What is the general purpose of a speech?
What is the general purpose of a speech? I mean a speech is a type of communication. These days you have a lot of options. You can write a book on paper. You can create a magazine. You can call someone over the phone. You can text obviously.
What is it, that is special about a speech? What is the purpose of a speech? Well the beauty of a speech is, it is a way to put a spotlight on something that is truly important where you want people to pay attention. Think of all the Apple products over the years, watches, iPhone, iPod, they could have been released just with the press release. People still would have bought them but Steve Jobs gave a speech for each one because it brought in attention. It brought in focus.
Now you might not be the CEO of the largest publicly traded company in the world. But still a speech is a great way to put a focus on an important idea. If you are talking to two investors about investing in your startup. You can just send them the business plan but at some point they are going to want to see you speak and present and talk about that, to get them excited about it.
So that is the purpose of a speech. It is a way of putting a tremendously powerful spotlight on an idea and it is a way of motivating people to do something. You cannot just run for office and stay at home and send text messages and Facebook groups. You have to be out speaking to people. Speaking is not a great way of conveying lots and lots of facts and data but it is a great way of focusing on one or two or a few ideas and emotionally connecting with people to make them want to do what you want them to do.
Getting Feedback so it Won’t Hurt
If you are a beginner when it comes to your communication skills, the idea of asking people for feedback, it is probably a little scary. I do not want to hear people trashing me. Do not think of it as a trashing. Think of that is than being your editor then being your coach then really helping you. You need to ask for feedback. That is the only way you improve.
Many of the best speakers in the world started off with a baseline of skill lower than yours. Some of them were just awful but they got used to asking for feedback and making slight improvement. In just a moment Udemy is going to ask you for feedback on this course. If they have not already. They are going to ask you to rate it. If you think the course is great and fantastic by all means go ahead and rate it right now. But if you see specific things you would like to improve that you think it is lacking. Send me a direct message and then ideally by the time you finish the course. I will already made the improvements because as much as I think I am great and I have given successful speeches all over the world. I have done communication skills workshops all over the world. I have more than 100 communication skills courses here on Udemy. I am still trying to get better. I am still trying to improve and that is why I need feedback from you. So please send some feedback to me. If you would think the course is not great and you can hold off your rating till the end you can always change the rating.
So a lot of people do ask for feedback and you see it at conferences rate speakers from one to ten or one to five or four stars or gold stars. Certainly some of that can be useful. But I want to give you advance tip. Even though your beginner because this will shorten your learning. Help you save time and get a lot better very quickly. The secret to getting feedback is not asking people to rate you on a one to five scale or 1 to 10 scale. It is asking them what do they remember from your presentation. That is infinitely more important so I am going to practice what I preach. I am going to do that to you right now. I am going to ask you what do you take away from this presentation. So far what messages that are helpful to you. That you might actually want to try is sticking so far. So please post that in the discussion section right now. Give me your feedback so far even though it is early in the course. Go ahead and rate the course if you think everything is great. And then any other feedback you can message me right here on Udemy. Please realize I read every single comment all feedback I look at and take very seriously.