Public Speaking: Storytelling Techniques for Electrifying Presentations

by Akash Karia

35 Public Speaking and Storytelling Tips to Make Your Next Speech an Outstanding One Your opening should create questions in your audience’s minds. It should get them curious about your speech/story. Start off with a BOOM! Begin your speech in the middle of the most exciting part of your story. If you’re struggling to find a story, look for stories in your everyday life. Which personal story do you most often share with your friends? What transformative experience have you gone through which has taught you most about life? Realize that your story doesn’t have to make people cry. It can make people laugh or simply think. However, it must cause some kind of emotional shift in your listeners. The conflict is the heart of the story.Introduce the problem/conflict early on in the story. Use the suspended story structure (or a modified version of it) to keep your audience in suspense. Keep ratcheting up the suspense by escalating the intensity of the conflicts. Your story must have a guru or a “catalyst for change”. Don’t be the hero of your own story.