Tips to Prepare for your Next Keynote Speech
When you are preparing for your next (or your first!) keynote speech, there’s a lot to keep in mind. You’ll be setting the stage for the event, program, or conference you’re speaking at, and you want to start it off on the right note. A great keynote is inspiring, engaging, and unifies the audience under a common theme. While it’s an exciting honor to be a keynote speaker, it’s normal to feel a bit overwhelmed. So, if you’re unsure of where to start, or want some advice on how to elevate your speech to the next level, let me share my top tips for creating a memorable keynote speech!
Questions to ask yourself before you begin writing your next keynote speech
Before you dive into writing your speech, take some time to brainstorm and plan. Think through the following questions to get a better feel for what sort of speech you need to create for this specific event.
What is your goal?
What is the purpose of your speech? Brainstorm whether your goal is to educate, motivate, or entertain. Often, you can use the theme of the event you’re speaking at to determine your core keynote goal by tying it into your personal experience or expertise.
Clarify your main message and goal for the keynote by writing it out in one sentence. If you can’t do that, keep refining the core idea until you can. Make sure that your message is something you believe in and are passionate about. Find a way to tie the topic into your area of expertise, so that you can draw upon your personal experiences and research on the topic.
Who is your audience?
Make sure you have a thorough understanding of who your audience is. If you’re not sure, speak with the event hosts, they’re likely to be able to give you a better idea of who you’ll be speaking to. Identify and understand the interests of your audience. Age range, level of expertise on the topic at hand, and the attendee’s background can all influence how you craft your keynote speech.
For example, you wouldn’t want to use technical language with a crowd dominated by beginners in your field. Similarly, if you’re speaking to a group of experts, they’ll likely be disappointed if you water down the topic. Understanding your audience will help you create a keynote that’s tailored to them.
What are the key takeaways?
What do you want your audience to leave your keynote thinking about? What actions do you hope they’ll be inspired to take after they leave your speech? These should be based on your main goal, but they take it one step further into action. Determining these key takeaways will help you create an actionable speech that gives value to your listeners. Giving your audience hope that they can make a difference, a few key tips to help themselves or their business succeed, or a specific course of action.
Writing your keynote speech
With all that in mind, now you can actually put pen to paper! Don’t rush the process, and plan time to outline your keynote speech, jot down ideas, let them percolate into a cohesive draft, edit, and finalize!
Start with an outline
Starting with a solid outline can save you a lot of time in revisions. It can also help your keynote transitions flow easily, make sense, and allow an appropriate amount of time for each topic. Start by breaking down your time into increments. For example, if you’ll be speaking for 20 minutes, break your speech into four increments of around five minutes each, then write out the topic for each and how you’ll illustrate those key points. Creating an outline like this ensures that your topics seamlessly transition from one to another and make tackling the whole speech much more approachable. 20 minutes might seem intimidating, but when taken 5 minutes at a time it is doable!
A few things to consider as you create your initial keynote speech outline:
● How does each section tie back into your core message?
● Does the outline include an introduction, supporting facts, stories, a conclusion, and/or a call to action?
● Think through ways in which each section can segue into the next
● Ask yourself what emotions that section should elicit in your audience? How do you want them to feel during each section? How can you engage with them and their emotions more?
Tell a story
Whatever topic you’re speaking on, see if you can incorporate storytelling that highlights your main message. Humans are empathic creatures, and we respond strongly to stories because they engage our emotions and make us feel like we’re connected on a deeper level. People tend to remember stories more vividly than facts alone. You can tell a story from your personal experience, re-tell a well known story, or create a narrative about recent real-world events.
Present interesting data
Back your anecdotes up with facts and research. Whatever the topic you’re speaking on, there’s bound to be a few studies out there about that! If you’ve done research on this topic, reference your own data, or find facts from other trusted sources. Having hard facts to illustrate your points can be convincing for audience members. If you’re using a slideshow to illustrate your speech, consider including these facts in the presentation so viewers can process them visually.
Use helpful visual aides
If you are using a slideshow alongside your keynote speech, aim to make it visually appealing without distracting from your message. Keep any on-screen text brief and clear. As a rule of thumb, try to include 2 sentences or less per slide.
Focus your slideshow on visual representations instead, such as images that illustrate the people or places you’re talking about, and charts or graphs that show the facts you’re referencing. Your slideshow should be short so that you aren’t cycling through many slides. Too much text and visuals can distract your audience from your main message. Similarly, keep your colors and text types simple so that the audience can focus on your message.
Write in your own voice
People are attracted to authenticity. If you speak in your natural vernacular, using words and phrases that you would in your everyday life, you will come off as much more approachable and engaging. Don’t try to sound overly professional, or formal (though you will want to make sure you don’t say anything that’s inappropriate for the event you’re speaking at). Speaking comfortably to a large crowd takes some practice, but if you write your speech with this in mind it can help you to speak naturally. Imagine you’re explaining something to a friend or coworker and use the language you’d employ with them.
This recommendation applies to humor as well. While adding some levity to your speech is a great idea, don’t add jokes that don’t naturally fit your personality, as you may not be able to deliver it convincingly. As a general rule, if you wouldn’t say it in your day-to-day life, don’t say it during a keynote speech.
Revise and edit
Once your first draft is done, try reading the full speech aloud to yourself. You’ll be shocked at how many grammar issues you catch, simply by speaking the sentences out loud! Make sure that the speech holds together and tells a cohesive story throughout.
After you’ve made the edits from your first read-through, try performing your speech for someone (or a few people) whose opinion you respect. Ask that they let you know if anything you say doesn’t make sense, needs further clarification, or just isn’t very interesting. Make sure that your key messages and takeaways were clear to your listeners. Use these notes to keep improving your final draft!
Practice makes perfect
When you have a polished, finished keynote speech, you may want to run through the entire thing a few more times! You’re more likely to speak clearly and concisely if you already have the speech semi-memorized. This can help you with delivery, feeling comfortable with speaking at length, and even your body language as you speak.
Then, on the day of your keynote speech, know that you have done everything you can to prepare for success! Relax and trust that you know your topic and you have a unique perspective to share with the audience.