an event or activity. If you have your audience’s participation, they’ll respond much better to what is being said and learn a lot more than if they are disengaged from the content. People learn in different ways so a hands on learner may need to play with the information before they understand it.
Point:
A single statement or opinion told in a way that draws attention towards a subject. A strong point could be controversial, like ‘Global Warming doesn’t exist’, whereas providing your perspective could be like saying Global Warming isn’t what it seems like.

A point may also be told from a different angle or view and that is called a viewpoint. Like looking at the world from the eyes of a table lamp.
Posture:
The way in which you stand. It is a non-verbal communication to your audience that indicates your mental state.
Preparation:
To prepare is to have all the things you need in order for you to deliver a good presentation. Things like adequate practise, ensuring the room is booked well in advance and people are sent a reminder days before the event. To use a famous quote In the words of Benjamin Franklin, “If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail.”
Question:
One of the best way to interrupt the thought pattern for your audience. It is effective because you grab the spotlight and point it towards them. They quickly re-focus their brains fearing that you may ask them to actually get up and answer it. The beauty in this approach is that it makes the audience listen to the information being delivered and a good speaker asks questions frequently to keep their audience in this state of thinking and evaluating everything that is being said. In seminars you may have heard a presenter use rhetorical question like ‘Does this make sense?’ or ‘do you agree with this?’ to gauge your level of engagement and quickly move onto the next point.
Quote:
A tried and test statement said by a credible source which helps connect different pieces together. “Where there is love, there is life” - Mahatma Gandhi. Quotes are like pieces of art and are open to interpretation. They are a good way to land a point by saying if it worked for Mahatma Gandhi, it’ll work for you and I.
Rooting Down:
To stand upright with your weight evenly distributed over both of your hips. Throwing your weight either side of the body will quickly tell your audience you’re nervous and not comfortable with speaking before an audience. When you’re worried or scared your body language drops and when confident you’ll be well rooted.
Rhetorical Question:
Writing techniques used to take audience on a melodic rollercoaster or to persuade them towards taking an action. They are woven within the fabric of our language (a metaphor because this fabric doesn’t exist) and when used properly can move a nation to unite. A quote used earlier “The eyes are the windows of the soul” is an example of a metaphor because it compares two things by stating one is another. More on Rhetorical devices in a future blog.
Research:
Finding out more about a given topic or adding facts behind opinions to ensure the source of your information is credible. The boring definition is to establish facts and reach new conclusions.
Retention:
How long an audience can remember something that was said by the speaker. Most of what you’ve said will be forgotten but it is a speaker’s job to ensure the information is laid out in a way that the audience can remember the main points even if they forget the details. Speakers will often summarise, conclude or say things like ‘the main take-away from this talk…’ to make sure the main point is not only delivered but emphasised for longer retention.

Props, visuals, handouts and checklists are other ways for a speaker to enhance the retention rate. This can be tested by asking your audience to repeat back what has been learned after the talk, one month later and six months later.
Reception:
How well the information is received. A comedian will plant a number of punchlines in their set and then count their effectiveness to see what the reception was like. It’s the one time you find if your material is playing out the way you wanted it to.

There are steps you can take to ensure the surprise works in your favour by building up to the final day and doing smaller gigs to test the material beforehand.

Recording the audience while delivering a speech is a good idea to gauge how well the material landed and to make changes.
Repetition:
The art of repeating something several times to emphasise certain words or sentences, helping your audience retain it for longer. ‘I have a dream’ repeated with passion by MLK still echoes around the world. #MeToo is a more recent example of a campaign which made it really easy for people to relate to a set of words that were then repeated all around the world. The power of simple words repeated effectively can be felt in campaigns like ‘Just do it’ by Nike or ‘Because you’re worth it’ by L'Oréal Paris.
Show and Tell:
Instead of just telling an audience what to do, show and tell means walking your audience through steps required to get the results. It’s also an effective way to tell your audience you can walk the talk and not just iterate theory in front of them. Ultimate authenticity.
Stage Presence:
Overall command of the stage, a presenter with a good stage presence will use the stage as a prop to illustrate their point and deliver a theatrical performance.
Storytelling:
The art of using stories to lead the audience to a conclusion or persuade them to adopt a different perspective. Stories are used by brands to make us connect with their products. Apple uses the innovation angle, Dove uses the beauty from within angle and Nike uses the underdog angle.
Signposting:
Builds anticipation and provides clarity by giving your audience a preview of what you’re going to be talking about. This gives your audience a structure to hold onto and helps you stay on track.
Structure:
The foundation that holds your material together. A good structure provide a framework for the speaker to build material on and for the audience to have clearer understanding. It makes recalling the speech easier as the speaker knows that they for example, have an opening, three main points and a conclusion. This helps to prevent waffling and filler words.
Speech:
An idea presented to take the audience from Point A to Point B. It could be a Persuasive speech, Informative speech or Entertaining speech. Russell Conwell’s ‘Acres of Diamonds’ was a very famous speech delivered over 5000 times between 1900-1925. Check it out here. He was collecting donations for a school he was running and delivered his speech to collect donations for the school. The words within the speech resonated with people so much that he was asked to deliver it again and again.
Strategy:
A plan of action to help break down the workshop or presentation into actionable steps. You may have a strategy for your workshop so at each step of your workshop you know exactly what is going to happen. A strategy helps you isolate a particular aspect of your program and it also helps clarify what is going to happen when. An example of strategy might be to break down your speaking gig into 5 steps and each step starts with a letter like A.P.P.L.E. Now when you begin speaking you can talk about Association, Productivity, Planning, Leadership and Entertainment.
Style:
The way in which you deliver your material. You can give the same essay to two different people and perhaps only one of them will deliver it in a way that makes the message memorable for the audience. We crave style because it tells us a little bit about the speaker and how they use or interact with the same material. If this wasn’t true, we’d just ask Alexa or Siri to deliver a seminar on our behalf.

Les Brown’s dramatic storytelling style makes his words really powerful and trendy on YouTube but not everyone can take the same words and deliver it with that same power and emphasis.
Spontaneous:
Grabbing hold of an opportunity and following it fearlessly. Having the time to prepare over a long time is a luxury that we don’t always have. By being spontaneous you could make the most of what you have wherever you are. It’s also daunting for a lot of people to analyse things in great details, by being spontaneous you could just respond and resolve it in the moment.
Surprise:
To do the unexpected, usually to provoke a laughter or shock or simply to get an audience to the ‘aha’ moment.
Steve Jobs used this brilliantly in his talks by holding the key ‘reveal’ moment as long as he could and then he’ll pull the tiny phone out of his pocket.
One of the speakers in my club once talked about his nephew and the struggles his family had to go through to be his legal guardian. At the top of the suspense he pointed at the door and his nephew walked through the door- what a pleasant surprise.
Sequence:
The order in which the information is presented to the audience.
Table Topics:
A quick, off the cuff session where a speaker is asked a question and has have to deliver a timed response on the spot.
Ted Speech:
A speech delivered to an audience in an organised Ted event. This speech is usually delivered on a subject you know quite a lot about and it's essentially free marketing. Ted speeches are booked weeks or months in advanced and are hosted all over the world.
Theme:
A theme is the umbrella idea or the through-line that your whole speech is linked to. Extinction of pandas and the rising sea levels could be two topics under the theme of Global Warming. Storytelling and Persuasion could be under the theme of Leadership. If you had a banner for your event your theme would be the one word or phrase based on which all the designing will be arranged, like ‘Masquerade Ball’ or ‘Halloween’.
Transition:
The area between the end of one idea and the beginning of another. A smooth transition is barely noticeable and allows the audience to focus on the message whereas an abrupt transition will have the audience asking more questions and may distract from your message.
Target Audience:
The audience to which your speech is targeted. Delivering a speech about Atheism to a room full of pastors is probably not such a good idea, whereas talking to tech junkies about the latest smartphone is a good use of their time. I once delivered a speech about the basics of Public Speaking in Toastmasters and it missed the mark because this group already had the basics covered. A few weeks later I delivered an advance speech and it landed nicely because the audience wanted to hear about how to go to the next level. Get this wrong and you’ll completely miss the mark!

You can also gauge the audience to see how well they’re receiving the information being delivered. To use my own example again, I delivered a workshop to a group of CEOs and I noticed they were more interested in storytelling and less interested in the structure of a speech. So I asked them if I should skip that session and focus a little longer on the storytelling aspect to which they replied yes. A spontaneous decision that saved all of us some time and kept the CEOs engaged with the material they wanted to hear about.
Timing:
The time on stage is often longer or shorter in our head than in real life so timing is keeping to actual time according to a clock. This could be done by having an iPad in front of you, having a wall clock or just glancing at your wrist watch to make sure you’re hitting your objectives in a timely manner without going over or speeding through your material.
3 Acts - A structure often used in movies:
1. Act 1 introduces us to the world and its characters.
2. Act 2 builds up tension and the main character is met with obstacles.
3. Act 3 shows the character overcoming the obstacles and winning against all odds.
Topical:
A hot topic or a buzz word that everyone is already talking about, a topical subject often makes the front page of daily newspapers and a very hot topical subject dominates the pages over a few weeks or months. Christmas in December, Brexit in the UK and workout promises in January.
Takeaway:
The knowledge the audience walks away with. This could be a new perspective or just a new thought, a new level of awareness or steps to achieve a specific result.
Vocal Variety:
Changing the pitch, quality and strength of your voice to add variety to your speech. It can take your audience through the ups and downs of your speech. This can also be used to add characters into your narrative.

Pick a few words or areas in your speech and then pitch them up or down, say the words faster or slooooowwwwwweeeerrrrr to illustrate the points you are making. In Disney’s Zootopia, there is a sloth scene (click here) which shows the protagonist being annoyed by the slowness of the sloth. If you have a slot like character in your speech, this is a brilliant scene to model.
Visual Aids:
A tool that can be used to enhance the message of the speaker. This may be a presentation, a prop or an image.
Voice Projection:
Making sure that you can be heard from the very back of the room and raising or lowering the voice to suite the environment you’re in. This also means checking your environment before and during your presentation so a loud fan at the back doesn’t make it hard for people in the back row to hear you. This also means raising the volume if you suddenly find out that there is a wedding going on next door.
WIIFY - What’s in it for you:
When putting together your speech this ensures that you can step into your audiences shoes and see things from their perspective. Sometimes a speaker just needs to stop blowing their own trumpet and get off the ‘I’ train so the audience can take away something other than putting the speaker on a pedestal.
Workshop:
A mixture of theory and practise where the participants are learning as they go along rather than just listening to a trainer for a long period of time.
Zone:
A zone is a mental state in which things just flow in the way that they should. Artists do a lot of things to get into a zone including:
1. Listening to study music or Spanish guitar in the background
2. Getting enough sleep before getting up to speak
3. Having one to one conversation with people in the room
4. Getting comfortable on stage by asking good opening questions
5. Visualising a cozy massage or thinking back to your last holiday
6. Thinking about your big vision, something that excites you

Want more tips? Check out my YouTube channel here (do subscribe):
Interested in personalised coaching, get in touch for a FREE 1 hour discovery session: gagan@smartpublicspeaker.com

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Toastmasters Icebreaker Speech

10/30/2018

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There are no hard and fast rules to deliver your Icebreaker. Having seen 100's of Icebreaker over the last 5 years in Toastmasters I can tell you my favourite format that I've seen used to a satisfying degree.

Generate some ideas using this list and then deliver the best in 5-7 minutes:

The timeline view:
Nice way to have a beginning, middle and end to the story.

Past:
Where do you come from?
Is there anything is significant about the town where you were born?
Do you have any childhood memories that shaped the way you see the world?
What were you like as a kid?
What is the fondest memory you have as a kid?

Present:
Where were you before you joined Toastmasters? What brought you to toastmasters?
Your career, your business, your family, your goals and your education?
What's your favourite hobby
What keeps you up at night
What's the best thing that happened you?
What's the worst thing that happened?

Future:
Where do you see yourself in five years?
What do you want to get out of public speaking?
How should we remember you?
What are the top things on your bucket list?
What motivates you?
How would you summarise your whole life in one sentence?

Of course the timeline view doesn’t have to span your whole life. You may also choose to tell a story containing past, present & future for a smaller timeline such as 'Your favourite Project', or 'Your favourite story'.

Let me know if you managed to generate some ideas using this list? Comment below and let me know.

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3 Amazing Pocket Speeches for CEO's

10/8/2018

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3 Amazing Pocket Speeches for CEO's

A pocket speech is not something that you carry in your pocket on a piece of paper. Rather, a pocket speech is a catchy and memorable story about your business that you memorize so that when you meet a potential client for the first time, you tell it to them in such a way that it leaves a lasting impression.

There a 3 pocket speeches for CEOs and it is very important that you master them. They are :

Origin Story
Product Based Story
People Story

Origin story
The first amazing pocket speech for CEOs is an origin story. This is basically a story about how you got to where you are today. What are the series of events or experiences that propelled you to the level that you are today in your business? What are the key factors that really took your business from point A to point B? An origin story gives people an insight into why you have so much passion for your business. Without that insight, people will just get to see you as a regular seller of a product or service that they do not really care about until they discover the reason behind why you do it. Once they know the story or passion behind why you do what you do, you will automatically become the right person to do it for them.
An origin story should not be too long so that you do not bore your listener. A maximum of 10 minutes should be enough to capture your origin story.

Product-based story
A product story is an amazing story about a product, service, or project that was so spectacular that it changed the course of your business. It is simply a catchy story about the project and how it directly affected your business. This tells the other person where your focus and passion is directed. It will tell them what motivated you to create the product and the sacrifices and effort you put in to create the product such that whenever they think of the product, your product becomes the right one for them.

People story
This story is a pocket speech that is built around the success of your customers. It could be a success story about a client that really benefited from your product or service and that stands out for you. This story is used because the person in front of you might be having a similar problem and instead of directly throwing your service in their face, you tell them a story that doesn’t involve your or them but a third person who was at a certain point but got to a whole new point by applying your product or solution. You do not have to do any selling whatsoever. The person will simply understand how the story fits their problem and how applying your product or solution could be what they need to solve their problem. You, therefore, show your listener the path without directly telling them that you can help them.

These are 3 amazing pocket speeches for CEOs and you should ensure that you really memorize these and take care not to exceed ten minutes when telling them.

Check out How to Easily Remember Names for my last blog.
Leave a comment below if you already have one and what steps did you take to create yours?

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How to Easily Remember Names

9/5/2018

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How to Easily Remember Names

Want to learn how to easily remember someone’s name? This tactic will help you easily solve those awkward situations where someone introduces themselves and you immediately forget their names – oops! We’ll be using three tactics to help you remember names easily:

Feature
Action
Object

First, create a story or association with their name – what’s something about them that’s memorable? What’s a feature that you can remember about them, and connect with them about? This could be the way they wear their hair, or the way they walk, or even their eyes.

Then, think of an action that you can associate with them. What do they do that reminds you of something? Their hobbies, their career, their passions? Think of that as the action that you’ll remember when you see them, or hear their name.

Lastly, think of an object that you can associate with them that has to do with something about them. For example, you might picture them holding a mic if they’re a singer, or a paintbrush if they’re an artist. This object will remind you of their name once you hear it. You can picture it in your mind, and when you hear their name again, you’ll remember what that object was, and then remember their name.

With these three factors in mind, create a story using those connections that you’ve developed with them. And remember, these are all internal – don’t let the person know that you’re thinking of these things while you’re speaking to them and introducing themselves. Keep it in your mind.

So, what would you do if you meet someone from a different culture, who speaks a different language? How would you remember their name? It can be embarrassing and frustrating to meet someone with a difficult name to pronounce and then forget it, making them have to tell you and sound it out all over again. Avoid that embarrassment by just calmly working through the steps we’ve outlined above.

Here’s an example of someone who’s name I’ve made up, but isn’t too familiar sounding to me: Shonda Curl. The first thing I’d do is take it one word at a time – first name, then last name. Shonda reminds me of Honda, the car company. Curl reminds me of girl. So, I’ll remember her name by going through my steps, feature, action and object, and then remember her full name – Shonda Curl. The next time I see her, I’ll remember her name by remembering those things I’ve associated with her in order to help me remember.

It seems silly and time consuming, but you can do these things in a split second. Within a minute of meeting someone, you can have this entire story built out in your mind to remember their name. It won’t take you nearly as long as it took you to read this article – it can happen in a split second, if you just remember to take these steps when you’re introducing yourself to someone new.

In case you missed the last blog about How to Memorise Your Speech in 5 Minutes. Check it out & make sure to comment below if you liked this blog.

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How to Memorise Your Speech in 5 Minutes

8/29/2018

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How to Memorise Your Speech in 5 Minutes

Got a speech to memorize? There are two things you absolutely need to have in order to be able to memorize a speech in five minutes:

The power of association
Imagination

Seem impossible? Trust me, it’s definitely doable for just about anyone.

Start with imagining your front door. If you can differentiate your front door in your memories to all of the other doors around it, that’s the only differentiation you need. No matter where you are, you know your home – it’s your home base. You know it inside out.

How does that relate to giving a speech? We’re going to bookmark five places in the house – for example, your front door, a mirror, a doorway to the living room, a TV, or a picture frame. These five things are the first, most memorable things you see when you walk into your home, and they should become your most memorable sections of your speech as well.

Once you’ve summarized your speech, pick out five spots in the speech to bookmark. I’ve chosen five parts in my speech to associate with those five bookmarks in my home that I know very well, which I see in order as I move throughout my house. I know the order they come in, because I know which order I see them as I enter my home.

So, first, I’ll start with the opener of my speech, which is a joke about drinking beer. The first thing I see when I walk up to my house is the front door – so, the first thing I remember? My opener about beer.

Then so on, and so on – I remember my second point of my speech is related to milk. The second thing I see when I walk into my home is a big, full-body mirror. I remember that segment about milk in my speech is the second part of my speech, associated with the second thing I see when I walk into my home.

Easy enough, right?

Then keep going through the third, fourth and fifth parts of your speech. Remember, they’re associated with those other parts of your home that you see once you walk in. Using this method, you can quickly identify five memorable parts of your home, then populate those areas with objects from your speech to make it memorable.

What if you have a small list? Maybe just pick five spots in one room instead of a house. Pick out the fridge, the counter, the table, the microwave – choose just small things in one room that you remember the order of distinctly, and which you can associate to the different segments of your speech.

What if you have a longer speech? Open up your entire house in your memory and associate tons of spots in your home with the important spots in your speech. You know where things area as you walk through your home – so, walk through your speech the same way.

Subscribe to my weekly newsletter for more great tips like this & if you missed the last blog check it out here:
3 Ways to Believe In Your Message

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3 Ways to Believe in Yourself

8/23/2018

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Believe in yourself! Have faith in your abilities! Without a humble but reasonable confidence in your own powers you cannot be successful or happy. -Norman Vincent Peale

Who would you like to believe in your message? Because if you wake up every morning thinking about your big goal then believability will play a key role in ensuring that your message is delivered with passion, received with enthusiasm and your audience retains what has been said. So let’s take a look at 3 ways to believe in your message:

1. Focus on impact

Is your audience better off after having been served by you? Or worse off? If they are better off then you have a solution which is impacting their life. Regardless of how small or big the impact, at least you’re making an impact and unless you got your word out there, nobody would know that you or your service exists.
If you serve just one person or a thousand, those people have already bought into your vision and only you can impact them in the way that you do. Instead of focusing on the technical aspect of your work, focus on the impact that you’re having as a result of you sharing your work.
Your solution can serve as many people as you’d like it to, but unless you believe in it, you’ll be too hesitant to share it with others and if I don’t know what you do, how could I use your service?

2. Test Your Assumptions

Are you holding onto stories that no longer serve you? Things that happened in the past but no longer serve your needs?

Might be time to test your assumptions to see if they still have any legs. When the topic of memory comes up the first thing I hear is ‘I have a crap memory’ or ‘a rubbish memory’ but within the next 5 minutes when asked about their hobby can recite their favourite footballers annual salary and shoe size proving that their memory is just fine.

Test your assumptions now to see if you’re carrying some of the old baggage that you can choose to let go now.

3. Slice & Dice Your Goals

Having the big picture about where you want to be in 10 years is phenomenal, but does it empower your actions today or holds you back?
To exhibit I have Sam and Joe here:
Sam knows exactly what he wants in 10 years but the goal is so big that he’s been thinking about it for the last 3 years without taking any action, it is too overwhelming and the project just too big for him to do anything about it.
Joe on the other hand has a similar idea about where he wants to be in 10 years but quickly traced it all the way to this moment and divided the big goal into small measurable tasks, so instead of focusing on the 100 podcast episodes he needs to record he focuses on just recording number 1 this week.
Where Sams ideas immobilise any action, Joe’s ideas are built on small steps which he can act on right now. This not only gives him more control over his future, it allows him to measure small steps, make course corrections and test his assumptions along the way.
Each small win then feeds into his overall goal, his confidence and helps him gain momentum.

To conclude:

Focus on impact
Test your assumptions
Slice & Dice your goals

Do you like receiving quick tips, tricks and techniques every week that you can digest in less than 5 minutes? Sign up to receive your personal weekly newsletter every week.
Gagan Singh

If you enjoyed this video, check out 15 Ways to Build Instant Confidence

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3 Ways to Stop Delivering Scripted Speeches

6/19/2018

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We've all witnessed a speech which fails to connect with us and at the end we can honestly say we learned nothing. That right there is a scripted speech, where the speaker said the right words, in right order at the right time but missed a few important ingredients which failed to connect us to material.

Most speeches are written by one person sitting behind a desk, but if a speech is delivered the same way it is written, it can miss the mark and bore the audience within minutes. Let this happen to someone else, not you.
Let's look at three ways you can stop delivering scripted speeches:

1. Memorise the Outline
Writing things down helps us commit words onto page and helps us move our thoughts into visual concepts. However, it is more than likely that your speech is not going to be televised to the rest of the world and will not be used to end World War (dramatic I know), therefore you can be forgiven for being conversational in your approach and in doing so come across as present and fresh. Let's take a look at how to do just that.

If you’re talking for under 20 minutes you can get away with summarizing your speech on a card using just 5 phrases: Open, Body point 1, Body Point 2, Body Point 3 and Conclusion. If you don’t trust your memory at all, you may choose to add 3 more phrases to each point above so you have 15 phrases (5x3) in total to help you trigger the content in the right sequence. Nobody knows the details either so if you juggle up the order, it’s your show, pick up another phrase and continue on with it. That’s the beauty of outline. Our brain is very good at filling in the details so by leaving out filler words and non-important details you’re asking your audience to participate and use their own imagination, much like we do when we’re told an exotic story by our friends.

One of the common excuse I hear is that ‘I’m bad with memory’. Sure! Then why try to memorise 500+ words/ phrases when you can boil it down to 15 phrases. Go easy on yourself.

2. Gather Intel (2 minutes or less)
This doesn’t need to be CIA style detailed report, no! just the basic things that you notice about the environment you’re in. Level of expertise in the room, the weather outside, any big events that happened just before you started talking, the distance between the first person in the row and the last person.

As you begin to deliver your speech, you now have reference points all gathered from present moment that you can bounce back to your audience. This keeps your audience alert as they know you’re paying attention and in turn this makes them pay attention to what it is you’re saying. You could say things like:

I noticed that Jack is the youngest intern in the room and with this information Jack could…..
I know it has been a hot day already, take a moment to adjust into your room and become comfortable before we get started.
Acknowledge the youngest/ oldest person in the room
Acknowledge the newest/ most experienced person in the room
Acknowledge the hidden talent in the room

Pick one or two and pepper your speech at any point to help break the ice, bring everyone to the present moment and keep them engaged.

3. Gauge Interaction
As you deliver your speech pay attention to how well the information is received on the other end? Does your audience look engaged to you? Their eyes wide open and jaws to the floor or are they playing with their stationary and not really focused on what is being said. There body is your WiFi signal for success/ failure. Although it is not always possible to get everyone in the room to listen it is a good indicator of how well the information is received.

You may have heard/ seen these being used in seminars before, mainly because seminars tend to be long (upto 9 hours of listening to the same speaker on the same topic).
If you find your audience is disengaged, use one of the following methods to get them back into your narrative:

Are you with me so far?
Is this making sense?
High-five the person next to you!
Let me ask you a question....
Are you already familiar with this material? (if yes, move to the next point in your speech)

All these devices are used to break down the information and let the audience interact back with you making them more receptive of the information you have to deliver. It gives them a chance to soak in the information and break down the monotony and stream of information thrown at them over time.

To summarise Scripted speeches are usually the kind of speeches that appear over-rehearsed, robotic and monotonous. By memorising the outline, gathering intel and gauging interaction you can break down the stream of information at regular intervals and help connect your audience to your message.

Which one have you used already? Would you dare combining all of them in your next speech?
Comment below to let me know.

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15 of the best Public Speaking Quotes

2/1/2018

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15 of the best public speaking quotes

15 of the Best Public Speaking Quotes

It's that little nudge sometimes that can get us to follow through on what we're supposed to be doing. Let these quotes from successful entrepreneurs give you the motivation you need next time you're putting together a speech, a meeting or a workshop. Let me know your favourite one by commenting below?

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SPS 2: How to Niche Yourself & Get Paid with David Hyner

1/25/2018

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Finding a niche, finding your voice, delivering value and getting paid becomes top priority for any speaker getting started as a professional speaker. Today I'm talking to award winning professional speaker David Hyner. As a BBC Host, an author, entrepreneur, trainer and professional speaker David has walked the walk and worked his way through various rungs to become one of only six speakers in the world to win the ACE hall of fame award.

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7 Ultimate Ways to Customise Your Smartphone for Success

1/23/2018

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1. Fear Alarm
Not one we often think about but can have a drastic impact on our health. Overcoming fear is difficult when we customise our own device to make us jump first thing in the morning. Research here shows traditional alarm noises are not good for us. Who wants more fear in their life anyway? Want suggestions:

If your lifestyle allows for it or if you're able to get to bed early, try waking up without tech. Complete the sleep cycle and you'll also be gadget free.
Get a Sun alarm clock: This one uses artificial sun light to wake you up without the horrid sound of of an alarm clock.
Set your ringtone to progressive mode. You can use third-party apps on Android if you can't find the default settings. In IOS Apple has it hidden in the Bedtime feature next to Alarm.

2. Turn Off Notifications
Buzzing apps distract our focus and momentum. A way around this would be to turn off all the notifications. If you want you can keep your messaging app enabled and the rest turned off. This way you're in charge of allowing your phone to bother you but only when you want to.
IOS
Settings> Notifications> Click on each app and then use the slider to turn it off
Android
Settings> Sound and notification> App notification > 'Block' the apps you don't need.

For android users there is more information on this site.

3. Email and social block
This research shows that we use our phones for over five hours a day, checking and refreshing it again and again. That habit eats into our time throughout the day. Scheduling an hour in the day will help us batch the email sends and social browsing. Hour might seem long at first but it's better than spending five. Although you may choose any time you want, a tip would be to set a time after you've done the most critical task in the day.

4. Idea Homescreen
If you're someone who gets distracted by their phone, then this one is for you. Move non-urgent apps to the second screen and prevent icons from distracting you.
Yes! It is possible for an icon to seduce you to open it. That's their job. Your screen could look something like this:

1st Screen
Essential apps (Mail, Maps, Messages, WhatsApp etc)

2nd Screen: Non-essential apps (Games, Dating, Social, etc)
Doing this allows you to take the seducing/ marketing power away from your phone and back in your control. Or, you could group them together in a folder.

5. Prime Spot
Getting rid of social media from our life is never the aim. Being in control of what makes us happy is. Based on algorithms Facebook decides what to display every time you run it. Bypass the algorithms and tell Facebook exactly what type of content you prefer. From within your favourite groups tap the 'Following' and choose 'See first'. Make your social treat more rewarding by customising your feeds. Change it as your interest changes.

6. Cloud Purge
If you have unused apps that you haven't used for a few weeks, it may be a good idea to delete them. There is no need to hold onto an app when we don't use it. Download it onto your phone in minutes when you need them again. Restore battery health, speed up your phone and get to apps you want.

7. Do Not Disturb Zone
There are going to be times when you want to turn off the phone and get on with some work. Placing your phone on a pillow can help you tracks calls and messages. With many things demanding our attention, the real struggle is to focus on a few things that matter. Taking back control and attention can help you be more productive in short amount of time.

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<<Previous

99 Descriptive Public Speaking Words You Should Know

Toastmasters Icebreaker Speech

3 Amazing Pocket Speeches for CEO's

How to Easily Remember Names

How to Memorise Your Speech in 5 Minutes

3 Ways to Believe in Yourself

3 Ways to Stop Delivering Scripted Speeches

15 of the best Public Speaking Quotes

SPS 2: How to Niche Yourself & Get Paid with David Hyner

7 Ultimate Ways to Customise Your Smartphone for Success

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