In the last 6 articles, RAVI VENKATESAN has shared ideas about the reasons public speakers fail, the 26 Cs of good communication, body language and voice modulation, the ‘power of pause’, and the need for presence and empathy. In this final article of the series he explores the Impact we can make as speakers.
Impact is what you leave with your audience. It is the result of your communication and is how it will be remembered.
Many times speakers deliver excellent content, have several important messages in their talk, make a lot of great points, and even make a really good connection with the audience. Even still, the audience leaves without much impact. How can we ensure that this doesn’t happen to us?
There are 5 Cs that will ensure that you have an impact on your audience every single time:
Here are a few exercises to sharpen your ability to deliver the right impact:
Assume that you’ve just talked about the importance of improving the city’s public parks and play areas. You’ve covered many points and made many arguments. Now summarize everything in terms of 3 key takeaways and 1 most important thing to remember. This summary should take less than a minute.
Assume that you’ve conducted an introductory workshop on Relaxation and Meditation. You’ve also talked about the benefits of incorporating these practices in dayto- day life. Summarize the two top benefits, and remind your audience of the next steps they should take. For example, “When you get home today, please take advantage of this opportunity and register for a free one-on-one session with an instructor via our website.”
Practice delivering a punchline after setting it up at the beginning of your talk. For example, at the beginning you might say, “We are going to dive into what inflation and life expectancy increase are doing to retirement plans. I promise to share a solution with you today.” After covering everything, you can refer back to this promise and deliver a unique idea or suggestion, for example “As promised, I want to leave you with a solution. By adding 3% to your retirement savings now, while you are in your 20s, you will be covered for an extra 15 years of retirement.”
Article by RAVI VENKATESAN
