We only invest in things that matter to us!….and that is the fact of life.

Public Speaking is a one-to-many communication. When a speaker is delivering his/her speech, each person in the audience is trying to establish a connect. The primary question in their sub-conscious mind is “What’s in it for me in this speech?”.

It is the art of a good speaker to provide each of them with an answer. How each person relates with the speech may vary, however they all would have some concrete takeaway after listening to it.

Imagine a keynote speaker delivering a speech before an audience of 500 people. The question in his mind would be – How do I build a speech, where I have something for each person? The task seems humongous and unachievable. However, it is not so!

Each human being maybe unique and different, however we all are still bound by a common thread of emotions (referred to as ‘base emotions’ henceforth)- be it of pain, struggle, joy, sorrow, happiness, success or failure. We all relate to each other’s journey, because at some point in life we have been there. A proficient speaker knows to strike a chord with one of these base emotions and establish a connect with his audience.

The one powerful way to establish a connect with the base emotions is by personalising your speech. No one is interested in printed data or content published in books. They are rather more interested in ‘your story’, and ‘your learnings’ in life. A personal story of your pain/struggle/victory or any experience seems interesting and relatable. It helps establish a line of credibility and the audience are more willing to accept your viewpoint.

A personal storyline addressing the base emotions helps you cross the first hurdle – getting them to listen to you!

Now is the bigger challenge of drilling in the message in a manner each person has some ‘takeaway’. How do you do it? This is essentially where most speakers fail. They fail to leave the audience with a relatable and actionable take-home message.

Let me illustrate this with an example:

Let us assume a speaker is delivering a keynote address on “Trekking in the Himalayas”. The speaker elaborates on his journey of having climbed the highest peak -the trails/tribulations and the joy of reaching the summit. The story is certainly awe-inspiring and would have many admire the speaker, but then after a while they will just forget about it and move forward in life. The fact is ,not all can or would want to climb the Himalayas. To many, it may seem like a herculean or unachievable task and rightly so.

 However doing a weekend trek to a nearby hill is not unachievable, isn’t it?

It is doable by many, including those who haven’t ever trekked all their lives.

A proficient speaker knows to paraphrase his final takeaway message in a manner that there is a tangible and achievable call for action. In this case a possible closure can be

“If you wish to experience the joy of trekking, you don’t need to go to the Himalayas. Head out to the nearest hillock and spend a few hours trekking up the hill. The joy of reaching the summit will be an exhilarating and rejuvenating experience”

This way, you are getting those who are inspired by your speech to also take action.

Let us take another example –

Assume the speaker is delivering a speech on Relationships and personalizes it using an experience of how his/her relationship turned bitter with a sibling.

Now it is foolish to believe that everyone in the audience would have had a bitter experience with their siblings. In fact, many may share an amazing bond. However, they certainly may have had a bitter relationship with either their colleagues/friends/spouse or parents, at some point in their lives.

Here, the speaker should learn to paraphrase the final message in such a manner that when they listen to the speech, they are reminded of that bitter relationship and how they can take corrective action.

Paraphrasing the speech to include a larger audience, while retaining the base emotions is the key to help address the question, WIIFM.

A speaker who fails to prepare a speech addressing WIIFM, is delivering a monologue of his thoughts, rather than a speech that has a lasting impact.