TJ WALKER - THE HABIT INFLUENCER - Personal Development | LIVE STREAM

27 Aug 2015 · 2 min

Watch on YouTube

1:50

TJ Walker answers whether to lead with your point or your story in a speech. There's no single rule: you can state it, tell the story, restate it, or reverse the order. He recommends testing with your audience to see what sticks.

Chapters

What comes first, the story or the point? Tom writes in with a question about sequencing. T.J. what comes first? Do you introduce the point, the message to your audience, and then tell the story, or do you tell the story and then bring up the point? Tom, I don't think there's an ironclad rule that you have to follow for this. You can do it either way. In fact, if you use different wording, you can introduce the point, tell the story, and then introduce the point again, or not introduce, restate the point again, and it can sound natural. The beauty of a story is they're going to get the point right away. So you're hitting them at different levels. You're hitting them at the intellectual level by telling them the point. You're hitting them at the gut, emotional level with the story, and you're hitting them again by stating it. If you tell your stories effectively, it won't really matter. They'll retain the point. My recommendation mix it up, try it. See what comes natural, and that's what will often work best. One of the best ways of starting a speech, by the way, is just to launch right into the story. Don't even tell people the point. Finish the story and hit the point. But throughout your speech, you don't have to do that sequence. You can sometimes start with a message and follow up with a story. So mix it up and, as always, test with your audience. See what they remember. If they remember your points and they remember the stories and the points associated with the story, you're doing a great job.