Introduction

Do you want to know my top five writing and speaking tips? Do you want a step-by-step guide to improving your presentations? Read Matt’s book Create a Better Presentation Quickly.

Below are the articles in the How to Create the Best-Speech-of-Your-Life series. Deliver a wedding speech, a job pitch, or a keynote people will never forget. If you’re deep into speechcraft, these articles are for you. If not, read the book.

Best Speech Articles

Click the links below for each article. The text after the link is a brief description of what you’ll learn. These articles are part of an in-depth series on How to Create the Best-Speech-of-Your-Life. If you want quicker speech upgrades, read the book.

First Draft – just write, audience identification, writing habit

Second Draft – purpose, theme, structure, editing

Edit – cut from one page to one paragraph to one sentence

Upgrades – engaging intro, ask questions, memorable, storytelling, humor, powerful conclusion

Evolve – example of a speech changing over time

Get Feedback – finding a mentor, mindset, process

Act – eye contact, movement, gestures, vocal variety

Practice – record audio/video, empty room rehearsal, schedule

Perform * – variables, nerves, adapting, flow

* Articles without links will be posted later once available.

Speechcraft Videos

These videos will cover topics in the articles above and the book. Most are five to twenty-minutes long. Videos contain multiple topics. Watch a five-minute chunk if you’re time-constrained to pick up one way to upgrade your presentation.

• Create the Space – Watch my most entertaining story that changed my life in just seven minutes. Read the articles to learn more on the importance of listening in work and relationships.
• Write fast, edit slow – Learn how to quickly communicate using sticky notes or how to edit down with progressive cuts in seven minuts.

Resources

This list contains the best book, articles, or other materials I’ve found for learning to become a better public speaker. Not all are directly about speech, but when applied they will grow your skills in producing memorable messages.

Books

• Made to Stick by Chip and Dan Heath
• The War of Art by Steven Pressfield
• The Creative Habit by Twyla Twarp
• Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott
• The Writer’s Journey: Mythical Structure for Writers by Christopher Vogler
• On Writing by Stephen King
• Steal Like an Artist by Austin Kleon
• Contagious by Jonah Berger
• Deep Work by Cal Newport
• Perennial Seller by Ryan Holiday
• Draft No. 4 by John McPhee

Articles

• Doing a TED Talk: The Full Story
• World Championship Speeches – detailed analysis
• Good leadership is about communicating why
  • Read Ch. 1 of Matt’s book for more on why to communicate why
• Six techniques of clear and compelling speech
• Distill your message to fifteen words
  • Your audience: Who are they? How do they view the world or the situation? What do they already know about you and your topic? What will they benefit from listening to you talk?
  • Your purpose: Why are you speaking to them? What do you want them to know? Why is it important? What are you trying to get them to do?
  • Fifteen words: As a result of my [talk], they will understand [this], and respond by [doing that].
• One sentence that will make you more effective
  • Similar to fifteen words article
  • What’s the one sentence that explains your big idea?
• 12 Life Lessons From Mathematician and Philosopher Gian-Carlo Rota
  • What can you learn from a mathematician about speaking? If he’s a master lecturer from MIT like Rota, the first four lessons in this article.
  • Every lecture should make only one point
  • Never run over time
  • Relate to your audience
  • Give people something to take home

Videos

• The secret structure of great talks
• I Have a Dream visual analysis
• Kurt Vonnegut on the Shape of Stories
• Kurt Vonnegut on How to Write a Short Story
• World Championship Speech videos

Tools

• Any dictionary, any thesaurus
• Evernote – take notes, write anything
• Scrivener – write longer material
• ProWritingAid – grammar, style, tone checker
• Grammarly – grammar checker
• Random Question Generator – practice random q & a