An inspirational speech can change
someone's life
can inspire someone to take a new action
or to change a belief or a behavior or a
number of other things that are really
good for people and for the world. If
this sounds like something you'd like to
learn how to do, then in this video I'm
going to share with you how to write an
inspirational speech.
If you want to write an inspirational
speech, it is really really simple. It's
five simple steps that I'm gonna share
with you right now.
Why, what, who, how, now. That's it. Let me
walk you through each step. The why is
painting the big picture. It's painting
the reason that your speech matters and
is important to the people in the room.
It's laying out the problem that they
might be facing. The pain that they might
be feeling or the challenge that they
might be encountering. The why of the
speech makes them lean in raise their
eyebrows and want to hear more. One way
to do that is to ask questions at the
beginning of your speech. And to start
your speech with ways to get the
audience engaged and nodding and saying
yes I want to hear more. One great way to
open any speech in this way to get
people to lean in is to say "what if". What
would it be like if? By asking a question
like that, you'd do something very
powerful. You get the audience into their
right brain. You get them into their
imagination. You get them into a place of
desire. So, you want to open it with a
what-if question that positions in the
positive rather than in the negative. So,
a question that I might open a speech an
inspirational speech with would be, what
if work felt like play every single day.
What if people were dying to work with
you and were throwing money at you
because they were so excited with the
work that you're doing. What would it be
like if you were a thought leader and if
when you stood up on a stage, you could
move people to take action. These are
some what if questions that would appeal
to my audience. So, think about the people
that you're going to be in front of in
your speech, what is it that they want?
What do they desire? What is something
that that would get them excited and
interested in what you have to share?
That's the why. Inside of the why, you
might also want to share the problem or
the pain point that they're struggling
with. So, getting into what's in the way
of them
having that vision. So for example, if I
asked you, what if work felt like play
every single day and what it would it be
like if people were dying to work with
you? Once you've connected with their why,
once your fief connected with what they
want and that desire, then you can move
into what's in the way of them achieving
that desire. Now, the second step is the
"what". Remember I said why, what, who, how,
now. So, once you've laid out the why, then
it's time to bring in the solution. What
is it that is the solution to this
problem. And not getting into the details
of it yet. That's the how. But getting
into the overarching solution. So for
example, in the example I gave you
earlier where I said what if work felt
like play every single day. The solution,
the what might be personal branding.
Which is a topic that I teach about and
the way it works is that it helps people
drive inbound business without having to
work so hard. So work feels like play
every single day. So see how I connected
that desire that they wanted with the
solution that I'm offering. So, the what
is where you lay out the solution. The
big steps of the solution not the
nitty-gritty details of it. The third
step is the "who". The who is you. How you
are going to connect with this audience.
You've already laid out something to get
them to pique their interest, to get them
engaged and excited. You've shared the
problem or the challenge. So you've
connected with them on that level and
you've shared that you have a solution.
But you haven't gone deep into it yet.
The next thing you want to share is why
should we listen to you? Why do you know
about this topic? What makes you a
credible expert? So, in this section, the
who section, there are two parts of it
One is what makes you a credible expert,
what's your experience or your
background? And 2 what's your story? And
this is where you can get into more of
an emotional connection. Now, I will say
this: A lot of people tell really long
stories and a lot of people tell really
short stories. And you're going to have to
decide what works for you. What I'll say
is that if you spend too much time on
your story, people might check out. But if
you don't spend enough
on your story, people won't connect. So,
you're going to have to find that fine,
delicate, balance.
I generally spend about 5 to 10
minutes of a 60 to 90 minutes speech
working on or elaborating my story. So
once you've connected with them
personally and they understand why
you're an expert, why they should listen
to you, it's time to move into the how phase
of your inspirational speech.
The "how" phase is the, "What it is?" What are
you teaching? What are you offering them?
What's the solution you're providing? But
beyond "what is it", how can they put it
into practice. And so the how is where
you might outline and go more into
detail of the steps of getting the
result that you're teaching them how to
get. Last but certainly not least is the
now part of your inspirational speech.
That's where you give them something
they can do right this moment or very
soon after your speech. So that they can
take action and start generating a
result right away. It might be that
you're saying, "Hey, go buy my book in the
back of the room." Or it might be that
they try this exercise or this practice
that you've given them at home or it
might be that they buy your product or
service. Whatever it is, you want to give
people something that they can do right
away so that they can generate a result
and get momentum. I will never forget the
time I saw one of the most inspirational
speeches I've ever seen at a TED-X
conference in Miami. The speaker was
talking about this incredible charity
that he was working with and he told us
all all about the great work that they
were doing all over the world. And at the
end of the speech, he left us all hanging.
He didn't tell us where we could donate,
he didn't tell us where we could find
out more. He didn't offer us the
opportunity to contribute to this
mission and it felt like a big huge
letdown. So remember, once you've done all
this work to inspire people to teach
them something new to change their
perspective to take some action, give
them an action to take. If you're someone
who wants to not only write an
inspirational speech but perhaps turn it
into a business or make it a part of
your marketing strategy, then we can help.
We help people all the time
together they're speaking presentations
and their business models around
speaking. If that interests you, click on
the link below and set up a time to talk
with one of my superstar lead coaches
about how we can work with you
personally to help you build and launch
your speaking career or your speaking
business.
