Untitled Document

Have An Ending, Happy or Otherwise

When telling stories to your audience, it is critical to have a resolution. How does your anecdote end? How were the critical issues resolved? Too many speakers have a perfectly good beginning to a story, but then get lost. They become side-tracked. They forget to finish. They ramble.

It is not important that your stories have a happy ending. You are not trying to market-test a blockbuster movie with pre-fab "they-lived-happily-ever-after" endings to your stories.

What is important is that your audience can see how whatever conflict you describe with your #1 client or your difficult employee has now been resolved, and how something was learned in the end.

Too many speakers like to describe conflict or just whine about problem situations. These can be important parts of telling a story, but they don't serve the grander purpose of communicating your message unless you describe a clear-cut ending where the resolution results in illustrating an important concept.

Don't leave your audience hanging. Don't introduce clients, customers, colleagues and prospects in your speech unless you are willing to detail what happens to them (within the immediate context of your story). If your audience is wondering whatever happened to Mr. Smith in accounting because you discussed his problem 3 minutes ago, but you never resolved it, then they are less likely to be focused on what you are saying right now. They are still lost trying to figure out what happened earlier.

The less you distract your audience, the better. You want your audience focusing on exactly one thing at a time: namely, what you are saying at that moment. That is why you don't want to leave any holes or gaps in your logic or your narrative; hence, the need for an ending to each story.

It doesn't have to be a STRONG ending in a Hollywood sense, happy, or even poignant. It just has to end in a way that makes some sort of sense.

More insights from TJ Walker

Bully Pulpits: Speaking Secrets of World Famous Leaders

Sugarcoated Message - JFK
Leaders are not afraid to confront difficult questions and topics head on.

(More Videos)

SpeakCast Tutorial: Improve Your Communication Skills

Always Be Closing
By summarizing and asking for action whenever you speak you can always be closing and not be high pressure or sleazy.

(More Videos)

Publisher: TJ Walker
Managing Editor: Jess Todtfeld
Creative Director : Kris Gentile

Name
Email

Please select how often you would like to receive updates:
Daily Updates
Weekly Updates

The 5 Step PowerPoint Recovery Program
Vow to never use a PowerPoint (or Keynote) template ever again. You're a creative person (you just don't know it yet). You can build creative, innovative presentations that leave your audience.

Compress and optimize your PowerPoint presentations while still ...
PPTminimizer reduces PowerPoint presentations by up to 96% of their initial size in seconds. Therefore there is no need to unzip the optimized files in order to work on them. The graphics and embedded..

Video Demo: Tips for better powerpoint presentations
Putting some sizzle into your work ... and making your work day better

PowerPoint Tips: Slide and Title Masters
IT Management, CT
PowerPoint has its share of features that reduce the time it takes to create and format a presentation, but some of..

St. Patrick's Day: New PowerPoint Template Set From Ppted
Ppted released a new PowerPoint template set -- this one is called St. Patrick's Day. Not only do... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more!

How do I Create and manage PowerPoint table data?
TechRepublic, KY
In Microsoft PowerPoint, tables can be a bit troublesome because space is limited. Too much data on one

How NOT To Do A PowerPoint Presentation
One is Presentation Zen, which should be a must-read for all undergraduate (and graduate) students. Here's another, titled "Life After Death By PowerPoint." It hits most of the high (and low) points in...,

FREE PowerPoint Business Slide Backgrounds... COOL....!
This site gives us 100+ innovative powerpoint slide backgrounds for FREE.Just check it out...

How to Add Video Clips to Microsoft PowerPoint | eHow.com
This is a great tutorial from e-How about adding video clips to your PowerPoint presentation:. How to Add Video Clips to Microsoft PowerPoint | eHow.com. On another note, frequently people ask me how...

(More PowerPoint Alerts)

March 6 & 7, 2008 Master Speaker Workshop New York, NY More Info Sign Up	April 10 & 11, 2008 Media Training Workshop New York, NY More Info Sign Up

Sony NV-U73T and NV-U83T available in stores now
CNET Blogs, CA
Announced at CES 2008, focus on safety and have text-to-speech technology,..

Taking risks may be the smartest way to advance your IT career
ITBusiness.ca, Canada
Strider knew the usual PowerPoint presentation wouldn't go over well with...

ISU speaker: Technology out of sci-fi coming soon
By Michele Steinbacher
The way Ray Kurzweil tells it, the stuff of science fiction isn’t far off — a few decades, at most. The inventor and futurist, who headlines Illinois State University’s sesquicentennial finale Thursday, believes biological humans and computer technology are going to merge very soon — say by 2045.

The most useful new gadgets for your car
MSNBC -
Text-to-speech technology has become the latest buzzword in the navigation industry because of its emphasis on safety,

Davide Franco is the New as CEO at Loquendo
TMCnet
By Stefania Viscusi, TMCnet Assistant Editor Speech recognition and text to speech technology provider, Loquendo ,...,

Going high-tech costs school board $900K
Venice Gondolier, FL
The interior upgrades, including improved electronics on the dais where laptops can be plugged in for easier..

Finding Fun Stuff with filetype:
Technology Evangelist, MN
This should bring back a list of every PowerPoint file Google has found on the web. Results like this show up in..

Newspapers will survive by doing what they do best

Holly Connects Integrates LumenVox Ad-Hoc-
News (Pressemitteilung), Germany
Its innovative speech technology empowers channel integrators, developers, and solution providers to...,

SRI International Receives Patent for Voice-Based Search Technology
Market Wire (press release)
The Speech Technology and Research Laboratory's staff of about 25 includes.

Composica Enterprise 3.2 to be launched at Learning Technologies 2008
Training Press Releases (press release), UK
Composica Enterprise offers highly robust PowerPoint.

(More Technology Alerts)

A Failure to Communicate
Are your getting your message across or are you boring people to death.

Announcing the official Call for Ideas for BlogHer '08
Why a "Call for Ideas" and not a "Call for Speakers" or "Call for Proposals" or something like that? Because BlogHers are a generous bunch, and there are plenty of you who like to recommend other

Call for Speakers for Wireless Mobile Expo
2008 Wireless & Mobile Expo and Conference call for speakers is now open. Proposals will be accepted until April 30, 2008. Call for Speakers Opens for 2008 Wireless & Mobile Expo and Conference...

JetBrains Sponsors Developer Day Scotland
The call for speakers is still open, but hurry, it will be closing soon!

(More Alerts)

The Speaking Channel Newsletter is provided by Media Training Worldwide
Media Training Worldwide provides more media and presentation training workshops and seminars (54 separate courses) than any other company in the world. Media Training Worldwide also publishes more than 100 presentation training books, DVD's, CDs, and other information products and is the largest presentation/media training publisher in the world. For a product catalog or more information on training services call 800-755-7220 or visit us online.