How to Build a Powerful
Persuasive Speech
by Dragoş Stoian
The goal of this tutorial is to teach you how to
build a successful persuasive speech, using
simple and clear steps.
It only addresses what happens before giving the
speech.
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Table of contents
1. Why Give a Persuasive Speech?
2. Successful Mindsets For Building a Powerful Speech
3. Preparing and Researching the Ideas
4. Creating the Framework
5. The Introduction of the Speech
6. The Content of the Speech
7. The Ending of the Speech
8. Repeating the Speech Before Delivering It
9. Visual Presentation
10. Video Example – a Powerful Persuasive Speech
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1. Why Give a Persuasive Speech?
A powerful persuasive speech, performed with passion, has the following
benefits:

Changes mindsets;

Moves people to take action;

The public exposure will build the speaker’s confidence – when he
shows his vulnerabilities in front of the audience;

Empowers people to believe more in themselves;

Creates a powerful image for the speaker or for the company he
represents;

Sells products or services in an effective way;

Creates a trend;

Helps create business partnerships;

Helps the speaker to become a leader.
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2. Successful Mindsets for Building a Powerful Speech (I)
Mindset = what you think about a certain activity
For everything that you learn, the mindsets are more important than actions
or techniques, and should be learned first.
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2. Successful Mindsets for Building a Powerful Speech (II)
To create a persuasive speech, the most powerful mindsets to adopt are:
 “I want to persuade because this will help the audience.”
Manipulation is not persuading, its effects are short-lived and it will
hurt me in the long term;
 “I believe that I can persuade.”
How do I know that I can do it? Because I have the best
information, available in this tutorial 
 “I will enjoy persuading.” If I don’t enjoy it now, I will find something to like
about it (enjoying an activity makes it 10 times more effective).
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3. Preparing and Researching the Ideas (I)
Preparing the ideas = arranging your thoughts, growing your ideas
Preparation is always done in writing, on a dedicated notebook. It will help
you organize better and review it later.
Tips&Tricks: Keep your notebook handy, the preparation starts with any idea that
arises in any situation.
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3. Preparing and Researching the Ideas (II)
Preparation - choose and write the main idea, that will help you with your
persuasion goal.
 Pick only one main idea, the rest of the ideas will just support it;
 Avoid speaking about too many different things in a single speech.
Research the topic
 Gather ideas and data from the internet, books, case studies etc;
 Gather stories from your own experience or from your friends lives.
Stories that involve real people and emotion convince better than
facts.
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4. Creating the framework
A powerful speech should always be clearly structured, based on three main
parts: Introduction, Content and Ending.
Here is a tested example that I used for persuading in my speeches:
Introduction
Win the
public by
telling a story
that they will
easily identify
with
Content
Present the
main topic
and give
reasons,
facts, case
studies etc.
This should be only
10% of the speech,
because this part
only sustains your
argument, it doesn't
persuade
Tell them
what they will
lose if they
don’t listen to
you, and what
they have to
win
Show people the
consequences of
their actions, these
will motivate them
to act
Ending
Offer them
the
solution,
what they
have to do
Make a
call to
action
After the previous
steps, they are now
ready to listen to
your practical advice
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5. The Introduction of the Speech (I)
The introduction of the speech is like a hook, it’s your chance to
captivate the public, so it’s very important to make it powerful:
 Start with a thought-provoking question;
 Tell a quote from a famous person;
 Tell a story about a difficulty that you had and
how you got over it;
 Quote a case study that demonstrates your
main idea;
 Make a shocking affirmation that will leave
them wondering;
 Show the public an object, ask them what do
they think it is (this creates curiosity).
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5. The Introduction of the Speech (II)
Examples of introductions:
 “Have you ever had this happen to you?” (speak about something
that happend to you recently);
 “Albert Einstein once said <Strive not to be a success, but rather to
be of value>”;
 “Did you know that 80% of.. [insert here an interesting statistic
about your topic]?”;
 “Imagine that you can have everything you desire.. What would it
be?” (this stimulates the imagination of the audience);
 “I’m here to tell you that most of you will not get what you want in
life.” (this will captivate the audience; follow with your personal
story and tell them what to do to avoid this from happening);
 “Who likes stories? Today I’ll tell you the most peculiar story..”.
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6. The Content of the Speech
Quick guidelines:
 Present your ideas as simple and understandable as you can:
imagine you have to explain it to a 10-year-old child;
 Use metaphors and comparisons with things that the target public
easily relates to;
 Offer practical examples for most of the ideas;
 Ask many questions – even if they are rhetorical, they make people
think for themselves;
 Use humor to release the tension and captivate the public;
 Repeat the main ideas throughout the speech, using different
words and examples.
Tips&Tricks: as a persuasive presentation is much more than talking, prepare some
creative and dynamic exercises to raise the energy of the audience.
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7. The Ending of the Speech (I)
The ending gives the final impression, so it has to be strong and
purposeful.
In the end, you need to draw a clear conclusion that synthesizes the
main idea.
Tips&Tricks:
Don’t end a speech with “This is all I had to say..”!
Don’t end on an abrupt note, let the public know that the
speech is going to end.
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7. The Ending of the Speech (II)
The goal of the ending for a persuasive speech is the call to action, you
can do this in various ways:
 Tell them to do it right away, because life doesn't wait for them;
 Repeat the main idea, with a different tone of voice, in order to
emphasize it;
 Offer the morale for the story that you told in the introduction;
 Quote the call to action of a famous speaker or writer;
 Ask them what they intend to do after your speech.
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8. Repeating the Speech Before Delivering It (I)
The secret of an outstanding speech is repetition.
A strong persuasive speech can only be delivered if you are well
prepared:
 You will look and feel more confident and ready to persuade;
 You can improvise if you know it well – if nothing new comes up,
you can still say the things that you repeated;
 The public will respect you more because of your confidence, and
thus you will have more influence.
You need to repeat your speech at least 3 times to deliver it well.
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8. Repeating the Speech Before Delivering It (II)
How to repeat your speech:
 Repeat the speech with loud voice, as if giving it to a live audience;
 Repeat the speech in different days, to let the information sink in;
 Don’t repeat the speech word for word, it will sound unnatural!
 Don’t rehearse in the day of the speech, you need to be relaxed
before giving the speech.
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9. Visual Presentation
The role of the visual presentation is to aid the speech – don’t work on
it more than on the speech itself.
Design principles:
 Speak about a single topic on a slide; don’t use too much text;
 Use a simple design, without too many elements or flashy
animations;
 Use large fonts, without effects (shadow, contour etc.);
 Use suggestive pictures to tell a visual story;
 Use 2 colors for text, maximum 3 for complex slides;
 Use high contrast colors: black fonts on white or white fonts on very
dark background.
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10. Example – a Powerful Persuasive Speech
If you prepare yourself, you will have a strong basis for a great
persuasive speech.
You can see most of the principles presented in this tutorial in the
speech below, try to identify them:
Click on the image to start the movie
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Thank you!
Dragoș Stoian
Public Speaker, Trainer and Blogger
0722682695
dragos.m.stoian@gmail.com
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