- You're going to learn
five public speaking tips to make your message more memorable. The idea is you take whatever
existing message you have and you're gonna enhance it so it's more likely to
stick with your audience. Be sure to download the free PDF of my seven instant tips to make you a more confident speaker. And now the five dos and don'ts to make your message more memorable. Number one, get your audience
to do something physical. Your listeners will remember your message if they are actively involved in it. You have very likely seen speakers ask their audience to raise
your hand if you have ever, and then they fill in
the rest of the question. That's a little basic. But instead of just asking a question, you're asking your audience
to get physically involved by simply raising their hand. And that enhances the
message a little bit. But you can do it in a way that ties more directly to your message. My good friend, Julien Mirivel, is an excellent public speaker. In his TEDx talk, one of the points that he made is about
staying open while listening. And you can do this with
me right now as you watch. He says to his audience, "Do this for me. Take your right hand and
make a really tight fist. I want you to feel that
pressure, the tension there. Now, all I want you to
do is open your hand so the palm faces up." This is what it means to listen. Listening is all about accepting. Listening is all about opening your hand. He gives his audience something to do that directly connects to his point. They are participating
in the message itself and that makes it more memorable. David Copperfield, the
world famous magician opens his show by directly
getting his audience involved in a really quick trick. He asks them to extend
their hands like this, cross their fingers over this way. And I don't know how he
does it, but then he's able to then rotate his hands
back into a normal position. And he asks the audience to do this, and of course they can't do it because it's a trick,
it's not really possible. But the point is he gets
them involved physically. He asks them to do something
and it's very memorable. Now, it's purely coincidence that we're talking about using our hands in these past examples. There are lots of ways to
get your audience involved. Ask them to do something
like write something down, take something out of
their pocket, stand up. You're only limited by your imagination. The key is that whatever
you ask them to do, make sure it reinforces your message. Don't make it random. Now on this topic, let's
talk about some don'ts. I don't recommend making
your listeners uncomfortable with what you're asking them to do. I don't recommend, for example, asking your audience members to turn to the person sitting next to them and turn to the person on the other side and ask them to say or do
something with that person. This will turn off almost
all your listeners. And then they're gonna be focused on how awkward they feel instead of focusing on your message. So, yes, get them
involved, but not in a way that makes them want to roll their eyes. The second way to make
your message more memorable is to word your main idea
in an interesting way. This means using vivid
and creative language. Alliteration is one way to do this. That's where you make sure
that some of the words in your message start with
the same first letter. You see this in some of
these superhero names like Wonder Woman, Sorcerer Supreme, Fantastic Four, Guardians of the Galaxy. The best place to use alliteration is in how you word your overall
main point of your message, the main theme that drives
your whole presentation. In school, we call this
your thesis statement. And that's because you'll
likely repeat this key message a few times during your presentation. And alliteration will make
your message more memorable. And that's why you see alliteration in a lot of corporate
or marketing slogans, like for Jaguar. Jaguars tagline is don't
dream it, drive it. That's three Ds. Or Intel, the computer chip company, their tagline is Intel inside. In addition to alliteration,
you could use a clever turn of phrase or wording that can
have more than one meaning. Journalists do this for
their newspaper headlines, and that makes them catchy. And again, you see this in marketing. I was driving near my house the other day and I passed a John Deere
farm equipment location. And right there on the sign, they have a really
clever marketing slogan, nothing runs like a Deere. That's memorable wording. It's a double meaning. Deere is the guy's last name
who started the company, and the company's logo has a deer on it. Deers run really fast, their
tractors run really well. It's about as perfect and
catchy as you can get. They packed a lot of catchiness into just five words by
being a little more creative. And if you want an awesome
public speaking example, I recommend looking at
the reaction video I did to Martin Luther King Jr's
"I Have a Dream" speech. He used every technique in the book to make that more memorable. He used alliteration, metaphor,
analogy, parallel structure. I'll put a link to that video in the description below this one. The tip is take your main
point, your thesis statement, and look for ways to use vivid language to maximum advantage. Here are some warnings, some don'ts. Don't overdo it. Don't use these techniques everywhere, in every part of your message. Too much wordplay can get
confusing or distracting. Just use them enough to spice
up your message a little bit and make it more memorable. Number three, tell stories. They are so memorable
that I will often remember a good story, but I'll forget who told me this story in the first place. Have you ever had that happen to you? I've been telling stories
during this video too, like my friend Julien's story about unclenching his fist, I told the story about
driving by John Deere and seeing their sign. Now, to make your stories more memorable, you can do things like
act it out a little bit, get animated, put yourself
into the action of the story as you tell it to bring it to life. Speak in the voices of
the people in this story. My wife was once telling a quick story when she was doing announcements in front of the whole church one day. And for some reason she was
describing a golden retriever, I can't remember why. But just briefly, she started
visually wagging around a little bit and panting (pants) as if she were the golden retriever. She acted it out a little bit
and brought her story to life. Her words told the story, but
her actions brought it to life a little bit more. Now, she was being humorous,
but you can bring your stories to life in lots of ways that
keep your listeners engaged. Just be sure to throw
yourself into the story rather than tell the story as
if you're a distant observer. I hear a couple of qualifications
about telling stories. Don't tell long, dragged-out stories especially if you're new to this. Aim for one minute for each story. That's your goal. Practice until each story you tell in your next presentation
is about one minute. Number four, let your
personality shine through. Your personality is one of your biggest public speaking assets. And there are a few ways to let your personality
shine through like this. One of them is to first
give yourself permission to be yourself. So, sure, you have a
professional role to play, but nobody wants to see a
robot do a presentation. So if you're a little bit fun and goofy, let that shine through
in appropriate ways. If you have something
interesting or playful that you'd like to add, then do it. As long as it fits in, even a little bit, keep it in the presentation. Another way to let your
personality shine through is to prepare your speaking notes in a way that allows you the
freedom to adapt and adjust. I was once working with a speaker, we'll call her Tammy, and she was really smart and had a great personality
in conversations. But when she presented, Tammy
wrote out every single word and directly read her entire presentation. And that meant most of her personality faded to the background. So I coached her to prepare
an outline of just keywords and to practice conversationally enough so that she only needed to glance at her notes to refresh her memory. And that gave her the freedom to adapt and connect with her listeners and let her personality
shine through more and more. Tammy was an instant
before and after story. And she became the most
memorable presenter in the group simply by limiting her notes and letting her personality shine through. Another way to let your
personality shine through is to express your emotions. Now, in professional settings, there's much more room
than we often realize to communicate our sincere emotions. If you show your excitement
and passion, for example, listeners are more likely to get excited and passionate about your message. If you show concern, listeners
will pick up on that. As the old saying goes from Maya Angelou, "People will never forget
how you made them feel." Emotions are memorable. Now here's some advice
about limits to this. Don't let your emotions
become the main point, the main part of the show. Don't get so swept up in your personality that you lack substance, or your emotions become a distraction from your core message. And don't fake your emotions. That won't work. Make sure your content is king, and let your genuine
personality shine through to the extent that it
enhances your message. Number five, add a call to action. This technique is hiding in plain sight at the end of most presentations. A call to action is where
you ask your listeners to do something with the
message that you've just shared, some simple next step. And this almost guarantees
that your message will be more memorable because they're going to
live it out a little bit. They're gonna take what you've said and experience a small piece of it. You'd normally see a call to action at the end of a persuasive presentation. But it works really well in a normal, informative,
workplace presentation like training sessions,
or job orientations, or any kind of how to presentations. Even though it was 15 years ago, I remember almost like it was yesterday when I attended the employee orientation at the college where I still teach. The human resources trainer asked us each to take one simple
action, make a decision. That's all it was. He asked me and the other new employees to choose either the state
pension program for professors or the 401(k) program. He didn't try to persuade us. He just shared the information and asked us each to pick one. So I filled out the form and
I circled the 401(k) option. That small call to action, that decision somehow helped me remember the entire experience very
clearly even years later. A call to action requires
us to weigh our options, make a decision, take some small action. And that's a hundred times more memorable than just letting information go in one ear and out the other. Now, one quick warning
about a call to action. Don't ask listeners for
too many action steps. Be sure to donate, and sign this petition, and join this group, and pray about it, and tell your friends,
and invite people too. If you ask your listeners for all of that, they're gonna say, "Oh,
that's too much, forget it." So keep it simple for your listeners and don't overwhelm them. It's best to just ask them
to do one simple thing. Now, let's look at these five tips again. Which one of these is your favorite? Let me know in the comment section below which of these that you think would help make your message
immediately more memorable. And don't forget to download that free PDF of those seven instant tips to make you a more confident speaker. Until next time, thanks. I will see you soon.
