How to Stay Focused in an Impromptu Speech

Video Transcript

"You've been in a situation where someone is called on to give a speech and it is obvious they haven't thought about where they are going with their words. They go all over the place. They bring in 4 or 5 different ideas, they try some humor that doesn't land home and then they kind of crash and burn. I've learned that there is a simple metaphor. If you keep this in mind when you have to make a speech whether you have 2 months to prepare for it or 2 minutes, this will help you really make it go smoothly. Think in terms of a speech like an airplane flight. All airplane flight have 3 basic parts to them. They have a take off, they have a flight and they have a nice smooth landing. Now here is what you don't want on an airplane flight. You don't want them going all over the place down a runway and all of a sudden they fire up in the air and then they jerk you all around in this flight and then they crash land. That's not an airplane flight. You want a nice smooth take off and you get up to your altitude and then it is not uncommon for a plane to make 2 or 3 course corrections as they vector to one place and then they vector over to this one and then they finally land nice and smoothly. That is what a good speech does whether you are only speaking for 5 minutes or you have 15 minutes. Think of terms of an airplane flight. Get a nice smooth beginning, that's your introduction, 2 or 3 points of the flight in a nice nice landing. When you keep that in mind, you can make a great speech and I will show you how to put those parts together. "