Want to make a big splash with your audience? You need IMPACT! This article will give you some hints on how to do just that, using six strategies forming the word: Investing yourself, Mercilessly editing, Practice, Asking yourself what change you want to make, Capturing attention, and Theming your presentation.

Originally done as speech #4 for my second Competent Communicator.

This was originally a draft of a speech meant to continue the article series started by "Talking Down, At, To, With". It has been revised and expanded. In it, you'll learn a few skills for connecting better to just about any audience.

This was originally done for project #1 of the Humorous Speeches advanced manual.

Some time ago, I heard a humorous speech for a contest entitled "What's Up With Up?" In it, he iterated a thousand uses of the word "up” (actual count may be slightly off). Most of these uses involved various prepositions (as my 6th grade grammar teacher taught us, prepositions are "anywhere a cat can go") attached to the word. It was really good material, and served to illustrate how complex and rich our language is. For someone who grew up lugging around the original Speak & Read and Speak & Spell, this was great.

 

This was originally a speech delivered as a Better Speaker Series presentation. As usual with these presentations, I largely ignored the scripted material, especially as I had attended an educational session at the District 56 Toastmasters conference all about crafting stories. Also submitted to the Spotlight Network.

If you’ve ever struggled to find material for a speech, this article is for you! Here you'll find tips on finding material for speeches and stories.