When speaking in high schools, colleges and universities, I ask the audience, “What’s your greatest fear in public speaking?” Interesting! Their responses are very similar. In the next 7 weeks, you’re going to receive easy-to-apply tools on how to overcome your 7 biggest fear in public speaking.

This week, let’s start with the No.1 fear, “I don’t know what to say.”

3 Essential Elements for your A-Grade Presentation Topic

1. Your passion

Passion comes first. Without passion, you will not have the momentum to research your topic, outline your project and rehearse your presentation in weeks. The key is to find out  what you’re passionate about and stick to it.

To help identify your passion, answer the following questions:

• What are your greatest interests?
• Which topic(s) always make you excited?
• What are you good at?
• What do others always ask you for advice?

2. Your knowledge/ experience

Can you teach your audience public speaking if you’ve never spoken to the public? It’s more effective for you to have experiences and/or knowledge related to your passion. For example, I can share a terrible story about my first time on stage or an amazing skill learnt from the World Champion of Public Speaking. Then I’ll point out the 5 top speaking mistakes to avoid. See, with your personal experience and knowledge, your audience will trust what you say and pay attention to your whole presentation. Isn’t that cool?

Questions to consider:

• Do you have any personal experience(s) related to this topic?
• Have you studied any related subjects?
• Do you know any experts on this topic? (Interview/ Research)
• Have you ever learnt from these experts? What have you learnt?

3. Your Audience

What is your goal of giving a school presentation? Get high grades? Become the coolest guy in school? All these goals are about connecting with your audience. To connect, know your audience first. Here are your audience-related questions:

• What does your audience want to know?
• What are your audience’s needs?
• How can you help your audience with this topic? (e.g. Improve their family relationships )

Want to choose an A-grade presentation topic? That’s easy. Find your passion, share your experience and know your audience. I challenge you to follow these 3 steps, answer all questions and discover your A-grade presentation topic.

What topics will you choose for the next speech or presentation? I’m excited to know.

Pls share your comments here.

Express your speech,

Jonathan Li, FUN Creator