Is It Your Content or Your Delivery?

This is a question speaker experts have debated for ages. My two cents?

I’ve read many articles on this subject. One article in particular presented both sides of the coin. One side referenced a TEDx Talk titled: How to Sound Smart (video link below), where the speaker spoke about nothing specific, said he was going to speak about nothing specific, but nonetheless, still delivered a very entertaining talk.

The other side referenced a student delivering a talk before the United Nations student delegation (video link below). She had very little “delivery,” but brought people to tears with her words all the same.

Back to my two cents. If you’re a speaker with a big name and/or a strong following, I believe delivery is key, due to the fact that you’ve already cleared the content hurdle. Audiences know what you have to deliver, and they come to hear YOU and your current take on that subject. Your content, combined with your delivery, brings them back for more.

For us “everyday entrepreneurs” who want to use public speaking to build our audience, I believe it’s our content that’s going to draw people in. Then it’s up to our delivery to seal the deal. What’s the best way to do this? Here are three tips:

1) Target the right audiences: It doesn’t matter how well we’ve pulled our content together if it falls on deaf ears. It’s up to us to do our homework to find audiences that really do want to learn about what we have to offer. Many newer speakers think that if they talk to a broader audience, they’ll be more likely to capture interested listeners. There might be a grain of truth there, but is that the best use of your time… when, with a little more research, you may find an entire audience interested in your topic, which could result in bigger returns for those hard-earned hours of work.

2) Share your best content: Do I really mean that? Yes. Many speakers are afraid to share their secrets because they think that if they do, people won’t have any reason to work with them. But, if that were the case, everyone would just go to YouTube or google and find out how to fix their problems. They don’t because content that shares what to do is not the same as explaining how to do it. If someone can figure out how to fix their problem on their own, they weren’t ever going to be our client anyway. People who are intrigued by the what, and want to learn more about the how, are our best shot.

3) Deliver: You’re doing yourself a huge disservice if you put all of your energy into your content but don’t spend time practicing it OUT LOUD! What works best for me is to start preparing early. I script out what I want to say, saying it out loud as I go. Then I practice it out loud as many times as it takes to feel like I’m ready to confidently speak it out loud to my audience. This, in my opinion, is the best way for speakers to transition from needing to have their script in front of them, to having it handy as a guide for making sure they’re on track with sharing their main points.

My last two cents is that this debate isn’t as simple as the chicken or the egg debate. It boils down to the fact that without great content, we’ve got nothing to deliver. It’s important to remember that it’s a privilege to speak to an audience, and it’s our job to make sure they walk away feeling like being in our audience was time well spent. The way to accomplish that is via our best content and delivery, which is the best way to inspire them to want to learn more from us!