Well, if Chris Anderson is right, this is the key to powerful speaking even more than great delivery. And I think he is right. I think if you are able to put across something powerfully, that engages and inspires people, your actual delivery of that is secondary. Nevertheless, in the next chapter, we will deal with great delivery as well. So you'll be able to have both things. Let's take a deep dive into how to create great content.

It's probably the question I get asked most actually, which would reflect how important this topic is. How can I organize what I say so that people really are interested and receive it? Well, let's start with intentions. Just as we started this entire course with setting intentions for you, and I told you what my intentions were. Well, that's exactly what you need to do when you're speaking to There are two intentions that you can consider very overtly your intentions for you, what do you want to get out of this conversation, this presentation this, this talk, whatever it may be, what is it you want to achieve? If you're clear about your objective, then it's much easier to plot a route to get there.

If you really don't know, then you can wander around all over the place. This also helps you to be clear about what to include and what to exclude, in what you're going to say. It's a big mistake that many people make to include too much stuff and the actual message gets completely obscured by irrelevant details. I'll give you an example of this, which is email. Many people will start an email with the backstory, dear so and so. Last week, this happened and then that happened, and as a result, this person said this and then that happened, and by the time you've read about seven paragraphs right down at the bottom, you'll get so I'm writing to you, too.

Ask if you could help me with this? Well, there are many people who won't get that far, many, many people won't get that far, because they don't understand the purpose of reading all of that stuff that you've been including much better to start with the request itself, dear so and so I'm writing to ask you for this. The reason is, and then they have a context and they understand. So if you can state your intention for you, at the beginning, you can state it overtly. I did that in my very first TED talk. I came on stage and said, in the next six minutes, I think it was six.

My intention is to transform your relationship with sound with a fairly bold intention. That's what I set out to do. And hopefully I achieved it. So you can state it or even if you don't state it, it's very important to know what it is. And what are your intentions for the audience or for the person you're speaking to? What do you want to leave them with?

This is a gift you're giving them we're going to come on to that in more detail in the moment, what is it you want to leave them with? Do you want them to be touched, moved, inspired, informed, educated, take action, it could be any of those things amused, entertained anything, as long as you know what it is, then you can again, set your course directly for the objective and eliminate unnecessary material. Now, there is actually a third intention to consider. And it's not one you can affect. It's their intention for them. You need to be aware of it.

Because as we've said, you always speak into a listening. Even in a big crowd like this, maybe 1000 people you're speaking into a compound listening, which is the combination of all of the listenings of these individual people, as well as they're listening for you. If they know anything about you. You may have had an introduction And they might be thinking, Oh, this sounds good. Or if it's an individual conversation, somebody probably will know quite a lot about you have your face to face with them. In many situations, that's the case.

Or if you're representing an organization, they may have an attitude towards the organization. You always speak into a listening, their intentions for them will be a big part of that listening. It might be just before lunch or just before the end of the day, and they're thinking, I really want to go and have a drink or I really want to go and get some food. their intentions are very important in fashioning the listening you speak into, and it's great again, to acknowledge what they're there for. and kind of put the two things on the table in front of you. So you have an agreement that you're going to speak for this many minutes.

Or it's an informal thing, that you're going to have a chat. And the outcome for them will be this is that what they're interested in? Is there anything else they want? If you're one to one, it's very easy to ask people. What is it you'd like? I counted this conversation.

Or if you get this out of this conversation, would that be a success? so important to define all three listenings as over the I think, as you possibly can. And the exercise here for you, as I've said before, is to ask yourself, what's the listening? You don't have to get more subtle than that. You simply ask that question over and over and over again. And I promise you'll get better and better at spotting the listing.

You're speaking into