Bring your presentation to life

Speaking
Written By Liam Sandford

Want to leave a lasting impact when you speak in public? Have something that people keep coming back to? That can be intentional and doesn’t have to be left up to chance.

If you are a creator you hear about calls to action all the time — ending on something that initiates immediate action from your audience. The same applies for public speaking. You should always finish with a call to action that is instant and easy to implement. What you may not have thought about though is delivering long term calls to action.

As a subscriber to my newsletter you will know I am keen on actionable items that you can implement when you next have a presentation to deliver or speak in public. The key for me is something that you can keep coming back to that will still be useful 5 years from now. Evergreen calls to action. You should do the same in your presentation to make it last longer than the 15 minutes you are delivering. How can you implements a long lasting call to action?

The evergreen call to action

Like evergreen trees, that stay green all year round, actionable items that are timeless. All year, every year they stay green and useful to people. The simple answer is to solve problems people have.

Provide specific advice that helps people resolve an issue they currently have. Although rather than just solving a problem you think people have, engage with them first to understand their actual problems. Creating calls to action that don’t solve the problem are unhelpful.

You create evergreen content and calls to action based on understanding your audience. Everything you say is for them and about them — if you don’t look at it through this lens you will not leave a lasting impact.

The consistent actionable item

Create the vision for your audience. What is the consistent action your audience can take to achieve that vision? For example, all it takes to write a non-fiction book is 50,000 words. A longer term action could be to write 500 words a day for 100 days. That will help people get to their goal, in longer than just one action.

The key with consistent actionable items is to make it easy to implement. You decide the length of time. The target date should be long enough for someone to see the change they want to make, and short enough for them to feel like it is achievable.

If you consider the book example. If someone writes their book based on your actionable item, you have left a long lasting impact in that persons life, and the lives of their readers.

The sequence of events

Provide your audience with a long term vision. Paint the picture of what life could be like if they took a sequence of actions. Lay that sequence out for them — make it simple and easy for them to get started and continue taking action.

By creating an easy process to follow, your audience will come back to your presentation again and again. Instill a mindset of long term thinking and showcase some wins along the journey that people can celebrate and feel like they are making progress.

Actionable takeaways

  • End your presentation on a simple short term call to action that is easy for your audience to implement.

  • Deliver actionable items for your audience as longer term calls to action throughout your presentation.

  • Make your presentation evergreen. Ensure you understand the problems that your audience has, and show them how to tackle the specific barriers they have to overcome.

More from me

Liam Sandford
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