Why Speeches Should Be Like Football Games

Football grabs and keeps us, week after week, season after season. Why is that?

1)    Teams play for the crowd. Every player thinks about the fans and plays hard to please them.

2)    It is exciting and unpredictable. Teams with strong or weak records can upset other teams from time to time--and you never know until the game is over!

3)    No matter how many drills or practices the teams hold during the week, they really never know how their opponent, the weather and the crowd are going to affect them. Each game requires unique applications of well-honed skills and we get to watch.

If you approach your speeches and presentations like football players approach their games you will become a speaking star!

1)    Speak for the audience, not for yourself or your company. The audience wants to feel their time with you was well spent and that they have something to take away with them--excitement, roller-coaster emotions, suspense, relief. The sense that they were someplace that mattered.

2)    Be unpredictable. Tell a story that is relevant but uses entirely different language from what they expect. Don't use slides if they expect them. Ask them tough questions and make them think. Use an unusual analogy or image that isn't typically associated with your topic.

3)    Be so well-prepared that you can immerse yourself in the environment, the audience, the atmosphere--playing off comments from the audience, riffing on other messages you've all heard from other speakers, fearlessly answering question after question. Practices and rehearsals that install and ingrain your content, your movements and your vocal variety deeply allow you to be free to be in the moment, which the audience loves.

Think about your favorite team, player or game and replicate that excitement as you prepare and deliver your speeches and presentations. You may not be eligible for the Super Bowl, but you’ll be a super speaker.

Comments

[Susan Trivers]

Thanks Ethos3. Imagine a speech that kept everyone on the edges of their seats like this year's Super Bowl. Every room would be rocking.

[Ethos3]

So true! Number 2 is the key. Unpredictable. How many boring presentations are given everyday? Being unpredictable and unexpected keeps your audience guessing and holds their attention.