No matter whom you are speaking to or for, you must have purpose. There must be a distinct reason for you to stand before a crowd.
Your purpose is the ONE concept you want to communicate—one phrase, one sentence—that sums up the talk. Decide what is the one idea that you want the audience to remember even if they forget all else.
Remember that your audience wants to
- Know that they will be changed for the better for having listened to you; they want something that will alter their lives.
- Gain information that will enable them to make it through the next day with success.
- Know that they are not wasting their time.
- Believe that if they miss your message they could miss something major.
- Know that what you present is relevant and applicable.
- Be confident that the talk will be entertaining and engaging.
- Learn something they didn’t know.
- Be affirmed in something they did know.
According to Tony Jeary, author of Inspire Any Audience, people want to belong, to be respected, to be liked, to be safe, to succeed, to find romance, to be inspired. While your talk can’t fulfill all of their dreams, you may be able to help unlock some of the things that have been blocking them, simply by sharing your own experiences honestly. That is the power of speaking with true purpose. A successful speaker is able to plug into these basic human desires through the content in his or her message and hammer it home with points and proof.
Irrefutable Law of Speaking:
If You Don’t Know the Purpose of the Message,
You Can’t Expect the Audience To Gain Any Specific Value.
On an elementary level there are four possible purposes of any speech: to inform, instruct, persuade, or entertain. Those are basic concepts that anyone can accomplish. You need to pursue the purpose of your talk on a deeper level.
Your purpose will be communicated through the topic, the audience, and the intended outcome.