Quick, Five-Minute, Non-Academic Speech for Interview/Job Audition

WORKEROUTER

Master Don Juan
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On Tuesday I'll be presenting a quick five minute "how to" speech, which is suppose to be not all academic-related.

My topic is "how to ride a longboard." For those of you unfamiliair with this, it's basically a long skateboard, designed not so much for fancy tricks and such as simply enjoying a nice, fast, ride. Despite this, there's still a lot of mechanics that go into riding one.

I plan to present the basics--standing correctly, how to stop, and to introduce "carving," a technique that uses the flex of the board to slow down and make turns.

I need some ideas for a good, attention-grabbing introduction that will help me flow into the body of the speech.
 

Easy Tiger

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I have to give a bunch of speeches in my job. This pattern never fails.


Intro

- Run through a list of three things that you are going to talk about. Make it three, not two or four.

- Make sure you "headline" each of the three points (ie. pretend like you have to write a newspaper article about the idea - what would the headline be? Example - longboarding, one of the topics might be bad bails you have taken - talk about how "I became a smashing success") Example:

"Today I am going to talk to you all about longboarding. The first thing I am going to tell you about is how I became a smashing success, the second thing I will talk about is how ollies make me jolly..."

Sure this is lame material but I don't have a lot to work with because I don't know the subject. Headlines make ideas catchy and are good places to work in jokes.


Repeat headline one as intro for topic one

- Say three things about topic one
- Make one of those things an anecdote about something that happened to you, your buddy, you mum, whatever. Make it up if you have to. Make it either very sad or funny. Speak relatively quieter at this point. Make a lot of eye contact. Hold peoples gazes for loger than when you normally speak.

Repeat headline two as intro for topic two

- Say three things about topic two
- Make one of those things a very strongly emphasised point (eg. "I cant emphasise enough how important it is not to crash into poles if you aren't wearing a cup. I believe the children are our future") Draw attention to the fact you are emphasising it. Speak a little bit louder and slower, like when trying to explain to an amnesiatic older relative. The change of speed and volume will serve to make the presentation more interesting.

Repeat headline three as intro for topic three
- Say three things about topic three.

Close

Repeat the three topics. Use the headlines if they arent again if they aren't stale yet (chances is if you are only speaking for five minutes they will be old). If they are stale, just repeat generally what each section was about. Thank the audience.

That is it...you can use the anecdote and the strongly emphasised point in any of the three sections, but I like to kick off with the anecdote in the first section because it warms the audience up and buys empathy.

Remember, three is the magic number, and change you pitch, volume and speed regularly for best effect.

Good luck.
 
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