The Secret to a Great Speech
A ten-minute speech is over one thousand words. That’s a lot of words for a short speech! The trick to writing a great speech is to not think of it like a speech.
It’s one idea. One phrase. That’s all an audience will remember.
As rhetorician Jay Heinrichs points out:
“Your most memorable words, just several of them, will serve as the takeaway. While few people remember Winston Churchill's 1946 speech in Fulton, Missouri, everyone knows its central phrase, “iron curtain.” It became the metaphor for the Cold War.”
Once, I had to write remarks for a high-profile university leader about a bill banning tuition hikes. It was a hot, controversial topic. I knew there would be lots of press at the hearing. Before I wrote the speech, I wrote the quote I wanted to be remembered. It ended up being the one line an important reporter tweeted.
The rest of the speech didn’t matter. Of course, it was important to show that the president understood the facts and political realities. But in the end, the speech was building to one point. (It worked. The bill died).
I could have stressed over all the details I needed to fill on the blank page of those remarks. Instead, I anchored the speech around that tweet.
The most famous speeches are remembered for one line or phrase:
“Why does Rice play Texas? We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard.” - JFK, Address at Rice University, (1962).
“A shining city on a hill” - Ronald Reagan, Farewell Address to the Nation, (1989).
“There's not a liberal America and a conservative America. There's the United States of America.” - Barack Obama, DNC Keynote Address, (2004).
“You shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold.” - William Jennings Bryan, Cross of Gold, (1896).
“We must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex.” - Dwight Eisenhower, Farewell Address, (1961).
Even the most epic speech is one idea. Don’t make a speech. Make a point.