4 Steps to Giving Your Platform Event MORE IMPACT

Workshopping a simple story into a great speech

My Dad is an expert at reading stories expressively, but he is determined to improve his speaking skills and make his storytelling even more memorable. I was thrilled when he included me in part of this process. Now I'm including you.

Have you ever heard a speaker tell a great story but at the end you were left wondering what was the point?

David Worboys wasn't going to let that happen to his audience. His chosen story was the Norwegian folk tale, "Boots and His Brothers" (a version of which may be found here).

To this he applied one of Craig Valentine's Speaking Tips* -- "Tap, Tease, and Transport".

Step 1: TAP. Tap into your audience's mind with a you-focused question or statement. Make them curious.
David's opening statement was, "Have you ever faced a seemingly impossible task?"

Step 2: TEASE. Tease them to want to know more.
"What would you do to find a solution?"

Step 3: TRANSPORT. Jump straight into your story.
David jumped in. The folk tale was too long, so he skimmed over the brothers' involvement with a narrated summary.

He had a great opening and an entertaining story that moved along smartly...but it still wasn't enough. The story needed an application that the audience could take home. The application would be generated by the foundational phrase that the whole speech was based on.

What was the speech based on? We didn't know, so we went looking for the point of the story, in ten words or less. We discovered,

"The solution is often outside the square."

This foundational phrase unified the presentation and provided the take-home application for the closing. The story now had a point. The audience would remember the story, and when they remembered the story, they would remember David's point:

"When you face an overwhelming task, look for the solution outside the square."

Your solution to the task of giving your expressive reading more impact is this:

1) Tap your audience's interest with a you-focused question or statement;
2) Tease them to want to know more;
3) Jump straight into your story and tell it with expression and enthusiasm;
4) Give your audience a take-home application based on your foundational phrase.

If you do these four things, you can be sure your presentation will be remembered.

*These tips and more can be found at www.52SpeakingTips.com, courtesy of Craig Valentine, 1999 World Champion of Public Speaking.