Storytelling & Speech Writing Archives

Revise Your Speech With Proofreading Tips – Content Writing Series 5 of 5

Posted on January 28, 2020March 22, 2021

PART 1 PART 2 PART 3 PART 4 PART 5 Welcome to the final installment of our five-part blog series on the POWER method for speechwriting! In this blog we’ll be covering how proofreading and editing your speech can be that final layer of polish that takes your presentation from boring to bravo. If you’ve been following along in our POWER method series, you now know how to write a speech, this final step in the process will help you to refine your speech. Revision is the best friend a writer can have. The trick is to use revision as […]

Audience Engagement – Content Writing Series 4 of 5

Posted on January 21, 2020

PART 1 PART 2 PART 3 PART 4 PART 5 Welcome back to our five-part series on how to write a speech! Can you believe that we’re almost to the end of our speechwriting journey. Just two letters left! This article covers the “E” of our POWER method, Audience Engagement. In this blog we’ll be focusing on how to engage with your audience. We’ll be sharing tips like, buy a t-shirt gun and give out free swag to bribe your audience into loving you! Just kidding, we’ll be harnessing the power of audience engagement through things like the “20-minute […]

How To Tell A Story – Content Writing Series 3 of 5

Posted on January 14, 2020March 22, 2021

PART 1 PART 2 PART 3 PART 4 PART 5 Welcome back to our five-part series on how to write a speech! When you’re starting a speech, the number one dilemma that most speechwriters grapple with is how to tell a story. Business professionals and novices alike all struggle with the elements of storytelling, there’s a reason that some people tell amazing jokes and some skip around, lose focus, and accidentally drop the punchline prior to the setup. Storytelling is hard. Inflection, when to pause for dramatic effect, how to captivate an audience through your prose, these are all the […]

How To Start A Speech – Content Writing Series 2 of 5

Posted on January 7, 2020March 22, 2021

PART 1 PART 2 PART 3 PART 4 PART 5 Welcome back to our second lesson in our series on how to write a speech. In this 5 part guide, we’ll be covering the Moxie Institute’s POWER method for writing a powerful and persuasive speech. This article covers a couple lessons out of one of our core Chapters the “O” in our POWER acronym, Organize. The full online course includes information on: How To Write A Title How To Write An Opening Call To Adventure The Body The Closing How To Outline In this blog we’ll be focusing on how […]

Using Audience Analysis To Help Find The Purpose Of Your Speech – Content Writing Series 1 of 5

Posted on January 3, 2020

PART 1 PART 2 PART 3 PART 4 PART 5 Welcome to the end of writer’s block and uninspiring presentations and say hello to Moxie Institute’s POWER Method. From now on you’ll have a framework and process to follow to ensure that the foundation to your speech, a.k.a. “your content” is as strong as it can be. When putting together your presentation, write from the seats, not from the stage. We know that sounds easy, but in practice, it’s one of the most difficult elements to writing a speech. Actors learn the importance of audience-centric performance early in their training. […]

Make Each Presentation a Call to Adventure That Your Audience Can’t Wait to Take

Posted on August 8, 2019March 19, 2021

A confident speaker steps onto the stage and gives the most persuasive presentation you’ve ever heard. Credible, informative and engaging–the crowd loves it. Where did that come from? How did they pull it off? It wasn’t just a miraculous improvisation–trust me. Actually giving your presentation is just the final step of a much longer journey. “wing it” A great speech begins with great writing. And great writing comes from a solid plan of attack. Contrary to all of the “wing it” advice you may have heard, preparation is the key to success. Read on to learn how to form your own game plan and […]

Want to Give a TED Talk? First You Need to Write a TED Talk

Posted on August 5, 2019March 18, 2021

Talking for TED is one thing but talking like TED in all of your public speaking engagements is a sure way to impress everyone–TED and TED fans alike. TED speakers are intelligent, passionate and respected. And the techniques used by TED speakers are ones you want to use for your own presentations and speeches. But the first step of giving a TED-like talk is writing it. Unfortunately, writing is harder than it seems. According to a recent Harvard Business Review study, 65 percent of participants thought the writing samples in the study were bad. However, only 16 percent of participants thought their own writing was […]

How to Write A Killer Business Presentation

Posted on July 5, 2019March 19, 2021

Once you’re ready to start to write the first draft of your presentation, believe it or not, the hardest work is behind you. “Really?” you say, “But I haven’t written the speech yet!” Of course. And that will take time. But look how far you’ve come! Now you know what you want to say and roughly how you’ll say it. All that’s left is to write the darn thing. Ready to get through the first draft? Here’s how. Write like you speak in your presentation. Before you take out your pen or start typing away, we should talk about tone. Here’s what I often see […]

3 Proven Speechwriting Techniques all Great TED Talks Use in Their Presentation

Posted on June 5, 2019March 18, 2021

Every great TED talk begins with a good outline. If you want your presentation to leave a TED worthy impression, you’ll need to start planning long before the day of the speech: how can you make your message memorable? What should be included in the talk? What should be left out? Should there be jokes? You’ll answer all these questions in the process of drafting a killer outline. Here are the three keys to mastering that outlining process. 1. Make your message clear. Every word of your speech should have to fight for its existence. That’s because your time–and your audience’s time–isn’t unlimited. […]

Hook Your Audience Within the First 60 Seconds of Your Presentation

Posted on April 3, 2019

How you open and close your presentation decides everything. Nothing matters more for effectiveness. The internet is full of great ideas for how to open and how to close speeches. You’ll be ahead of most speakers if you can just avoid the most common error. But in this first of two blog posts on openings and closings, I’d like to focus on a more specific question: how to choose an opening and closing, rather than which one to choose. The “how” question is vital, because everything about your speech rides on your ability to mesmerize the audience from the first nanosecond to the last. To do […]

Every Story is the Same | Will Schoder

Posted on March 5, 2019

Storytelling comes naturally to humans, but since we live in an unnatural world, we sometimes need a little help doing what we’d naturally do. Draw a circle and divide it in half vertically. Divide the circle again horizontally. Starting from the 12 o clock position and going clockwise, number the 4 points where the lines cross the circle: 1, 3, 5 and 7. Number the quarter-sections themselves 2, 4, 6 and 8. Here we go, down and dirty: . A character is in a zone of comfort, . But they want something. . They enter an unfamiliar situation, . Adapt […]

2 Presentation Skills Tips to Transforming Your Speech

Posted on March 3, 2019March 19, 2021

What does the audience want from your words? They want to be moved. They want to be led from where they are right now–their fears, their hopes, their nervous tics, their outlook on life–to somewhere new. Somewhere better. Somewhere transformational. And as it turns out, leading them on a journey like that is a shockingly difficult task, and takes overcoming two major hurdles: Status quo bias Short attention spans Status Quo Bias Because we’re stubborn, we want your words to move us but we also don’t want to go anywhere. We’re ready to move but everything in our lives is arranged to encourage […]

Fia Fasbinder