2 Powerful tools for power speaking

In my public speaking I have learned a powerful technique to boost the attention span of your audience.

In normal organization of a speech we have the introduction phase followed by the preview phase. I have learned to add what is called a hook to the introduction phase.

I will even start my speeches with a hook. A hook is used to wake your audience up and gain their attention. You need to think of something that will make them sit up and pay attention to you.

A popular hook is to ask them for a show of hands to a question, such as:

"by a show of hands how many of us would like to retire rich?"

Ok this type of question is one that almost everyone would raise their hands up for.

So design your hooks carefully. Once you get into the habit of using them you will see people paying rapt attention to every word that you say.

I normally finish my introduction before I use what is called a contract.

Now the contract is where you really make your audience sit up and pay attention.

I no longer use the preview and have replaced it with the contract.

If you will recall a traditional preview went something like this:

"Ok, today I am here to talk about dog walking. I will first of all tell you about blah blah blah, and secondly I will talk about..blah blah blah.

Well when you use a contract you state the benefits instead of the features.

So you must determine what is the benefits of someone listening to your message.

Then you craft your contract which is making a contract between you and your audience and delivering them the benefits that you promise.

Example:

If you give me but a few minutes of your time I will show you how you can:

First of all retire within ...
Secondly do it without having to ....

So instead of telling them the features of your program you just told them the benefits that they will obtain by listening to you.