In a word—flawless. Oprah’s speech at the 2018 Golden Globes was the model of perfection. With the perfect amount of passion, story-telling and authenticity, Oprah delivered an iconic acceptance speech for the Cecile B. DeMille award for outstanding contributions to entertainment.
Yes, Oprah is an actor, author, talk show host, entrepreneur, producer, humanitarian and philanthropist who is known as the “Queen of Media” and “Most Influential Woman in the World.” And maybe you’re not. But that doesn’t matter.
Because you can still deliver a stellar speech--whether you’re doing a presentation, leading a meeting or giving a toast at a wedding.
Here’s how you, too, can create your own Oprah speech.
1. Hook Them Now. Thank Them Later.
What do most people do at the beginning of a speech? They say their Thank You’s. Usually to people they know and the audience doesn’t.
What do most audience members do when they hear a speaker start a speech with a laundry list of Thank You’s? They tune out.
Hook your audience. The first words out of your mouth must be compelling enough to draw your audience in and keep them. Hook them with a fascinating fact, a short and relevant story, or a rhetorical question.
Here’s how Oprah began: “In 1964, I was a little girl sitting on the linoleum floor of my mother’s house in Milwaukee watching Anne Bancroft present the Oscar for Best Actor at the 36th Academy Awards.”
Oprah launched her speech with a personal story that simultaneously launched her audience into her childhood home right there with her. Her use of time period (1964) and details (linoleum floor) made us feel as if we were watching TV right along side of her. And…most importantly, this was not a random story. Her story related to the overall theme of the evening.
2. Use Your Senses. Let your Audience See, Feel and Hear.
“Show. Don’t tell.” Most writers learn this rule in Writing 101. And then they forget it. Especially when it comes to writing speeches. Which is why most speeches are incredibly boring. Because the writers drone on and on using facts and figures and data that have absolutely no emotional resonance.
One of the best ways to captivate your audience? Create pictures or Mini-Movies with your words.
Look at all of the visual words Oprah uses in her opening sentence: “linoleum floor,” “mother’s house,” “Anne Bancroft”—all words that create a mini-movie that brings us into her world. In describing the actor Sidney Poitier, she later says, “I remember his tie was white, and of course his skin was black…”
Most people think they need visual aids to enhance their speeches. You don’t need a PowerPoint. Or video. Or fancy graphs and charts. What you do need are the right words—with the right meaning behind them.
Once you’ve created those mini-movies, how do you get the audience to feel something? It’s all in the way you speak your words—your delivery. That’s what can make all the difference in how the audience feels about your speech, and about you.
Which brings us to the next tip…
3. Be Smart. And Speak from Your Heart.
Many speakers feel the need to overwhelm their audiences with too many facts or use complicated technical language in order to show off their expertise. The most memorable speeches come from the heart.
If you want to include facts, make sure you include them in a compelling way. Here’s how Oprah did it: “In 1982, Sidney received the Cecil B. DeMille award right here at the Golden Globes and it is not lost on me that at this moment, there are some little girls watching as I become the first black woman to be given this same award.”
The key to making your audience feel this? By delivering it in the right voice.
This sentence is brilliantly crafted, but it’s Oprah’s delivery that makes it exceptional. She pauses for dramatic effect during the sentence and lowers her volume just a bit. There’s a rhythm to the way she speaks.
When Oprah says, “A new day is on the horizon!” she raises her volume and shouts it out, causing the audience to give her a spontaneous standing ovation.
Your words are important. What you say matters. But how you say it matters more.
4. Repeat Your Theme. Repeat Your Theme.
Want your audience to remember your speech? A rookie mistake that many speakers make is trying to cram too much information into a short amount of time. It’s best to stick to your theme and find ways to repeat the message.
Sometimes, it’s literally about repeating a phrase. Oprah repeats with passion, “Their time is up” three times in a row.
Other times, it’s about finding creative ways to remind your audience of the theme. In the spirit of women’s empowerment, Oprah reminds us that all women are affected: “They are domestic workers and farm workers. They are working in factories and they work in restaurants and they’re in academia and engineering and medicine and science…”
It’s crucial to emphasize one theme and support it with key stories, words and phrases—especially when you want to be memorable.
5. Speak first. Write Second.
We’ve all been in the audience during those excruciating speeches where the speaker is droning on and on while reading from a stack of papers, index cards or laptop.
Chances are, those speakers wrote their speeches first. “What? How else are you supposed to create your speech?” you might be thinking.
The best way to create a kick-ass speech is to speak it out loud first and then write it down. This is because the rhythm and language of the spoken word is quite different from the written word. That’s why most written speeches sound stilted and boring.
If Oprah’s speech appeared in the pages of a book, then it might have to be edited. But when you read that speech out loud, with passion and heart, it transforms into magic.
Quick and Captivating Final Tips:
The next time you sit down to write your speech, stand up. Don’t write. Start talking. Speak from your heart. Get passionate. Get excited. Then sit down and write what you say. Overwrite. Tell all of the wrong stories until you find the right ones. Once you’ve gotten all of your ideas down, then edit it. Speak it out loud. Breathe. Play with volume, pitch and pace. Take pauses between thoughts. Gesture for emphasis. Time yourself. If it’s too long, don’t try to speak more quickly. Delete “stuff.” No one ever complained about a speech being too short. Then rehearse it. Rehearse. Rehearse. Rehearse. Don’t ever wing it. Rehearse it to the point that it seems spontaneous. That’s what actors do. That’s what Oprah did.
In the spirit of gratitude (and in not saying my Thank You’s first, I’d like to thank Oprah. One woman. One speech. A world of gratitude.