What is the Purpose of your Talk?

How often have you decided to “wing it” when asked to speak?

Don’t get me wrong, improvisation certainly has its place when doing live Q & A’s, when something unexpected happens, or in the natural flow of playing off an audience. If your goal is nothing more than to introduce yourself casually or fill time, this is 100% fine.

Yet, what if you want to speak in such a way that your audience remembers and is impacted by your message?

The chance of achieving that on the fly is quite small.

Thus, one of the key steps in your preparation process should be considering the question, “What is my presentation’s primary purpose?” Yes, your talk may involve several of the following facets, but what, ultimately, is your goal when you finish? Besides getting through a talk in one piece, how will you know if you achieved what you set out to do?

That all stems from identifying the purpose.

Here are some of the most common purposes you may have for your talk.

(Note: to remember these I use the acronym EMP and add another E at the front. So…EEMP).

ENTERTAIN

In some situations, your sole goal for a presentation is to be entertaining. This does not mean you need to take on the role of a comedian, but you do need to be engaging. perhaps you plan to use your time telling riveting stories. Maybe you wish to WOW the audience by presenting an immersive artwork experience. All such tactics would be entertaining by their very nature.

In some cases such as a keynote or light-hearted evening, entertainment may be your sole objective. In others, you may want to have some entertainment just sprinkled in. These approaches are fine, just recognize as you begin that this is what you’re trying to achieve.

EDUCATE

A significant portion of presentations I have sat through personally have the goal of educating their audience. This is understandable because most of the time we’re giving lessons about a topic or have been asked to speak about a subject where we have knowledge.

The danger as a presenter, however, is potentially speaking about information in which our audience has no interest and feels no tension. I spoke some here about developing that tension to help your talk move from being a lecture to being an informative discussion about a topic of interest.

MOTIVATE

Is there a specific action step you want your audience to take based on your presentation? Then your primary purpose is to motivate. Sure, this will likely involve educating about a particular issue, but the impact will resonate in the call to action. There, your audience will feel spurred on to do something in their own lives.

PERSUADE

In some circumstances, your desire is to convince an audience to align themselves with your way of thinking. Or maybe, if they begin from a place of staunch opposition, simply open themselves up to considering the topic from your side. Sure, entertainment might make you more likable and information may make your presentation more educational, but the end goal, from your perspective, is a change of heart and mind.

Think about your next presentation. What is your primary purpose? What do you hope to achieve? Because only then, can you begin to figure out how to make that happen.

**NOTE: To see how this fits into my system of developing a talk, take a peek here.