by Dragoş Stoian How to Build a Powerful Persuasive Speech

The goal of this tutorial is to teach you how to build a successful persuasive speech, using simple and clear steps. It only addresses what happens before giving the speech.

Table of contents 1.Why Give a Persuasive Speech? 2.Successful Mindsets For Building a Powerful Speech 3.Preparing and Researching the Ideas 4.Creating the Framework 5.The Introduction of the Speech 6.The Content of the Speech 7.The Ending of the Speech 8.Repeating the Speech Before Delivering It 9.Visual Presentation 10. Video Example – a Powerful Persuasive Speech

1. Why Give a Persuasive Speech? A powerful persuasive speech, performed with passion, has the following benefits: Changes mindsets; Moves people to take action; The public exposure will build the speaker’s confidence – when he shows his vulnerabilities in front of the audience; Empowers people to believe more in themselves; Creates a powerful image for the speaker or for the company he represents; Sells products or services in an effective way; Creates a trend; Helps create business partnerships; Helps the speaker to become a leader.

2. Successful Mindsets for Building a Powerful Speech (I) Mindset = what you think about a certain activity For everything that you learn, the mindsets are more important than actions or techniques, and should be learned first.

2. Successful Mindsets for Building a Powerful Speech (II) To create a persuasive speech, the most powerful mindsets to adopt are: “I want to persuade because this will help the audience.” Manipulation is not persuading, its effects are short-lived and it will hurt me in the long term; “I believe that I can persuade.” How do I know that I can do it? Because I have the best information, available in this tutorial “I will enjoy persuading.” If I don’t enjoy it now, I will find something to like about it (enjoying an activity makes it 10 times more effective).

3. Preparing and Researching the Ideas (I) Preparing the ideas = arranging your thoughts, growing your ideas Preparation is always done in writing, on a dedicated notebook. It will help you organize better and review it later. Tips&Tricks: Keep your notebook handy, the preparation starts with any idea that arises in any situation.

3. Preparing and Researching the Ideas (II) Preparation - choose and write the main idea, that will help you with your persuasion goal. Pick only one main idea, the rest of the ideas will just support it; Avoid speaking about too many different things in a single speech. Research the topic Gather ideas and data from the internet, books, case studies etc; Gather stories from your own experience or from your friends lives. Stories that involve real people and emotion convince better than facts.

4. Creating the framework A powerful speech should always be clearly structured, based on three main parts: Introduction, Content and Ending. Here is a tested example that I used for persuading in my speeches: Win the public by telling a story that they will easily identify with Present the main topic and give reasons, facts, case studies etc. This should be only 10% of the speech, because this part only sustains your argument, it doesn't persuade Tell them what they will lose if they don’t listen to you, and what they have to win Offer them the solution, what they have to do Make a call to action Show people the consequences of their actions, these will motivate them to act After the previous steps, they are now ready to listen to your practical advice IntroductionContentEnding

5. The Introduction of the Speech (I) Start with a thought-provoking question; Tell a quote from a famous person; Tell a story about a difficulty that you had and how you got over it; Quote a case study that demonstrates your main idea; Make a shocking affirmation that will leave them wondering; Show the public an object, ask them what do they think it is (this creates curiosity). The introduction of the speech is like a hook, it’s your chance to captivate the public, so it’s very important to make it powerful:

Examples of introductions: “Have you ever had this happen to you?” (speak about something that happend to you recently); “Albert Einstein once said ”; “Did you know that 80% of.. [insert here an interesting statistic about your topic]?”; “Imagine that you can have everything you desire.. What would it be?” (this stimulates the imagination of the audience); “I’m here to tell you that most of you will not get what you want in life.” (this will captivate the audience; follow with your personal story and tell them what to do to avoid this from happening); “Who likes stories? Today I’ll tell you the most peculiar story..”. 5. The Introduction of the Speech (II)

6. The Content of the Speech Quick guidelines: Present your ideas as simple and understandable as you can: imagine you have to explain it to a 10-year-old child; Use metaphors and comparisons with things that the target public easily relates to; Offer practical examples for most of the ideas; Ask many questions – even if they are rhetorical, they make people think for themselves; Use humor to release the tension and captivate the public; Repeat the main ideas throughout the speech, using different words and examples. Tips&Tricks: as a persuasive presentation is much more than talking, prepare some creative and dynamic exercises to raise the energy of the audience.

7. The Ending of the Speech (I) The ending gives the final impression, so it has to be strong and purposeful. In the end, you need to draw a clear conclusion that synthesizes the main idea. Tips&Tricks: Don’t end a speech with “This is all I had to say..”! Don’t end on an abrupt note, let the public know that the speech is going to end.

7. The Ending of the Speech (II) The goal of the ending for a persuasive speech is the call to action, you can do this in various ways: Tell them to do it right away, because life doesn't wait for them; Repeat the main idea, with a different tone of voice, in order to emphasize it; Offer the morale for the story that you told in the introduction; Quote the call to action of a famous speaker or writer; Ask them what they intend to do after your speech.

8. Repeating the Speech Before Delivering It (I) The secret of an outstanding speech is repetition. A strong persuasive speech can only be delivered if you are well prepared: You will look and feel more confident and ready to persuade; You can improvise if you know it well – if nothing new comes up, you can still say the things that you repeated; The public will respect you more because of your confidence, and thus you will have more influence. You need to repeat your speech at least 3 times to deliver it well.

8. Repeating the Speech Before Delivering It (II) How to repeat your speech: Repeat the speech with loud voice, as if giving it to a live audience; Repeat the speech in different days, to let the information sink in; Don’t repeat the speech word for word, it will sound unnatural! Don’t rehearse in the day of the speech, you need to be relaxed before giving the speech.

9. Visual Presentation The role of the visual presentation is to aid the speech – don’t work on it more than on the speech itself. Design principles: Speak about a single topic on a slide; don’t use too much text; Use a simple design, without too many elements or flashy animations; Use large fonts, without effects (shadow, contour etc.); Use suggestive pictures to tell a visual story; Use 2 colors for text, maximum 3 for complex slides; Use high contrast colors: black fonts on white or white fonts on very dark background.

10. Example – a Powerful Persuasive Speech If you prepare yourself, you will have a strong basis for a great persuasive speech. You can see most of the principles presented in this tutorial in the speech below, try to identify them: on the image to start the movie

Thank you! Dragoș Stoian Public Speaker, Trainer and Blogger