How to Wow Your Audience With a Killer Speech From the Heart

Need to share your story but don’t know how? Here’s the one thing you must remember!

Photo credit: iStockphoto

By Tim Mousseau

I am a professional speaker. By saying this, I mean it is my full-time career, I am on the road 1/3 of the year speaking to collegiate audiences, and I spend a large part of my time perfecting my craft. I am also a professional writer. I work as an author, whether publishing online or pursuing literary dreams. Lastly, I work as a copywriter for a marketing firm. I help companies tell their stories in a compelling manner.

Why do I bring these things up? Because across my work, across all I do, across everything, I am a storyteller. It is my job to tell stories. To audiences of thousands, or readers of millions. I tell people my story and the stories of others. All my jobs rely on me having mastered storytelling.

In my storytelling, I have consistently operated under one of the best pieces of advice I ever received. I learned it from someone who is a giant in my area of the speaking world. I have seen them speak, and they are a beyond-engaging, competent orator. They speak with a passion. They inspire me every time I hear them no matter if they are doing a program I have seen before. They inspire me because when they speak they are doing so with their full heart invested in the conversation. The best piece of advice someone gave me for sharing your story with the world came from someone who is intimately skilled at doing just that; sharing their mind with the world in a way that engages an audience, draws them in, and leaves them breathless.

The best advice they told me was this.

“When you go out there and when you get ready to speak, all you are doing is sharing yourself. Look at it like this. I have these ideas in my head, and these ideas are my gift to others. They are something I am extremely proud of. I know them, and no one else does. When I get to share them with the world, all I am sharing is a gift. And what could be…