Persuasive Speech? Only with Passion, Please!
As I begin doing some research for the upcoming weekly teleseminar series, I’ve been reviewing some of the keywords that people interested in public speaking search for. Persuasive speech is one of the most searched terms, but when you go into Google to see what people might be looking for, my alarm bells go off immediately.
When you go into the top site listing, there’s actually a page designed to help you choose a persuasive speech topic. I can barely think of a more stupid idea, if you’re a public speaker. Why? Because if I give you a topic, and you have no knowledge or passion on that topic, your presentation will not be worth listening to. (Code for – it’s gonna suck!)
I mean, this was fine when we were only in Toastmasters; when an assigned table topic was great practice. But if you are wanting to be paid a handsome income as a top public speaker, the only kind of persuasive topic you should be choosing to speak on is something you know about.
How to Choose Persuasive Speech Topics
In my opinion (FWIW), your persuasive speech topic should involve one of these three things.
1) Something you are passionate about
2) Something you know alot about
3) Something you do better than anyone else you know
If your topic does not fit into one of those 3 categories, than you are faking it. My students know that I will reposition them based on their answer to that question. If they insist on speaking on a topic that they are not knowledgeable or passionate about, I won’t work with them.
You see, these are challenging times for public speakers, with the economy being the mess that it is. You’ve read my thoughts on that before in other posts, so I won’t bore you with them here. But here’s my point. Now is a terrible time to be positioned as a speaker. Because there are not as many clients with budget to spend on speakers as before.
But people, all over the world, need expert advice. (emphasis on expert) Position yourself as the top expert in the world on your niche topic and your income problems are solved. If you need help with this consider investing in my new public speaking course, called “Passive Income Avalanche”, which will be released on or before 3/12. (details forthcoming)
But what I said earlier about trying to give a persuasive speech on a topic you’re not passionate about is only my opinion. I’m interested in yours. Please leave a comment below.
Related posts:
- In the Public Speaking Business, How Important is Passion?
- Public Speaking; It’s a Business, not a Speech
- Speaking vs Content Distribution
- Speakers Marketing Questions (and some answers)
- Speakers Marketing Case Study
Tagged with: free public speaking tips • make money speaking • public speakers marketing • public speaking blog • public speaking business • public speaking training • Toastmasters Intl.
Filed under: Speakers Marketing • Speaking Tips
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I was just “skimming” Facebook and came across the link of this blog, Scott.
Knowing that you always deliver great insights, I decided to read you and WOW… finally someone who dares to say that speakers are delivering BS. It happened to me twice last week to go to a networking event where some so called specialists where supposed to educate us about a topic.
OMG! the only thing that saved the evening was that I met other great people… Passion? Not at all! It’s enough for them to know (approximately) that what they are talking about is a buzz of the moment. There is no depth, no insight, no material behind what they say.
Nowadays almost everybody claims to be a public speaker. A better label would be public sleeping pills.
I’m tempted to go even further in the analysis: they lack integrity. When you claim what you are not, you are a liar, right?
Funny how pieces are falling in place like in a puzzle… I was going to write (with passion) a blog article about integrity.
See you soon.
Nadia
good stuff Scott- makes sense and encourages me to do something about it.
Hey, I just hopped over to your site via StumbleUpon. Not somthing I would normally read, but I liked your thoughts none the less. Thanks for making something worth reading.
I would have to say this is an wonderful piece of work. I say this deserves mentioning elsewhere.