SPRING-CLEAN YOUR SPEECHES

OK, it may not be spring where you are. Here, it feels like summer one minute and autumn the next. Never mind. You can spring-clean your speeches at any time, so why not now? This is particularly important if you use slides, since people tend to use the same ones over and over again, and rarely think of updating them.

For example, look out for new stories to illustrate your main points. I always try to follow the rule of including something that happened in the last 24 hours. (Incidentally, one of the best exponents of this style of contemporary storytelling is my good friend Graham Jones). Sometimes a story will work, sometimes it won’t. That doesn’t matter. The mere fact that you have included something current will impress your audience.

Don’t forget your biography too. How often do you update it? I’d suggest at least every six months, adding any new achievements, and maybe removing elements that are no longer relevant. Most importantly, check your publicity photo. Is it still a good likeness? If not, get a new one, otherwise you may suffer the fate of a speaker I met recently who was told “We were expecting your daughter”.

Consider your presentations or speeches. How often do you update them? They were all new at one time. Why not create a new version again?