10 Ways to Make Your Speeches More Powerful, Persuasive, and Profitable

If you want to grow your business, double your income, and create a lasting legacy business…You must become a powerful public speaker.

There’s no way around it.

Whether you’re giving a keynote to teach and empower others, selling your services to a live audience, or sharing your expertise through Instagram and YouTube videos, speaking is one of the fastest ways to manufacture celebrity, build your authority, and drive millions of dollars in new revenue to your business.

I’ve personally closed more than $200,000 in sales from a 15-minute on-stage presentation, earned more than $25,000 for a 90-minute keynote, and made more than $1,500,000 in the past two years from recording powerful Instagram stories.

And, more importantly, my ability to persuasively speak to both virtual and in-person audiences has allowed me to serve millions of people around the world and help them live their perfect lives.

So….

If you want to build your reputation, earn the income, and have the impact you desire, developing the skill of public speaking is one of the fastest ways to do it.

And here are 10 powerful tips to make your speeches more powerful, persuasive, and profitable.

Let’s dive in.

1. Share Something Actionable

The first, and most important law of powerful public speaking is to share something actionable with your audience.

Listen, whether you’re speaking at your own event, a keynote, or on an Instagram story, people don’t care about you.

They care about what you can teach them and what problems you can help them solve.

Unless your plan is to be the next Alan Watts, your #1 goal when you get up on stage or click ‘record’ on your camera should be to share lessons and strategies that are immediately actionable.

When you conclude your speech, every member of the audience should think to themselves, “Man! I can’t wait to get out of here so I can go and implement what they just taught me.”

Avoid esoteric, philosophical, or convoluted lessons and stories (unless of course, that’s what people paid to hear–e.g. Jordan Peterson) and instead share raw, tactical, and step-by-step strategies that will help your audience overcome their biggest obstacles.

You can flounder through your lines and mess up everything else…

But if you share something that changes someones life, your speech was still a success.

2. Share Something Counter-Intuitive

To leverage your speeches and presentations for business growth and professional success, it’s not enough to give your audience actionable advice.

Anyone with access to YouTube can rip off an old Tony Robbins presentation or Brian Tracy keynote.

However, to become the powerful and persuasive speaker capable of driving profits through your presentations, you must share something unique.

Or, at the very least, share something old in a new way.

For example, in nearly all of my keynotes and Perfect Life Workshop presentations, I’ll spend some time talking about the “Freedom Paradox.”

Specifically, how the key to freedom and living life on your terms is to implement rigid rules, unbreakable structure, and discipline into your life.

To most people, this concept seems foreign.

After all, isn’t the point of freedom that you don’t have to be disciplined or follow rules?

However, in my life and the lives of my clients, I’ve found time and time again that the fastest way to create the income, lifestyle, and business you desire is to deprive yourself of freedom in small ways (e.g. waking up at 5 a.m. every morning, working out at the same time every day, and working during set hours) so you can enjoy freedom in the big ways.

Spend some time thinking about unique, contrarian, or counter-intuitive wisdom you can share during your next speech.

I promise, your audience will love it.

3. Unify Your Speech with an Overarching Theme

One of the most common mistakes I see novice speakers making is attempting to share too much too quickly.

They have all of these ideas and lessons in their head and a seemingly endless stream of value to offer…

…But they end up sabotaging their presentation with long-winded tangents and tidbits that are disparate and unrelated to one another.

A simple trick you can use to ensure your speech is well received–making you look good and adding to the bottom line–is to create an “Elevator Pitch” version of your speech.

To do this, ask and answer the question, “If I had to summarize my speech in 12 words or less, what would I say?”

What is the ONE thing you want your audience members to take away?

What ONE tactic or strategy would change their lives and allow them to go out and immediately generate results based on the content you shared?

By unifying your speech under a single overarching theme, you will create coherence and simplicity in your presentation, avoiding tangential rambles and seemingly unrelated diatribes.

4. Follow the “Tell ’em Three Times” Rule

The human brain is undeniably weird.

Even with our most advanced technologies, from FMRI’s to EEGs to SPECT machines, we still don’t fully understand the intricate wiring of the human brain.

But we do know that, for whatever reason, our brains are wired to remember things that come in threes.

Which brings us to the fourth tactic for giving more powerful presentations and one of the oldest public speaking tricks in the book…

Whatever your main point is, share it with the audience three times.

Start by telling them what you’re going to teach them.

Then teach it to them.

Then conclude your speech by reiterating what you just taught them.

For example, at the last Perfect Life Retreat, my friend and “$100 Million Brother” Joel Marion taught audience members exactly how he grew his first business to 9-figures in only 18 months, grew his Instagram to 1,000,000 followers in 4-months, and grew his two-person side hustle to 8-figures in under 12-months.

When he began his speech, he stated, “Today, I’m going to show you how to grow your business to 7-figures and beyond in less than a year.”

In the middle of his speech, he reiterated his opening remarks, teaching the exact strategies he promised.

And then, to finish his speech he said once again, “So I just taught you how to hit your first 7-figures in 12 months or less…any questions?”

As simple as this tactic might seem, it will make it much easier for your audience to follow along and understand the overarching theme you created for your speech (using the tactic above).

5. Speak with Utter Conviction

Another common trap into which novice speakers fall is to give speeches and presentations about topics for which they have no conviction.

They think to themselves, “What I really want to share is xyz…But it’s too polarizing, divisive, complicated [insert your favorite adjective/excuse].”

Here’s the deal:

Whatever you believe to be true…

Whatever you are excited and passionate about sharing…

Whatever pisses you off, lights you on fire, and gives you energy and enthusiasm…

THAT is what you need to share.

When you lack conviction for the content you’re sharing, it shows in your presentation. Your posture, tonality, and gesticulation will be boring and weak. Your audience will lose interest and begin day dreaming about anything other than what you’re saying.

However, when you can speak about something that excites you and ignites a fire under you–whether it’s politically correct or not–your audience will feel your conviction.

They might not agree with you. In fact, some listeners might hate what you have to say.

But your message will resonate with the right people and they will want to be a part of what you’re sharing.

When Bedros Keuilian and Tim Grover took the stage at last year’s Perfect Life Workshop, their presentations were not easy to stomach.

They shared advice and insight that many people likely found offensive or uncomfortable. They made claims that audience members didn’t want to hear. And they shared truths that hurt.

But guess what?

Their message resonated with the right people and allowed them to make a lasting impact on many of the audience members.

If you want your presentations to do the same, then throw off the restrictions of political correctness and “niceness,” and instead, speak with utter conviction and certainty.

6. Study Other Speakers

The fastest way to improve anything–whether it’s your public speaking, your sales, or your copywriting–is to learn from others who do it better than you can.

To become a more powerful and persuasive public speaker, you must study the greats.

Watch Tony Robbins speak at Unleash the Power Within. Watch Grant Cardone’s 10X Growth Con replays. Watch Gary Vaynerchuk give a keynote speech.

Pay attention to how they structure their presentations, use physical gestures to drive points home, and how they use story telling to make a greater impact.

Educate yourself and emulate the greats.

This is the fastest and most effective way to shortcut your way to profitable and powerful presentations.

7. Know (and speak to) Your Audience

Let me ask you a question…

In your day-to-day conversations, do you speak the same way to every individual?

Do you talk about the same topics in the same way with your grandmother, business partner, children, employees, or coaching clients?

Of course not!

You tailor your conversations–both in topic and in style–to the audience in front of you.

When you’re with your employees, you might give inspiring and profanity laden speeches a la Wolf of Wall Street.

But with your family and children, you’re likely much more reserved and gentle.

And you must treat your public speaking audiences the same way.

Before you plan your speech, gain an intimate familiarity with the individuals to whom you will be speaking.

What are their political leanings? What is their level of expertise? Are they comfortable with hard-hitting in your face presentations? Or do they require a bit more tact and charm?

When you understand who your audience is, you can mold and shape your message to speak directly to them in a way they will understand.

And when you do this, their attention is yours to command.

8. Use Stories to Make Your Lessons More Memorable

If you read through most of my essays and articles, you’ll notice that I spend a lot of time sharing stories from my own life and the lives of my clients.

I don’t do this because of any ego complex or over-inflated sense of self importance.

I do it because I understand that human beings learn through stories.

There’s a reason that the greatest spiritual teachers in our species history taught through stories and parables.

And there’s a reason that the most viewed TED Talks and presentations in the 21st century all revolve around a central story.

People may forget lessons, but they will never forget good stories.

Whenever possible, use stories to drive home your most important points.

Study the story telling greats. Read Joseph Campbell. Watch as many TED Talks as you can. Study the structure and delivery of stories and the quality of your speeches will never be the same.

9. Speak in “Sound Bytes” Not Monologues

According to Business Week Magazine, the typical U.S. executive has an on-the-job attention span of only 6-minutes.

To hold your audience’s attention and capture their interest, you must structure your speeches around this fact.

Think of your presentation as an amalgam of 6-minute “Sound bytes” or lessons that revolve around your key theme.

Use visual aids to drive each sound byte home and ensure there is a verbal flag in each sound byte with statements like, “Let me highlight this idea for you.”

Deliver the most important lessons you can in under six minutes and then move on to the next one.

By doing this, you will keep your audience engaged, captivate their attention, and open up the doors to persuasion and influence.

10. Focus on Emotion, Not Information

There’s an old saying:

People may forget what you said, but they will never forget how you made them feel.

And it’s true.

Six months from now, it’s unlikely that anyone will remember what you said at your last keynote or what lesson you shared during your presentation.

But, if you do it right, they will never forget how you made them feel.

Before each speech, ask yourself, “What emotion do I want to elicit from my listeners?”

Do you want to motivate them? Inspire them? Challenge them to raise their standards? Call them out on their bad behavior?

When you focus on the emotion you want to deliver instead of the information your speeches will go from ‘good’ to ‘great’ to ‘Oh my god that was unbelievable.’

Conclusion

Public speaking is one of the fastest ways to grow your business, manufacture celebrity, and establish yourself as an expert in your field.

With these 10 tactics you are well on your way to mastering the art and science of giving powerful and persuasuive presentations.

What do you think about these 10 tips? Are there any that I missed you think are important? Which one are you going to implement this week?

Let me know in the comments below.

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