How many Points should I cover in my speech?
From TJ Walker’s upcoming book “The Wisdom of Your Audience”
How many Points should I cover in my speech?
Your Marketing Department: “Between all of our major accomplishments last quarter, plus our general corporate message, I’d say no more than 35 key messages.”
Your Speech Writer: “Limit yourself to ten key points.”
You: “I had better cover my a*&. If I list every accomplishment of the last year, every product innovation for the next year, and then cover our company’s entire history, then no one can criticize me for leaving anything out. About 95 points should it.”
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Your Audience “Unless you are our teacher and have the ability to flunk us, you are smoking crack if you think we are going to remember more than 5 key messages. We don’t remember a single message from most speakers we hear because they just do boring data dumps. Occasionally we remember 2-3 messages from speakers who use interesting stories and examples. On very rare occasions we can remember a handful of key points because the speaker took the time to paint pictures with words and to tell relevant stories and case studies.”
Tags: messages, messaging, public speaking, Speaking