What's Your Story? The Secret Behind Crafting a Great Speech

Photo Credit: Adore to Empower

How will you be remembered? 

It's the question we often find ourselves pondering: what will my legacy be when I'm no longer around? What will others recall about my character and my actions?

Similarly, it's imperative that we use this same approach when crafting speeches, and some of the best talks that I've heard were the ones that I still remember to this day.

How did the authors of these amazing talks make their speeches so memorable?

People quickly become inundated by messages and speeches, whatever form they might be in, on a daily basis. The best speeches are the ones that stick with us and stand out in the clutter of all of these words and information. I believe that the best, and simplest, way to make a speech be remembered by the audience is by telling a story that provides a real-life example of the speaker's message. Using anecdotes engages the audience in a way that a slideshow or statistics cannot do - the listeners can clearly see how the message of the talk can be applied to their own, personal lives. And when an audience is engaged, for instance by being able to easily connect what is being said by the speaker to their everyday lives, they are more likely to retain the information being presented and remember the speech in the future.

Stories help us remember the key points of a talk because they give us a connection to our everyday lives, so whenever when we think about this topic in our lives, we're able to draw the connection between our life and the speech. 

Stories also help out during a speech because it's a lot easier for the speaker to remember and talk about what happened in their personal lives than it is for them to remember statistical evidence and facts. It feels more natural when the speaker uses stories, making the speech feel like a conversation with the audience members and relating what is being said directly to their lives. 

One of the best TED Talks that I've ever listened to was given by Angela Lee Duckworth about grit and determination. Not only was the topic of this speech one that I personally found interesting, but Angela begins her speech with a story that I could connect to. She talks about how, as a 7th-grade math teacher, she could conclude that the students who worked harder and possessed more grit were the ones that were more successful. This story from Angela's personal experiences helps the audience to connect to her main point that grit is the best determiner of success, not IQ or test scores. This story also helps the listener to remember her speech in the future, since the listener can relate what Angela's story was about to their everyday lives. 

Another great TED Talk that I've watched multiple times over the years and always remember is by Josh Kaufman, who talks about how you can learn any skill in 20 hours. He argues against the common thought that it takes 10,000 hours to learn a new skill, and says that being okay at a new skill only requires 20 hours. He backs his claim by providing an example from his own life of the 20 hours rule. John wanted to learn to play the ukulele, so he put 20 hours into learning it from scratch and he performs a short piece on his ukulele at the end of his talk that gives the listener a real-life story that they can apply to their lives. They can see how the 20 hours rule that he proposed in his speech actually works in the real world.

Storytelling, I believe, is what separates the average talks from good or great ones. A speaker that engages their audience through stories that the listener can relate to, gives their listener a better chance of remembering what their speech was about a week, a month, and even a year from when the speech was given. 

In short, if you want to be remembered by others for what you say, connect it to the listeners' lives through a simple, yet effective, story.