Eight years ago I delivered my second ever speech to the general public. As a newbie I expected to receive a lot of feedback. The reaction I received was unexpected but unanimous… and insightful. Everyone said, “We enjoy it, but your speech just… ended!”
I scratched my head as I poured over my script. Did I forget to cover anything? Did I forget to explain some detail? Did the audience simply want more? Nope. It turns out I was missing a proper conclusion!
As a student of public speaking I’m sure you are aware that every speech should have an opening, body and conclusion. The opening sets the stage for what is to come. The body refers to the information at the heart of the speech. But what is the conclusion all about?
Public speaking is an art as much as a science, and in that respect there are no hard, fast rules. However there are seven optional components (or tools) that will always guarantee you an impactful and memorable conclusion – the Seven Samurai. If you employ at least a two or three of these worthy Ninjas, you will have yourself a conclusion worth concluding with. Here is the list:
Wow, seven is a lot, eh? After all, shouldn’t a conclusion be concise as well as clear? I hear you. Don’t worry. These items can be covered lightning fast. You don’t need all seven, and you can combine them together.
For the purposes of this blog, I’m going to use a hypothetical speech as an example so that we can craft a pretend conclusion. I want you to imagine that you are required to draft and deliver a persuasive 5-7 minute speech entitled, “Variety in diet is a route to healthy living”. Let’s see if we can fashion a decent conclusion… and don’t sweat, we won’t need to see the opening or body of the script for the purposes of this exercise.
1. THE SIGNAL
The Signal is the first thing you should consider. It is a transitional statement that tells the audience that the conclusion is beginning. It only takes a couple of words: “In conclusion…” Or if you prefer, “In summary…” Here are a few more:
2. THE RECAP
The Recap contains a brief summary of what came in the body. This helps your audience to revise and retain your content. For entertaining, honouring and inspirational speeches, it’s not essential. For persuasive, informative and technical speeches however it’s much needed and welcomed by your audience.
In our example 5-7 minute speech - “Variety in diet is a route to healthy living” you might decide to cover 3-5 supporting points in your body (very wise). In your conclusion you should recap them with something like, “First, we discovered the reasons we eat that have nothing to do with hunger. Second, we learned about medical studies that prove repetitive eating results in more calories consumed, and third we heard about Tony, survivor of three heart attacks who changed his diet and changed his life.”
3. THE MESSAGE OR PURPOSE
It is essential that you leave your audience with a clear understanding of your overall reason for speaking to them. Let’s face it, there has to be some kind of reason why you spoke (and “because it’s my job” or “my boss forced me to” is not going to cut it).
Informative, entertaining and honouring speeches tend to be very light on strong messages, but they should have a purpose. A persuasive or inspirational speech should always have a single clear message.
For our example above we will use the message, “My message is this - a varied diet is far healthier than a repetitive one.”
4. FOOD FOR THOUGHT
The “Food for Thought” forces your audience to think of your message or purpose within the context of their own lives. It’s not so relevant to entertaining or honouring speeches, but for inspiring, persuasive and informative speeches it can work wonders.
Ask yourself, have you ever been convinced of something but you failed to act on it? Why weren’t you motivated enough? Was it because the idea remained conceptual and not necessarily relevant to you personally? So often we come to believe an idea “in theory” but we fail to make that message a part of our own personal experiences – in other words, “in practice”.
In our example speech, a good reflection might be, “Ask yourself right now, are you happy with your health? Do you eat the same meal more than 3 times per week?”
The “Food for Thought” forces your audience to become a working part of your message. That’s a good thing!
5. THE SALE
This is your final opportunity to sell your message. Your opening and body should have done most of the work but now you have one last shot. Perhaps the “Food for thought” statement will be enough, but if it isn’t, don’t be afraid to push the sale a little.
The Sale shouldn’t be too specific, obscure or highly detailed. That’s the job of your opening and body. Instead, pick your strongest, easiest, most resonant persuasive point and state it more one more time in your conclusion.
To find the Sale, ask yourself; “What will my audience be able to think, feel or do better as a result of taking on my message?” and/or “What does my audience stand to lose by ignoring my message?”
In our example let’s put, “Eating repetitively means you will eat emotionally and you will eat more. How long will that last before you start having health issues?”
6. THE TOOL
This could be the most useful and generous statement of your entire speech. The Tool allows you to offer an idea, technique or method that your audience can employ to make your message a reality for them. After all, your audience may be convinced by everything you said. That doesn’t mean they understand what to do next. In persuasive and inspirational speeches this is sometimes referred to as the “how to” or “next step”.
If you are trying to persuade your audience of something, make sure you give them one or two ideas that they can use to enact your message (i.e. to buy whatever it is you are selling). After all, every sales trainer will tell you it’s not enough to have your customer “willing”. They need to be “buying”.
In our example let’s state, “The next time you are shopping for food, make it your goal to leave out the one meal you eat the most. Replace it with three things you have never tried before, and savour those new tastes.”
7. THE CLOSING ANCHOR
An anchor is any script component that is not a fact or opinion. In other words, an anchor can be a story, question, joke, metaphor, song, visual aid or quote. They are called anchors because they “anchor” themselves into the memory of your audience. Anchors have facts (or opinions) tied to them, but they are much more memorable than bare facts.
For whatever your message or purpose was, you can finish your speech by picking an anchor that helps your audience to remember your message or purpose more effectively.
A top tip for closing anchors: stories are effective but they can take time. A quick easy and engaging anchor to finish on is a quote. You can use a famous quote, or an anonymous one. You can also play with quotes, or modify them to make a new idea that fits with your message. It doesn’t matter. Make it accessible, catchy and/or relevant and that will be enough.
In the example above let’s write, “They say variety is the spice of life. Today I hope you have discovered - variety is the spice of health.”
Let’s combine our “Variety in diet as a route to healthy living” conclusion to see how it looks unedited:
“To conclude, today we discovered the reasons we eat that have nothing to do with hunger. We learned about medical studies that prove repetitive eating results in more calories consumed… and we heard about Tony, survivor of three heart attacks who changed his diet and changed his life.
My message is this - a varied diet is far healthier than a repetitive one. Ask yourself right now, are you happy with your health? Do you eat the same meal more than 3 times per week? Eating repetitively means you will eat emotionally and you will eat more. How long will that last before you start having health issues? The next time you are shopping for food, make it your goal to leave out the one meal you eat the most. Replace it with three things you have never tried before, and savour those new tastes.
They say variety is the spice of life. Today I hope you have discovered variety is the spice of health.”
Not too bad for a first draft!
If you want to save speaking time feel free to edit your Seven Samurai down to between two and six components. And you don’t need to use them in the order above. Feel free to play around. The goal is to make your conclusion impactful and memorable, otherwise your speech will evaporate into the air like so many others.
The Seven Samurai is designed to help you craft a conclusion within minutes, and it forms an essential part of our Speechcamp CORE Master Speaker System. Find more free power tools for your speaking kit at www.speechcamp.ie/blog.
As Ryan Holmes once said, "For everybody in their busy lives, you need to invest in sharpening your tools."
I scratched my head as I poured over my script. Did I forget to cover anything? Did I forget to explain some detail? Did the audience simply want more? Nope. It turns out I was missing a proper conclusion!
As a student of public speaking I’m sure you are aware that every speech should have an opening, body and conclusion. The opening sets the stage for what is to come. The body refers to the information at the heart of the speech. But what is the conclusion all about?
Public speaking is an art as much as a science, and in that respect there are no hard, fast rules. However there are seven optional components (or tools) that will always guarantee you an impactful and memorable conclusion – the Seven Samurai. If you employ at least a two or three of these worthy Ninjas, you will have yourself a conclusion worth concluding with. Here is the list:
- The Signal
- The Recap
- The Message or Purpose
- The Food for Thought
- The Sale
- The Tool
- The Closing Anchor
Wow, seven is a lot, eh? After all, shouldn’t a conclusion be concise as well as clear? I hear you. Don’t worry. These items can be covered lightning fast. You don’t need all seven, and you can combine them together.
For the purposes of this blog, I’m going to use a hypothetical speech as an example so that we can craft a pretend conclusion. I want you to imagine that you are required to draft and deliver a persuasive 5-7 minute speech entitled, “Variety in diet is a route to healthy living”. Let’s see if we can fashion a decent conclusion… and don’t sweat, we won’t need to see the opening or body of the script for the purposes of this exercise.
1. THE SIGNAL
The Signal is the first thing you should consider. It is a transitional statement that tells the audience that the conclusion is beginning. It only takes a couple of words: “In conclusion…” Or if you prefer, “In summary…” Here are a few more:
- “To finish up…”
- “I would like to finish by saying…”
- “My conclusion is this…”
- “The message I would like to leave you with is…”
- “So what have we learned today? ...”
2. THE RECAP
The Recap contains a brief summary of what came in the body. This helps your audience to revise and retain your content. For entertaining, honouring and inspirational speeches, it’s not essential. For persuasive, informative and technical speeches however it’s much needed and welcomed by your audience.
In our example 5-7 minute speech - “Variety in diet is a route to healthy living” you might decide to cover 3-5 supporting points in your body (very wise). In your conclusion you should recap them with something like, “First, we discovered the reasons we eat that have nothing to do with hunger. Second, we learned about medical studies that prove repetitive eating results in more calories consumed, and third we heard about Tony, survivor of three heart attacks who changed his diet and changed his life.”
3. THE MESSAGE OR PURPOSE
It is essential that you leave your audience with a clear understanding of your overall reason for speaking to them. Let’s face it, there has to be some kind of reason why you spoke (and “because it’s my job” or “my boss forced me to” is not going to cut it).
Informative, entertaining and honouring speeches tend to be very light on strong messages, but they should have a purpose. A persuasive or inspirational speech should always have a single clear message.
For our example above we will use the message, “My message is this - a varied diet is far healthier than a repetitive one.”
4. FOOD FOR THOUGHT
The “Food for Thought” forces your audience to think of your message or purpose within the context of their own lives. It’s not so relevant to entertaining or honouring speeches, but for inspiring, persuasive and informative speeches it can work wonders.
Ask yourself, have you ever been convinced of something but you failed to act on it? Why weren’t you motivated enough? Was it because the idea remained conceptual and not necessarily relevant to you personally? So often we come to believe an idea “in theory” but we fail to make that message a part of our own personal experiences – in other words, “in practice”.
In our example speech, a good reflection might be, “Ask yourself right now, are you happy with your health? Do you eat the same meal more than 3 times per week?”
The “Food for Thought” forces your audience to become a working part of your message. That’s a good thing!
5. THE SALE
This is your final opportunity to sell your message. Your opening and body should have done most of the work but now you have one last shot. Perhaps the “Food for thought” statement will be enough, but if it isn’t, don’t be afraid to push the sale a little.
The Sale shouldn’t be too specific, obscure or highly detailed. That’s the job of your opening and body. Instead, pick your strongest, easiest, most resonant persuasive point and state it more one more time in your conclusion.
To find the Sale, ask yourself; “What will my audience be able to think, feel or do better as a result of taking on my message?” and/or “What does my audience stand to lose by ignoring my message?”
In our example let’s put, “Eating repetitively means you will eat emotionally and you will eat more. How long will that last before you start having health issues?”
6. THE TOOL
This could be the most useful and generous statement of your entire speech. The Tool allows you to offer an idea, technique or method that your audience can employ to make your message a reality for them. After all, your audience may be convinced by everything you said. That doesn’t mean they understand what to do next. In persuasive and inspirational speeches this is sometimes referred to as the “how to” or “next step”.
If you are trying to persuade your audience of something, make sure you give them one or two ideas that they can use to enact your message (i.e. to buy whatever it is you are selling). After all, every sales trainer will tell you it’s not enough to have your customer “willing”. They need to be “buying”.
In our example let’s state, “The next time you are shopping for food, make it your goal to leave out the one meal you eat the most. Replace it with three things you have never tried before, and savour those new tastes.”
7. THE CLOSING ANCHOR
An anchor is any script component that is not a fact or opinion. In other words, an anchor can be a story, question, joke, metaphor, song, visual aid or quote. They are called anchors because they “anchor” themselves into the memory of your audience. Anchors have facts (or opinions) tied to them, but they are much more memorable than bare facts.
For whatever your message or purpose was, you can finish your speech by picking an anchor that helps your audience to remember your message or purpose more effectively.
A top tip for closing anchors: stories are effective but they can take time. A quick easy and engaging anchor to finish on is a quote. You can use a famous quote, or an anonymous one. You can also play with quotes, or modify them to make a new idea that fits with your message. It doesn’t matter. Make it accessible, catchy and/or relevant and that will be enough.
In the example above let’s write, “They say variety is the spice of life. Today I hope you have discovered - variety is the spice of health.”
Let’s combine our “Variety in diet as a route to healthy living” conclusion to see how it looks unedited:
“To conclude, today we discovered the reasons we eat that have nothing to do with hunger. We learned about medical studies that prove repetitive eating results in more calories consumed… and we heard about Tony, survivor of three heart attacks who changed his diet and changed his life.
My message is this - a varied diet is far healthier than a repetitive one. Ask yourself right now, are you happy with your health? Do you eat the same meal more than 3 times per week? Eating repetitively means you will eat emotionally and you will eat more. How long will that last before you start having health issues? The next time you are shopping for food, make it your goal to leave out the one meal you eat the most. Replace it with three things you have never tried before, and savour those new tastes.
They say variety is the spice of life. Today I hope you have discovered variety is the spice of health.”
Not too bad for a first draft!
If you want to save speaking time feel free to edit your Seven Samurai down to between two and six components. And you don’t need to use them in the order above. Feel free to play around. The goal is to make your conclusion impactful and memorable, otherwise your speech will evaporate into the air like so many others.
The Seven Samurai is designed to help you craft a conclusion within minutes, and it forms an essential part of our Speechcamp CORE Master Speaker System. Find more free power tools for your speaking kit at www.speechcamp.ie/blog.
As Ryan Holmes once said, "For everybody in their busy lives, you need to invest in sharpening your tools."
RSS Feed
