Ever face with the insurmoutable task of delivering a speech off the cuff?

I just came across a four-step formula created by Richard C. Borden that will teach you how to craft a powerful speech on the fly. To speakers who suck at speaking off the cuff, you will find this post God-sent.

Here goes.

Borden recommends that you imagine your audience shouting the following words at you as you deliver your speech, in this order.

“Ho hum!” (or B-O-R-I-N-G!)
“Why bring that up?”
“For instance?”
“So what?”

Right at the beginning as you are about to start, imagine the entire audience shouting at you, at the top of their lungs, “B-O-R-I-N-G!”

What do you do?

Well, most people will freak out since this is an exact play out of their worst nightmare. But as Paul Evans cleverly pointed out, “Fear is a cowardly bully. When you stand up to it, your fear runs away.” So likewise, instead of scurrying off the stage, you want to channel that fear into something constructive.

In Borden’s case, this worst case scenario is an important reminder for you to start strong, so that you can keep your wide-eyed audience at the edge of their seats, fully attentive, hungry for your words.

In his book, “Public Speaking as Listeners Like It!”, Borden gives this example. Let’s say you’ve been asked to speak on traffic safety.

Don’t start out with . . .

“The subject which has been assigned me is the reduction of traffic accidents.”

Yawns… Zzzzz…. Won’t it be more interesting if you start off this way?

“Four hundred and fifty shiny new coffins were delivered to the city last Thursday…”

This statement immediately triggers your audience to ask “Why?”, which is good because they will pay attention to what you have to say next, which brings us to the next step.

Say you got your audience’s attention (in a positive way), your audience will now move on to their next emotional outburst “Why bring that up?” This gives you the opportunity to expand on your attention grabber.

Once you have done that, imagine your audience shouting “For instance?” which gives you the green light to present a concrete persuasive example of the point you are making.

Finally, they screams, “So what?” which is where you offer a recommendation. This is usually the part where you deliver your core message.

To allow the four steps to sink in, let me bring in an example from a talk by Bruce Barton that Borden cites in his book. Barton was a firm believer in self-improvement, and in his talk he was urging a group of young men to make more productive use of their spare time. Though he did not explicitly bring up the four steps, you can see it clearly used.

1. B-O-R-I-N-G!

Barton begins his talk with an intriguing observation about the potential value of spare time…

“Last month a man in Chicago refused a million dollars for an invention he had evolved in his spare time.”

2. Why Bring That Up!

“You are interested in this because it confronts you with the possibilities of your spare time. Did you ever stop to think that most of the world’s great men have achieved their true life work, not in the course of their needful occupations, but in their spare time?”

3. For Instance?

“A tired-out rail-splitter crouched over his tattered books by candlelight or by fire-glow, at the day’s end; preparing for his future, instead of snoring or skylarking like his co-laborers.”

Abraham Lincoln cut out his path to later immortality in his spare time.

“An underpaid and overworked telegraph clerk stole hours from sleep or from play, at night, trying to crystallize into realities certain fantastic dreams in which he had faith. Today the whole world is benefiting by what Edison did in his spare time.”

“A down-at-heel instructor in an obscure college varied the drudgery he hated by spending his evenings and holidays in tinkering with a queer device of his, at which his fellow teachers laughed. But he invented the telephone in his spare time.”

4. So What?

“Gentlemen, you, too, have spare time. The man who says: ‘I would do such and such a great thing, if only I had time!’ would do nothing if he had all the time on the calendar. There is always time - spare time - at the disposal of every human who has the energy to use it. Use it!”

The next time you are “asked” to deliver a speech at the last minute, apply Borden’s method. Remember the four statements that your audience will be shouting at you. Tend to each of them as you deliver your speech.

“Ho hum!” (or B-O-R-I-N-G!)
“Why bring that up?”
“For instance?”
“So what?”

Without knowing, you will have crafted an audience-centric speech on a fly. Keep creating opportunities to develop speeches using Borden’s method and in no time, you will find this a piece of cake!

Cheers,
Eric Feng
Your Public Speaking Coach

P.S: I came across this article together with Borden’s method. It talks about the power of metaphors in persuading your audience to your way of thought. What I like about his article is the numerous examples he brought up. If you want to breathe life, colour and power into your speeches, you got to read “The Golden King of Persuasion”.

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