good speeches to listen to

30 Famous and Short Inspirational Speeches (5 minutes or less)

• December 13, 2023

This post is all about the best short inspirational speeches.

If you are in need of a quick boost of inspiration and motivation, you will find that in this post. I am one of those people who loves to get motivated. That sounds weird, right?

Well, a lot of people these days tend to give motivation a hard time because they don’t believe that it has lasting effects. In other words, they believe that what’s most important is your own self-discipline, because that’s what you have to rely on when motivation isn’t there.

And while I do agree with that sentiment in general, I will never pass up a great motivational podcast or YouTube video! 😀 There’s just something about them that even if they might not have lasting effects, they do truly help pump me up in the moment to get work done. And that’s usually what matters to me the most when I am looking for them in the first place.

So, here are the very best short motivational speeches so you can get that quick fix of motivation that you’re looking for, and ultimately move closer to your goals and dreams.

Short Inspirational Speeches

Believe in yourself speeches.

If you lack confidence or you are doubting yourself, these short motivational speeches will help you to believe in yourself again.

1. Rocky’s Inspirational Speech to His Son | ROCKY BALBOA

In less than 5 minutes, you’ll watch Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone) explain to his son that if he wants to have the life he desires, he needs to believe in himself. He needs to stop listening to the people that tell him who he is, and instead go be his own person, and stop looking for someone to blame when things aren’t working out for him because ultimately it’s on HIM. This is one of the greatest inspirational speeches of all time.

2. Find Your Purpose | David Goggins – Motivational Speech

David Goggins is truly incredible. A former Navy SEAL, he has broken records and ran more races than you’d imagine. But the one thing that really stands out about him is his mindset.

Listen to this video if you want to be great. He tells you exactly what you need to do to get there.

Also, if you’ve never read David Goggins’ book “Can’t Hurt Me” , I highly recommend it. He talks about his rough upbringing, and how he was able to essentially become an entirely new person to become a Navy SEAL.

3. BELIEVE IN YOURSELF – Motivational Video (ft. Jaret Grossman & Eric Thomas)

This video is all about how important it is to have the proper belief system. If you truly believe that you are one of the best, you will start acting that you are one of the best, and eventually you may just be one of the best.

4. DON’T LET YOUR DREAMS DIE – Motivational Speech

This YouTube short by Mel Robbins is so good, I had to share it. A light bulb went on in my head when I first watched this. If there is something that is always on your mind, don’t let it haunt you forever because you never put yourself out there to try it. Go and DO!

Motivational Speeches About Not Giving Up

The following short motivational speeches are all about not giving up on your dreams. If you are losing hope, these short motivational speeches will inspire you to keep going.

5. Brené Brown It’s Not The Critic Who Counts

This speech will give you chills, and it is packed with great lessons about life. Brené Brown is a researcher who went viral for a Ted Talk, and here she talks about how to overcome critics and to keep believing in yourself no matter what. If you are worried about what people think of you, you NEED to watch this.

6. Amazing Motivational Speech by Denzel Washington 

This is another video that gave me chills. The main theme of this famous speech is “ease is a greater threat to progress than hardship”. Stay consistent even when it’s hard. Easy task after easy task won’t get you to where you want to be.

7. Steve Harvey – Inspirational Speech | Motivational Short Video | Incredible You

This short motivational speech by Steve Harvey is short but impactful. If you are someone who stepped out of your comfort zone to pursue something really difficult, and you’re thinking about giving up, this speech may just prevent you from doing so.

8. Ed Mylett on The Power of One More

Ed Mylett shares the story of how his father stayed sober until his dying day, and how Ed himself uses that same philosophy to never give up. Personal stories like these are always the most inspiring.

By the way, if you REALLY want to push yourself and become the best, read Ed Mylett’s most recent book on this same topic, “The Power Of One More” .

Motivational Speeches If You’re Feeling Behind

Are you feeling behind in life? If so, let’s change that. Watch these videos to be reminded that you are on your own unique path. You have no competition other than your past self. These short motivational videos will help you believe that.

9. Before You Feel Pressure – WATCH THIS | by Jay Shetty

Jay Shetty talks to a school class about how there’s no one “perfect” life timeline to follow, and that we are all on our own clock. 

10. Kevin Hart Motivational Speech

If you’ve made mistakes in your life (haven’t we all) this is a great story from Kevin Hart (famous comedian and actor) that will remind you of the power of making mistakes and pushing through hard times.

11. Oprah Winfrey | 5 Minutes For The NEXT 50 Years of Your LIFE

In this video, Oprah talks about the importance of really knowing who you are and what you want in your life. She talks about surrounding yourself with great people, and how to have enormous success. “Let excellence be your brand.”

Listen To These If You Need Perspective

Sometimes in life, we get so caught up in the day to day that we forget what truly matters – the people we love. If you are having trouble with something in life, give these videos a listen, because they just might help you realize what is really important.

12. Arnold Schwarzenegger – Organize Your Day | 1 MINUTE MOTIVATIONAL VIDEO

Are you the kind of person who always complains that you don’t have enough time to do something? If so, you’re not alone. We are all busy humans, running around doing a million things. But if you aren’t prioritizing what you know you should be doing, listen to this video.

13. How to Judge Your Life Using 3 Simple Questions | Brendon Burchard Speech| Goalcast

Have you ever heard of Mortality Motivation? It’s essentially what it sounds like… being motivated by the impending reality of your death. It sounds a little morbid, but it’s actually quite beautiful and it can be really beneficial if you harness it for good.

In this video by motivational speaker Brendon Burchard, he shares how a car accident when he was 19 gave him mortality motivation and changed everything for him.

14. FALL, SUFFER AND LEARN | MOTIVATIONAL SPEECH BY OPRAH WINFREY

This speech by Oprah was given to Harvard graduates, and it’s a unique speech because she talks about failing, even after the major success of her television show for over 20 years.

It’s refreshing to hear that even the most successful people fail. What really matters, though, is what you do with your failure. Do you learn from it and move on? Or do you give up?

15. YOU VS YOU – Best Motivational Video

This is a pretty intense video about competition. If your #1 competition is someone else, you need to change your perspective. Your only competition is YOU. The only thing preventing you from moving forward is you.

16. The Speech That Brought This Entire School To Tears

This is a speech about a man who never really paid much attention to his mother, until she passed away. It’s an emotional reminder to cherish the time you have with your loved ones, because you never know if the next time you see them will be the last time.

In my opinion, this speaker embodies many qualities of the best motivational speakers because he really knows how to capture the audience’s attention and pull on their heart strings.

17. 5 Minutes to Start Your Day Right! – MORNING MOTIVATION

This motivational speech is by a Navy SEAL who will remind you to start each day with a task completed, respect everyone, take risks, step up during tough times, and never give up. If you do these things, the next generation, and the generations that follow, will live better lives than we live today.

18. The Real You – Jim Carrey

This video is one of the best motivational speech examples because it reminds you of something so important: sometimes we can be so focused on earning more money, gaining fame, and becoming admired that we lose ourselves or we lose sight of what’s really important to us in the process.

Jim Carrey talks about how he is a great example of that. He got all of the money, fame, and admiration, and admits that that wasn’t really who he was. Sometimes it’s nice to be reminded that money and fame, or even getting to the top of the corporate ladder, while nice, aren’t going to be the thing that brings you fulfillment when it’s all said and done.

19. Ed Mylett Motivational Speech

I posted another motivational video by Ed Mylett above, but if you don’t know much about him, prepare to have your world rocked. He’s probably my absolute favorite motivational speaker because he is successful and he works hard, but he’s also (seemingly) a kind, family guy who’s been through a few things.

In this video, he talks about being “the one” that changed his family tree. Take a listen because I’m sure it’ll get you thinking on whether or not you can be “the one” in YOUR family.

P.S. If you love personal growth content, you should check out Ed Mylett’s podcast . I listen to it every week and it is one of my favorites.

20. If You Feel LOST, LAZY & UNMOTIVATED In Life, WATCH THIS! | Tony Robbins Motivation

If you are someone who is constantly blaming others or your circumstances for your unhappiness, you need to listen to this video by Tony Robbins . Bad things happen to us all, it’s up to you to focus on what you can control.

Great Inspirational Speeches About Hard Work

How hard do you think you work? Could you be doing more? If there’s a little voice inside of your heart that knows you could be doing more and better, these motivational videos about the value of hard work will help you push yourself.

And a side note: your chances of having good luck increase the harder and longer you work.

21. You’re Not Tired, You’re Just Weak – David Goggins Motivation

If you’re feeling lazy or like you don’t want to do something, watch this video til 2:25 . It will give you the push you need to put your head down and do the work. It’ll remind you to keep pursuing your goals and to keep challenging yourself. Key takeaway: push yourself beyond your perceived limits.

22. Hard Work & Patience – A Gary Vaynerchuk Original Film

If you want to be motivated to work hard, listen to Gary Vaynerchuk. Gary Vaynerchuk is a creative genius known for his marketing tactics. This famous motivational speech is all about playing “the long game”, as in, working for a long time and having patience instead of working hard for a short period of time and expecting to win quickly.

23. OBSESSION – Best Motivational Speech

This is one of my favorite short motivational speeches because it makes me feel a little more normal for being “weird”. I’m the kind of person who chooses to work on the weekends instead of hanging out with people. Crazy, right? But it’s because I’m working toward a dream of mine and it’s something that’s really important to me. The most important thing to remember: it’s okay to devote yourself to something. It’s the only way to get what you want in life.

24. WORK LIKE HELL – Best Motivational Video

This is a series of motivational speeches about doing a little bit more and outworking your competition. I’m not going to lie – I’m up late writing this post and listening to this very video is what’s motivating me to keep going.

25. The video EVERY woman should watch!

Whether or not you’re a Rachel Hollis fan may be up for debate (and that’s okay!) but I happen to think she’s a great motivational speaker. This entire speech will inspire you to work hard and take massive action – today.

26. NEVER SURRENDER – Powerful Motivational Speech (by Kobe Bryant)

This one minute video by the late Kobe Bryant is one of the most famous short speeches. I read a book recently by his former personal trainer and I learned that Kobe really outworked everyone. He talks about a quote in this video that really stuck with him, and I think it’s great advice if you’re the kind of person who needs motivation to keep working hard.

Motivational Speeches About Working Smart

Have you ever heard the saying “work smarter, not harder”? That saying is all about ensuring that the work you are doing is actually efficient. Are you getting to where you want to go with all of the work that you are putting in? Are you getting closer to your goals and your dreams? Or are you sprinting like a hamster on a wheel and just running in circles?

Here are great videos on the importance of working hard but also working intentionally.

27. SET SYSTEMS RATHER THAN GOALS – Motivational Speech – James Clear

A goal gives you a sense of direction, but if you don’t spell out precisely how you are going to get to a goal, it is useless. You must develop systems. Listen to this James Clear video to gain valuable life lessons.

By the way, James Clear is an author who wrote perhaps my favorite book of all time: “Atomic Habits” . It’s life-changing if you haven’t read it yet.

28. Matthew McConaughey | 5 Minutes for the NEXT 50 Years of Your LIFE

This is one of the best motivational speeches of all time about how to live a great life for YOU. It’s filled with little pieces of wisdom that’ll really get you thinking about how you live your life and in what direction you want to go.

29. Visualization is the key – Bob Proctor

Do you believe in the Law of Attraction? If not, I have to say I’m surprised! I’ve experienced it in my own life more than once, and it is incredibly powerful. Here’s a great video that sums up the power of visualization, and if you want to learn more about the Law of Attraction or manifestation in general, read this post .

This video shows the true power of words, thoughts, and feelings that you have.

30. How to Stay Motivated – Carla Harris

Here is a YouTube short with very practical advice from Carla Harris on HOW to stay motivated. It’s all about having a vision!

This post was all about short inspirational speeches. Which one was your favorite?

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Related Posts

100 Funny Work Affirmations For A Positive Day

120 Powerful Buddhist Quotes That’ll Change Your Life

My Little Sister Got Engaged Before Me: Here’s How I’m Navigating This

About Taylor

A few years after graduating college, Taylor made it her mission to become debt free. After paying off all $60k of debt, she began to blog about what she's really passionate about: personal development. Nowadays, Taylor blogs about the topics of Mindset, Money, Health, and Career for women.

"It's Per$onal" is a super popular and anonymous blog series about the personal lives and finances of women all over the world. Check it out!

If you like this post, you might like these, too!

4 Letter Words That Are Inspirational & Positive 

30+ Songs About Humility and Being Humble 

Learn About

• Arts & Entertainment
• Education & Professional
• Religion & Spirituality
• Self Development
• Social Sciences
• Sports & Hobbies

• Audio and Video Learning
• Audio Book Deals
• Audio Learning
• Best Audio Books
• Free Learning
• Free Online Courses
• Great Debates
• Inspirational Speeches
• Miscellaneous
• Motivational Talks
• Video Learning
• February 2024
• December 2023
• November 2023
• October 2023
• January 2023
• September 2022
• November 2021
• August 2020
• January 2019
• February 2018
• January 2018
• December 2017
• November 2017
• October 2017
• September 2017
• January 2017
• December 2016
• September 2016
• February 2016
• January 2016
• December 2015
• November 2015
• October 2015
• August 2015
• February 2015
• January 2015
• December 2014
• November 2014
• September 2014
• February 2014
• January 2014
• December 2013
• November 2013
• October 2013
• September 2013
• August 2013
• February 2013
• January 2013
• December 2012
• November 2012
• October 2012
• September 2012
• August 2012
• February 2012
• January 2012
• December 2011
• November 2011
• October 2011
• September 2011
• August 2011
• February 2011
• January 2011
• December 2010
• November 2010
• August 2010
• February 2010
• December 2009
• November 2009
• September 2009
• August 2009
• February 2009
• January 2009
• December 2008
• October 2008
• February 2008
• January 2008
• December 2007
• November 2007
• October 2007
• September 2007
• February 2007
• January 2007
• December 2006
• November 2006
• October 2006
• September 2006
• August 2006
• February 2006
• January 2006
• December 2005
• November 2005
• October 2005
• September 2005
• August 2005
• October 2004
• September 2004

January 20, 2018

Greatest Speeches on Free Audio & Video

We’ve recently gone through and added videos to the 150 great speeches we feature from American Rhetoric .  AmericanRhetoric.com is the largest online speech bank which features over 5000 full text, audio, and video versions of public speeches, sermons, lectures, debates, and interviews. From their speech bank we’ve selected 150 of the most well known speeches they offer on streaming audio and MP3 audio download. We’ve now added to these pages the videos of the speeches when they are available as many have been uploaded to YouTube or are available on C-SPAN. You can view them all here:

Browse 150 of the Best Speeches of All Time from American Rhetoric

To see our full collection of free speeches, check out our Free Speeches Audio & Video category:

Browse Over 250 Free Speeches on Audio & Video on LearnOutLoud.com

We’ve also decided to permanently make our Great Speeches in History audio book free. You can download this collection of great speeches from throughout history exclusively on LearnOutLoud:

Download Our Free Great Speeches in History Audio Book Exclusively on LearnOutLoud.com

We also feature many speeches and talks in our over 200 top video programs we selected from C-SPAN:

The Best of the C-SPAN Video Library

For some of the most popular speeches on our site, here are the top 10 most popular speeches from American Rhetoric:

1. I Have a Dream by Martin Luther King, Jr.

2. I’ve Been to the Mountaintop by Martin Luther King, Jr.

3. Gettysburg Address by Abraham Lincoln

4. 1993 ESPY Award Address by Jim Valvano

5. A Time for Choosing (aka “The Speech”) by Ronald Reagan

6. Remarks on the Assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. by Robert F. Kennedy

7. John F. Kennedy: Inaugural Address

8. Beyond Vietnam by Martin Luther King, Jr.

9. The Ballot or the Bullet by Malcolm X

10. D-Day Pre-invasion Address to Soldiers by Dwight D. Eisenhower

In addition to these great speeches, you can listen to over 25 one-hour audio books that highlight some of the greatest speeches of the past century. For years now we’ve been selling the audio books of Speechworks on audio download. Their audio books feature highlights from great speeches of past presidents and notable figures like Sir Winston Churchill, Martin Luther King, Jr., Joe DiMaggio, and Muhammad Ali. Now over 25 of their audio books are available to stream for free from Spotify. We still sell them on audio download but have embedded the albums on Spotify on our these pages. Please Note: In order to listen to these audio books you’ll need a free Spotify account. You can listen for free with occasional ads and they also have Spotify software for easier listening on your computer. If you want to listen ad-free and on a smart phone and you love music as well, we can’t recommend Spotify Premium highly enough.

Apollo 13: The Real Mission

Bobby: The Speeches of Robert F. Kennedy

Dwight D. Eisenhower: IKE

Edward M. Kennedy: Lion of the Senate

FDR: Mr. President

FDR: Nothing to Fear

General Douglas A. MacArthur: Soldier

The Greatest Speeches of All Time: Volume I

The Greatest Speeches of All Time: Volume II

The Greatest Speeches of All Time: Volume III

Harry S. Truman: Give ’em Hell, Harry

JFK: The Kennedy Tapes

JFK: The Kennedy Tapes Vol. II

Joe DiMaggio: The Yankee Clipper

John F. Kennedy: The JFK Wit

Lyndon Baines Johnson: LBJ

Martin Luther King Jr.: We Shall Overcome

Michael Jordan: An Audio Tribute

MLK: The Martin Luther King, Jr. Tapes

Muhammad Ali: An Audio Tribute – Beyond the Myth

Richard M. Nixon: The Nixon Tapes

Robert F. Kennedy: In His Own Words

Ronald Reagan: The Great Speeches Vol. 1

Ronald Reagan: The Great Speeches Vol. 2

Sir Winston Churchill: “The War Years”

Sir Winston Churchill: His Finest Hour

William Jefferson Clinton: Great Speeches

And if you’d like to listen to full speeches from our past presidents, we also are linking to large Spotify playlists on the below pages, along with linking to the Miller Center of Public Affairs which features the largest collections of presidential speeches on audio & video. Here they are in presidential order:

Franklin D. Roosevelt Speeches

Harry S. Truman Speeches

Dwight D. Eisenhower Speeches

John F. Kennedy Speeches

Lyndon B. Johnson Speeches

Richard Nixon Speeches

Gerald Ford Speeches

Jimmy Carter Speeches

Ronald Reagan Speeches

George H.W. Bush Speeches

William J. Clinton Speeches

George W. Bush Speeches

Barack Obama Speeches

Lots of speeches on audio & video to choose from. Be inspired by some of the most famous speeches of all time on LearnOutLoud!

You are using an outdated browser. Please upgrade your browser or activate Google Chrome Frame to improve your experience.

13 Speeches in English for Listening and Speaking Practice

Giving a speech in front of a whole room of people can be pretty scary. Especially if you are giving a speech in English as a non-native speaker.

But you can learn from the best.

You can watch videos of famous, effective speeches in English to learn how to do it the right way .

In this post we will share 13 amazing speeches in English that you can use to become a more confident speaker yourself.

1. Speech on Kindness by a 10-year-old Girl

2. “the effects of lying” by georgia haukom, 3. “education for all” by cameron allen, 4. gender equality speech by emma watson, 5. “rocky balboa speech” by sylvester stallone, 6. 2008 presidential acceptance speech by president barack obama, 7. “this is water” speech by david foster wallace, 8. “the great dictator speech” by charlie chaplin, 9. 2018 golden globe speech by oprah winfrey, 10. “i have a dream” speech by martin luther king jr., 11. “the gettysburg address” by abraham lincoln, 12. “britain does owe reparations” by shashi tharoor, 13. mark antony’s speech by william shakespeare, and one more thing....

Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)

Level: Beginner

Do you think people should be kind to one another? This speaker sure does. And she knows how to convince you of the same.

This is a perfect informative speech for beginner English learners . The speaker is a child who is able to speak fluently but with simple words . She also uses her gestures and facial expressions to communicate her emotions with the audience.

This speech is perfect for listening practice . However, learners should be aware that her pauses are not perfect. Learners should focus more on her words and the content of the speech than her intonation or pacing while practicing.

Even though the speaker is a student in the fourth grade, her speech is one of the most interactive speeches I have seen. She starts with a game and is able to make her main point through the game itself.

English learners will enjoy her speech especially because the vocabulary she uses is simple and can be easily learned. But it does not feel like a beginner wrote this speech because she uses her words so well.

If you want to learn the art of making basic arguments while speaking, you should watch this speech. She is able to convince her audience because she is able to connect with them through games and stories.

She also uses scientific studies to back up (support) her main points.

Level: Intermediate

This is a short and simple speech about why everyone in the world should get an education. Because the speaker is a child, the speech does not have complex words or sentence structures.

This is also a classic example of an informative speech. The speaker presents the main argument and the facts simply and clearly . She also gives the basic definitions of important terms in the speech itself.

This speech is perfect for English listening and speaking practice because it is so short but also full of useful information. It is also a good example of the standard American English accent .

Emma Watson is a famous English actress who is best known for her role in the “Harry Potter” movie series as Hermione. She is also a United Nations Women Goodwill Ambassador .

In this speech, she is trying to both inform and convince the audience  of why men should support feminism. Feminism is a movement that asks for equal rights and opportunities for women.

She mixes her formal tone with personal stories to do this. The speech is also a good example of British English .

This is a speech taken from the movie “Rocky Balboa.”  In this scene, Rocky, played by Sylvester Stallone, is talking to his son.

His speech is a classic example of a motivational speech . In these kinds of speeches, a person tries to inspire someone else, especially when the listener feels hopeless or is full of shame.

The basic message of the speech is that no matter how strong a person is, he or she will always face difficulties. And even though the message does not sound positive, Stallone’s way of speaking still makes it inspiring.

Stallone is able to communicate his message with love, even though he is criticizing his son and telling him difficult facts about the world. Generally, this is called “tough love” in English.

Listeners should also notice how he uses gestures to make his point .

Compare this speech with the Oprah Winfrey and Martin Luther King speeches (later in this list). All of them inspire their audiences but have really different tones. Stallone’s speech is the most informal and personal while Martin Luther King’s speech is the most formal and written for a large audience. All these speeches are in American English.

Barack Obama was the first African American elected as president by U.S. citizens. He gave this speech after he won the election.

English learners can discover a lot from his speech. Obama talks about the most important issues Americans were facing back then and are still important to them. He also uses a kind of American English that is easy to understand . His speech is mainly about the values that he and Americans stand for.

Obama’s accent is a mixture of standard American English and the way of speaking commonly popular in African American communities. He is an expert in using pauses so that the audience can follow his words without breaking his rhythm.

As the speech is longer than most others on this list, you may want to listen to it in parts rather than beginning-to-end.

Level: Advanced

This speech is a perfect example of the mixture of casual and formal English . David Foster Wallace was an award-winning American writer who wrote about the culture of the U.S.

In this speech, he talks about the value of an education in liberal arts (general academic subjects, as opposed to technical/professional training). He believes that this kind of education teaches you how to think and think about others.

This is a good example of American English. Be aware that in some parts of the speech he also uses swear words (rude/offensive words) to create an emotional impact on the audience. This is very close to how people generally communicate with one another in daily life.

So, this speech is better for learning casual English even though it is a speech given at a university.

Level: Intermediate to Advanced

Charlie Chaplin is generally known for his gestures and facial expressions. In this movie, he proves that he can use speech as well to inspire and entertain the viewers.

The movie “The Great Dictator” is a satire about the rise of authoritarian governments in Europe. The word “authoritarian” means a person or a government that believes in controlling others and does not believe in freedom.

In this speech, Charlie Chaplin copies Adolf Hitler , but his message is exactly the opposite of Hitler’s ideas.

The interesting thing about the speech is how Chaplin uses short sentences for the most impact . There is also a lot of repetition that makes it easy for the audience to follow the speech.

Chaplin uses the tone, rhythm and pitch of his voice to make the speech interesting instead of using varied words. Chaplin’s speech can be categorized as inspirational or motivational. It does not use formal words but neither is it casual or informal.

Oprah Winfrey is an American talk show host and actor who is known around the world for her interviews. In the 2018 Golden Globe Awards, she was awarded the Cecil B. deMille award .

Her speech at the award show is about many different topics related to American society. She is the first African American woman to be awarded the prize . She talks about how watching an African American celebrity get another big entertainment award many years ago changed her life.

She also talks about sexual assault and the search for justice in American society. The MeToo movement is the main subject of the speech.

Even though the speech is in formal English , Oprah is able to make it emotional and personal .

Learners should focus on how she uses chunking in her sentences . Chunking is the technique of grouping words (called chunks) in a sentence with a slight pause between every chunk. It also helps with intonation and the rhythm of speaking.

This is one of the most well-known speeches of the last century . Martin Luther King Jr. was a leader of the civil rights movement in the U.S. The movement demanded that people of different races should be treated equally. This speech summarized the main vision of the movement using metaphors and repetition .

The speech begins by referring to the “Emancipation Proclamation.”  The proclamation (official announcement) was an order by President Abraham Lincoln in 1863 that freed many slaves in the U.S. Martin Luther King talks about this because most of the slaves were African Americans and it was their first step towards freedom.

Advanced learners can learn about the history and cultural conflicts of America through this speech. It is also a perfect example of the use of formal English to convince other people .

Some of the words used in this speech are no longer common in American English. “Negro” is often regarded as an insult and learners should use words like “African American” instead.

This speech, delivered by the 16th president of the U.S. (Abraham Lincoln, whom we just discussed above) is considered to be one of the best speeches in English .

Lincoln delivered this in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania where many soldiers had died fighting a civil war. It was fought between Americans who wanted to ban slavery and people who did not. Lincoln was there to dedicate a graveyard to the soldiers.

In this speech, Lincoln reminds the people why this was an important war. He mentions that the U.S. was created on the values of liberty and equality. And this civil war was a test of whether a nation based on these values can last for long or not.

He honors the soldiers by saying that they have already “consecrated” the land for the people of America. (“To consecrate” means to make something sacred or holy.) He reminds the audience that they have to make sure that the idea of America as a nation of freedom continues so that the efforts of these soldiers are not wasted.

This is a very short speech . Learners can easily listen to it multiple times in a practice session. But only advanced learners can understand it since it has several difficult words in it. For instance, “score” is an outdated term used for the number 20. And when he mentions the word “fathers” in the first line he is actually referring to the leaders who had founded the country of America.

Even though Shashi Tharoor is not a native English speaker, his English is so fluent that he sounds like one. Learners from India will instantly recognize him because he is famous there for his English skills.

In this video, he is giving a speech as a part of a debate at Oxford University . He lists out arguments that support the idea that the U.K. should give reparations to its colonies. “Reparations” are payments to a country or community for some harm done to them. A colony is a region or a country that is controlled by another country by force.

Britain had a large number of colonies throughout the world between the 16th and 20th centuries. In this speech, Tharoor tries to convince his audience that the U.K. should give something for the damage they did to the countries they had colonized.

This is one of the finest examples of a formal speech in today’s English . Learners who want to go into academics can learn how to organize their arguments with evidence.

The speech is also great for vocabulary practice . Plus, Tharoor has deep knowledge of both the national history of the U.K. and the colonial history of India. Apart from the content of the speech, his way of speaking is also impressive and is similar to formal British English .

This speech is part of a play called “Julius Caesar”  written by William Shakespeare. The play is based on the life and murder of Caesar who was a leader of the Roman Empire. The speech is considered to be one of the finest pieces of English literature .

It is also one of the best examples of the use of rhetoric (the art of speaking and persuasion).

Mark Antony makes this speech after Caesar is killed by other leaders of the Roman Empire. Antony was a close friend of Caesar’s and here he tries to remind the people of Rome that Caesar was actually a good man. He has to convince the people that his murderers like Brutus are actually criminals. But he has to do so without directly blaming the murderers.

Advanced learners should know this speech mainly because of its cultural value.

Many words in this speech have been replaced by other words in today’s English. “Hath” is the older form of “has” or “had.” “Thou” has also been replaced by the word “you.”

So rather than memorizing the vocabulary, learners should focus on how Damian Lewis delivers the speech instead. The intonation, tone, pitch and rhythm is similar to the formal English used today. He is also good at conveying emotions through pauses and expressions.

If you keep watching videos of native speakers talking, you’ll get used to hearing how different people talk in English. After watching these speeches, you could look for more speeches or interviews on YouTube. 

A video-based immersion program can give you even more native speech to work with. FluentU , for example, features news clips and inspiring talks among its English language videos.

The best way to learn the art of speaking is to first copy great speakers. Try to speak the same words in a style that is natural and comfortable to you. These speeches in English are the perfect material to master it!

If you like learning English through movies and online media, you should also check out FluentU. FluentU lets you learn English from popular talk shows, catchy music videos and funny commercials , as you can see here:

If you want to watch it, the FluentU app has probably got it.

The FluentU app and website makes it really easy to watch English videos. There are captions that are interactive. That means you can tap on any word to see an image, definition, and useful examples.

FluentU lets you learn engaging content with world famous celebrities.

For example, when you tap on the word "searching," you see this:

FluentU lets you tap to look up any word.

Learn all the vocabulary in any video with quizzes. Swipe left or right to see more examples for the word you’re learning.

FluentU helps you learn fast with useful questions and multiple examples. Learn more.

The best part? FluentU remembers the vocabulary that you’re learning. It gives you extra practice with difficult words—and reminds you when it’s time to review what you’ve learned. You have a truly personalized experience.

Start using the FluentU website on your computer or tablet or, better yet, download the FluentU app from the iTunes or Google Play store. Click here to take advantage of our current sale! (Expires at the end of this month.)

Enter your e-mail address to get your free PDF!

We hate SPAM and promise to keep your email address safe

Talks to help you be a better listener

Talks on the importance of listening, and how to do it much better.

5 ways to listen better

Everyone around you has a story the world needs to hear

How to truly listen

Want to help someone? Shut up and listen!

Listening to global voices

The voices of Twitter users

I listen to color

Listen, learn ... then lead

A history of the universe in sound

Best TED Talks: 10 inspirational speeches you absolutely have to hear

Looking for a good TED Talk to expand your worldview? Here are 10 of the best

The best TED Talks make you think, leave you inspired and, very often, make you laugh as well. We've been watching Ted Talks evolve and grow over the last 15 years and have come to treasure the nuggets of wisdom they impart. 

But if you're just discovering Ted Talks for the first time - or feel like you've missed a bunch throughout the years - we want to help you dive head-first into the heady lecture series with a round-up of our absolute favorites: What you'll find below is a collection of personal picks from the TechRadar team that we feel best exemplify what a Ted Talk can be. 

Not seeing one of your favorite talks below? Drop me an email and I'll try to add it to the list.

How to gain control of your free time by Laura Vanderkam 

There’s a certain irony in watching a YouTube video on how to save time, but Laura Vanderkam’s talk is worth the 10 minutes of your life. It’s all built on the basic idea that shaving 5 minutes here and there from your favorite activities isn’t really going to give you more control of your life - rather, you need to set priorities for yourself and then build a schedule around those priorities. 

The hilarious example Vanderkam offers is that, instead of skipping commercials to save eight minutes of every half hour of TV you watch, maybe you could just watch a little less TV and do something else with your time. The message is simple, effective and engaging, all the hallmarks of a good TED Talk.

What makes a good life? Lessons from the longest study on happiness by Robert Waldinger 

“Good relationships keep us healthier and happier. Period.” That’s the results of a landmark study of happiness conducted by more than four generations of researchers over the last 75 years, tracking hundreds of participants and measuring every facet of their lives. 

This Ted Talk takes awhile to get to the juicy details but the story of this preternatural study on happiness illustrates the lengths the researchers have gone through to get this invaluable data that shows us what makes people happy at the end of their lives. The results sound simple - almost infuriatingly so - but the lesson here is that anyone can be happy with the right relationships in their lives. 

Get daily insight, inspiration and deals in your inbox

Get the hottest deals available in your inbox plus news, reviews, opinion, analysis and more from the TechRadar team.

The game that can give you 10 extra years of life by Jane McGonigal 

Gamers, it turns out, are pretty awesome. They’re committed to saving virtual worlds and with the right skills and focus they might be able to save the physical world, too. McGonigal, a game developer and author, has spent years creating different apps and games that use in-game rewards to push players to solve real world problems. 

The talk, which is a bit long at 20 minutes, walks the audience through her previous experiences creating these games and the research data that she uses to get gamers engaged before diving into Superbetter, the app she developed to make everyone who plays it live better, fuller lives.  

 The art of asking by Amanda Palmer 

Former busker-turned-successful-musician Amanda Palmer has a key lesson for everyone: don’t be afraid to ask. Society puts an inherent shame on those who ask - whether that’s for financial help or security, emotional help or even basic requests like where to find something - when, in fact, asking for help is one of the best things we can do. Asking, Palmer says, is inherently human and powerful, it allows us to create connections and leverage those connections to do more. That was evident when she wanted to crowdfund her band’s next CD, asking for $100,000, and raising over a million dollars instead. 

The point here is that next time you look down on someone asking, instead view them with compassion and make a connection - because in the long run that’s more powerful, more effective and, well, more human.  

The first 20 hours -- how to learn anything by Josh Kaufman 

Have you ever heard the old adage about needing to spend 10,000 hours to learn a skill? Good news, it's wrong. As it turns out, the research that factoid is taken from was studying experts in their respective fields, and not, say, the average trombonist. 

In this talk, new father Josh Kaufman walks us through how long it actually takes to learn a skill - which, incidentally, is only around 20 hours. Now sure, 20 hours of practice isn't going to make you the next Bobby Fischer, but it will be enough time to teach you the basics and, most importantly, how to auto-correct yourself when you've done something amiss. If you've ever felt like the ship has sailed on learning a new language, playing an instrument or learning a new skill, this talk is for you.

Everything you think you know about addiction is wrong by Johann Hari 

Journalist and author Johann Hari (Lost Connections, Chasing the Scream) offers a wide-ranging look at addiction in this 14-minute talk, whether that’s addiction to hard drugs, alcohol, or the endlessly-updating feeds on our smartphones.

We tend to think of addiction as a problem caused by the substance itself. We say that phones are addictive, or heroin is addictive – but Hari makes a case for a more nuanced understanding, one that sees how social circumstance affects our propensity for addiction, and the difference that strong bonds to those around us can make.

The power of vulnerability by Brené Brown 

With over 47 million views, Brené Brown’s Ted Talk on the power of vulnerability is one of the most watched Ted Talks of all time, and for good reason. 

In this 20-minute presentation, Brown shares what she’s learnt about the nature of shame, and how our fear of vulnerability prevents us from being able to fully embrace ourselves. As a researcher trained to “control and predict” phenomena, she shares her difficulty accepting the idea that to live fully is to stop attempting to “control and predict” at all.

An incredibly powerful talk that shows you – rather than just telling you – what it means to be vulnerable, and explores what a world that embraces vulnerability might look like.

Meeting the Enemy: A feminist comes to terms with the Men’s Rights movement by Cassie Jaye 

What filmmaker Cassie Jaye does here that’s so special is that she walks us through an immense period of growth in her life thought-by-thought. At one point a stringent feminist, Jaye began a documentary about the Men’s Rights movement that asks for the acknowledgement of certain, specific issues that men face - a movement she thought ran counter to the central points of feminism. 

What she learned in over a hundred hours of interviews with men’s rights activists is that these men didn’t want fewer rights for women, but some of the same care and devotion to some of the issues impacting men like veteran care, suicide, disproportionate parental control, length of prison sentences and others that do well and truly impact the life of men. The evolution of Jaye’s thoughts and the admission of her own preconceived notions is enthralling from beginning to end. 

How I climbed a 3,000-foot vertical cliff without ropes by Alex Honnold 

If you don’t have time for the excellent - but nearly two-hour - documentary Free Solo, check out this 10-minute Ted Talk by legendary rock-climber Alex Honnold who did something many thought to be impossible - or at least incredibly dangerous - when he climbed El Capitan, a sheer rock face in Yosemite National Park without ropes. 

Honnold’s Ted Talk gives a great overview of the climb, as well as his previous experiences leading up to it. Listening to Honnold describe certain parts of the trek are legitimately sweat-inducing and his experiences post-climb are both hilarious and heart-warming. It’s well-worth the watch. 

This is what happens when you reply to spam email by James Veitch 

Not all Ted Talks have to be heady ventures to the core of who we are. They can, in fact, just be funny and lighthearted, too. There’s no better example of these kinds of talks than the ones given by James Veitch (yes there’s more than one) wherein he takes annoying-but-easily-ignorable situations like unsubscribing from an email chain and turn them into absurdly funny matches of verbal wit between two utterly committed individuals. If you need a laugh after all this profound introspection, Veitch’s talks are the best bet. 

BONUS: Bobby McFerrin Demonstrates the Power of the Pentatonic Scale 

OK, while this one technically isn’t a Ted Talk, it has the spirit of one and includes Bobby McFerrin, which really just sells itself. 

Just try not to sing along, it's impossible not to.

• Looking for more things to watch? Check out our list of the best Netflix shows

Nick Pino is Managing Editor, TV and AV for TechRadar's sister site, Tom's Guide. Previously, he was the Senior Editor of Home Entertainment at TechRadar, covering TVs, headphones, speakers, video games, VR and streaming devices. He's also written for GamesRadar+, Official Xbox Magazine, PC Gamer and other outlets over the last decade, and he has a degree in computer science he's not using if anyone wants it.

How to watch A Brief History of the Future online from anywhere

Marvel's Thunderbolts movie rides out its creative storm as MCU film finally starts shooting

Leaked iPhone 16 dummy units show design changes for all four phones

Most Popular

By Cesar Cadenas April 03, 2024

By Wayne Williams April 03, 2024

By James Ide April 03, 2024

By Darren Allan April 03, 2024

By Sead Fadilpašić April 03, 2024

By Hamish Hector April 03, 2024

By Alex Whitelock April 03, 2024

By Mackenzie Frazier April 03, 2024

• 2 Everything new on Max in April 2024
• 3 In praise of Google Keep: an ode to the digital notebook for modern minds
• 4 Not a joke: LG's stunning C3 OLED TV drops to a record-low price at Best Buy
• 5 It's good that PC gaming is less convenient than console gaming
• 2 This neat iPhone camera trick will let you take pictures using nothing but your voice
• 3 Buying a new TV in 2024? Make it a Sony
• 4 Samsung can't blame Apple's iPhone monopoly for a lifetime of terrible software
• 5 I lived with Samsung’s S95D QD-OLED TV for a week, and it’s a game changer

The 8 Key Elements of Highly Effective Speech

…and why your words barely matter.

Posted July 10, 2012 | Reviewed by Ekua Hagan

I’d like you to take a moment to experience the following sentence, taken from a recent article exploring the nature of human consciousness: “Neuroplastic mechanisms relevant to the growing number of empirical studies of the capacity of directed attention and mental effort systematically alter brain function.”

Exciting? Hardly! In fact, most of the words you read barely register in your brain, and most of the words you speak barely register in the listener’s brain. In fact, research shows that words are the least important part of communication when you have face-to-face conversations with others. So before you utter another word to another person, memorize this list of the 8 key elements of highly effective speech:

• Gentle eye contact
• Kind facial expression
• Warm tone of voice
• Expressive hand and body gestures
• Relaxed disposition
• Slow speech rate
• The words themselves

Effective communication is based on trust, and if we don’t trust the speaker, we’re not going to listen to their words. Trust begins with eye contact because we need to see the person’s face to evaluate if they are being deceitful or not. In fact, when we are being watched, cooperation increases. [1] When we are not being watched, people tend to act more selfishly, with greater dishonesty. [2]

Gentle eye contact increases trustworthiness and encourages future cooperation, [3] and a happy gaze will increase emotional trust. [4] However, if we see the slightest bit of anger or fear on the speaker’s face, our trust will rapidly decrease. [5] But you can’t fake trustworthiness because the muscles around your mouth and eyes that reflect contentment and sincerity are involuntary. Solution: if you think about someone you love, or an event that brought you deep joy and satisfaction, a "Mona Lisa" smile will appear on your face and the muscles around your eyes will soften.

The tone of your voice is equally important when it comes to understanding what a person is really trying to say. If the facial expression expresses one emotion , but if the tone conveys a different one, neural dissonance takes place in the brain, causing the person confusion. [6] The result: trust erodes, suspicion increases, and cooperation decreases.

Researchers at the University of Amsterdam found that expressions of anger, contempt, disgust, fear, sadness, and surprise were better communicated through vocal tone than facial expression, whereas the face was more accurate for communicating expressions of joy, pride, and embarrassment . [7] And in business, a warm supportive voice is the sign of transformational leadership , generating more satisfaction, commitment, and cooperation between other members of the team. [8]

You can easily train your voice to convey more trust to others, and all you have to do is slow down and drop your pitch. This was tested at the University of Houston: when doctors reduced their speaking rate and pitch, especially when delivering bad news, the listener perceived them “as more caring and sympathetic.” [9] Harvard's Ted Kaptchuk also discovered that using a warm voice would double the healing power of a therapeutic treatment. [10]

If you want to express joy, your voice needs to become increasingly melodic, whereas sadness is spoken with a flat and monotonic voice. When we are angry, excited, or frightened, we raise the pitch and intensity of our voice, and there’s a lot of variability in both the speed and the tone. However, if the emotion is incongruent with the words you are using, it will create confusion for the listener. [11]

Gestures, and especially hand movements, are also important because they help orchestrate the language comprehension centers of your brain. [12] In fact, your brain needs to integrate both the sounds and body movements of the person who is speaking in order to accurately perceive what is meant. [13] From an evolutionary perspective, speech emerged from hand gestures and they both originate the same language area of the brain. [14] If our words and gestures are incongruent, it will create confusion in the listener’s brain. [15] Our suggestion: practice speaking in front of a mirror, consciously using your hands to “describe” the words you are speaking.

Your degree of relaxation is also reflected in your body language , facial expressions, and tone of voice, and any form of stress will convey a message of distrust . Why? Your stress tells the observer’s brain that there may be something wrong, and that stimulates defensive posturing in the listener. Research shows that even a one-minute relaxation exercise will increase activity in those parts of the brain that control language, communication, social awareness, mood-regulation, and decision-making . [16] Thus, a relaxed conversation allows for increased intimacy and empathy. Stress, however, causes us to talk too much because it hinders our ability to speak with clarity.

When you speak, slow down! Slow speech rates will increase the ability for the listener to comprehend what you are saying, and this is true for both young and older adults. [17] Slower speaking will also deepen that person’s respect for you, [18] Speaking slowly is not as natural as it may seem, and as children we automatically speak fast. But you can teach yourself, and your children to slow down by consciously cutting your speech rate in half. A slow voice has a calming effect on a person who is feeling anxious , whereas a loud fast voice will stimulate excitement, anger, or fear. [19]

Try this experiment: pair up with a partner and speak so slowly that … you … leave … 5 … seconds … of … silence … between … each … word. You’ll become aware of your negative inner speech that tells you that you should babble on endlessly and as fast as possible. It’s a trap, because the listener’s brain can only recall about 10 seconds of content! That’s why, when we train people in Compassionate Communication, we ask participants to speak only one sentence at a time, slowly, and then listen deeply as the other person speaks for ten seconds or less. This exercise will increase your overall consciousness about the importance of the first 7 elements of highly effective communication. Then, and only then, will you truly grasp the deeper meaning that is imparted by each word spoken by others.

But what about written communication, where you only have access to the words? When it comes to mutual comprehension, the written word pales in comparison to speech. To compensate, your brain imposes arbitrary meanings onto the words. You, the reader, give the words emotional impact that often differs from what the writer intended, which is why so many email correspondences get misinterpreted. And unless the writer fills in the blanks with specific emotional words and descriptive speech – storytelling – the reader will experience your writing as being flat, boring , dry, and probably more negative than you intended.

The solution: help the reader “paint a picture” in their mind with your words. Use concrete nouns and action verbs because they are easier for the reader’s brain to visualize. Words like “sunset” or “eat” are easy to see in the mind's eye, but words like “freedom” or “identify” force the brain to sort through too many conceptual frameworks. Instead, our lazy brain will skip over as many words as possible, especially the abstract ones. When this happens the deeper levels of meaning and feeling will be lost.

For more information on how to improve your speaking and listening skills, along with additional exercises to practice, see Words Can Change Your Brain: 12 Conversation Strategies for Building Trust, Reducing Conflict, and Increasing Intimacy (Newberg & Waldman, 2012, Hudson Street Press).

[1] Cues of being watched enhance cooperation in a real-world setting. Bateson M, Nettle D, Roberts G. Biol Lett. 2006 Sep 22;2(3):412-4.

[2] Effects of anonymity on antisocial behavior committed by individuals. Nogami T, Takai J. Psychol Rep. 2008 Feb;102(1):119-30.

[3] Eyes are on us, but nobody cares: are eye cues relevant for strong reciprocity? Fehr E, Schneider F. Proc Biol Sci. 2010 May 7;277(1686):1315-23.

[4] Evaluating faces on trustworthiness: an extension of systems for recognition of emotions signaling approach/avoidance behaviors. Todorov A. Ann N Y Acad Sci. 2008 Mar;1124:208-24.

[5] Common neural mechanisms for the evaluation of facial trustworthiness and emotional expressions as revealed by behavioral adaptation. Engell AD, Todorov A, Haxby JV. Perception. 2010;39(7):931-41.

[6] Use of affective prosody by young and older adults. Dupuis K, Pichora-Fuller MK. Psychol Aging. 2010 Mar;25(1):16-29.

[7] "Worth a thousand words": absolute and relative decoding of nonlinguistic affect vocalizations. Hawk ST, van Kleef GA, Fischer AH, van der Schalk J. Emotion. 2009 Jun;9(3):293-305.

[8] Leadership = Communication? The Relations of Leaders' Communication Styles with Leadership Styles, Knowledge Sharing and Leadership Outcomes. de Vries RE, Bakker-Pieper A, Oostenveld W. J Bus Psychol. 2010 Sep;25(3):367-380.

[9] Voice analysis during bad news discussion in oncology: reduced pitch, decreased speaking rate, and nonverbal communication of empathy. McHenry M, Parker PA, Baile WF, Lenzi R. Support Care Cancer. 2011 May 15.

[10] Components of placebo effect: randomised controlled trial in patients with irritable bowel syndrome. Kaptchuk TJ, Kelley JM, Conboy LA, Davis RB, Kerr CE, Jacobson EE, Kirsch I, Schyner RN, Nam BH, Nguyen LT, Park M, Rivers AL, McManus C, Kokkotou E, Drossman DA, Goldman P, Lembo AJ. BMJ. 2008 May 3;336(7651):999-1003.

[11] Use of affective prosody by young and older adults. Dupuis K, Pichora-Fuller MK. Psychol Aging. 2010 Mar;25(1):16-29.

[12] Gestures orchestrate brain networks for language understanding. Skipper JI, Goldin-Meadow S, Nusbaum HC, Small SL. Curr Biol. 2009 Apr 28;19(8):661-7.

[13] When language meets action: the neural integration of gesture and speech. Willems RM, Ozyürek A, Hagoort P. Cereb Cortex. 2007 Oct;17(10):2322-33.

[14] When the hands speak. Gentilucci M, Dalla Volta R, Gianelli C. J Physiol Paris. 2008 Jan-May;102(1-3):21-30. Epub 2008 Mar 18.

[15] How symbolic gestures and words interact with each other. Barbieri F, Buonocore A,Volta RD, Gentilucci M. Brain Lang. 2009 Jul;110(1):1-11.

[16i] Short-term meditation training improves attention and self-regulation. Tang YY, Ma Y, Wang J, Fan Y, Feng S, Lu Q, Yu Q, Sui D, Rothbart MK, Fan M, Posner MI. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2007 Oct 23;104(43):17152-6.

[17] Comprehension of speeded discourse by younger and older listeners. Gordon MS, Daneman M, Schneider BA. Exp Aging Res. 2009 Jul-Sep;35(3):277-96.

[18] Celerity and cajolery: rapid speech may promote or inhibit persuasion through its impact on message elaboration. Smith SM, Shaffer, DR. Pers Soc Psychol Bull. 1991 Dec;17(6):663-669.

[19] Voices of fear and anxiety and sadness and depression: the effects of speech rate and loudness on fear and anxiety and sadness and depression. Siegman AW, Boyle S. J Abnorm Psychol. 1993 Aug;102(3):430-7. The angry voice: its effects on the experience of anger and cardiovascular reactivity. Siegman AW, Anderson RA, Berger T. Psychosom Med. 1990 Nov-Dec;52(6):631-43.

Andrew Newberg, M.D ., and Mark Robert Waldman are the authors of Words Can Change Your Brain .

• Find a Therapist
• Find a Treatment Center
• Find a Psychiatrist
• Find a Support Group
• Find Teletherapy
• United States
• Brooklyn, NY
• Chicago, IL
• Houston, TX
• Los Angeles, CA
• New York, NY
• Portland, OR
• San Diego, CA
• San Francisco, CA
• Seattle, WA
• Washington, DC
• Asperger's
• Bipolar Disorder
• Chronic Pain
• Eating Disorders
• Passive Aggression
• Personality
• Goal Setting
• Positive Psychology
• Stopping Smoking
• Low Sexual Desire
• Relationships
• Child Development
• Therapy Center NEW
• Diagnosis Dictionary
• Types of Therapy

Understanding what emotional intelligence looks like and the steps needed to improve it could light a path to a more emotionally adept world.

• Coronavirus Disease 2019
• Affective Forecasting
• Neuroscience

Module 3: Listening Effectively

Encouraging effective listening.

“William Henry Harrison” by James Reid Lambdin. Public domain.

William Henry Harrison was the ninth President of the United States. He’s also recognized for giving the worst State of the Union address—ever. His two-hour speech delivered in a snowstorm in 1841 proves that a long speech can kill (and not in the colloquial “it was so good” sense). Perhaps it was karma, but after the President gave his meandering speech discussing ancient Roman history more than campaign issues, he died from a cold caught while blathering on standing outside without a hat or coat. [1]

Now, when asked what you know about Abraham Lincoln, you’re likely to have more answers to offer. Let’s focus on his Gettysburg Address. The speech is a model of brevity. His “of the people, by the people, for the people” is always employed as an example of parallelism, and he kept his words simple. In short, Lincoln considered his listening audience when writing his speech.

The habit of common and continuous speech is a symptom of mental deficiency. It proceeds from not knowing what is going on in other people’s minds. – Walter Bagehot

When you sit down to compose a speech, keep in mind that you are writing for the ear rather than the eye. Listeners cannot go back and reread what you have just said. They need to grasp your message in the amount of time it takes you to speak the words. To help them accomplish this, you need to give listeners a clear idea of your overarching aim, reasons to care, and cues about what is important. You need to inspire them to want to not just hear but engage in what you are saying.

Make Your Listeners Care

Humans are motivated by ego; they always want to know “what’s in it for me?” So, when you want to want to get an audience’s attention, it is imperative to establish a reason for your listeners to care about what you are saying.

Some might say Oprah did this by giving away cars at the end of an episode. But, that only explains why people waited in line for hours to get a chance to sit in the audience as her shows were taped. As long as they were in the stands, they didn’t need to listen to get the car at the end of the show. Yet Oprah had audiences listening to her for 25 years before she launched her own network. She made listeners care about what she was saying. She told them what was in that episode for them. She made her audience members feel like she was talking to them about their problems, and offering solutions that they could use—even if they weren’t multibillionaires known worldwide by first name alone.

Audiences are also more responsive when you find a means to tap their intrinsic motivation , by appealing to curiosity, challenging them, or providing contextualization. [2] You might appeal to the audience’s curiosity if you are giving an informative speech about a topic they might not be familiar with already. Even in a narrative speech, you can touch on curiosity by cueing the audience to the significant thing they will learn about you or your topic from the story. A speech can present a challenge too. Persuasive speeches challenge the audience to think in a new way. Special Occasion speeches might challenge the listeners to reflect or prompt action. Providing a listener with contextualization comes back to the what’s in it for me motivation. A student giving an informative speech about the steps in creating a mosaic could simply offer a step-by-step outline of the process, or she can frame it by saying to her listener, “by the end of my speech, you’ll have all the tools you need to make a mosaic on your own.” This promise prompts the audience to sit further forward in their seats for what might otherwise be a dry how-to recitation.

Cue Your Listeners

“Make way for ducklings” by lee. CC-BY-NC-ND .

Audiences also lean in further when you employ active voice. We do this in speaking without hesitation. Imagine you were walking across campus and saw the contents of someone’s room dumped out on the lawn in front of your dorm. You’d probably tell a friend: “The contents of Jane’s room were thrown out the window by Julie.” Wait, that doesn’t sound right. You’re more likely to say: “Julie threw Jane’s stuff out the window!” The latter is an example of active voice. You put the actor (Julie) and the action (throwing Jane’s stuff) at the beginning. When we try to speak formally, we can fall into passive voice. Yet, it sounds stuffy, and so unfamiliar to your listener’s ear that he will struggle to process the point while you’ve already moved on to the next thing you wanted to say.

Twice and thrice over, as they say, good is it to repeat and review what is good. – Plato

Knowing that your audience only hears what you are saying the one time you say it, invites you to employ repetition. Listeners are more likely to absorb a sound when it is repeated. We are often unconsciously waiting for a repetition to occur so we can confirm what we thought we heard. [3] As a result, employing repetition can emphasize an idea for the listener. Employing repetition of a word, words, or sentence can create a rhythm for the listener’s ear. Employing repetition too often, though, can be tiresome.

If you don’t want to repeat things so often you remind your listener of a sound clip on endless loop, you can also cue your listener through vocal emphasis. Volume is a tool speakers can employ to gain attention. Certainly parents use it all of the time. Yet, you probably don’t want to spend your entire speech shouting at your audience. Instead, you can modulate your voice so that you say something important slightly louder. Or, you say something more softly, although still audible, before echoing it again with greater volume to emphasize the repetition. Changing your pitch or volume can help secure audience attention for a longer period of time, as we welcome the variety.

Pace is another speaker’s friend. This is not to be confused with the moving back and forth throughout a speech that someone might do nervously (inadvertently inducing motion sickness in his audience). Instead it refers to planning to pause after an important point or question to allow your audience the opportunity to think about what you have just said. Or, you might speak more quickly (although still clearly) to emphasize your fear or build humor in a long list of concerns while sharing an anecdote. Alternately, you could slow down for more solemn topics or to emphasize the words in a critical statement. For instance, a persuasive speaker lobbying for an audience to stop cutting down trees in her neighborhood might say, “this can’t continue. It’s up to you to do something.” But imagine her saying these words with attention paid to pacing and each period representing a pause. She could instead say, “This. Can’t. Continue. It’s up to you. Do something.”

Convince Them to Engage

Listeners respond to people. Consider this introduction to a speech about a passion for college football:

“Clemson Tigers football running down the hill” by Jim Ferguson. CC-BY .

It’s college football season! Across the nation, the season begins in late summer. Teams play in several different divisions including the SEC, the ACC, and Big Ten. Schools make a lot of money playing in the different divisions, because people love to watch football on TV. College football is great for the fans, the players, and the schools.

Now, compare it to this introduction to another speech about the same passion:

When I was a little boy, starting as early as four, my father would wake me up on Fall Saturdays with the same three words: “It’s Game Day!” My dad was a big Clemson Tigers fan, so we might drive to Death Valley to see a game. Everyone would come: my mom, my grandparents, and friends who went to Clemson too. We would all tailgate before the game—playing corn hole, tossing a foam football, and watching the satellite TV. Even though we loved Clemson football best, all college football was worth watching. You never knew when there would be an upset. You could count on seeing pre-professional athletes performing amazing feats. But, best of all, it was a way to bond with my family, and later my friends.

Both introductions set up the topic and even give an idea of how the speech will be organized. Yet, the second one is made more interesting by the human element. The speech is personalized.

The college football enthusiast speaker might continue to make the speech interesting to his listeners by appealing to commonalities. He might acknowledge that not everyone in his class is a Clemson fan, but all of them can agree that their school’s football team is fun to watch. Connecting with the audience through referencing things the speaker has in common with the listeners can function as an appeal to ethos . The speaker is credible to the audience because he is like them. Or, it can work as an appeal to pathos . A speaker might employ this emotional appeal in a persuasive speech about Habitat for Humanity by asking her audience to think first about the comforts of home or dorm living that they all take for granted.

If you engage people on a vital, important level, they will respond. – Edward Bond

In speaking to the audience about the comforts of dorm living, the speaker is unlikely to refer to the “dormitories where we each reside.” More likely, she might say, “the dorms we live in.” As with electing to use active voice, speakers can choose to be more conversational than they might be in writing an essay on the same topic.

The speaker might use contractions, or colloquialisms, or make comparisons to popular television shows, music, or movies. This will help the listeners feel like the speaker is in conversation with them—admittedly a one-sided one—rather than talking at them. It can be off-putting to feel the speaker is simply reciting facts and figures and rushing to get through to the end of their speech, whereas listeners respond to someone talking to them calmly and confidently. Being conversational can help to convey this attitude even when on the inside the speaker is far from calm or confident. Nevertheless, employ this strategy with caution. Being too colloquial, for instance using “Dude” throughout the speech, could undermine your credibility. Or a popular culture example that you think is going to be widely recognized might not be the common knowledge you think it is, and could confuse audiences with non-native listeners.

Choice of attention—to pay attention to this and ignore that—is to the inner life what choice of action is to the outer. In both cases, a man is responsible for his choice and must accept the consequences, whatever they may be. – W. H. Auden

• William Henry Harrison: Inaugural Address. (1989). U. S. Inaugural Addresses. Bartleby.com . Accessed Sept. 2, 2012. ↵
• VanDeVelde Luskin, C. (2003, September). Mark Lepper: Intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation and the process of learning. In Bing Times Online, Stanford University, retrieved from http://web.stanford.edu/dept/bingschool/cgi-bin/bt/sep2003/mark-lepper-intrinsic-motivation-extrinsic-motivation-and-the-process-of-learning/ ↵
• Brownell, J. (1996). Listening: Attitudes, principles, and skills . Boston: Allyn and Bacon. ↵
• Chapter 4 Encouraging Effective Listening. Authored by : Jenn Q. Goddu, M.A.. Provided by : Queens University of Charlotte, Charlotte, NC. Located at : http://publicspeakingproject.org/psvirtualtext.html . Project : The Public Speaking Project. License : CC BY-NC-ND: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives
• make way for ducklings. Authored by : lee. Located at : https://flic.kr/p/yvJUP . License : CC BY-NC-ND: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives
• Clemson Tigers football running down the hill. Authored by : Jim Ferguson. Located at : http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Clemson_Tigers_football_running_down_the_hill.jpg . License : CC BY: Attribution
• William Henry Harrison. Authored by : James Reid Lambdin. Located at : https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:James_Reid_Lambdin_-_William_Henry_Harrison_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg . License : Public Domain: No Known Copyright

Privacy Policy

• Skip to main content
• Keyboard shortcuts for audio player

• LISTEN & FOLLOW
• Apple Podcasts
• Google Podcasts
• Amazon Music

Your support helps make our show possible and unlocks access to our sponsor-free feed.

Want to listen better? Turn down your thoughts and tune in to others

Julia Furlan

Andee Tagle

Listening is more than just being physically present when another person is talking. Anyone who has deployed a disengaged "mhmm" while their partner asks about dinner or a kid breaks down the difference between a brontosaurus and a triceratops knows this well. But listening — not just hearing — means a lot more than that. And dedicating yourself to actively listening can be radical and transformative.

The basics of good listening are familiar: maintain eye contact, nod, use "I" statements instead of "you" statements. Here are some tips that go beyond the basics:

Shut up and listen.

This might sound simple, but it's actually a really important first step. "We need to give people uninterrupted time to speak," says Tania Israel , a psychology professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara and author of the book Beyond Your Bubble . "And one of the ways to remember this is that if you rearrange the letters of the word 'listen,' it spells 'silent.' " We love a mnemonic device!

(Quick disclaimer here: Not everyone deserves your time or attention. The foundation of listening is respect, so don't put up with folks who disrespect your boundaries or speak abusively.)

Too Much Focusing Is Draining. Here's A Better Strategy

Summarize and build..

After a person is finished speaking, take a little bit of what the person said and add a little bit to it. Israel says this is called reflective listening, and it makes it possible for you not only to show the person that you're listening, but also to give the person a chance to correct any misunderstandings.

India Ochs is a big fan of this technique as well. Ochs is a lawyer, activist and board chair of the organization CommunicationFIRST , which defends the civil rights of people across a wide range of disabilities that affect their ability to communicate with speech. (Important note: Ochs says the fact that she uses a voice assistant to speak doesn't mean she speaks for all folks with speech disabilities.) She appreciates when others ask her to repeat something, because it shows they're really listening. "Say what you understand, and then ask me to respond again," she says.

Be patient.

"Impatience can often lead to interruption," Ochs says, "which sends the message that you don't care about what the other person is saying." Ochs says that on many occasions, people's lack of patience makes it impossible for them to hear her speak. For example, "If I am answering questions during a presentation and someone who might be getting impatient with the silence starts to jump in to answer. Or worse, ask another question as I am typing my answer to the first question, none of which represents being a good listener or a listener at all."

Navigating Consent Is All About Communication. Here's Where To Start

Listen with intent..

When you're listening with intent, it means you're focusing on what the person is saying and leading with curiosity. Counterintuitively, this can be hard — especially with the people you're closest to. "Sometimes when we're close to people, we have a lot of assumptions about our shared understanding of things. And so we might listen sort of casually," Israel says. She recommends expressing empathy and then trying to go deeper when the folks you're close with talk about what they're going through. The more you practice active listening in low-stakes, daily situations, the easier it will be to do it in high-stakes conflict, she says.

What Makes A Good Partner — And How To Cultivate Connection

Listening is an act of power..

This bit of advice is taken from a piece written by the reporter and radio producer Sandhya Dirks . The rubric is specifically written for audio producers, but the idea most certainly applies to everyone. In the piece, Dirks asks: "How do we listen beyond the narrative that locks people in? How do we acknowledge our power to let people live out loud beyond the captured voice, in the full-throated body of their lives?"

When we listen to somebody, we have to listen beyond our own notions of what they're going to say. We have to try to listen louder than our own thoughts and listen beyond the lines of our own privilege.

The podcast portion of this episode was produced by Andee Tagle .

We'd love to hear from you. Leave us a voicemail at 202-216-9823, or email us at [email protected] .

For more Life Kit, subscribe to our newsletter .

Clarification March 30, 2021

An earlier version of this story said that CommunicationFIRST defends the civil rights of people with disabilities that affect their ability to communicate verbally. In fact, the organization serves members with speech-related communication disabilities.

Cart – Checkout

How to listen to a speech.

I so often write about how to create and give better speeches that I rarely write about listening to speeches.  But of course the audience is one of the three essential elements of a public speech – without an audience, it’s not a speech any more than it’s a speech without a speaker or content.  And yet that third element, the audience, can get lost in all the rest of our efforts to create a successful occasion, strange as that may sound.  Aren’t all our efforts focused on giving the audience a better experience?

Well, yes.  But the audience has a role to play, too.  And it’s one we rarely talk about.  We have a right to expect something from them, in fact.

So for this post I’m focusing on what the audience needs to do to help create a great speech:  listen.  If you find yourself in an audience, then, what should you be focusing on?  How do you listen most effectively to a speech?

I’m going to suggest five ways an audience can listen that will enhance its experience of a presentation – and therefore make the occasion better, too.

First, listen for the frame.  The most important moments of a speech are the opening ones.  That’s the time when the speaker should tell us what the speech is about – preferably something interesting, and preferably in an interesting way.  So listen for the frame at the beginning of a speech, because that will guide the entire rest of the occasion.

Second, listen for the emotion.  Ask yourself, what emotion (besides  a little natural stage fright at the beginning) is the speaker trying to convey?  Most speakers find their emotions attenuated by the difficulty of emoting on command in front of hundreds of people, so you may have to interpret for the speaker, or even make an educated guess.  But knowing the emotions at play in the speech will give you a road map for the important landmarks in the journey the speaker is trying to take you on.

Third, listen for the false notes.  Of course, I’d much prefer for the speaker to succeed beautifully, but it’s also the job of the audience to decide whether or not the speaker is credible, and whether or not to trust the speaker.  Sometimes that involves deciding that the speaker is not succeeding.  You need to kick the rhetorical tires, and decide for yourself whether the speaker is what he or she claims to be.

Fourth, listen for the stories.  Good stories are at the heart of a great speech, and so the audience has a right to expect those stories at regular intervals, and for the stories to carry much of the emotional freight of the speech.  Those stories should reveal personal involvement in the topic and should tell us things that we can’t learn any other way.  Beware the speaker who tells stories that are clichés, that you’ve heard many times before.  Because that usually means that he or she is letting someone else do the thinking.

Finally, listen for the ask.  At the heart of every great speech is a request, from the speaker to the audience.  Even if it’s only a minimal “believe with me that this is important,” there’s always a reason why the speaker is doing all that work.  Listen for that because to understand the ask is to understand the speech and the speaker.

And here’s one more:  listen like a child.  Children have the opposite listening ability to grownups – kids listen to the whole experience.  They have a hard time focusing.  As a result, they notice a good deal more than most adults, some of it irrelevant, but some of it not.  Spending some time listening like a child is a great way to open up your listening, refresh it, and avoid missing out on something essential.

Listening is hard work, and most people find themselves half-listening at best, because what’s going on around them competes with their inner voices, and all the other distractions of the daily to do list.  A little thought about what to listen for can help you get the most possible out of a speech – which will make the speech successful, too.

Share This Story, Choose Your Platform!

About the author: nick morgan.

Related Posts

One Comment

Thank you for explaining how important good stories are to a great speech. I’ve been wondering how I can listen better to motivational speakers or even speakers at a youth conference I’m thinking of attending. I’ll be sure to remember this advice so I can get the most out of this experience.

Leave A Comment Cancel reply

Public Speaking Podcast

A podcast launched in a time of great change. Just One Question with Dr Nick Morgan has over 50 episodes featuring some of the worlds most elite and accomplished speakers. More importantly the podcast brings light to our industry as we undergo a public speaking and communication reformation. 

© Copyright 2021 | All Rights Reserved Public Words Inc | Legal | Privacy

BLOG PODCAST NEWS SUBSCRIBE

Sign up to our weekly blog for useful articles, tips and podcasts for boosting your public speaking career:

CALL US NOW

© Copyright 2021 | All Rights Reserved Public Words Inc | Legal Policy | Privacy Policy

Enjoy this post? Rate it!

Motivational speech | Top 10 speeches students should listen to

Words have power. sometimes, you hear a speech that inspires you and completely changes your life. this is why we have curated a list of the top 10 motivational speeches for students that will change your life. stick with us till the end to find some bonus speeches, table of contents, motivational speech for students | an overview , steve jobs: how to live before you die, elizabeth gilbert: your elusive creative genius, j.k. rowling: the fringe benefits of failure, and the importance of imagination, simon sinek: how great leaders inspire action, brené brown: the power of vulnerability, susan cain: the power of introverts, tim urban: inside the mind of a master procrastinator, sarah lewis: embrace the near win, al pacino: inch by inch, kal penn: depauw university commencement speech , bonus speeches, what are the benefits of listening to a motivational speech for students, qualities of the best motivational speakers, structure of motivational speeches for students, what’s next.

Do you remember the time you felt discouraged and needed some motivation to move forward? Well, a lot of things can help you move past this feeling, including good sleep or some motivational speeches. Motivational speeches can help you resonate with the speaker and believe that you are not alone. You can also gain some insights into solving the challenges life throws at you by listening to these speeches. 

Over the years, leaders and motivational speakers have been sharing great ideas and capturing the human imagination. Every speaker has, in one way or another, influenced us to visualize a better future. But some speakers have entirely changed the way we see the world. These are the ones who have inspired us the most. And we have made sure to include every such speaker’s motivational speech in this blog. Read on!

The man, the myth, the legend. At his Stanford University commencement speech, Steve Jobs, CEO, and co-founder of Apple and Pixar, speaks about trusting your gut. It somehow already knows where you need to be. He also speaks about “connecting the dots.”

When you look back at your life, he says, you will see that everything was connected. It led you to a meaningful and fated destination. This talk by Steve Jobs is a life-changing motivational speech for students. It gives you a sense of love and appreciation for this innovative entrepreneur and visionary, who had a reputation for being tough on his subordinates.

Elizabeth Gilbert, the author of the best-selling book “Eat, Pray, Love,” speaks about her ideas on creativity. She delves into the history of creative genius and gives a background on the various definitions, as well as the evolution of beliefs on creativity throughout the centuries.

In this motivational speech, Elizabeth shares her own experience with creative genius and her struggle with the ability to connect to it again. I love this talk because she makes creativity sound like a mystical and divine gift that must be caught by those who are lucky enough to harness it. She presents some very interesting concepts, and the historical background is also very thought-provoking.

J.K. Rowling is not only a spellbinding writer (pun intended) but also one of the best motivational speakers in the world. Her Commencement Speech at Harvard shared her story with millions of students, urging them to not be afraid of failure and inspiring them to tap into the power of imagination.

Before her work was recognized, Rowling was a poor single mother who used to teach English at night school and write during her free time. It was facing failure head-on that taught her the lessons that she needed to succeed in life. In her motivational speech, she also talks about how imagination is “the power that enables us to empathize with humans” and implores us to use it for the good of others. 

Simon Sinek has a simple but powerful model for inspirational leadership, all starting with a golden circle and the question “Why?”. The author and ethnographer (an anthropologist who studies specific human subcultures) speak about his findings on the most effective method to inspire change. He goes into detail about the parts of the brain that a leader must affect to influence others, as well as the type of behavior that inspires others to take action for a cause.

“Start with the Why” is Simon’s main tag line and is based on the idea that if you can appeal to people’s hearts and make them truly believe what you believe, then they will trust and follow you. This motivational English speech is interesting for students because it gives you a scientific breakdown of the human brain and thinking patterns for decision-making.

Dr. Brené Brown is a research professor at the University of Houston Graduate College of Social Work. She is also the author of a #1 New York Times bestselling book and the speaker of this motivational speech on the power of vulnerability.

According to Brené, the popular opinion that being vulnerable makes us emotional and weak is wrong. In this motivational speech, she invites us to drop the armor that “protects” us. According to Brown, “when we open our minds to new experiences, we find joy, belonging, creativity, authenticity, and love.”

It can be difficult, even shameful, to be an introvert in a culture where being social and outgoing are prized above all else. But, as Susan Cain argues in this motivational speech, introverts bring extraordinary talents and abilities to the world and should be encouraged and celebrated. 

Business and entrepreneurship are often thought to be a game played best by the outgoing. However, in this passionate case for introverted value, Cain shares that really the best environment for every person to be in is the one that stimulates their productivity and creativity best. While introverts might brainstorm best in small groups or in isolation, it does not matter how they do their best work. It’s the quality and contribution of the work brought forth that matters most for all personality types, introverts included.

Tim Urban’s TED speech on how procrastination works is super-insightful and motivational. According to Tim, the brains of procrastinators work differently. The Rational Decision-Maker in us wants to do things the right way, but our Instant-Gratification Monkey (who likes to sit back and relax) always gets in the way. Until…the Panic Monster in our minds starts screaming about deadlines.

One of the funniest and most inspirational speeches for students, ‘Inside the Mind of a Master Procrastinator’ does not give you an excuse for procrastinating. Instead, the ending of this motivational speech will push you to get out of bed and start working RIGHT NOW!

At her first museum job, art historian Sarah Lewis noticed something important about an artist she was studying: Not every artwork was a total masterpiece.

In this motivational speech, she asks us to consider the role of the almost-failure, the near win, in our own lives. In our pursuit of success and mastery, is it actually our near wins that push us forward?

Next on our list is Al Pacino’s speech in the American Football drama. This famous motivational speech gets your blood flowing; it’s perfect for watching before you know you have to tackle a difficult day. The motivational speech revolves around inches being crucial in American Football, even if we tend to overlook them. 

He discusses how his squad can get an advantage over opponents, even if it’s only by an inch. “When we add all those inches up, that’s what makes the difference between winning and losing,” he declares. This holds true in many situations; individuals who go above and beyond are more likely to succeed. And while you may not realize it at first, it is the sum of all the minor efforts that leads to triumph. Motivational speeches like this one give will you a boost right when you need it.

Kal Penn addressed DePauw University’s class of 2014, where he motivated the graduates to always strive for excellence and success.

His simple speech hit the right chords as he talked about keeping in touch with people and not worrying unnecessarily. He talked about innovation being the future and how the lives of the students are full of potential. 

As promised, here are the 5 bonus motivational speeches students should listen to-

• How to make stress your friend, Kelly McGonigal
• Your body language may shape who you are, by Amy Cuddy
• What I learned from 100 days of rejection, Jia Jiang
• The danger of a single story, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
• 10 ways to have a better conversation, Celeste Headlee

Besides these, check out some fictional motivational speeches- 

• The Pursuit of Happyness –  Protect your dream by Will Smith
• Rocky – Take the hits by Sylvester Stallone 
• Miracle – You were born for this by Kurt Russel 
• Independence Day – President Whitmore’s Speech
• Peaceful Warrior– Take Out the Trash by Socrates

Although we have mentioned various motivational speeches for you to listen to, do these help? It turns out that there are various benefits of listening to these speeches, such as-

• Motivational speeches for students help in changing their perspective toward things. This can help you sail through the challenges life throws at you with a positive attitude . 
• If you are listening to a motivational speaker from your industry, it might help you gain new skills by listening to their innovative ideas. 
• You can enhance your knowledge about different career fields by following motivational speakers of diverse fields, and being well-informed always gives you an edge. 
• You might find something to relate to while listening to these best speeches for students. Listening to their struggles and how they moved past them can help you face your challenges head-on. 

Besides listening to motivational speeches, you can also research some written motivational speeches for students to get inspired. 

If you are confused about which motivational speeches for students you should listen to, check out these qualities in the motivational speaker to follow.

• Passion- Motivational speakers are often passionate about doing good for the world or giving back to society. They are aware that words have power, and their passion can be seen in how they present their motivational speech.
• Confidence- If motivational speakers do not have confidence, the audience won’t be interested in listening to them. When they deliver motivational speeches for students, their conviction and the delivery of speech can also inspire others to engage in discussions. 
• Empathy- One of the essential qualities of successful motivational speakers is empathy. These speakers talk about what they have gone through and understand where the audience is coming from and what they need to listen to. They can put themselves in the shoes of the audience and tailor their motivational speech to inspire them.
• Knowledge- Motivational speakers have years of experience in their industry and possess excellent knowledge. They are aware of their struggles, strengths, and weaknesses and talk about these things in their motivational speeches for students.

We have talked endlessly about the best motivational speeches for students and the amazing qualities of the speakers. It’s time to share a bit about how to structure your speeches, in case you want to give one. 

• The first and the most important aspect is knowing the purpose of giving a motivational speech. Choose a theme that aligns with your ideas and structure your speech around that theme. 
• Understand the kind of audience you will be interacting with. It will help you write for the right audience and build a connection with them. Besides, following this tip can make the speech engaging and interactive. 
• Be creative and begin with a hook statement that will help you get the attention of your audience. Also, include personal experiences in your motivational speeches for students as they might find them relatable, making the speech engaging.
• Conclude your speech by resharing your purpose and the speech’s main point. Besides, it is a good idea to add a call to action by either asking the audience a question, telling them to take action, etc. 
• Do not forget to review your speech by reciting it aloud before presenting it to the audience. It will help you make the necessary edits and tailor it as needed. 

We hope you enjoyed these speeches on student life and found as much value in them as we have! It is important to take these powerful words to your heart and pursue your dreams. iSchoolConnect helps you do just that. We encourage students to follow their dreams of studying abroad and help them every step of the way to achieve them. So, if you have any questions about studying abroad, feel free to reach out to us ! 

Read more: Top 100 graduate schools with low GPA requirements

Q1. How to begin a motivational speech to capture people’s attention?

Answer- Here are some tips that can help you make your motivational speech engaging-

• Begin with creating a hook. You can do this by starting your speech with a question to make it conversational. 
• Include storytelling in your speech. You can include your personal story or a story of a historical event, personality, etc. 
• Include the unexpected; people love the surprise element and something different from regular speeches. 

Q2. What are some self-motivation techniques? 

Answer- Try these techniques to motivate yourself in difficult situations-

• Always be a student, i.e., keep learning from different people and situations as everyone and everything will teach you something. Besides, the more you learn, the more you know, enhancing your confidence. 
• Break your goals into smaller chunks. It will be easier this way to fulfill every part of that goal. This, in turn, will always keep you motivated to move forward. 
• Keep a check on your patterns. Know what makes you feel demotivated and try to improve those situations or change your perspective. 

Q3. What is positive motivation?

Answer- Positive motivation refers to a situation in which a person works towards a goal to get a reward or appreciation in return.

Q4. What is the best topic for motivational speeches for students?

Answer- Some of the best motivational speech topics include-

• Why prioritizing your daily goals is important?
• Becoming a role model.
• Why is patience the best virtue? 
• Focus on self-improvement
• Education- a catalyst for personal growth

Q5. How does inspiration impact people?

Answer- Inspiration can help people change their perspective toward things. It can also motivate them to be creative and progress towards their goals. They can definitely move past their limitations with some dose of inspiration. 

Q6. Who is the best motivational speaker in the world?

Answer- Don’t miss out on listening to the motivational speeches of these amazing motivational speakers-

• Dave Ramsey
• Tony Robbins

How useful was this post?

Click on a star to rate it!

Average rating 4.2 / 5. Vote count: 105

No votes so far! Be the first to rate this post.

People also liked

Need of motivational quotes for students to study hard

Top quotes to wish luck for exam

10 incredible top women CTOs to follow

Top 9 famous philosophers of the 1900s

Top 10 YouTubers in India

100 famous quotes and thoughts in English to brighten your day!

12 thoughts on “motivational speech | top 10 speeches students should listen to”, see what others are saying.

Hi, everything is going sound here and ofcourse everfy one is sharing information, that’s truly good, keep upp writing.

Everything iis very opn with a very clear explanation of the issues. It was really informative. Your websikte is extremely helpful. Thawnk you ffor sharing!

It has lot of information required for motivational speakers. I found it useful….thank u.

Somebody essentially lend a hand to make seriously posts I’d state. This is the first time I frequented your website page and too this point? I surprised with the analysis you made to create tyis particular post incredible. Excellent job!

Hello There. I found your blog the usage of msn. That is a very well written article. I’ll make sure to bookmark it and coome bawck to read extra of youyr useful information. Thanks for the post. I will certainly comeback.

Your writing has been very beautiful. A person can know a lot from this writing. We should like you to take some new information on this on this subject and we will have some new information,so that we can go to something new.

Appreciate the efforts

Woah! I’m really enjoying the template/theme of this site.

It’s simple, yet effective. A lot of times it’s very difficult to get that “perfect balance” between superb usability and visual appearance. I must say that you’ve done a great job with this. Also, the blog loads extremely fast for me on Safari.

Excellent Blog!

My brother recommended I might like this web site. He was totally right. This post actually made my day. You cann’t imagine just how much time I had spent for this info! Thanks!

Hi Brodie! Thank you so much for your comment! If you have any other study abroad questions you’d like to ask, you can always post them here at our Study Abroad Discussion page .

I love motivation speeches it means a lot and i am just a 12 year old kid I also have to make a motivational speech but i don’t know what to talk about?

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Start your journey with iSchoolConnect

Need help with your study abroad applications? Try iSchoolConnect for free!

• Where to Study? USA | UK | Canada | Australia | Singapore | Netherlands | Ireland | Germany | New Zealand
• Tests and Preparation GRE | GMAT | IELTS | TOEFL | SAT | PTE
• Visa Process Student visa for USA | Student visa for Canada | Student visa for UK
• Programs and Universities How to choose a university? | How to choose a career? | University interview tips
• Application Process How to apply? | Letter of Recommendation (LOR) | Essay and Statement of Purpose (SOP) | Document checklist | Finance documents
• Fees and Finances Cost of studying abroad | How to apply for scholarships? | Types of scholarships | Student loan | Accommodation | Part-time jobs
• Calculators Calculate your chances of studying abroad | Calculate cost of studying abroad | Which scholarship are you eligible for?

15 Powerful Speech Opening Lines (And How to Create Your Own)

Hrideep barot.

• Public Speaking , Speech Writing

Powerful speech opening lines set the tone and mood of your speech. It’s what grips the audience to want to know more about the rest of your talk.

The first few seconds are critical. It’s when you have maximum attention of the audience. And you must capitalize on that!

Instead of starting off with something plain and obvious such as a ‘Thank you’ or ‘Good Morning’, there’s so much more you can do for a powerful speech opening (here’s a great article we wrote a while ago on how you should NOT start your speech ).

To help you with this, I’ve compiled some of my favourite openings from various speakers. These speakers have gone on to deliver TED talks , win international Toastmaster competitions or are just noteworthy people who have mastered the art of communication.

After each speaker’s opening line, I have added how you can include their style of opening into your own speech. Understanding how these great speakers do it will certainly give you an idea to create your own speech opening line which will grip the audience from the outset!

Alright! Let’s dive into the 15 powerful speech openings…

Note: Want to take your communications skills to the next level? Book a complimentary consultation with one of our expert communication coaches. We’ll look under the hood of your hurdles and pick two to three growth opportunities so you can speak with impact!

1. Ric Elias

Opening: “Imagine a big explosion as you climb through 3,000 ft. Imagine a plane full of smoke. Imagine an engine going clack, clack, clack. It sounds scary. Well I had a unique seat that day. I was sitting in 1D.”

How to use the power of imagination to open your speech?

Putting your audience in a state of imagination can work extremely well to captivate them for the remainder of your talk.

It really helps to bring your audience in a certain mood that preps them for what’s about to come next. Speakers have used this with high effectiveness by transporting their audience into an imaginary land to help prove their point.

When Ric Elias opened his speech, the detail he used (3000 ft, sound of the engine going clack-clack-clack) made me feel that I too was in the plane. He was trying to make the audience experience what he was feeling – and, at least in my opinion, he did.

When using the imagination opening for speeches, the key is – detail. While we want the audience to wander into imagination, we want them to wander off to the image that we want to create for them. So, detail out your scenario if you’re going to use this technique.

Make your audience feel like they too are in the same circumstance as you were when you were in that particular situation.

2. Barack Obama

Opening: “You can’t say it, but you know it’s true.”

3. Seth MacFarlane

Opening: “There’s nowhere I would rather be on a day like this than around all this electoral equipment.” (It was raining)

How to use humour to open your speech?

When you use humour in a manner that suits your personality, it can set you up for a great speech. Why? Because getting a laugh in the first 30 seconds or so is a great way to quickly get the audience to like you.

And when they like you, they are much more likely to listen to and believe in your ideas.

Obama effortlessly uses his opening line to entice laughter among the audience. He brilliantly used the setting (the context of Trump becoming President) and said a line that completely matched his style of speaking.

Saying a joke without really saying a joke and getting people to laugh requires you to be completely comfortable in your own skin. And that’s not easy for many people (me being one of them).

If the joke doesn’t land as expected, it could lead to a rocky start.

Keep in mind the following when attempting to deliver a funny introduction:

• Know your audience: Make sure your audience gets the context of the joke (if it’s an inside joke among the members you’re speaking to, that’s even better!). You can read this article we wrote where we give you tips on how you can actually get to know your audience better to ensure maximum impact with your speech openings
• The joke should suit your natural personality. Don’t make it look forced or it won’t elicit the desired response
• Test the opening out on a few people who match your real audience. Analyze their response and tweak the joke accordingly if necessary
• Starting your speech with humour means your setting the tone of your speech. It would make sense to have a few more jokes sprinkled around the rest of the speech as well as the audience might be expecting the same from you

4. Mohammed Qahtani

Opening: Puts a cigarette on his lips, lights a lighter, stops just before lighting the cigarette. Looks at audience, “What?”

5. Darren Tay

Opening: Puts a white pair of briefs over his pants.

How to use props to begin your speech?

The reason props work so well in a talk is because in most cases the audience is not expecting anything more than just talking. So when a speaker pulls out an object that is unusual, everyone’s attention goes right to it.

It makes you wonder why that prop is being used in this particular speech.

The key word here is unusual . To grip the audience’s attention at the beginning of the speech, the prop being used should be something that the audience would never expect. Otherwise, it just becomes something that is common. And common = boring!

What Mohammed Qahtani and Darren Tay did superbly well in their talks was that they used props that nobody expected them to.

By pulling out a cigarette and lighter or a white pair of underwear, the audience can’t help but be gripped by what the speaker is about to do next. And that makes for a powerful speech opening.

6. Simon Sinek

Opening: “How do you explain when things don’t go as we assume? Or better, how do you explain when others are able to achieve things that seem to defy all of the assumptions?”

7. Julian Treasure

Opening: “The human voice. It’s the instrument we all play. It’s the most powerful sound in the world. Probably the only one that can start a war or say “I love you.” And yet many people have the experience that when they speak people don’t listen to them. Why is that? How can we speak powerfully to make change in the world?”

How to use questions to open a speech?

I use this method often. Starting off with a question is the simplest way to start your speech in a manner that immediately engages the audience.

But we should keep our questions compelling as opposed to something that is fairly obvious.

I’ve heard many speakers start their speeches with questions like “How many of us want to be successful?”

No one is going to say ‘no’ to that and frankly, I just feel silly raising my hand at such questions.

Simon Sinek and Jullian Treasure used questions in a manner that really made the audience think and make them curious to find out what the answer to that question is.

What Jullian Treasure did even better was the use of a few statements which built up to his question. This made the question even more compelling and set the theme for what the rest of his talk would be about.

So think of what question you can ask in your speech that will:

• Set the theme for the remainder of your speech
• Not be something that is fairly obvious
• Be compelling enough so that the audience will actually want to know what the answer to that question will be

8. Aaron Beverley

Opening: Long pause (after an absurdly long introduction of a 57-word speech title). “Be honest. You enjoyed that, didn’t you?”

How to use silence for speech openings?

The reason this speech opening stands out is because of the fact that the title itself is 57 words long. The audience was already hilariously intrigued by what was going to come next.

But what’s so gripping here is the way Aaron holds the crowd’s suspense by…doing nothing. For about 10 to 12 seconds he did nothing but stand and look at the audience. Everyone quietened down. He then broke this silence by a humorous remark that brought the audience laughing down again.

When going on to open your speech, besides focusing on building a killer opening sentence, how about just being silent?

It’s important to keep in mind that the point of having a strong opening is so that the audience’s attention is all on you and are intrigued enough to want to listen to the rest of your speech.

Silence is a great way to do that. When you get on the stage, just pause for a few seconds (about 3 to 5 seconds) and just look at the crowd. Let the audience and yourself settle in to the fact that the spotlight is now on you.

I can’t put my finger on it, but there is something about starting the speech off with a pure pause that just makes the beginning so much more powerful. It adds credibility to you as a speaker as well, making you look more comfortable and confident on stage. 

If you want to know more about the power of pausing in public speaking , check out this post we wrote. It will give you a deeper insight into the importance of pausing and how you can harness it for your own speeches. You can also check out this video to know more about Pausing for Public Speaking:

9. Dan Pink

Opening: “I need to make a confession at the outset here. Little over 20 years ago, I did something that I regret. Something that I’m not particularly proud of. Something that in many ways I wish no one would ever know but that here I feel kind of obliged to reveal.”

10. Kelly McGonigal

Opening: “I have a confession to make. But first I want you to make a little confession to me.”

How to use a build-up to open your speech?

When there are so many amazing ways to start a speech and grip an audience from the outset, why would you ever choose to begin your speech with a ‘Good morning?’.

That’s what I love about build-ups. They set the mood for something awesome that’s about to come in that the audience will feel like they just have to know about.

Instead of starting a speech as it is, see if you can add some build-up to your beginning itself. For instance, in Kelly McGonigal’s speech, she could have started off with the question of stress itself (which she eventually moves on to in her speech). It’s not a bad way to start the speech.

But by adding the statement of “I have a confession to make” and then not revealing the confession for a little bit, the audience is gripped to know what she’s about to do next and find out what indeed is her confession.

11. Tim Urban

Opening: “So in college, I was a government major. Which means that I had to write a lot of papers. Now when a normal student writes a paper, they might spread the work out a little like this.”

12. Scott Dinsmore

Opening: “8 years ago, I got the worst career advice of my life.”

How to use storytelling as a speech opening?

“The most powerful person in the world is the storyteller.” Steve Jobs

Storytelling is the foundation of good speeches. Starting your speech with a story is a great way to grip the audience’s attention. It makes them yearn to want to know how the rest of the story is going to pan out.

Tim Urban starts off his speech with a story dating back to his college days. His use of slides is masterful and something we all can learn from. But while his story sounds simple, it does the job of intriguing the audience to want to know more.

As soon as I heard the opening lines, I thought to myself “If normal students write their paper in a certain manner, how does Tim write his papers?”

Combine such a simple yet intriguing opening with comedic slides, and you’ve got yourself a pretty gripping speech.

Scott Dismore’s statement has a similar impact. However, just a side note, Scott Dismore actually started his speech with “Wow, what an honour.”

I would advise to not start your talk with something such as that. It’s way too common and does not do the job an opening must, which is to grip your audience and set the tone for what’s coming.

13. Larry Smith

Opening: “I want to discuss with you this afternoon why you’re going to fail to have a great career.”

14. Jane McGonigal

Opening: “You will live 7.5 minutes longer than you would have otherwise, just because you watched this talk.”

How to use provocative statements to start your speech?

Making a provocative statement creates a keen desire among the audience to want to know more about what you have to say. It immediately brings everyone into attention.

Larry Smith did just that by making his opening statement surprising, lightly humorous, and above all – fearful. These elements lead to an opening statement which creates so much curiosity among the audience that they need to know how your speech pans out.

This one time, I remember seeing a speaker start a speech with, “Last week, my best friend committed suicide.” The entire crowd was gripped. Everyone could feel the tension in the room.

They were just waiting for the speaker to continue to know where this speech will go.

That’s what a hard-hitting statement does, it intrigues your audience so much that they can’t wait to hear more! Just a tip, if you do start off with a provocative, hard-hitting statement, make sure you pause for a moment after saying it.

Silence after an impactful statement will allow your message to really sink in with the audience.

Related article: 5 Ways to Grab Your Audience’s Attention When You’re Losing it!

15. Ramona J Smith

Opening: In a boxing stance, “Life would sometimes feel like a fight. The punches, jabs and hooks will come in the form of challenges, obstacles and failures. Yet if you stay in the ring and learn from those past fights, at the end of each round, you’ll be still standing.”

How to use your full body to grip the audience at the beginning of your speech?

In a talk, the audience is expecting you to do just that – talk. But when you enter the stage and start putting your full body into use in a way that the audience does not expect, it grabs their attention.

Body language is critical when it comes to public speaking. Hand gestures, stage movement, facial expressions are all things that need to be paid attention to while you’re speaking on stage. But that’s not I’m talking about here.

Here, I’m referring to a unique use of the body that grips the audience, like how Ramona did. By using her body to get into a boxing stance, imitating punches, jabs and hooks with her arms while talking – that’s what got the audience’s attention.

The reason I say this is so powerful is because if you take Ramona’s speech and remove the body usage from her opening, the entire magic of the opening falls flat.

While the content is definitely strong, without those movements, she would not have captured the audience’s attention as beautifully as she did with the use of her body.

So if you have a speech opening that seems slightly dull, see if you can add some body movement to it.

If your speech starts with a story of someone running, actually act out the running. If your speech starts with a story of someone reading, actually act out the reading.

It will make your speech opening that much more impactful.

Related article: 5 Body Language Tips to Command the Stage

Level up your public speaking in 15 minutes!

Get the exclusive Masterclass video delivered to your inbox to see immediate speaking results.

You have successfully joined our subscriber list.

Final Words

So there it is! 15 speech openings from some of my favourite speeches. Hopefully, these will act as a guide for you to create your own opening which is super impactful and sets you off on the path to becoming a powerful public speaker!

But remember, while a speech opening is super important, it’s just part of an overall structure.

If you’re serious about not just creating a great speech opening but to improve your public speaking at an overall level, I would highly recommend you to check out this course: Acumen Presents: Chris Anderson on Public Speaking on Udemy. Not only does it have specific lectures on starting and ending a speech, but it also offers an in-depth guide into all the nuances of public speaking. 

Being the founder of TED Talks, Chris Anderson provides numerous examples of the best TED speakers to give us a very practical way of overcoming stage fear and delivering a speech that people will remember. His course has helped me personally and I would definitely recommend it to anyone looking to learn public speaking. 

No one is ever “done” learning public speaking. It’s a continuous process and you can always get better. Keep learning, keep conquering and keep being awesome!

Lastly, if you want to know how you should NOT open your speech, we’ve got a video for you:

Enroll in our transformative 1:1 Coaching Program

Schedule a call with our expert communication coach to know if this program would be the right fit for you

How to Negotiate: The Art of Getting What You Want

10 Hand Gestures That Will Make You More Confident and Efficient

Interrupted while Speaking: 8 Ways to Prevent and Manage Interruptions

• [email protected]
• +91 98203 57888

Get our latest tips and tricks in your inbox always

Copyright © 2023 Frantically Speaking All rights reserved

Kindly drop your contact details so that we can arrange call back

Select Country Afghanistan Albania Algeria AmericanSamoa Andorra Angola Anguilla Antigua and Barbuda Argentina Armenia Aruba Australia Austria Azerbaijan Bahamas Bahrain Bangladesh Barbados Belarus Belgium Belize Benin Bermuda Bhutan Bosnia and Herzegovina Botswana Brazil British Indian Ocean Territory Bulgaria Burkina Faso Burundi Cambodia Cameroon Canada Cape Verde Cayman Islands Central African Republic Chad Chile China Christmas Island Colombia Comoros Congo Cook Islands Costa Rica Croatia Cuba Cyprus Czech Republic Denmark Djibouti Dominica Dominican Republic Ecuador Egypt El Salvador Equatorial Guinea Eritrea Estonia Ethiopia Faroe Islands Fiji Finland France French Guiana French Polynesia Gabon Gambia Georgia Germany Ghana Gibraltar Greece Greenland Grenada Guadeloupe Guam Guatemala Guinea Guinea-Bissau Guyana Haiti Honduras Hungary Iceland India Indonesia Iraq Ireland Israel Italy Jamaica Japan Jordan Kazakhstan Kenya Kiribati Kuwait Kyrgyzstan Latvia Lebanon Lesotho Liberia Liechtenstein Lithuania Luxembourg Madagascar Malawi Malaysia Maldives Mali Malta Marshall Islands Martinique Mauritania Mauritius Mayotte Mexico Monaco Mongolia Montenegro Montserrat Morocco Myanmar Namibia Nauru Nepal Netherlands Netherlands Antilles New Caledonia New Zealand Nicaragua Niger Nigeria Niue Norfolk Island Northern Mariana Islands Norway Oman Pakistan Palau Panama Papua New Guinea Paraguay Peru Philippines Poland Portugal Puerto Rico Qatar Romania Rwanda Samoa San Marino Saudi Arabia Senegal Serbia Seychelles Sierra Leone Singapore Slovakia Slovenia Solomon Islands South Africa South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands Spain Sri Lanka Sudan Suriname Swaziland Sweden Switzerland Tajikistan Thailand Togo Tokelau Tonga Trinidad and Tobago Tunisia Turkey Turkmenistan Turks and Caicos Islands Tuvalu Uganda Ukraine United Arab Emirates United Kingdom United States Uruguay Uzbekistan Vanuatu Wallis and Futuna Yemen Zambia Zimbabwe land Islands Antarctica Bolivia, Plurinational State of Brunei Darussalam Cocos (Keeling) Islands Congo, The Democratic Republic of the Cote d'Ivoire Falkland Islands (Malvinas) Guernsey Holy See (Vatican City State) Hong Kong Iran, Islamic Republic of Isle of Man Jersey Korea, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Republic of Lao People's Democratic Republic Libyan Arab Jamahiriya Macao Macedonia, The Former Yugoslav Republic of Micronesia, Federated States of Moldova, Republic of Mozambique Palestinian Territory, Occupied Pitcairn Réunion Russia Saint Barthélemy Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan Da Cunha Saint Kitts and Nevis Saint Lucia Saint Martin Saint Pierre and Miquelon Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Sao Tome and Principe Somalia Svalbard and Jan Mayen Syrian Arab Republic Taiwan, Province of China Tanzania, United Republic of Timor-Leste Venezuela, Bolivarian Republic of Viet Nam Virgin Islands, British Virgin Islands, U.S.

• Personal Development
• Sales Training
• Business Training
• Time Management
• Leadership Training
• Book Writing
• Public Speaking
• Live Speaker Training With Brian
• See Brian Speak
• Coaching Programs
• Become a Coach
• Personal Success
• Sales Success
• Business Success
• Leadership Success

8 Public Speaking Techniques to Wow Your Audience

What is the goal of professional speaking?

The goals of professional speaking are to entertain, inform, inspire, and get the audience to take action.

The truth is, in order for your presentation or speech to have its greatest effect you need to be able to entertain and wow your audience.

I’m going to give you 8 presentation skills I use in my speeches to keep my audience on the edge of their seats until the end of my talk.

1) Say Something Right Off The Bat That Connects to The Audience

Let me give you an example of how I open a talk, and you know I’ve given over 5,000 talks and seminars. I almost always open with the same words.

I say, “Congratulations for being here. This means that you are in the top 10% of adults in our society today.”

I say this in Russia, I say it in China, Finland, Canada, and I say it in Atlanta.

“You are among the top 10% of adults in our society today.  Why is that?  It’s because you’re here.  You see, only the top 10% of people in any society ever come to a seminar like this to learn how to be better in some way. The other 90% always have a reason for not being here.”

Then I’ll ask, “How many of you know people who could have been here but had an excuse for not coming?”

Everybody in the audience nods and visualizes and thinks of the person who’s not here, who is usually not a very successful person.

Then I tell them that,

“The fact they are here means that they are in the top 10%.  And by the way, how can you tell who a person really is?  How can you tell what they believe in, what their goals are, and what their hopes, dreams and values are? Can you tell by what they say? Is it what they hope or wish?  No.  It’s only what they do. The fact is that you are here. You’ve taken the actions to be here, and that means you’re in the top 10%.”

Then I’ll say,

“Many of you are thinking that if he knew how much money I’m making, he wouldn’t say I was in the top 10%.  Maybe not, but remember that it doesn’t matter where you’re coming from. All that really matters is where you’re going.  And where you are going is determined by what you are doing at the moment. And the fact that you are here means that you intend to have a great future. Remember that future intention determines present action.”

That’s how I start off.

I’ll even say that I’m going to share some ideas with them, that are practiced by the top 10% of people in this field. I’ll tell them that these ideas can help them to move ahead faster than they ever imagined possible. Then do my best to avoid filler words like um and like, and with this in mind – I launch into my talk.

2) Connect with Emotion

Sometimes when I’m talking to my audiences I will say,  “Tell me, what percentage of people’s thinking is emotional, and what percentage is rational or logical?”

And people will guess for a while, and then they’ll finally say,  “Oh, well it’s 10% logical and 80% or 90% emotional.”

I tell them “No. People’s thinking is 100% emotional.”

What does this mean? This means that people think emotionally and justify logically. The subconscious mind, and our emotions actually function at several thousand times the speed of logic.

For example, you may meet a person and instantly like them. You may find later that there are a lot of reasons for you to instantly like that person. Your emotions acted like a switchblade, instantaneously, but your logic followed after and you figured out the reasons.

3) Tell The Audience How Good They Are

Throughout the talk, I will loop back and say.

“Because you’re in the top 10%, you know this…”

“People in the top 10% like yourself do this…”

“People who aspire to be in the top 10% set goals or manage their time this way.”

So I’m always linking back and telling them that they are in the top 10% and that’s how good they are. Now that’s one way to make it entertaining and enjoyable, because people will all smile and feel happy.

They’re thinking…

“Boy, this guy’s really smart. I didn’t even realize I was in the top 10% until he told me.”

4) Link Back to Your Opening During Your Speech

Starting with a strong opening line or a really good story that you can link and hook your whole talk back into, is very, very powerful.

And I’ve done this year after year.

More on storytelling to come…

5) Relate To The Audience’s Self-Interests

What motivates people to be really interested in your talk, aside from the subject, which many of them may have to be there for?

Many people have told me that they were forced to come to my seminar. They didn’t want to come, because they didn’t think they would learn anything.

So they weren’t there because I was such a wonderful person. They were there because they had to be.

The question you have to ask is, what are the motivations that you need to appeal to so that they will really listen?

Truthfully, I’ve found is that one of the great motivations is self-interest.

That’s why I ask how many people would like to double their income.

They all raise their hands spontaneously.

Then I say,

“Well, in the time we spend together I’m going to give you several ways that you can double your income. These are ways that have been tested and proven by people all over the world. They’ve done these things over and over, and I’ve used them myself to go from rags to non-rags. I’ll give you those same ideas. Would that be a good use of our time together today?”

And they all say,  “Yes! Yes!”

I have their total interest.

If you’re speaking on golf, for example, you ask if they would like to reduce their score by five strokes, every single game consistently.

“Well, I’m going to show you how to do that using psychological and physical techniques.”

6) Entertain Your Audience With Stories

The key to entertaining an audience is stories. Stories are the most important part of a good presentation.

Read this article I wrote if you need help with coming up with great ideas for a PowerPoint presentation .

You can tell very short stories, and they can be your stories or someone else’s stories.

If it’s your personal story, that’s even better.

But if it’s someone else’s story that is just fine.

Start by saying, “I heard a story just the other day.”

And then you tell the story.

Or, “Let me tell you a story,” or “This is something I heard recently that really moved me.”

Whenever you start to tell a story, the whole audience pays 100% attention.

When you’re giving facts and figures and details and strategies, methods and techniques, they will pay a certain amount of attention.

But when you tell a story they will listen intently.

And if you can design your talk around three stories, you’ll be amazed at the response.

Design Your Talk Around 3 Stories

When you think about your talk, remember that “Less is more.”

This should be the basic structure of your talk:

• Your opening
• Your 3 key points

You have a strong opening, first key point, and then a story.

Transition, second key point, and a story.

Transition, third key point, and a story.

Summarize, and then a close.

The stories link it all together. And you can tell stories that are inspiring, or emotional; that make people feel very strongly. You can tell stories that are motivational; that have to do with greater success and achievement as the result of persisting.

7) Appeal To Patriotism, Loyalty or Personal Gain

You can appeal to certain motivations to gain the attention of your audience.

For example:

“Our country is going through great difficulties today and I’m going to give you five things that we have to do to make America once again the land of the free, the home of the brave, and full of opportunity for you, and me, and for our kids.”

So, you have to ask yourself what are the motivations of the people in your audience.

Related: There’s only 1 tip left, if you want more speaker training, check out my best blogs, videos, and courses on the public speaking resource page .

8) Tell the Audience EXACTLY What They are Going to Gain

Great motivation is a desire for gain.

If you can convey to them that they’re going to gain things from your talk, like time, money, or greater success or prestige in any area, then they will be listening and they’ll want to know how they can do that.

A wonderful way you can open a talk, by the way, is you can say “There are three things you need to do if you want to double your income in the next 12 months.”

Then you pause.

The Power of the Pause

When you pause, do you know what happens?

People lean forward and say to themselves,  “I wonder what it is. They wonder what the three things are.”

Then you say,

“The three things are these. You have to be able to do this, and this, and this.”

And then the question they ask in their mind is,  “I wonder how to do that.”

Now it’s almost like fishing…

You just reel them in.

Using any of these tips can help you entertain an audience throughout your entire presentation, no matter how long it is without feeling any speech anxiety . What do you think?

« Previous Post 8 Business Variables That Can Change Your Bottom Line Next Post » 9 Tips to End a Speech With a Bang

About Brian Tracy — Brian is recognized as the top sales training and personal success authority in the world today. He has authored more than 60 books and has produced more than 500 audio and video learning programs on sales, management, business success and personal development, including worldwide bestseller The Psychology of Achievement. Brian's goal is to help you achieve your personal and business goals faster and easier than you ever imagined. You can follow him on Twitter , Facebook , Pinterest , Linkedin and Youtube .

• Most Recent
• How to Write an Author Bio (Examples Included)
• Personal Development Plan Templates for Success
• How to Sell and Become a Master Salesperson
• Navigating Life with a Professional Life Coach & How to Become One
• 165 Inspirational Quotes To Keep You Motivated In Life
• Free Webinar: How To Write a Book and Become a Published Author
• Free Video Series: 3-Part Sales Mastery Training Series
• Free Assessment: The Confidence Factor
• Free Assessment: Discovering Your Talents

Browse Categories

• Financial Success

Follow Brian & Join the Discussion

• Free Resources
• Best Sellers
• Knowledge Base
• Shipping & Returns
• Privacy Policy
• About Brian
• Brian Recommends

Your Privacy is Guaranteed. We will never give, lease or sell your personal information. Period!

© Copyright 2001-2024 Brian Tracy International. All Rights Reserved.

How it works

Transform your enterprise with the scalable mindsets, skills, & behavior change that drive performance.

Explore how BetterUp connects to your core business systems.

We pair AI with the latest in human-centered coaching to drive powerful, lasting learning and behavior change.

Build leaders that accelerate team performance and engagement.

Unlock performance potential at scale with AI-powered curated growth journeys.

Build resilience, well-being and agility to drive performance across your entire enterprise.

Transform your business, starting with your sales leaders.

Unlock business impact from the top with executive coaching.

Foster a culture of inclusion and belonging.

Accelerate the performance and potential of your agencies and employees.

See how innovative organizations use BetterUp to build a thriving workforce.

Discover how BetterUp measurably impacts key business outcomes for organizations like yours.

A demo is the first step to transforming your business. Meet with us to develop a plan for attaining your goals.

• What is coaching?

Learn how 1:1 coaching works, who its for, and if it's right for you.

Accelerate your personal and professional growth with the expert guidance of a BetterUp Coach.

Types of Coaching

Navigate career transitions, accelerate your professional growth, and achieve your career goals with expert coaching.

Enhance your communication skills for better personal and professional relationships, with tailored coaching that focuses on your needs.

Find balance, resilience, and well-being in all areas of your life with holistic coaching designed to empower you.

Discover your perfect match : Take our 5-minute assessment and let us pair you with one of our top Coaches tailored just for you.

Best practices, research, and tools to fuel individual and business growth.

View on-demand BetterUp events and learn about upcoming live discussions.

The latest insights and ideas for building a high-performing workplace.

• BetterUp Briefing

The online magazine that helps you understand tomorrow's workforce trends, today.

Innovative research featured in peer-reviewed journals, press, and more.

Founded in 2022 to deepen the understanding of the intersection of well-being, purpose, and performance

We're on a mission to help everyone live with clarity, purpose, and passion.

Join us and create impactful change.

Read the buzz about BetterUp.

Meet the leadership that's passionate about empowering your workforce.

For Business

For Individuals

How to write a speech that your audience remembers

Elevate your communication skills

Unlock the power of clear and persuasive communication. Our coaches can guide you to build strong relationships and succeed in both personal and professional life.

Whether in a work meeting or at an investor panel, you might give a speech at some point. And no matter how excited you are about the opportunity, the experience can be nerve-wracking . 

But feeling butterflies doesn’t mean you can’t give a great speech. With the proper preparation and a clear outline, apprehensive public speakers and natural wordsmiths alike can write and present a compelling message. Here’s how to write a good speech you’ll be proud to deliver.

What is good speech writing?

Good speech writing is the art of crafting words and ideas into a compelling, coherent, and memorable message that resonates with the audience. Here are some key elements of great speech writing:

• It begins with clearly understanding the speech's purpose and the audience it seeks to engage. 
• A well-written speech clearly conveys its central message, ensuring that the audience understands and retains the key points. 
• It is structured thoughtfully, with a captivating opening, a well-organized body, and a conclusion that reinforces the main message. 
• Good speech writing embraces the power of engaging content, weaving in stories, examples, and relatable anecdotes to connect with the audience on both intellectual and emotional levels. 

Ultimately, it is the combination of these elements, along with the authenticity and delivery of the speaker , that transforms words on a page into a powerful and impactful spoken narrative.

What makes a good speech?

A great speech includes several key qualities, but three fundamental elements make a speech truly effective:

Clarity and purpose

Remembering the audience, cohesive structure.

While other important factors make a speech a home run, these three elements are essential for writing an effective speech.

The main elements of a good speech

The main elements of a speech typically include:

• Introduction: The introduction sets the stage for your speech and grabs the audience's attention. It should include a hook or attention-grabbing opening, introduce the topic, and provide an overview of what will be covered.
• Opening/captivating statement: This is a strong statement that immediately engages the audience and creates curiosity about the speech topics.
• Thesis statement/central idea: The thesis statement or central idea is a concise statement that summarizes the main point or argument of your speech. It serves as a roadmap for the audience to understand what your speech is about.
• Body: The body of the speech is where you elaborate on your main points or arguments. Each point is typically supported by evidence, examples, statistics, or anecdotes. The body should be organized logically and coherently, with smooth transitions between the main points.
• Supporting evidence: This includes facts, data, research findings, expert opinions, or personal stories that support and strengthen your main points. Well-chosen and credible evidence enhances the persuasive power of your speech.
• Transitions: Transitions are phrases or statements that connect different parts of your speech, guiding the audience from one idea to the next. Effective transitions signal the shifts in topics or ideas and help maintain a smooth flow throughout the speech.
• Counterarguments and rebuttals (if applicable): If your speech involves addressing opposing viewpoints or counterarguments, you should acknowledge and address them. Presenting counterarguments makes your speech more persuasive and demonstrates critical thinking.
• Conclusion: The conclusion is the final part of your speech and should bring your message to a satisfying close. Summarize your main points, restate your thesis statement, and leave the audience with a memorable closing thought or call to action.
• Closing statement: This is the final statement that leaves a lasting impression and reinforces the main message of your speech. It can be a call to action, a thought-provoking question, a powerful quote, or a memorable anecdote.
• Delivery and presentation: How you deliver your speech is also an essential element to consider. Pay attention to your tone, body language, eye contact , voice modulation, and timing. Practice and rehearse your speech, and try using the 7-38-55 rule to ensure confident and effective delivery.

While the order and emphasis of these elements may vary depending on the type of speech and audience, these elements provide a framework for organizing and delivering a successful speech.

How to structure a good speech

You know what message you want to transmit, who you’re delivering it to, and even how you want to say it. But you need to know how to start, develop, and close a speech before writing it. 

Think of a speech like an essay. It should have an introduction, conclusion, and body sections in between. This places ideas in a logical order that the audience can better understand and follow them. Learning how to make a speech with an outline gives your storytelling the scaffolding it needs to get its point across.

Here’s a general speech structure to guide your writing process:

• Explanation 1
• Explanation 2
• Explanation 3

How to write a compelling speech opener

Some research shows that engaged audiences pay attention for only 15 to 20 minutes at a time. Other estimates are even lower, citing that people stop listening intently in fewer than 10 minutes . If you make a good first impression at the beginning of your speech, you have a better chance of interesting your audience through the middle when attention spans fade. 

Implementing the INTRO model can help grab and keep your audience’s attention as soon as you start speaking. This acronym stands for interest, need, timing, roadmap, and objectives, and it represents the key points you should hit in an opening. 

Here’s what to include for each of these points: 

• Interest : Introduce yourself or your topic concisely and speak with confidence . Write a compelling opening statement using relevant data or an anecdote that the audience can relate to.
• Needs : The audience is listening to you because they have something to learn. If you’re pitching a new app idea to a panel of investors, those potential partners want to discover more about your product and what they can earn from it. Read the room and gently remind them of the purpose of your speech. 
• Timing : When appropriate, let your audience know how long you’ll speak. This lets listeners set expectations and keep tabs on their own attention span. If a weary audience member knows you’ll talk for 40 minutes, they can better manage their energy as that time goes on. 
• Routemap : Give a brief overview of the three main points you’ll cover in your speech. If an audience member’s attention starts to drop off and they miss a few sentences, they can more easily get their bearings if they know the general outline of the presentation.
• Objectives : Tell the audience what you hope to achieve, encouraging them to listen to the end for the payout. 

Writing the middle of a speech

The body of your speech is the most information-dense section. Facts, visual aids, PowerPoints — all this information meets an audience with a waning attention span. Sticking to the speech structure gives your message focus and keeps you from going off track, making everything you say as useful as possible.

Limit the middle of your speech to three points, and support them with no more than three explanations. Following this model organizes your thoughts and prevents you from offering more information than the audience can retain. 

Using this section of the speech to make your presentation interactive can add interest and engage your audience. Try including a video or demonstration to break the monotony. A quick poll or survey also keeps the audience on their toes. 

Wrapping the speech up

To you, restating your points at the end can feel repetitive and dull. You’ve practiced countless times and heard it all before. But repetition aids memory and learning , helping your audience retain what you’ve told them. Use your speech’s conclusion to summarize the main points with a few short sentences.

Try to end on a memorable note, like posing a motivational quote or a thoughtful question the audience can contemplate once they leave. In proposal or pitch-style speeches, consider landing on a call to action (CTA) that invites your audience to take the next step.

How to write a good speech

If public speaking gives you the jitters, you’re not alone. Roughly 80% of the population feels nervous before giving a speech, and another 10% percent experiences intense anxiety and sometimes even panic. 

The fear of failure can cause procrastination and can cause you to put off your speechwriting process until the last minute. Finding the right words takes time and preparation, and if you’re already feeling nervous, starting from a blank page might seem even harder.

But putting in the effort despite your stress is worth it. Presenting a speech you worked hard on fosters authenticity and connects you to the subject matter, which can help your audience understand your points better. Human connection is all about honesty and vulnerability, and if you want to connect to the people you’re speaking to, they should see that in you.

1. Identify your objectives and target audience

Before diving into the writing process, find healthy coping strategies to help you stop worrying . Then you can define your speech’s purpose, think about your target audience, and start identifying your objectives. Here are some questions to ask yourself and ground your thinking : 

• What purpose do I want my speech to achieve? 
• What would it mean to me if I achieved the speech’s purpose?
• What audience am I writing for? 
• What do I know about my audience? 
• What values do I want to transmit? 
• If the audience remembers one take-home message, what should it be? 
• What do I want my audience to feel, think, or do after I finish speaking? 
• What parts of my message could be confusing and require further explanation?

2. Know your audience

Understanding your audience is crucial for tailoring your speech effectively. Consider the demographics of your audience, their interests, and their expectations. For instance, if you're addressing a group of healthcare professionals, you'll want to use medical terminology and data that resonate with them. Conversely, if your audience is a group of young students, you'd adjust your content to be more relatable to their experiences and interests. 

3. Choose a clear message

Your message should be the central idea that you want your audience to take away from your speech. Let's say you're giving a speech on climate change. Your clear message might be something like, "Individual actions can make a significant impact on mitigating climate change." Throughout your speech, all your points and examples should support this central message, reinforcing it for your audience.

4. Structure your speech

Organizing your speech properly keeps your audience engaged and helps them follow your ideas. The introduction should grab your audience's attention and introduce the topic. For example, if you're discussing space exploration, you could start with a fascinating fact about a recent space mission. In the body, you'd present your main points logically, such as the history of space exploration, its scientific significance, and future prospects. Finally, in the conclusion, you'd summarize your key points and reiterate the importance of space exploration in advancing human knowledge.

5. Use engaging content for clarity

Engaging content includes stories, anecdotes, statistics, and examples that illustrate your main points. For instance, if you're giving a speech about the importance of reading, you might share a personal story about how a particular book changed your perspective. You could also include statistics on the benefits of reading, such as improved cognitive abilities and empathy.

6. Maintain clarity and simplicity

It's essential to communicate your ideas clearly. Avoid using overly technical jargon or complex language that might confuse your audience. For example, if you're discussing a medical breakthrough with a non-medical audience, explain complex terms in simple, understandable language.

7. Practice and rehearse

Practice is key to delivering a great speech. Rehearse multiple times to refine your delivery, timing, and tone. Consider using a mirror or recording yourself to observe your body language and gestures. For instance, if you're giving a motivational speech, practice your gestures and expressions to convey enthusiasm and confidence.

8. Consider nonverbal communication

Your body language, tone of voice, and gestures should align with your message . If you're delivering a speech on leadership, maintain strong eye contact to convey authority and connection with your audience. A steady pace and varied tone can also enhance your speech's impact.

9. Engage your audience

Engaging your audience keeps them interested and attentive. Encourage interaction by asking thought-provoking questions or sharing relatable anecdotes. If you're giving a speech on teamwork, ask the audience to recall a time when teamwork led to a successful outcome, fostering engagement and connection.

10. Prepare for Q&A

Anticipate potential questions or objections your audience might have and prepare concise, well-informed responses. If you're delivering a speech on a controversial topic, such as healthcare reform, be ready to address common concerns, like the impact on healthcare costs or access to services, during the Q&A session.

By following these steps and incorporating examples that align with your specific speech topic and purpose, you can craft and deliver a compelling and impactful speech that resonates with your audience.

Tools for writing a great speech

There are several helpful tools available for speechwriting, both technological and communication-related. Here are a few examples:

• Word processing software: Tools like Microsoft Word, Google Docs, or other word processors provide a user-friendly environment for writing and editing speeches. They offer features like spell-checking, grammar correction, formatting options, and easy revision tracking.
• Presentation software: Software such as Microsoft PowerPoint or Google Slides is useful when creating visual aids to accompany your speech. These tools allow you to create engaging slideshows with text, images, charts, and videos to enhance your presentation.
• Speechwriting Templates: Online platforms or software offer pre-designed templates specifically for speechwriting. These templates provide guidance on structuring your speech and may include prompts for different sections like introductions, main points, and conclusions.
• Rhetorical devices and figures of speech: Rhetorical tools such as metaphors, similes, alliteration, and parallelism can add impact and persuasion to your speech. Resources like books, websites, or academic papers detailing various rhetorical devices can help you incorporate them effectively.
• Speechwriting apps: Mobile apps designed specifically for speechwriting can be helpful in organizing your thoughts, creating outlines, and composing a speech. These apps often provide features like voice recording, note-taking, and virtual prompts to keep you on track.
• Grammar and style checkers: Online tools or plugins like Grammarly or Hemingway Editor help improve the clarity and readability of your speech by checking for grammar, spelling, and style errors. They provide suggestions for sentence structure, word choice, and overall tone.
• Thesaurus and dictionary: Online or offline resources such as thesauruses and dictionaries help expand your vocabulary and find alternative words or phrases to express your ideas more effectively. They can also clarify meanings or provide context for unfamiliar terms.
• Online speechwriting communities: Joining online forums or communities focused on speechwriting can be beneficial for getting feedback, sharing ideas, and learning from experienced speechwriters. It's an opportunity to connect with like-minded individuals and improve your public speaking skills through collaboration.

Remember, while these tools can assist in the speechwriting process, it's essential to use them thoughtfully and adapt them to your specific needs and style. The most important aspect of speechwriting remains the creativity, authenticity, and connection with your audience that you bring to your speech.

5 tips for writing a speech

Behind every great speech is an excellent idea and a speaker who refined it. But a successful speech is about more than the initial words on the page, and there are a few more things you can do to help it land.

Here are five more tips for writing and practicing your speech:

1. Structure first, write second

If you start the writing process before organizing your thoughts, you may have to re-order, cut, and scrap the sentences you worked hard on. Save yourself some time by using a speech structure, like the one above, to order your talking points first. This can also help you identify unclear points or moments that disrupt your flow.

2. Do your homework

Data strengthens your argument with a scientific edge. Research your topic with an eye for attention-grabbing statistics, or look for findings you can use to support each point. If you’re pitching a product or service, pull information from company metrics that demonstrate past or potential successes. 

Audience members will likely have questions, so learn all talking points inside and out. If you tell investors that your product will provide 12% returns, for example, come prepared with projections that support that statement.

3. Sound like yourself

Memorable speakers have distinct voices. Think of Martin Luther King Jr’s urgent, inspiring timbre or Oprah’s empathetic, personal tone . Establish your voice — one that aligns with your personality and values — and stick with it. If you’re a motivational speaker, keep your tone upbeat to inspire your audience . If you’re the CEO of a startup, try sounding assured but approachable. 

4. Practice

As you practice a speech, you become more confident , gain a better handle on the material, and learn the outline so well that unexpected questions are less likely to trip you up. Practice in front of a colleague or friend for honest feedback about what you could change, and speak in front of the mirror to tweak your nonverbal communication and body language .

5. Remember to breathe

When you’re stressed, you breathe more rapidly . It can be challenging to talk normally when you can’t regulate your breath. Before your presentation, try some mindful breathing exercises so that when the day comes, you already have strategies that will calm you down and remain present . This can also help you control your voice and avoid speaking too quickly.

How to ghostwrite a great speech for someone else

Ghostwriting a speech requires a unique set of skills, as you're essentially writing a piece that will be delivered by someone else. Here are some tips on how to effectively ghostwrite a speech:

• Understand the speaker's voice and style : Begin by thoroughly understanding the speaker's personality, speaking style, and preferences. This includes their tone, humor, and any personal anecdotes they may want to include.
• Interview the speaker : Have a detailed conversation with the speaker to gather information about their speech's purpose, target audience, key messages, and any specific points they want to emphasize. Ask for personal stories or examples they may want to include.
• Research thoroughly : Research the topic to ensure you have a strong foundation of knowledge. This helps you craft a well-informed and credible speech.
• Create an outline : Develop a clear outline that includes the introduction, main points, supporting evidence, and a conclusion. Share this outline with the speaker for their input and approval.
• Write in the speaker's voice : While crafting the speech, maintain the speaker's voice and style. Use language and phrasing that feel natural to them. If they have a particular way of expressing ideas, incorporate that into the speech.
• Craft a captivating opening : Begin the speech with a compelling opening that grabs the audience's attention. This could be a relevant quote, an interesting fact, a personal anecdote, or a thought-provoking question.
• Organize content logically : Ensure the speech flows logically, with each point building on the previous one. Use transitions to guide the audience from one idea to the next smoothly.
• Incorporate engaging stories and examples : Include anecdotes, stories, and real-life examples that illustrate key points and make the speech relatable and memorable.
• Edit and revise : Edit the speech carefully for clarity, grammar, and coherence. Ensure the speech is the right length and aligns with the speaker's time constraints.
• Seek feedback : Share drafts of the speech with the speaker for their feedback and revisions. They may have specific changes or additions they'd like to make.
• Practice delivery : If possible, work with the speaker on their delivery. Practice the speech together, allowing the speaker to become familiar with the content and your writing style.
• Maintain confidentiality : As a ghostwriter, it's essential to respect the confidentiality and anonymity of the work. Do not disclose that you wrote the speech unless you have the speaker's permission to do so.
• Be flexible : Be open to making changes and revisions as per the speaker's preferences. Your goal is to make them look good and effectively convey their message.
• Meet deadlines : Stick to agreed-upon deadlines for drafts and revisions. Punctuality and reliability are essential in ghostwriting.
• Provide support : Support the speaker during their preparation and rehearsal process. This can include helping with cue cards, speech notes, or any other materials they need.

Remember that successful ghostwriting is about capturing the essence of the speaker while delivering a well-structured and engaging speech. Collaboration, communication, and adaptability are key to achieving this.

Give your best speech yet

Learn how to make a speech that’ll hold an audience’s attention by structuring your thoughts and practicing frequently. Put the effort into writing and preparing your content, and aim to improve your breathing, eye contact , and body language as you practice. The more you work on your speech, the more confident you’ll become.

The energy you invest in writing an effective speech will help your audience remember and connect to every concept. Remember: some life-changing philosophies have come from good speeches, so give your words a chance to resonate with others. You might even change their thinking.

Elizabeth Perry, ACC

Elizabeth Perry is a Coach Community Manager at BetterUp. She uses strategic engagement strategies to cultivate a learning community across a global network of Coaches through in-person and virtual experiences, technology-enabled platforms, and strategic coaching industry partnerships. With over 3 years of coaching experience and a certification in transformative leadership and life coaching from Sofia University, Elizabeth leverages transpersonal psychology expertise to help coaches and clients gain awareness of their behavioral and thought patterns, discover their purpose and passions, and elevate their potential. She is a lifelong student of psychology, personal growth, and human potential as well as an ICF-certified ACC transpersonal life and leadership Coach.

What are analytical skills? Examples and how to level up

The 11 tips that will improve your public speaking skills, how to apologize to someone professionally and with grace, wondering how to change careers 12 steps to switch it up, 6 presentation skills and how to improve them, discover how professional coaching can boost your career growth, how to not be nervous for a presentation — 13 tips that work (really), how long should you stay in a job this guide will help you figure it out, create a networking plan in 7 easy steps, similar articles, how to write an executive summary in 10 steps, the importance of good speech: 5 tips to be more articulate, how to pitch ideas: 8 tips to captivate any audience, how to give a good presentation that captivates any audience, anxious about meetings learn how to run a meeting with these 10 tips, writing an elevator pitch about yourself: a how-to plus tips, how to make a presentation interactive and exciting, how to write a memo: 8 steps with examples, stay connected with betterup, get our newsletter, event invites, plus product insights and research..

3100 E 5th Street, Suite 350 Austin, TX 78702

• Platform Overview
• Integrations
• Powered by AI
• BetterUp Lead
• BetterUp Manage™
• BetterUp Care™
• Sales Performance
• Diversity & Inclusion
• Case Studies
• Why BetterUp?
• About Coaching
• Find your Coach
• Career Coaching
• Communication Coaching
• Life Coaching
• News and Press
• Leadership Team
• Become a BetterUp Coach
• BetterUp Labs
• Center for Purpose & Performance
• Leadership Training
• Business Coaching
• Contact Support
• Contact Sales
• Privacy Policy
• Acceptable Use Policy
• Trust & Security
• Cookie Preferences

• Self Improvement
• Relationships

How To Make a Good Speech: (Top 21 Public Speaking Tips)

Today you’re going to learn how to make a good speech.

The biggest fear that many people face is not getting fired from a job, jumping off a bridge, or taking a final exam_- it is public speaking. Almost everyone has a fear of public speaking.

They fear they will not be able to deliver the goods when they get up behind the podium or when the spotlight shines on them.

Anyone can learn how to give a good speech by preparing and practicing in advance.

A person usually spends 1 hour of preparation for each minutes they intend to speak. For a speech that last ten minute, a person should practice ten hours.

Therefore, to give a speech, a person must start immediately, to research the topic. Giving a great speech involves some simple steps.to help a person overcome anxiety and come across as an expert on their chosen topic.

People love to listen to people who are an expert, or appeared to be an expert on their chosen topic.

These tips can help you overcome your fear of public speaking.

How To Make a Good Speech:

1. prepare as soon as you can..

Making up a speech on the spot, or at the last minute is a fail speech. The person does not come on as an expert. People love listen to an expert because what they are saying is true and creditable.

By rehearsing ahead of time, you can also ensure your words fit the time allotted, and you will find solutions to those spots where you tongue stumbles.

Preparation does not have to take a lot of time, but the sooner begun, the better chance you have of giving your speech preparation the time it needs.

2. Choose Your Goal and Topic

You have a speech to give and the best way to give it is breaking the speech down into its elements. The first element is preparation or research, the next steps is to select a topic that is not to general, or too specific.

A topic of weight loss is to general. Losing 30 pound is 30 days is too specific. However, how to lose 30 pounds in 30 days through nutrition and exercise is just right.

People in the last example is given driving direction from point A to point B and are allow to enjoy the ride at the same time.

By choosing a topic that is not to general or special allows a speaker to become an expert. Again, expert in one chosen field allows a speaker to more creditable than a non-expert.

Therefore, prepare a speech by doing your research and sound like an expert, and choose a topic that is not to general or too specific for all types of audience. .

3. List Your Bullet Points

When you begin to write your speech you should focus on your topic, and make a list of the bullet points you want to cover.

Bullet point help you to focus on the topic without given the impression of reading. Anyone can read a speech, it take a special person to speak it.

People didn’t come to watch you to read a speech- they can do that themselves. People come to hear, feel, and live your speech.

Once you have a list of topics, consider places you can insert an anecdote, example, or even a joke to help make your point. People love stories and the more stories you tell, the more engaged your audience is likely to be.

SEE ALSO:  How To Make Money Online Fast: 15 Legit Ways To Start Earning Money

4. Do not Memorize, but Do Write the Speech

For most people, it won’t sound natural if you memorize your speech word for word, However, memorizing a speech word for word appears to monotone, or lifeless.

To write out speech in full, helps the speaker make sure the speaker covers everything she want to say and fits the timetable.

If you will have a power point presentation, you will have the advantage of notes that guide you through your speech. Do not put every word on the screen.

People come to see you in person so they can get more than they would simply reading your text. Better to alternate slides of emphasized information with images that entertain and engage.

Make your notes on index cards if you will not have a projector for your presentation( 1 ).

5. Engage the Audience

One of the key parts of giving a speech is engaging with the audience.

During your presentation, make an effort to look at audience members and talk directly to them.

Even if you are giving a presentation to a large audience, you can still integrate phrases and questions that will make audience members feels as if they are part of the process of communication.

Frequently, speeches and presentations are given with the purpose of evoking a specific response or action from audience members.

If may be that you are giving a sales presentation and are promoting a product you want them to buy.

It may be that you want them to become involved in a particular cause or group. As part of your speech writing process, you should have a summary and call to action at the end of your speech.

One of the ways to continue your message even after you have finished and completed delivering your speech is to continue contact with audience members.

You can accomplish this with programs such as Present Now. This kind of program can allow you to continue communication with your audience by sending out emails and following up on leads that may be generated through audience participation.

6. Putting Emotion into Your Speech

You have to believe in the emotion you are presenting. If you are trying to be funny, then you have to believe the topic and information is funny.

If you are trying to rally people to act on something, then you need to believe in the cause and deliver the words with passion.

A speech should be written using your normal speaking style to be effective. When you write down the words in your speech, do not be afraid to write them exactly as you would say them.

It will help you to craft a memorable speech and it will also help you to maintain the flow of the speech while you are giving it.

When you are writing a speech, you should be able to say it out loud and have it sound natural.

If your tendency is to use terse emotion to get an important point across, then say the words tersely and make any changes that will help you to deliver the emotion properly.

A well-written speech will remind you of the emotions you felt while creating it and allow you to re-create those emotions when you are delivering it.

7. Use Humor

One of the most effective public speaking tips is the use of humor. In the majority of cases, a funny anecdote or appropriate, non-offensive joke is acceptable.

Laughing breaks the ice between the speaker and the audience. It is also a way to add interest to dull topics and create rapport with listeners.

Mild self-effacing jokes or humorous anecdotes about the speaker’s own life are the least likely to offend anyone.

They let the audience know that you do not take yourself too seriously and add a fresh spin to a speech.

Speakers should relax and pretend as if they are entertaining guests in their own home. Make jokes that are related to the topic that is being discussed.

If you hear a light-hearted joke that pertains to your topic, it can be helpful to write it down and rehearse it later.

This will allow you to ease it into a presentation and make the delivery seem natural. Remember timing is key. Distribute eye contact evenly throughout the audience and fully commit to the joke.

If it doesn’t elicit any laughs continue with the presentation as planned and don’t panic.

Always use humor sparingly. It is much more appropriate to be mildly amusing then having audience members rolling in the aisles with laughter.

Humor is perfect for engaging listeners when used in moderation, yet too much humor can distract them from the topic at hand.

8. Think about what you want the audience to remember

As you go through your outline and start crafting your speech, you will want to keep in mind the information that you want your audience to remember.

There are statements that set mood and statements that make an impact. The audience will rarely remember the statements that set the mood, but they will remember the statements that make an impact.

Statements that set a mood are things like a joke you tell to open the speech to create levity, or an emphasis you make on a certain phrase to create the feeling of urgency.

These ancillary statements are incredibly important to creating the vehicle for delivering your message, but it is the message that will be remembered.

9. Shaping the speech towards your audience

Great speeches do not have to repeat important information to make it effective.

The important information stands on its own and becomes the focus of the speech. As you write your speech, you need to use deliberate ways to set up the delivery of important information.

For example, write in a pause in your speech after a joke to make sure that everyone hears the important statement you are about to make.

The most difficult thing about speech writing is making sure that you emphasize the important information while maintaining the audience€™s interest.

This is where speech revisions become very important. If you have to point out to your test audience where the important information is in your speech, then you need to rewrite the speech to separate the important points from the points used to set mood or tone.

Once you see a reaction from your test audience when you deliver the important points, you will know that you have written a truly great speech.

10. Capture the attention of your audience from the starting gate

Perhaps the most important part of your speech is the opening introduction.

The proverbial saying, “you never get a second chance to make a good first impression,” strongly applies when delivering a successful speech. You have only a few minutes to grab your audience’s attention before they decide if they will be tuning in or turning out of your speech.

Engage the audience early on by sharing an intriguing fact, amazing statistic, or funny line.

11. Make it personal

Try to connect with the audience on a personal level. Sharing a relevant story or experience brings meaning to your message and makes you more relatable and human.

The audience will walk away remembering an intriguing personal story more than just a bunch of facts.

Remember, people are more interest about things about them, or form them. Nobody care about information that doesn’t apply to someone else.

Would you be interested in how someone else became rich, or how someone else became rich, and you can applied the same skills to become rich in your own life.

12. Look them in the Eye

Making eye contact with your audience is extremely important. It lets them feel like you are talking directly to them and that they are included in the discussion.

Eye contact shows your audience you are open, trustworthy and confident about what you are saying. For a small group, making eye contact with everyone is easy.

For larger audiences, divide the room into sections and select a few people to make eye contact with from each section.

13. Work the Pause

Do not worry if you have to pause for a moment from time to time. You may need to catch your breath or regain your train of thought.

Further, pauses can create thought provoking statement that can apply a person to take action in their own life.

Pauses sound much longer for the speaker than they do for the listeners. In fact, one common mistake of beginning speakers is speaking too fast. Take time to breathe between paragraphs. Pause and let your point sink in.

14. Practice, Practice, Practice

Rehearse your speech all the way through and time it with a stopwatch. If you are far off your target time, adjust by adding and subtracting stories or detail.

When you have to cut the length of your speech consider whether there is a section you can excerpt and offer separate from your speech.

Maybe you had planned to explain the history of your craft in your speech, but you find you will not have time to do more than cover five top tips for success in the field.

You can offer the historical information in a hand out after your speech or send it along in a pdf for those who sign up to your email list.

When practicing your speech, note the places where you stumble, so you can practice those passages to make them smoother. Double check pronunciations on any words that you do not commonly use

SEE ALSO:  What Are Some Barriers To Leadership Development: 15 Fatal Mistakes

15. Step Away from the Podium

Podium is not a life jacket. The podium is not going to save you from the tomato being thrown at you.

Stepping away from podium will deflect the tomato because the audience wants to see you- all of you .Around 55% of your speech is your body language.

Thus, people want to see what your body tell about your speech. If you not an expert on your topic, or appear to be- it will show.

If you can visit the place where you will speak ahead of time, take advantage of the opportunity to see how much room you will have to move to around. Moving around make you relax and brings the audience closer to you.

16. Use Relaxation Techniques to Prevent Stage Fright

The prospect of facing a crowd excites our “fight or flight” response. This can lead to increased pulse rate and shallow breathing. If left unchecked, it can get much worse.

You can use breathing techniques to control your body’s response to your fear of public speaking.

As the time for your speech approaches, practice taking slow, deep breaths to calm your nerves. Focus on a soothing thought or image to stop your thoughts from racing.

If you can relax your body in the moments leading up to your presentation, and you have prepared your speech in advance, you should find you gain momentum once you start speaking.

17. Extending the Connection

At the end of your speech, you may want to continue the dialogue with your audience. When speaking to a crowd of people who are not already members of your organization, you can capture your listeners’ emails, so you can extend the relationship beyond this one

18. Arrive at Speaking Engagements Early

Standing up in an unfamiliar place in front of strangers can be nerve wracking. Arrive at the location of the speaking engagement early and walk around the room, stand at the podium or on the stage, and familiarize yourself with the layout of the room.

This will allow you to feel more comfortable in the space. Be sure to practice using the microphone and do a run-through of any visual aids that will be used. Familiarity breeds confidence which will make the speech go much smoother.

In addition, arriving early allows you to greet audience members as they enter. Take a moment or two to look them in the eye, introduce yourself, and get a feel for them.

Knowing the audience enables you to find a tone and style of delivery that suits the listeners. It is much easier to speak in front of people that you have met instead of complete strangers.

When you introduce yourself you are also creating a connection with members of the audience. You will be more memorable, making keeping in touch with audience members ( 2 ), much more effective.

Maintaining communication before and after a speech is a powerful tool for marketing.

19. Relax and Focus

Try using deep breathing or listening to relaxing music prior to public speaking. When a speaker is relaxed they are less likely to stumble or forget parts of the speech.

It is also easier to keep the audience’s attention and allow them to soak up the information if you sound natural and authoritative. When you reach the podium it is best to take a deep breath, wait a few seconds, and then address the crowd.

This gives you time to calm your nerves and gather your thoughts.

Visualizing the speech going well and receiving a positive response from the audience is a confidence building technique that can be used shortly before speaking. Confidence is key in relaying a message to others.

If you make a mistake or have a moment of nervousness in the speech, you shouldn’t apologize to the audience. Instead, carry on as seamlessly as possible.

It is more than likely that no one noticed an error. By focusing on the content of the speech and the audience, this takes mental energy and focus away from one’s own anxieties.

Drawing attention outward can help improve concentration and alleviate uncertainty.

20. Educate Yourself on the Topic

Again, even if you are delivering a speech containing material that you are familiar with, it is still beneficial to conduct research when writing the content.

Get to know the topic inside and out. Know more than what you include in the presentation.

By having thorough knowledge of a topic you will be able to answer questions and even throw in information if you lose your place or make a mistake.

Knowing your material will bolster your confidence. If you feel like an authority on a topic, you will sound like an authority on a topic.

When a speaker is knowledgeable the audience trusts the information they are receiving and is more likely to be persuaded by your ideas and arguments.

When using public speaking as a marketing tool, it is crucial to be well-versed on the subject. An audience wants authenticity, compelling facts and figures, and new, fresh information.

21. Follow-Up

Businesses and individuals who will be using a public speaking engagement as a form of marketing want to remain in the forefront of the audience’s mind.

Following up with an e-mail and cultivating an e-mail list of audience members will help you reinforce your message. Maintaining a relationship with your audience after the speech creates the necessary connections to drive business or promote yourself.

I want to thank you for taking the time to read my article about how to make a good speech .

I sincerely hope its contents have been a good help to you.

RELATED ARTICLES MORE FROM AUTHOR

How to prepare for a client meeting or with coworkers:, how to recover from burnout at work: 11 best steps, how to be a good manager and leader: 20-step guide, how to prove your worth at work: 13-step guide, how to overcome failure at work: 11 ways to bounce back, how to effectively lead a team: the 15 critical practices , how to network for a job: 12 professional networking tips, how to talk about your strengths and weaknesses in an interview, how to prepare a workshop: use these 6 proven steps, how to innovate at work: 15 tips to unleash power of invention, how to deal with lazy boss in 15 effective steps, how to give an effective online presentation from home.

• Privacy Policy
• Cookie Policy
• Terms and Conditions

Speech about Listening [1,2,3,5 Minutes]

Short 1 minute speech about listening.

Listening is a skill that is essential to our lives. We must listen to understand other people’s points of view and build relationships with them.

Listening is one of the most important skills that we should have. Listening skills are also extremely important in the workplace.

Listening starts with understanding what someone is saying, then understanding how they feel about it, and finally understanding why they feel that way.

Listening is an essential skill in the workplace. It allows us to understand what our co-workers are thinking and how they feel about a certain topic or decision.

Listening is important because it helps us to understand others’ opinions, identify problems and opportunities, and make decisions based on what we learn. If we don’t listen well, we might miss out on crucial information that would help us be more effective in our work.

Listening is one of the most important skills in life. It helps you to understand the other person’s thoughts, emotions and actions. Listening can also help you to build a strong connection with someone else.

Listening is not just about hearing what someone else has to say but it also involves understanding them. Listening can help you find out what they are thinking and feeling and how they react to certain situations.

Listening is a skill that is essential to success in any field. We must be able to listen and understand what people are saying, even when they are not speaking.

Hearing and listening are two different skills. Hearing is the ability to hear sounds that have been made by someone else. Listening, on the other hand, is the ability to hear sounds in your mind or your imagination.

2 Minutes Speech about Listening

Listening is an important skill for anyone who wants to be successful. It helps you get more out of your conversations, which can be with friends, family members, coworkers and even strangers.

Listening is a process that involves focusing your attention on the speaker and receiving what they are saying. It also means understanding what they are saying and not interrupting them while they speak.

Listening is a skill that can help you improve your relationships with people around you as well as increase your success in life.

Listening is a skill that will help you in your professional and personal life. It can also improve your leadership skills and relationships.

Listening is an important skill for professionals and people in general. It helps us gain a better understanding of the people we interact with and it helps us understand what’s happening around us. Listening also improves our leadership skills because it teaches us how to be more empathetic towards others.

Listening is a skill that is important for every individual in order to communicate effectively. It is a skill that can be learned by anyone and it can also be improved with practice.

Listening is an effective way of communicating with other people. Listening can help you understand their needs, emotions and thoughts. It is a way of showing respect towards the other person and it also helps in developing relationships.

Listening helps you learn about the world around you and it helps you develop your own opinions on things. Listening allows you to discover new things that may not have been discovered before while listening to someone else talk about something they are passionate about.

Listening is a skill that can be practiced. It has been shown that people who are better at listening can earn more money, have higher levels of self-esteem and happiness, and enjoy better relationships.

Listening is the ability to understand what someone is saying without interrupting or answering them back. It requires not only the ability to hear but also the willingness to listen for long periods of time without being distracted by one’s own thoughts.

3 Minutes Speech about Listening

Listening is a skill that is essential for effective communication. It is the act of receiving and comprehending information in order to provide appropriate feedback or response.

Listening skills can be acquired as one grows older and has more life experience. To become a good listener, one must have the ability to “listen with your eyes” and “listen with your ears”.

Listening skills are important for all aspects of life – personal, professional, academic, social and spiritual.

Listening is an important skill for everyone to have. Listening allows you to understand the other person’s perspective and can help you build stronger relationships.

Listening is also a crucial skill for communication in the workplace. It allows you to understand what your colleagues want, what they need, and how they feel about things. This helps you build stronger relationships with your colleagues by being more empathetic towards them and understanding what they are thinking or feeling.

Listening is also an important skill for leadership because it helps you understand the needs of your team or employees better. This can help you make decisions that will benefit all those involved in the process

Listening is a skill that can be developed and improved by practice. It can help people better understand others, communicate more effectively, and build stronger relationships.

Listening is one of the most important skills for success in any field. Listening is a way to understand the other person’s thoughts, feelings, and opinions without interrupting or judging them. Listening also helps you to see things from someone else’s perspective and to find out what they really need or want from you.

Listining allows us to break down barriers between people who are different from us in age, race, religion, culture, etc. We can create understanding between people who are on different sides of an issue or debate. Listining helps us learn about new cultures and traditions so we can appreciate them more deeply.

Listening is a passive skill, whereas hearing is an active one. Listening requires you to make a conscious effort to listen and focus on what the speaker is saying. Hearing is just listening with your ears.

Hearing is typically associated with the auditory sense, while listening refers to the act of receiving and understanding verbal communication.

Listening can be done with your eyes closed or eyes open, but hearing requires you to have your ears open for it to work properly. This means that listening can be done anywhere, while hearing can only happen when someone’s talking directly in front of you or in a quiet environment.

Listening is an important skill and it can be hard to focus on what someone is saying when you’re busy thinking about other things. Here are some ways to listen more closely:

– Ask questions

– Use active listening

– Focus on what people say, not how they say it

5 Minutes Speech about Listening

Listening is a skill that is not easy to master. It is said that it takes 10,000 hours of practice to become an expert in any field.

Listening can be defined as the act of understanding and responding appropriately to what someone else has said or done. It can also be defined as the act of being aware of and attending to what others are saying or doing, without interrupting or trying to dominate the conversation.

Listening is a skill that many people struggle with because there are so many distractions in today’s society. However, it is essential to have good listening skills because it builds strong relationships with other people and helps you get your point across more effectively in conversations.

Listening is a skill that is often overlooked because it’s not something that we can see or touch. However, it’s an important part of interpersonal communication and how we connect with people.

Listening is the skill of understanding what someone else wants and needs by understanding their tone, emotions, body language, and the words they say. It’s also important to be able to listen to yourself so you know what your true feelings are about a situation.

Listening is a skill that can help us in many ways. It can improve our relationships with others, it can make us more empathetic, and it can help us in our career.

Listening is a skill that helps improve relationships with others. Listening to people is also an important aspect of being an effective communicator. The speaker will be able to express themselves better because they know that the listener is listening and understanding what they are saying.

Listening skills are also important for careers. Employers often seek out candidates who have these skills because they believe that these candidates will be better employees and more productive at work than those who don’t have them.

In the digital age, we are constantly exposed to sound. We might be checking our social media accounts while on the train, or listening to music while working out. The problem is that we might not be able to hear what’s going on around us when we’re focused on something else.

The ability of humans to hear has declined because of a number of factors such as stress, noise pollution and aging. This has led many people to believe that our hearing is at risk in this digital age.

Listening is a skill that can be learned and improved with practice just like any other skill. Listening helps us understand what others are saying and also helps us focus better when necessary.

Listening is an important skill that can help you in your personal and professional life. It is a crucial aspect of effective communication, which can be enhanced by the use of tricks.

1. Take notes while listening: Keep a pen and paper handy while listening to someone talk so that you can jot down anything interesting or important they say. When you are done with the conversation, go back over your notes and see what else there is to know about what was said. This will help you to remember key points and ensure that nothing slips through the cracks during future conversations with this person or on this subject.

2. Take careful note of body language: Pay close attention to how someone’s body language changes when they speak to you; it could mean something significant about their mood or thoughts on something they

Examples of sentences that can be used in starting of this speech

Examples of sentences that can be used in closing of this speech, speeches in english.

• Speech on women’s empowerment
• Speech on social media
• Speech on environment
• Speech on gender equality
• Speech on poverty
• Speech on Global Warming
• Speech on Environmental Pollution
• Speech on Earth Day
• Speech on Discipline
• Speech on Human Rights
• Speech on Education
• Motivational speech for students
• 2-minute Self-introduction speech examples
• Speech on Mahatma Gandhi
• Speech on freedom fighters
• Speech on APJ Abdul Kalam
• Speech about friendship
• Speech about Technology
• Speech on Parents
• Speech on Health
• Speech on Health and Fitness
• Speech on Health and Hygiene
• Speech on Mental health
• Speech on Yoga
• Speech on Doctor
• Speech about Life
• Speech on sports
• Speech on Racism
• Speech on Population or overpopulation
• Speech on Overcoming Fear
• Speech about Family
• Speech on Mobile Phones
• Speech on water conservation
• Speech on Honesty
• Speech on Culture
• Speech on Unity in diversity
• Speech on Peace
• Speech on Time
• Speech on Success
• Speech on Leadership
• Speech on Nature
• Speech on Career
• Speech about Music
• Speech on Democracy
• Speech on Noise Pollution
• Speech on Air Pollution
• Speech on Gratitude
• Speech on Time management
• Speech on Dance
• Speech on Climate Change
• Speech on Artificial Intelligence
• Speech on Cyber security
• Speech on Teamwork
• Speech on Goal Setting
• Speech on Plastic Waste Management
• Speech on Feminism
• Speech on Bhagat Singh
• Speech on Books
• Speech on Laughter is the Best Medicine
• Speech on Swami Vivekananda
• Speech on Road Safety
• Speech on Cyber Crime
• Speech on Energy Conservation
• Speech on Online Education
• Speech on Quaid-e-Azam
• Speech on Allama Iqbal
• Speech about Rainy Day
• Speech about Teachers’ day
• Speech about Graduation
• Speech about Love
• Speech about Football
• Speech about Money
• Speech about Anxiety
• Speech about Politics
• Speech about Nelson Mandela
• Speech about Kindness
• Speech about Cleanliness
• Speech about Deforestation
• Speech about Agriculture
• speech about Cricket
• Speech about Unemployment
• Speech about Birthday
• Speech about Patience
• Speech about the Value of Time
• Speech about Positive Thinking
• Speech about Knowledge is Power
• Speech about Games
• Speech about Indian Culture
• Speech about Appreciation
• Speech about Farming
• Speech about Debut
• Speech about Purpose
• Speech about Hardwork
• Speech about Thank you / Thankfulness / being thankful
• Speeches about Communication
• Speech about Dreams and ambitions 
• Speech about Confidence
• Speech about traveling and Tourism
• Speech about Corruption
• Speech about the millennial generation
• Speech about Success and Failure
• Speech about Environmental Awareness
• Speech about Life Goals
• Speech about Stress
• Speech about the Life of a Student
• Speech about Social Issues
• Speech about Mom
• Speech about God
• Speech about Plants
• Speech about Fashion
• Speech about Basketball
• Speech about Business
• Speech about Smile
• Speech about Animals
• Speech about Passion
• Speech about Youth Empowerment
• Speech about Youth Leadership
• Speech about Responsibility
• Speech about Plastic Pollution
• Speech about Courage
• Speech about Homework
• Short Speech about Engineering
• Speech about Positive Attitude
• Speech about Dad
• Speech about my Favourite Teacher
• Speech about Electricity
• Speech about pen
• Speech about Family Problems
• Speech about Compassion
• Speech about Achievement
• Speech about Challenges
• Speech about Modern Technology
• Speech about Opportunity
• Speech about Anti Corruption
• Speech about Nursing Profession
• Speech about Innovation
• Speech about Wisdom
• Speech about Air
• Speech about Change in the World
• Speech about Quality Education
• Speech about Dedication
• Speech about Motherhood
• Speech about Clean Environment
• Speech about National Integration
• Speech about Body Language
• Speech about an Event
• Speech about Healthy Habits
• Speech about Listening
• Speech about Humour
• Speech about Memory
• Speech about the Importance of Sports and Games

Related Posts:

• Music Listening App final year project for BSCS BSIT MCS BSSE
• Which of the following is the first step of process of listening?
• Speech about pen [1,2,3 Minutes short Speech]
• Speech on women's empowerment [1, 2, 3, 5 Minutes]
• Speech on social media [1, 2, 3, 5 Minutes]
• Speech on environment Day[1, 2, 3, 5 Minutes]

• Side Hustles
• Power Players
• Young Success
• Save and Invest
• Become Debt-Free
• Land the Job
• Closing the Gap
• Science of Success
• Pop Culture and Media
• Psychology and Relationships
• Health and Wellness
• Real Estate
• Most Popular

Related Stories

• Leadership Avoid these 3 common phrases—they make you   look weak and insecure, experts say
• Leadership Use these 3 phrases to sound smarter and   more emotionally intelligent: experts
• Leadership This trait is a subtle sign someone is   highly intelligent, says psychotherapist
• Land the Job This bad job interview habit gives   hiring managers the 'biggest ick'
• Leadership These 10 common crutch phrases ‘undermine   our competence,' says Stanford expert

2 simple ways to get people to listen when you speak, according to a Stanford communication expert

You're probably not as good of a listener as you think you are.

Statistically, it's true for most people. Many professionals believe that they're highly attentive, but 70% of them actually exhibit poor listening habits in the workplace, according to a 2020 University of Southern California report . So you've got to be clever if you want to grasp someone's attention, says Matt Abrahams, a communication consultant and organizational behavior lecturer at Stanford University.

It's a lesson that Abrahams learned, in part, while lecturing. Polite requests for his students' attention fell on deaf ears, drowned out by their "chit-chatting," he tells CNBC Make It.

Here are the two ways he recommends commanding a room instead.

Don't say anything at all

You're in a meeting room, chatting with co-workers. One of your company's executives walks up to the front of the room, stands behind a podium and gazes out at the group. Odds are good that you'll stop talking.

"One of the best things to do to command attention and get people to be quiet is to actually just stand in front of them and not say anything," Abrahams says. "Just to physically stand up in a position where everybody can see you."

It only takes four seconds for silence to become awkward, according to a Dutch psychology study published in 2011. It might feel uncomfortable for you too, but the awkwardness alone "will typically draw people in," says Abrahams.

While you're waiting, you can try to control your breathing or clear your mind. "It's very hard to stand in silence, but that can be very helpful," he adds.

Make a declarative statement, repeat it if necessary

Saying something impactful or thought-provoking with no warning can have a similar effect, says Abrahams.

"Just this past Monday, we were talking [in class] about nonverbal presence. They're all talking and I just stood there for a moment. And then I said, 'How you say something is often as important or more important than what you say,'" Abrahams says. "And then I paused, and they're still shuffling on, and then I repeated it. And then everybody was quiet."

Put simply, don't ask for control — just demonstrate it. You can also try other tactics like starting a big presentation with a question, or playing music before an event starts, which signals that something else is about to happen, says Abrahams.

"Just exerting that control, either by asking a question, standing in silence or making some kind of declarative sentence that's provocative will help people [listen]," he says. "You might have to repeat yourself once or twice, but that's what I do."

Want to make extra money outside of your day job?  Sign up for CNBC's new online course How to Earn Passive Income Online to learn about common passive income streams, tips to get started and real-life success stories. Register today and save 50% with discount code EARLYBIRD.

Plus, sign up for CNBC Make It's newsletter to get tips and tricks for success at work, with money and in life.

The 'Camel' gets up and why is Ross seeing 420 everywhere!‪?‬ Two Each Way

Ross Stevenson and Hamish McLachlan revel in Ross's VERY good weekend, Hame's ability to listen to the Universe AND why is Ross seeing 420 everywhere he looks?Frame a Market - US Election CampaignSomeone Interesting - Dr Turf and Bob HawkeGood Calls - Best Man speech and a Lost VoiceTWO EACH WAY: dabble.onelink.me/i0P0/45n1pos9 PROMOCODE: TWOEACHWAY See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

• Episode Website
• More Episodes

Top Podcasts In Sports

Mobile Navigation

Navigating the challenges and opportunities of synthetic voices.

We’re sharing lessons from a small scale preview of Voice Engine, a model for creating custom voices.

OpenAI is committed to developing safe and broadly beneficial AI . Today we are sharing preliminary insights and results from a small-scale preview of a model called Voice Engine, which uses text input and a single 15-second audio sample to generate natural-sounding speech that closely resembles the original speaker. It is notable that a small model with a single 15-second sample can create emotive and realistic voices.

We first developed Voice Engine in late 2022, and have used it to power the preset voices available in the text-to-speech API as well as ChatGPT Voice and Read Aloud . At the same time, we are taking a cautious and informed approach to a broader release due to the potential for synthetic voice misuse. We hope to start a dialogue on the responsible deployment of synthetic voices, and how society can adapt to these new capabilities. Based on these conversations and the results of these small scale tests, we will make a more informed decision about whether and how to deploy this technology at scale.

Early applications of Voice Engine

To better understand the potential uses of this technology, late last year we started privately testing it with a small group of trusted partners. We've been impressed by the applications this group has developed. These small scale deployments are helping to inform our approach, safeguards, and thinking about how Voice Engine could be used for good across various industries. A few early examples include:

• Providing reading assistance to non-readers and children through natural-sounding, emotive voices representing a wider range of speakers than what's possible with preset voices. Age of Learning , an education technology company dedicated to the academic success of children, has been using this to generate pre-scripted voice-over content. They also use Voice Engine and GPT-4 to create real-time, personalized responses to interact with students. With this technology, Age of Learning has been able to create more content for a wider audience.

1. Reference audio

2. generated audio.

• Translating content , like videos and podcasts, so creators and businesses can reach more people around the world, fluently and in their own voices. One early adopter of this is HeyGen , an AI visual storytelling platform that works with their enterprise customers to create custom, human-like avatars for a variety of content, from product marketing to sales demos. They use Voice Engine for video translation, so they can translate a speaker's voice into multiple languages and reach a global audience. When used for translation, Voice Engine preserves the native accent of the original speaker: for example generating English with an audio sample from a French speaker would produce speech with a French accent.
• Reaching global communities , by improving essential service delivery in remote settings. Dimagi is building tools for community health workers to provide a variety of essential services, such as counseling for breastfeeding mothers. To help these workers develop their skills, Dimagi uses Voice Engine and GPT-4 to give interactive feedback in each worker's primary language including Swahili or more informal languages like Sheng, a code-mixed language popular in Kenya.
• Breastfeeding
• Supporting people who are non-verbal , such as therapeutic applications for individuals with conditions that affect speech and educational enhancements for those with learning needs. Livox , an AI alternative communication app, powers Augmentative & Alternative Communication (AAC) devices that enable people with disabilities to communicate. By using Voice Engine, they are able to offer people who are non-verbal unique and non-robotic voices across many languages. Their users can choose speech that best represents them, and for multilingual users, maintain a consistent voice across each spoken language.
• Helping patients recover their voice , for those suffering from sudden or degenerative speech conditions. The Norman Prince Neurosciences Institute at Lifespan , a not-for-profit health system that serves as the primary teaching affiliate of Brown University's medical school, is exploring uses of AI in clinical contexts. They've been piloting a program offering Voice Engine to individuals with oncologic or neurologic etiologies for speech impairment. Since Voice Engine requires such a short audio sample, doctors Fatima Mirza, Rohaid Ali and Konstantina Svokos were able to restore the voice of a young patient who lost her fluent speech due to a vascular brain tumor, using audio from a video recorded for a school project.

1. Current voice

2. reference audio, 3. generated audio, building voice engine safely.

We recognize that generating speech that resembles people's voices has serious risks, which are especially top of mind in an election year. We are engaging with U.S. and international partners from across government, media, entertainment, education, civil society and beyond to ensure we are incorporating their feedback as we build. 

The partners testing Voice Engine today have agreed to our usage policies , which prohibit the impersonation of another individual or organization without consent or legal right. In addition, our terms with these partners require explicit and informed consent from the original speaker and we don’t allow developers to build ways for individual users to create their own voices. Partners must also clearly disclose to their audience that the voices they're hearing are AI-generated. Finally, we have implemented a set of safety measures, including watermarking to trace the origin of any audio generated by Voice Engine, as well as proactive monitoring of how it's being used. 

We believe that any broad deployment of synthetic voice technology should be accompanied by voice authentication experiences that verify that the original speaker is knowingly adding their voice to the service and a no-go voice list that detects and prevents the creation of voices that are too similar to prominent figures.

Looking ahead

Voice Engine is a continuation of our commitment to understand the technical frontier and openly share what is becoming possible with AI. In line with our approach to AI safety and our voluntary commitments , we are choosing to preview but not widely release this technology at this time. We hope this preview of Voice Engine both underscores its potential and also motivates the need to bolster societal resilience against the challenges brought by ever more convincing generative models. Specifically, we encourage steps like:

• Phasing out voice based authentication as a security measure for accessing bank accounts and other sensitive information
• Exploring policies to protect the use of individuals' voices in AI
• Educating the public in understanding the capabilities and limitations of AI technologies, including the possibility of deceptive AI content
• Accelerating the development and adoption of techniques for tracking the origin of audiovisual content, so it's always clear when you're interacting with a real person or with an AI

It's important that people around the world understand where this technology is headed, whether we ultimately deploy it widely ourselves or not. We look forward to continuing to engage in conversations around the challenges and opportunities of synthetic voices with policymakers, researchers, developers and creatives.

• facebook-rs

Obama to Protester Interrupting: ‘Can’t Just Talk and Not Listen’

By Charisma Madarang

Charisma Madarang

Former presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton arrived at Radio City Music Hall in New York on Thursday night to garner support and funds for President Joe Biden ‘s reelection campaign. The event drummed up more than $25 million in what Biden’s campaign is calling the “most successful political fundraiser in American history.”

While moderator Stephen Colbert gathered with the trio in an armchair conversation, dubbing them “ champion talkers, ” the occasion was frequently interrupted by protestors inside the theater. Throughout different moments of the event, attendees would shout over the discussion, referencing Biden’s support of Israel in the Hamas war that has killed more than 30,000 Palestinians in Gaza .

At this point, Obama was interrupted by a protestor inside the theater. Speaking to the protestor, Obama said, “You can’t just talk and not listen.… That’s what the other side does.” He added, “It is possible for us to understand that it is possible to have moral clarity and have deeply held beliefs, but still recognize that the world is complicated and it is hard to solve these problems.”

Trump Says He’ll Become ‘Modern Day Nelson Mandela’ Over Right to Attack Judge’s Daughter

The far right is crawling with eclipse conspiracy theories, taylor swift starts countdown to ‘the tortured poets department’ with her favorite number, taylor swift soundtracks the five stages of grief with new apple music playlists.

. @POTUS @JoeBiden @BarackObama @BillClinton on stage at Radio City Music Hall. The fundraiser has been interrupted multiple times by protesters. Obama snapped at one of them: you can’t just talk, you have to listen. pic.twitter.com/qtcWJ2oqCy — Jeff Mason (@jeffmason1) March 29, 2024

Earlier this month, as Biden prepared for his pivotal  2024 State of the Union , protestors demanding a ceasefire blockaded outside the White House and near the Capitol. “We are outraged, we are heartbroken, and we are demanding that President Biden stop funding and arming Israel’s genocide of Palestinians,” Elena Stein of Jewish Voice for Peace, which helped organize the protest, told  Rolling Stone.

Biden and his administration have urged Israel not to invade or launch a major offensive on Rafah at least until civilians have been allowed the opportunity to evacuate. Both Biden and  Vice President Kamala Harris  have  called for a temporary ceasefire  during the holy month of Ramadan, but Israel and Hamas have not reached an agreement in negotiations.

Republican Election Official Warns Biden Could Be Kept Off Ohio Ballot

• ‘Partisan Abuses’
• By Jeremy Childs and Andrew Perez
• Self-Fashioned Martyr
• By Jeremy Childs

Biden Continues to Trounce Trump in Fundraising With Massive March Haul

• EMBARRASSMENT OF RICHES

From Gaza to Ukraine, More Aid Workers Are Being Killed Than Ever

• So Many 'Errors'
• By Mac William Bishop

Can Colin Allred Actually Flip Ted Cruz's Senate Seat to Democrats?

• Turning Texas
• By Nikki McCann Ramirez and Ryan Bort

Most Popular

Joaquin phoenix, elliott gould, chloe fineman and more jewish creatives support jonathan glazer's oscars speech in open letter (exclusive), barron trump’s super-rare outing with dad donald may show why we never see them together, georgia secretary of state sent letter to larry david over 'curb' voting law plot, partynextdoor reveals nsfw 'partynextdoor 4' album cover, you might also like, ‘snl weekend update’ takes on kanye west and diddy: ‘i am shocked to hear that ye believes in the holocaust’, hudson’s bay company ceo richard baker in bid to buy galeria in germany, the best medicine balls, according to fitness trainers, ‘infested’ review: french creature feature leaves ‘evil dead’ in nimble and nightmarish hands, alabama, uconn share analytical mindset—and even used same firm.

Rolling Stone is a part of Penske Media Corporation. © 2024 Rolling Stone, LLC. All rights reserved.

Verify it's you

Please log in.