ONCE WE KNOW THE AUDIENCE AS intimately as we can, then it’s time to begin to focus the content in terms of the audience. We begin with the elevator speech. Recall that audiences only remember something like 10 percent to 30 percent of what they hear. If we think of a speech as a very limited act of persuasion, then it follows that we need to be very clear what we’re trying to persuade the audience of. The elevator speech will help us do that. It is, simply, a one-sentence expression of the main reason that you’re giving the speech—on the audience’s terms.
Here’s the scenario: You’re the keynote speaker at a conference. You’re up early on the day of the speech, a little nervous (perhaps more than a little), ...
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