So that's great, you've narrowed down what it is you actually want the audience to do after you've given the presentation. Now you've got to open things up and start brainstorming. You need to brainstorm on every single idea, message number fact, that will motivate your audience to actually do what you want. But here's the cat. Here's the hard part. It's actually easy.
Gathering more and more and more and more, you may come up with 50 ideas 100 200 you may come up with a whole book and have 1000 ideas. That's not the challenge. The challenge is you have to put these messages in priority. Remember, the people you're speaking to do not have to know everything, you know, otherwise, they'd have your job. Your job as a presenter is to think about everything you know, what do the people you're speaking to have to know You got to weed out all the rest. So that's the challenge, you got to narrow it down to just five.
Why do I say five that seemed arbitrary. I'll tell you why it's based on empirical evidence from my own career. I've trained CEOs, beginners, speakers, intermediate speakers, Junior executives, how to present my whole adult life for more than 30 years. And I always ask people, when it's alive in person presentation, the same question. Tell me the best speaker you've seen in your last year in your field in your industry, someone you saw in person. And now can you tell me what messages you remember from this fantastic speech?
And I'll go around the room and quite often, the answer is zero. People say TJ everybody's boring in our field or industry. Or sometimes they'll say one message, sometimes to occasionally three. Three months or so, someone will remember four ideas. And every six months, someone will remember literally five ideas, literally just a handful of ideas. And the more than 30 years I've asked that question.
I've never had anyone remember more than five ideas from the best speaker in their field they've ever seen. So if you want to be not just a good speaker, not just a competent beginner presenter, but actually great. Come up with pipe messages and get those remembered by your audience. I'd like this makes life a lot easier for you. Most beginners think, oh, I don't want anyone to know I'm a beginner I better work really hard and do extra research and come up with more and more and more and more. And I better tell them more and have more slides more data.
That way. No one can see through the the idea that I'm an actual beginner. I don't know anything. Now. No, no, nothing's going to make you seem more like a beginner, then speaking quickly and rushed and doing a big data dump. So forget all that.
You do have to look at all the ideas, but then you got to use your judgment and narrow it down to just five ideas. So that's what I want you to do on whatever topic you're using for this course and whatever topic you're likely to speak on the most. In the future, come up with literally five ideas and write them down. An idea should be something you can say in 10 words or less, you get five of them. write those down in the discussion group, as far as what you want to talk about, write that down. Now.