So you think you're ready to speak!

You have been scheduled to speak. You have picked your topic. Are you now ready to go? Here are some questions that you need to answer before even starting to prepare your speech. 1. What is your premise? If it is not clear to you what you are going to say do you really think that your listener will know what your talking about. 2. Can you sum up your speech in a paragraph of 50 words or less? If not your premise is not clearly defined. 3. How many points are you going to make? Any more than 4 within an hour and you will fill your listener sensor overload. 4. Does your audience really need to hear what you are going to say? Or are you going to talk about what interests you reguardless of the audience? 5. How are you going to open? Will the listener remember your opening 5 minutes after your done? Same with your closing. 6. Remember no matter what you may think the listener is thinking who cares! Why should we listen to you. 7. What emotions do you want your listener to experience/relive? 8. What is the take away value for your listener? As speakers we owe them value for their time. Remember: "IF YOU ARE AFRAID BEFORE YOU SPEAK YOU ARE MORE CONCERNED ABOUT YOURSELF THAN YOUR LISTENER". When we are more concerned about what is important to the listener and not ourselves then we are becoming better speakers. I'm Bob Freel and this is: "What I've Learned".