by Arvee Robinson

Created on: March 01, 2011

How to Add Pizzazz to Your Speech

How many times have you heard a mediocre speech or one that was just downright boring? Is that the kind of speech you want to give? No! You want a speech that will set you up for success— a speech that’s got pizzazz. 

How Do You Add Pizzazz?

You don’t need to be a great speaker to add pizzazz; you just need to follow these 7 different techniques. You can use all 7 or pick and choose the ones you are most comfortable with.  It’s more important to be authentic, to be yourself.  People buy what? They buy you!  Let your audience fall in love with you, then fall in love with your product, then fall in love with your business opportunity.

#1  Enthusiasm

No matter what you add to spice up your speech, to have pizzazz you must be excited about what you are talking about.  You’ve seen speakers who don’t seem enthusiastic—they’re not connected to what they’re selling.  Their lack of passion shows. So, if that’s you, and you’re not passionate about your product or what it is you do for your clients or how you contribute to the world, then you might want to change the topic of your speech, or maybe even your business.  You must be excited. You must be enthusiastic.  You can’t practice this; it is something that you believe in so that when it comes time to talk about it, you just let it flow.  Enthusiasm comes out naturally in your voice, and it will also come out in your body language. 

#2  Be the Story

Stories are so important. In the past I’ve talked about storytelling in terms of making sure your personal story is part of your speech—to show your journey and your right to be there.  Because this is part of rapport-building, it doesn’t always add pizzazz.  To add pizzazz, you need to “be the story.” Why? Because people will live vicariously through you.  These are stories that would typically happen to you, that you relate to in a certain part of your speech. 

For example: Several years ago I lived in Claremont which is a really quaint little city—just like Mayberry. One day as I was driving home, I saw two neighbor kids had orange juice stands, not lemonade stands.  To my left was a little girl and to my right was a little boy, selling the same thing for 5 cents. The little girl was jumping up and down and saying, “I got the best orange

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