How to give your first speech and knock it out of the park

first speech

I recently attended a business analytics conference that featured some of the worst speakers I have ever seen. The first keynote speaker READ his speech … and it went downhill from there!

I am a professional speaker so I get to see a lot of great talent on the stage. But the experience at this conference made me realize there is a whole bunch of people in the world who have to give a speech for the first time without the benefit of much training or preparation.

I thought it would be fun to help. Here are my tips for giving your very first speech!

The content

Presumably you have been asked to talk about a certain topic based on your personal expertise. How do you organize your speech?

The biggest mistake I made when I started out was being Mr. Data Dump. I thought I needed to show people how smart I was by cramming every fact and figure I could into my talk. Nobody wants that. They just want to learn between 3-5 new things.

So, think about five key points you want to make in your talk. Start with an idea of what action you want them to take, or what you want to change after your talk, and then create 3-to-5 points to support your talk. Don’t try to do too much. If it goes beyond five points, people have a hard time following along.

Guess what? You just made an outline.

Decorating it

Now you have a goal and an outline. It’s time to make it fun and interesting. I call this “decorating” the speech.

For each of your main points in the outline, think of a personal story, or maybe some key insight or data point, you can use to fill in the talk and make it entertaining.

Using personal stories and anecdotes has an important secondary benefit — if you’re new to speaking, you’re going to be a lot less nervous about telling your own stories than something you have to develop from scratch.

Another benefit is that people tend to remember stories instead of facts and figures.

Finally, using personal stories guarantees that you’ll be giving a talk that nobody has ever heard before!

Here’s an excellent guide that will help you write your first speech.

Slides

If you’re doing your first speech, I highly recommend slides. If you’re new to speaking, slides can act as a prompt so you know where you are in the talk and what’s coming next. They can be a little security blanket for you and there’s nothing wrong with that, as long as you follow a few rules.

Plan on the lighting being lousy. Keep it very simple by creating slides with very light type on a very dark background.

Use large visual images instead of words whenever you can. If they are reading a slide, they’re not listening to you. Use slides to accentuate your talk, not tell your story.

Everybody hates bullet points.

If you have more than 10 words on a slide, that is probably too much. I’m not kidding.

A rule of thumb is that each slide in a deck averages about one minute of speaking time. Some are a little more, some a littl less, but it turns out to be a minute. So if you’re giving a 30 minute speech, you’ll need about 30 slides.

Here are some additional great ideas to punch up your presentation.

Rehearsal

I realize you may not have time for a lot of rehearsal, but it’s important for both the quality of your speech and your own confidence to practice as much as you can.

Before I give a new speech, I practice so much that I’m sick of it. That’s a good sign. At that point, I know it so well that I’m well-prepared for any situation (like a complete AV failure!)

If you don’t have time to rehearse, it is perfectly fine to have an outline or a few notecards for reference. Even author Malcolm Gladwell carries notes with him on the stage and he has given hundreds of speeches in his career.

An important benefit to rehearsing is timing. Nothing ruins a meeting more than a speaker running on for an hour when they had a 30-minute slot.

Details

Here is a checklist of other little things to consider when preparing for your first speech.

Know the audience. Talk to the organizer and learn as much as you can about the audience ahead of time,
Get clear on the AV situation. What size do your slides need to be? Will they have the right hook-ups for your computer? What kind of microphone?
Will you be introduced, or do you need to introduce yourself?
If it is an international audience, scour your talk and remove any words and phrases that might not be familiar to all.
Will the talk be recorded? If yes, how will it be used (and can you get a copy)?
Get precise times, places, and mobile phone numbers in case something goes wrong.
Great advice on how to start a speech.

Nerves

Most people are terrified before a first talk. There are lots of tips and tricks available on the web to help you get through it, but here are a few things that helped me:

Begin your speech with something polite or funny that acknowledges your audience or the city where you’re speaking. This breaks the ice and also give you a chance to warm up. I’ve found that the first two minutes are the hardest. Memorize the first two minutes of your talk to build your momentum.

Have a drink of water on stage. If you feel your throat tightening from nerves, pause and take a sip of water.

Remember that the audience is pulling for you. You’re there for a reason and they want to learn from you and believe in you. You belong there. You deserve to be there. More tips about handling nerves here.

Go for it

There have been entire books written about preparing and delivering a speech. But if this is your first try and you need to put together something quickly, I think the tips I’ve provided here are a good start.

I know giving your first speech might be nerve-wracking, but it can also be a lot of fun. I want to encourage you to dive in and give it a try.

Your first talk will probably be the most difficult one. Like anything in this world, you’ll get better over time. Keep going, keep practicing, and you’ll get more confident each time.

If you’d like personal attention on creating and delivering your first speech as you launch a speaking career, I’m teaching a popular class on the subject.

Mark Schaefer is the executive director of Schaefer Marketing Solutions. He is the author of some of the world’s bestselling marketing books and is an acclaimed keynote speaker, college educator, and business consultant. The Marketing Companion podcast is among the top business podcasts in the world. Contact Mark to have him speak at your company event or conference soon.