You've got your five points, now we have to flesh it out because you can't just stand up, give five points in 10 seconds and sit down. That's not really a speech or a presentation. So what are we going to do? You need to flesh out each one of these message points with an example. Now, it doesn't have to be this emotional, exciting story where you're walking around the room and cry. I'm not asking you to do that.

I just want a specific example of each one of the points. So if sales are down 2%, and everything was flat, except for one particular product, freezers, and you just couldn't sell them because it was minus five degrees out, tell the story about why freezer sales went down. Give the example of the specific product that went out so people can understand it. Here's the funny thing about people doesn't matter how smart they are, how many PhDs they have, how capable they are abstract thought When people are listening to you present, they might understand your abstract concepts, but they don't visualize it, therefore they don't remember it. People need a specific example to visualize it in their mind. So they remember your presentation.

Now, keep in mind, we do want people to remember our messages. We don't necessarily want people running up to us afterwards say, Oh, my God, you got to quit your job and become a professional motivational speaker. That's not what this is about. I'm not trying to pressure you into that. But I do want you to focus on the goal. You want people to take the actions you want, which is give you a promotion, approve, approve a budget, not eliminate your division.

Anytime you speak. You are trying to get people to do something. They need to know what your message was. They need to remember it in order for that to happen. And that's why it's critically important for you to have an example flushing At each one of your points, if you can't think of an example, probably isn't an important point, just get rid of the point.