how do you write a motivational speech

Short Motivational Speeches

Motivational speeches are excellent tools to teach, inspire, and even just to tell others what to do. However, not many of us have the time to devote to writing long or complicated motivational speeches. The ability to write a short, sweet, and inspiring motivational speech is a very useful one, and it’s one that will come in handy throughout your life, especially in places of leadership.

In this guide, we’ll introduce you to several useful motivational topics, the most important parts of a good motivational speech, and meaningful situations that motivational speeches can be used in.

Importance of Motivational Speeches

Motivational speeches are not something you have to give. Regardless of whether you’re a leader, someone else in a position of power, or otherwise, motivational speeches are completely optional. If you don’t have the time, energy, or inclination to give a motivational speech, it’s likely that nothing will change. However, you may be missing out on a powerful inspirational tool for employees, friends, or others.

If you’ve listened to a motivational speech yourself, you’ve probably felt the impact it can have on you firsthand. They can be the source of great change in your motivation, faith, and thoughts. As such, motivational speeches are particularly useful for bosses, directors, and other leaders. If they’re something that you can employ for yourself, they’re not an opportunity that you should neglect.

Why Do We Need Motivation?

Motivation plays a vital role in our everyday lives. However, motivation isn’t a given, either. We often need a bit of a push to keep us motivated, or we sometimes need a reminder of why we’re working so hard in the first place. When we lose our motivation, our performance in various areas is lost, too.

Furthermore, motivation is something that binds us together. Every single human being on Earth has felt motivated to do something at some point in their life, all the way back to the first humans who were motivated by the urge to hunt and mate. A well-crafted motivational speech is relatable, inspiring, and reminds us about these things that we fight for.

For the workplace especially, motivation is critical. If employees aren’t inspired to work at their full working capacity, the business isn’t making all the money it could be. Certain causes and non-profit organizations are also in the business of motivating people to turn their lives around.

Many aspects of our lives depend on motivation . Some examples of this are:

While keeping your employees, charges, friends, or peers motivated isn’t your responsibility, sometimes it can be in your best interest. We’ll explore that further in the rest of this article.

Crafting a Motivational Speech

A motivational speech requires several key components to be successful and effective. In the following sections, we’ll go over the most important steps involved in creating a successful, impactful, and succinct motivational speech.

Finding a Topic

Finding a topic for your motivational speech is the very first thing you should do. Your topic should relate to your problem at hand or the issue you’re looking to address, of course. For example, if you’re an employer who is hoping to inspire your employees to work more productively, that should be your topic and your inspiration. If you’re a guest speaker looking to encourage smokers to quit, that will be your source.

Picking a topic for your motivational speech isn’t particularly complicated. The purpose of your speech will be to address a problem , after all. However, how you proceed from there is much more difficult. The next step will be to explain your purpose to your audience. How you do this is primarily up to you. If you’re the straightforward type, it can be as simple as telling your audience that the purpose of your speech is to get them to do something.

However, if you desire to be more creative, you also have the option of being a bit more subtle. You can try different things like:

• Revealing your purpose at the end of your speech
• Hinting at but not revealing your purpose
• Forcing your audience to deduce your purpose from personal stories or other clues
• Letting your audience take their own wisdom or purpose from your speech or story

Telling a Story

A significant part of a motivational speech is the inclusion of a story. After all, the draw of a motivational speech is a story for the listeners to compare themselves to and take something away from. If a story isn’t included in your motivational speech somehow, it’s no different than a lecture.

Since we’re concerned with creating short and succinct motivational speeches here, you must be careful which stories you choose. If you don’t have a relevant story to share that’s short enough for your purposes, doing online research or asking friends for something is also a good idea. The story doesn’t necessarily have to be yours to be effective. You just have to make it relatable and relevant.

Barring length, which we’ve already addressed, not every story is effective for a motivational speech. The audience needs to be able to relate to the story, and the story itself needs to relate to the topic at hand, or else there’s no point in telling it. Additionally, if your story doesn’t further the point you’re trying to make, it will simply use up more of the time you have to speak.

If possible, using a personal story or a story of someone close to you is best, because this is the type of story that you will relate to the most. When you relate to the story emotionally, you will be a much more effective speaker, and the audience will recognize this and respond to it. If you don’t have an applicable personal story, find something online that moves you and inspires you on its own, then work that into your speech.

As a last resort, you can consider making up a fictional story to tell your audience, but this isn’t always an applicable strategy. For example, if an employer were to make up a story to tell their employees, it wouldn’t be particularly useful, applicable, or even helpful. In the worst case, the employees might take the story as a threat of what might happen to them if they didn’t show greater performance.

Whether you’re looking to scare your employees or not is up to you, but that’s not the purpose of a motivational speech. A motivational speech is meant to inspire people to take positive action, not scare them into behaving with veiled threats.

Finding Your Audience

Your audience is as much an integral part of your speech as the body of the speech itself is. If your audience cannot relate to your speech, it will have less of an effect or it won’t have one at all. In the same way, trying to relate too hard to your audience can be a death sentence, too. Age is a particularly difficult one to follow, but there are hundreds of more variables that presenters need to keep in mind, too, such as:

• Knowledgeability of the audience
• Cultural factors and cues
• Financial availability of the audience
• Geographical factors

The delivery method you use to relate to your audience plays a role, as well. Particularly infamous is when older speakers try too hard to engage and relate to younger audiences. Avoid the trap of using too much hip lingo and trying to act like a younger generation; the same can apply for older generations, too. As long as you represent yourself well and speak respectfully and engagingly with your audience, your delivery will go over well.

To relate to your audience, rather than falling prey to the traps we mentioned above, consider what your audience needs instead. What is your audience getting out of your speech? Is your audience a group of employees who were forced to come to this speech, or is it a group of students who voluntarily came to listen to you?

Your speech is as much about your audience as it is about you. What can you offer to the audience by speaking to them? What do you want to offer to the audience? Is your speech being given to solve an existing problem, or is its purpose to impart wisdom? These questions and more are essential things to ask yourself as you decide how to deliver your speech.

Tie Things Together

It’s very important to make sure the different parts of your speech all tie together when you’re crafting it. The greater points in your speech should relate to your story, your story should relate to your audience, and your final points should relate to everything mentioned above. This is doubly important since your motivational speech is meant to be short and sweet.

If your speech is all over the place or doesn’t tie together, your audience will not respect it and are unlikely to learn anything from it. Moreover, if your speech doesn’t make sense, your audience will likely zone out long before you’re done giving it.

Just as important as tying everything together is tying things together well. While overdoing things with your speech is a no-no, leaving it boring and clinical isn’t always appropriate, either. Your opening, ending, and overall tone should be compatible with your audience and the message you’re trying to convey.

Start Strong

The importance of the opening to a speech can never be underestimated. What kind of opening works best depends mostly upon your audience, however. Finding this perfect opening sequence is a crucial part of catching your audience’s attention early on and holding that attention for the duration of the speech.

Picking a great opening to your speech is an excellent way to make it memorable, engaging, and interesting to your audience. If you really want to make an impact on your audience, this is the way to do it. Several effective strategies for crafting an effective opening are:

• Asking your audience some thought-provoking questions
• Citing a surprising or unbelievable statistic or fact
• A meaningful or inspiring quote
• A short and sweet anecdote

Since your motivational speech will be short, its opening is all the more important. You have even less time to introduce your audience to the topic, get them hooked, and pave the way for the rest of the speech. It’s also worth noting that, if your audience needs background on a topic or idea in order to understand it, it’s important to provide that right away in a short motivational speech.

Be Succinct

Even in a longer motivational speech, it’s important to get right to the point and get your message across to your audience. No audience appreciates their time being wasted, so your motivational speech should be brief, to-the-point, and as condensed as possible without losing understanding, ease of conveyance, or meaning.

Your speech needs to be structured, easy to understand, and meaningful. This means avoiding excessive prose or sentences that don’t add to your point. Your structure should be clean, logical, and easy to follow regardless of the topic. Don’t decorate your speech much or at all. The purpose of your speech is to prove a point or to address a problem, after all.

When creating your speech, you should always be honest and real. If you write things into your speech that you don’t believe or subscribe to, your audience will know. If you can’t relate to or at least empathize with your own concepts, you may want to think about adjusting the subject of your speech. A normal speech might be able to get away with this, but a motivational speech depends very much upon being honest and touching the heart.

Your speech should feature a call to action, as well. What problem are you trying to solve? Is the issue you’ve identified wildlife preservation? If that’s the case, perhaps your call to action should be for people to volunteer and donate their time towards saving our wildlife. Whenever you’re giving a motivational speech, make sure there is a course of action mentioned within to give your audience an easy route to follow.

Encourage your audience to engage with what you’ve talked to them about thus far. If your audience is a group of employees under your care, call them to work harder, find a solution to a problem, or improved conditions in the workplace for the benefit of the place as a whole. If your audience is a group of recovering smokers, call for quitting by reminding them of how their health is at stake.

Be Evocative

When you’re looking to engage and hook your audience, playing to their emotions is essential. Throughout your speech, you should be sure to use emotional language, use stories that evoke emotion, and help your audience relate to you emotionally as much as possible.

When your audience connects with you and your speech emotionally, that creates your best possible chance to hold your audience’s attention, change the way they think, and influence the way they act going forward from the speech.

Emotions are an undeniable catalyst for inspiring action. Since this is the end goal of a motivational speech, you should thus try to evoke strong emotions in your audience whenever possible. Whether your speech plays on happiness, sadness, anger, or outrage, speaking to these emotions is an excellent way to craft your speech.

Besides involving your audience’s emotions , it should involve their thoughts, too. Your speech should be designed around making your audience think in addition to making them feel. Present questions that your audience must think about twice to decide what they really believe, and keep them thinking even after your speech is finished.

This might seem like a tall order when you’re only creating a short speech, but making your audience think is essential. It can provide several benefits, such as:

• Making your audience think about how they might be able to address your problem
• Making your audience think about your points, come up with counterpoints, or consider solutions
• Forcing your audience to consider how the issues you’ve presented might affect them

Write to Speech

The way you write work that will not be spoken out loud can be very different than work that is meant to be spoken. Often the case is that work that’s not meant to be spoken doesn’t work as well when it’s spoken out loud. Thus, when you’re writing something that will be spoken as its end result, you should pay attention to this and make sure it works when spoken, too.

An excellent way to practice this and prepare your speech to be spoken out loud is to rehearse your speech as you write it. Saying your speech to yourself before the day of is an excellent way to catch wordy trip-ups or other issues before they matter.

If you can, take things a step further and practice your speech in the mirror, too, as this is an excellent way to improve your own charisma as you work. Charisma only works to improve your audience’s involvement in your speech, so maximizing this skill should always be encouraged.

Do Your Research

There is absolutely no substitute for doing a thorough research when you’re crafting your motivational speech. If you skimp on your research and site unreliable or made-up facts during your presentation, your uncertainty will show through in your demeanor. What’s more, if a member of the audience catches a bad fact that you deliver, they might tune out, or worse, call you out on it during or after the speech.

You should also be prepared to cite things like clinical trials, the results of experiments, and any important metrics when giving your speech. Even if you don’t mention these citations out loud during the speech itself, you should be prepared to give them after the speech if any audience members are interested.

Being caught without your sources is an excellent way to fall into uncertainty or be discredited by your listeners. In the same way, make sure that you pull your statistics from reputable sites, as well. Sources and statistics are completely useless to you if they’re unreputable or fake, to begin with.

Watch Your Language

When you’re crafting your speech, the language you use within it needs some special attention. The language you use might vary depending on your audience, but there are also a few more rules that you should follow. For example, try to avoid jargon within your speech as much as you can. If you must resort to specialized words or if you desire to teach them to the audience, make sure to provide background.

Leaving your audience unsure of what you’re talking about is an excellent way to lose them and waste the remainder of your speech. If your audience doesn’t feel like they can keep up with you, they will quickly zone out and think about other things.

Always respect your audience by using the best level of language that they can understand, but that still respects their intelligence. After all, you would use far different language when talking to a three-year-old than you would when talking to a teenager, right?

Delivering Your Speech

Once you’ve created the perfect short motivational speech, you’re still not quite done. If you want your speech to have maximum impact, the way you deliver it is just as important as the way you write it. There are many things you can do to maximize the delivery of your speech, and we’ll go over the best of these methods in this section.

Practice, Practice, Practice

Like we stated above, practicing your speech yourself is an excellent way to fine-tune how well you give it. Doing this in front of a mirror provides an extra bonus, or alternatively, you can give your speech in front of a video camera or in front of friends or family that you trust. Over time, practicing this way will improve the way you act and feel as you deliver your speeches, even going as far as boosting your own confidence.

Confidence while giving a speech is essential. Even if you have trouble with crowds, you should at least be confident in your delivery and confident in your material. While you practice your speech, though, be very careful not to craft a fake demeanor to use while you give your speech. Your audience will notice this, and they will be far more receptive to your speech and your message if you’re genuine and honest instead.

Prepare and Prepare Again

Even beyond practicing, there really is no replacement for preparing for any contingencies for your speech. You might lose your notecards on the day of, other speakers might run over time, or key people might fail to show up. You should be prepared for these scenarios and more when you’re going in to present your speech. Consider making preparations like:

• Making extra sets of notecards
• Preparing a shorter version of your speech
• Preparing a longer version of your speech
• Having questions on hand to address the audience with when your speech is over
• Preparing for different noise levels in your venue

No one is a naturally perfect speaker. Excellent speakers are as good as they are because they take the time to prepare and practice again and again. While you may be able to give an average or good talk even if you skimp on practice and preparation, you will never be able to give an excellent talk this way.

The Delivery

Delivering your speech is an integral part of making it impactful, motivating, and relatable. If you sound unimpressed with or uninspired by your own speech, after all, your audience will inevitably feel the same. You should sound knowledgeable and confident in your material, but still passionate and even emotional about your chosen topic.

An excellent way to practice delivering the speech you want is to record yourself speaking, then play it back. You can deliver your speech in front of friends or family, too, but hearing it from your own mouth is especially helpful. Doing this is an excellent way to take a closer listen to your tone of voice, your vocal excitement and passion, and how well you’re getting your point across.

Examples of Short Motivational Speeches

1. matthew mcconaughey – this is why you’re not happy.

2. Peter Dinklage ‘Don’t Wait’

3. Lou Holtz ‘The 3 Rules to a Less Complicated Life’

4. Will Smith Self-Discipline Motivational Speech

5. Oprah Winfrey Motivational Speech

6. Jim Carrey Motivational Speech

A short motivational speech is a wonderful thing. Even a short speech can have an incredible, lasting effect on its listeners if it’s crafted and delivered the right way. What’s more, a motivational speech is an excellent way to address problems, brainstorm solutions, and get everyone involved in something and on the same page.

Of course, a motivational speech first and foremost duty is to motivate, and when done right, it doesn’t lack at this, either. If you take the proper time and care to craft your speech properly, in addition to knowing and respecting your audience, choosing a good story, and isolating a relevant topic, you will most assuredly be successful in crafting an effective speech that will absorb and motivate your chosen audience.

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Motivational Speech Examples

Many motivational speech examples from movies and famous people continue to inspire others at graduations, school assemblies, sporting events, business meetings, fitness centers, and weight loss groups. 

Speakers are often asked to deliver an inspirational, motivational speech to a group of people. If you haven’t noticed how often speeches mark events or occasions you attend, watch a few movies. Motivational speech examples abound!

The speeches in the media offer inspiration – and great ideas – for how to five speeches in real-life events.

Table of Contents

Motivational Speech Examples In The Media

Some of the best motivational speeches are watched repeatedly, essentially going viral. Some of the best include:

• Charlie Chapin, The Great Dictator
• Bill Pullman, Independence Day
• Russell Crowe, Gladiator
• Al Pacino, Any Given Sunday
• Billy Bob Thornton, Friday Night Lights
• Kenneth Branagh, Henry V
• Charlies S, Dutton, Rudy
• John Belushi, Animal House
• Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman, Shawshank Redemption
• Bill Murray, Scrooged

You can enjoy these clips and read the whole list of popular media motivational speeches here . The question is, how do you write a memorable address that is sure to inspire in your own life?

What 3 Things Make A Good Motivational Speech?

A commonly asked question is what should be included in a motivational speech to make it effective. Many speech writing templates can prove helpful. These three aspects should be present when focusing on a motivational or inspirational speech.

• A Clear Purpose:  Anytime you give a speech, starting with a clear purpose is essential. That will help you to hone in on the main critical points you want to address. Knowing the occasion, audience, and venue will all help make topic decisions.
• Personal Stories:  Telling moving personal stories and anecdotes are excellent ways to get the audience to engage with you right from the start. Sharing your own experience from your personal life makes you relatable to those listening.
• Audience Appropriate and Relevant:  Knowing your audience is also essential to success in public speaking. Whether you are a keynote speaker at a conference or the valedictorian speaking at commencement, consider everyone assembled who will be listening. This will guide the main ideas you choose to share.

When Are Motivational Speeches Often Given?

There are many occasions when one might want to have a motivational speaker.

• Award Ceremonies:  There are many situations where one might hire someone to give a motivating speech in conjunction with an awards ceremony. Whether you are speaking of a “hard work pays off” address for sports awards or a call to action at a ceremony by your employer honoring accomplishments, this type of speech will be appropriate. Imagine you are part of a weight loss organization and, as a beginner, had the opportunity to listen to someone who had lost over 100 pounds. Might that leave you feeling hopeful and inspired?
• Commencement:  Although there is usually more than one speaker at a graduation ceremony, only one person has the opportunity to give the main commencement address.
• Retirement Parties:  As people gather to celebrate someone’s retirement, it is appropriate for a coworker to speak inspirational or motivating words. Whether the individual has survived adversity, fulfilled dreams, or reached goals, their story can motivate others to hear.
• Special Events:  Often, speeches mark other types of special events. As significant events are kicked off, such as pre-marathon parties or the beginning of a sports season, having someone come and give a “never give up” speech would be a great introduction to the season. Schools often have assemblies to inspire the student body to strive for greatness.

What Are Some Motivational Speech Examples For Different Occasions?

Many speeches with inspiring takeaways motivate anyone with ears to listen and serve as excellent examples of motivational speaking. Whether you are a Harvard graduate sitting at the commencement or a high school football player listening to your coach give a pregame pep talk, hearing the right words at just the right moment can be life-changing.

Business Success

J.K. Rowling   – Benefits of Failure and The Importance of Imagination Motivational Speech –  “So why do I talk about the benefits of failure? Simply because failure meant a stripping away of the inessential. I stopped pretending to myself that I was anything other than what I was and began directing all my energy into finishing the only work that mattered. The knowledge that you  have emerged wiser and stronger from setbacks  means that you are, ever after, secure in your ability to survive. You will never truly know yourself or the strength of your.”

Steve Jobs –  Founder of Apple, speaks at Stanford University Commencement, How to Live Before You Die. –  “So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. Because believing that the dots will connect down the road will give you the confidence to follow your heart even when it leads you off the well-worn path, and that will make all the difference.”

Commencement Speeches

Denzel Washington  – University of Pennsylvania Commencement Speech –  “Fail big. That’s right. Fail big. This is the beginning of the rest of your life, and it can be very frightening. It’s a new world out there, and it’s a mean world out there, and you only live once. So do what you feel passionate about.Take chances professionally. Don’t be afraid to fail. There’s an old IQ test with nine dots, and you had to draw five lines with a pencil within these nine dots without lifting the pencil, and the only way to do it was to go outside the box. So don’t be afraid to go outside the box. Don’t be afraid to think outside the box. Don’t be afraid to fail big, to dream big.”

Jim Carrey :  Commencement Speech at Maharishi University of Management –  “Life doesn’t happen to you; it happens for you.”

Crushing Goals

David Goggins:  Outwork Everyone Else –  “I am a World Champion because I was willing to  outwork , out hustle and outperform everyone. That’s what it takes: hard work!”

Coach Tony D’Amato’s –  (Al Pacino) Motivational Speech In Any Given Sunday (Also called the Inch by Inch Speech) –  “Either we heal as a team, or we’re going to crumble,  inch by inch,  play by play, til we’re finished. We’re in hell right now, gentlemen, believe me. And we can stay here, get the shit kicked out of us, or we can fight our way back into the light. We can climb out of hell, one inch at a time.”

Sylvester Stallone’s  Motivational Speech to His Son In Rocky Balboa –  “Let me tell you something you already know. The world ain’t all sunshine and rainbows. It’s a very mean and nasty place, and I don’t care how tough you are. It will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain’t about how hard ya hit.  It’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward.  How much you can take and keep moving forward. That’s how winning is done!”

Rosalinde Terres   Ted Talk: What It Takes to be a Great Leader –  “There’s an expression: Go along to get along. But if you follow this advice, chances are, as a leader, you’re going to keep doing what’s familiar and comfortable.  Great leaders dare to be different.  They don’t just talk about risk-taking; they actually do it. And one of the leaders shared with me the fact that the most impactful development comes when you are able to build the emotional stamina to withstand people telling you that your new idea is naïve or reckless, or just plain stupid. Now interestingly, the people who will join you are not your usual suspects in your network. They’re often people that think differently and therefore are willing to join you in taking a courageous leap. And it’s a leap, not a step.”

Simon Sinek:   Be the Leader You Wish You Had –  “The  great leaders are not the strongest; they are the ones who are honest about their weaknesses.  The great leaders are not the smartest; they are the ones who admit how much they don’t know. The great leaders can’t do everything; they are the ones who look to others to help them.”

More Speeches Worth a Look

• Brené Brown  – “The Power of Vulnerability”
• HESMotivation  – Believe in Yourself Motivational Speech
• John Wooden  – The Difference Between Winning and Succeeding
•  Martin Luther King – I Have a Dream Speech
•   Will Smith –  Speech from The Pursuit of Happyness

A former English teacher and currently an elementary principal in a rural school, Pam has honed her speaking skills in the classroom and before professional groups. Pam enjoys sharing her insights about public speaking almost as much as she enjoys running, which she does daily.

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Instrumental /   Motivational

A motivational speech is intended to advise, motivate, or inspire an audience. Such speeches attempt to challenge or transform their audience’s perceptions of themselves. The elements of a good motivational speech require more than just having a transformative life experience. Contrary to the belief it’s not always necessary that you need to have a successful track record, be an expert or have a ‘rags to riches’ success story. Your audience will typically be drawn to a message that is delivered with a positive attitude, energy, and encouragement.

Before you begin your journey into motivational speaking let us take a moment look at the 5 crucial components when formulating your Motivational speech.

1. Audience – Whether it is a speech intended for 1 or a conference keynote, a motivational speech is designed to change the way your listeners see the challenges facing them in the future.

2.   Credibility   – Before and during any speech you make sure you have established yourself as an authority figure. Social proof, well crafted personal stories, and working with well-established sources helps you build credibility.

3.   Delivery   - Delivering your speech with authenticity is key. If you want to stand out don’t try to fit in.

4.   Message   - Avoid a one-size-fits-all approach. Find your niche topic and deliver your message as a “try before you buy”. Let them know that if it does not fit, they don’t have to wear it.

5.   Listen   – To be heard, first you must learn to hear. Appreciate other points of view, even if you do not agree with it and acknowledge differences in opinion.

Begin with a Plan

You do not become a great motivational speaker by rehashing old ideas in the same way everyone else does. Aim to develop fresh and relevant content that your audience would like to hear. Make sure to invest some time into thinking deeply about your primary message and then focus on your deliver

The Simple Construction

When constructing your speech consider how you’ll take your audience from where they are now (A) to where you want them to be (B). Once you’ve defined the before-and-after change you want to see, build your presentation outline around that journey. What makes motivational speeches unique is that there is no right or wrong way of constructing your speech as long as you can effectively communicate the desired outcome. Think of it as poetry or composing a song. Find your beat and keep a consistent rhythm that moves people. Use these steps and write down all your answers in one or two sentences.

1.  What is your primary message? Never overwhelm the audience too much information. Stick to 1 point

2.  What qualifies you to speak about this topic? Establish your credibility or how do you intend to.

3.  What obstacles have you/they overcome? Think of a story. It can either be a personal story or an influencer story that relates to your message and connects with your audience. "In our common experience”

4.  What tools or methods did you/they use to overcome them? Place your supporting points here on the steps taken that

support your message. Make these points easy to understand.

5.  What are the advantages of your proposal? Clearly demonstrate what it will do for them

Now take the time to review your notes and let’s begin connecting the dots.

The Finishing Touches

After you have outlined your motivational speech, you're ready to add some color. Remember that what you say and how you say it can impact human feelings and behavior.

Get their Attention! Start off with an arousing opener that is sure to gain their attention. Do so by implementing one of these methods.  

Tell a joke to break the ice

Begin with a captivating or funny story

Start with a gripping quotation

Ask a “What-if” or a compelling question

Present a paradox or unusual fact

Warm them up with an activity

Remember, you can win or lose an audience in the first 60 seconds

Use your Voice and Body  to project power and magnitude. This will require a lot of practice and a deep understanding of public speaking fundamentals. Vocal Variety and Body Language are essential for a good motivational speech. Remember to utilize all 4 P’s. Pitch, Pause, Pace, Power.

As for body language act out what you're telling them. Use your whole body to communicate a thought, an image. Remember to do so sensibly, you don't go to your audience, you make them come to you

To find the right combination I would recommend researching and watching other motivational speakers.

Take your newfound knowledge and put it to the test.

Take it Home!  Give them a powerful close. Tell a dramatic story that personifies personal achievement and success. Tell them they too can do it, not to quit, that they will succeed whatever their personal goals may be. Recap and relate the success to how each of them will personally benefit. What they want to hear from you is a correlation with reality. All you have to do is show them that relationship.

Time to Deliver

Congratulations! You are now ready to deliver your motivational speech. Your closing should spark emotions in a powerful and dynamic way. Reach your audience according to what matters to them. Their importance, their personal value, what they stand to gain, and most importantly, their self-worth. You’ll know immediately if you have done a well. After your speech you won't even have to ask for their commitment. Practice what you speak and stay committed to your message that's motivation. “Motivated people motivate people”

Take your newfound knowledge and put it to the test. Practice your Motivational Speaking skills here. Or if you’d like to learn more be on the lookout for Your Voice NY workshops

Whether you are a beginner or a pro it’s always a great idea to have quick and simple material to reference. If you are interested in learning more and finding your inner motivator continue reading from here.

Crafting a Message That Inspires: 7 Tips for Giving a Motivational Speech

• Carolyn Manion Kinnie
• March 16, 2024

Table of Contents

We talk a lot about the business side of speaking on The Speaker Lab blog. That’s because the business side is really important–and something you won’t get a lot elsewhere. But we’re here to help you with all aspects of professional speaking–not just marketing, lead generation, and building your speaker website . Do you need some tips for how to give a motivational speech ? Not just any motivational speech, but a great motivational speech? We’ve got those for you. 

Here are seven tips for how to give a motivational speech that you can start applying right now. As you get ready to deliver your next talk, you can use these tips as a checklist to help your words make the greatest impact. As always, we’ve linked other resources to dig deeper into each of these topics. You can also check out our founder Grant Baldwin’s book The Successful Speaker which has a whole section on preparing and delivering your talk! 

1. Practice

Practicing your speech might seem obvious. All the same, in case you trust too much in your ability to improv a motivational keynote we’re going to chat a bit about it. You may have heard the phrase “practice makes perfect,” but we’re not about that. Don’t worry about practice making perfect–your talk does not, in fact, need to be perfect. We like to say practice makes peaceful instead. Being well-prepared is one of the best ways to calm your nerves and keep any last minute panic from interfering with your talk. 

Practicing is key, but memorizing your speech down to the letter shouldn’t be the goal. Instead, focus on internalizing your key arguments. Once you’re comfortable with those, you can change up the “filler” content with each delivery. This kind of non-memorization practice is really helpful when you deliver the same talk to different audiences. Imminent circumstances or different contexts might make it necessary to adjust your talk slightly to suit your audience. When you know all your main points through and through, you can rearrange them more easily, and if inspiration strikes you in the moment you don’t have to worry about messing up the flow of your talk. 

The best way to practice is to read your talk out loud. Start by reading it all the way through start to finish a few times to get a sense for the flow of your argument. Make changes as necessary if you notice any confusing transitions, non-sequiturs, or too much extraneous info. Then, go through your talk section by section, paragraph by paragraph. This is where you exhaustively internalize work of every point, story, joke, and transition. Once you feel prepared to deliver the talk from memory, try to video record yourself rehearsing so you can analyze your facial expressions, gestures, and pacing.

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2. Tell Stories

We harp on this one a lot. But storytelling is just that important. Stories are one of the most powerful ways to connect with your audience and make your point come alive. 

There are five storytelling strategies you can follow to help you master how to give a motivational speech. These strategies come straight from a podcast episode we did with speaker and coach Mike Pacchione.  

• Prime your audience. Storytelling is most effective when you have your audience’s full attention. Before you dive in, tell your audience that’s what’s about to happen. This could mean simply saying: “hey, I’ve got a story!” Or you can use a longer lead-in, like “something crazy happened to me once that illustrates this point. I’m going to tell you about it.” Once you say that, people pay attention. You don’t want to get started on your story while your audience is still trying to catch up to what you were talking about a minute before. 
• Use vivid details. Telling a story in itself doesn’t make your talk interesting. Use vivid details to help the story come alive for your audience. Try to keep them relevant though. If a detail doesn’t matter, your audience will fixate on it and be distracted from what matters. 
• Describe one of your characters in a sentence. This is really important for helping your audience really visualize what you’re talking about. Describe one character with one sentence about one trait. (You can describe more if the story calls for it, but only one is really necessary for helping your audience follow along). 
• Have a “tension” that gets released. Working backwards from the point you want to make, look at how your story fits into your overall message. Then, build up suspense, introduce a problem in need of solving, or utilize other “tension” in the story. This strategy serves a twofold goal. First of all, it keeps your audience on the edge of their seat waiting for what happens next! Secondly, the resolution should illuminate why the story is relevant to your talk. You want an “aha” moment– now they see what it’s all about!
• Declare the lesson learned in ten words or less. Whether you’re talking to 50 or 5,000, someone will inevitably zone out during your story. Wrap things up with a quick recap of what your listeners should take away before you move on with your talk. That way, if they missed the interesting part, they still get the requisite information. 

We have a few other podcast episodes about how to master storytelling here , here , and here . There’s no way out of it–storytelling is key when it comes to giving a motivational speech. 

3. Use humor 

Audiences love funny speakers. Humor is one of the easiest ways to draw your audience back into your talk. If you lose their attention, cracking a joke will often capture it again. Humor breaks the ice, defuses tension, and endears you to your audience. Unfunny speakers often come across as boring. Humor is a great fallback if you trip onstage or the mic stops working. If you’re not good at coming up with jokes, try to find ways to incorporate humorous side remarks, facial expressions, or gestures that make your audience laugh without demanding too much energy from you. 

It’s important to use humor that is well-fitted both to your niche and your audience. If you travel a lot for speaking engagements, that means doing some research about where you’re speaking and what they’re known for. Cracking a joke about Old Bay will go over well in Maryland but might leave a West Coast audience perplexed if not yawning. And we cannot stress this enough–avoid anything that might be considered offensive. If you have any doubt as to whether your audience will find something funny or inappropriate, go with a “safe” joke instead.

4. Close and open loops

This is one of our founder Grant Baldwin’s strategies for how to give a motivational speech that keeps your audience really engaged. Closing and opening loops helps your audience follow your argument and stay attentive. If you just rush into your talk making point after point, your audience might forget what you’ve already said or fail to make connections between parts of your speech. 

When you open a loop, you raise a question to which your audience wants to stick around and hear the answer. Closing that loop gives your audience closure, reminds them of what you’ve said already, and helps them connect the dots. Telling a story of which the meaning only becomes clear later on, for example, opens and closes a loop. So does saying “remember this–it will come in handy!” when you introduce a statistic, graph, or data point. Or you can hype up something that hasn’t happened yet: “in a few minutes, I’ll tell you _____.” Just make sure you close every loop you open!  

5. Involve your audience

Some of the best motivational speakers are those who use unorthodox but memorable means to engage with their listeners. Some ideas we have discussed on our podcast include magic, games, or using props in unexpected ways. Since your audience wants to make sure they catch what happens next, they’ll start paying attention (like when you start a joke, they listen for the punchline). Asking for a show of hands, leading a (serious or humorous) mental or physical exercise, and encouraging your audience to talk to those around them are all ideas for interaction.  

Involving your audience is a fun chance to think outside the box and do things that other speakers don’t do. Ideally, your audience will have a good time, really engage with the content of your talk, and remember what you have to say. We’ve had successful speakers come onto our podcast to share how they use everything from magic tricks to pop quizzes to interact with their audience in meaningful ways. 

6. Excel at your Q&A

Learning how to give a motivational speech goes beyond the speech itself. As we’ve discussed many times, you are the brand of your motivational speaking business. That means that how you handle your Q&A can affect the impact of your talk. 

Many motivational speakers dread the Q&A period. You can prepare, practice, and even perfect your speech to the best of your ability, but lose your presence of mind when someone asks a weird question. Though it’s tempting, you can’t count on planting allies at intervals in the auditorium who promise to ask questions that you give them in advance. Figuring out how to deal with questions of all kinds on the fly is part of becoming a good motivational speaker . 

Keep all your answers short and ask audience members to raise their hands before they say anything. This will start things off in an orderly and timely fashion. If an audience member rambles or gets off track, don’t feel shy about interrupting! You’re the one getting paid to speak. Gently redirect or restate the question, give your answer, and move on. It’s never a bad idea to say “I don’t know off the top of my head, but you can email me later” and share an easy way to contact you. 

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7. Win over your audience off the stage.

Interacting with people before and after your talk can make them more agreeable to what you say onstage. At big conferences, there are usually built-in opportunities like cocktail hours or welcome receptions that fulfill this purpose. In the absence of those events, small tweaks to your schedule can go a long way toward winning over your audience. You might be able to hang out during the half hour before your talk, introducing yourself and chatting with people as they walk in. By the time you go onstage, you’ll have a few friends and allies in the audience already. 

We recommend when possible to make yourself available for questions and conversations after your talk. Is that too late to make an impression on your audience? We don’t think so! Being there to address their questions and help them put your talk into action makes a huge impact. And if you announce that you will be available before you start your talk, you have already established your brand as a helpful speaker who really cares about their audience. These conversations are a great opportunity to direct audience members to other products and resources you offer, like an email list or course . It’s a win-win! 

Speakers who are very introverted or travel from gig to gig won’t want to spend much time on this so they can preserve their energy. (We have a podcast episode about speaking as an introvert right here .) If that describes you, that’s totally fine! Just find another area of your speechcraft or marketing to pour some of that effort into. Remember, while giving a great speech is the best marketing for your speaking business, it shouldn’t be the only thing you do. building a good rapport with clients and audience members helps a lot too!

These are our top seven tips for how to give a motivational speech, but it doesn’t stop here! Many other factors contribute to preparing and delivering a great talk. Becoming a great speaker is all about finding the strategies that suit your message and your mission. 

• Last Updated: March 16, 2024

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7 Excellent Tips for Writing a Perfect Motivation Speech

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None of this is about morality, or religion, or dogma, or big fancy questions of life after death. The capital-T Truth is about life before death. It is about making it to 30, or maybe 50, without wanting to shoot yourself in the head. It is about simple awareness – awareness of what is so real and essential, so hidden in plain sight all around us, that we have to keep reminding ourselves, over and over: ‘This is water, this is water.’” – David Foster Wallace

David Foster Wallace inspired millions of people with the This Is Water commencement speech to Kenyon College class of 2005.

Some people have the talent to write an impressive speech, get on stage and mesmerize the audience with their words. How do they do it? Can you do it, too?

The Elements of an Impressive Speech

If you want to understand what makes a great speech, you should listen to some of the most influential speeches ever made. In addition to This is Water , here are few more suggestions:

· The Fringe Benefits of Failure, and the Importance of Imagination by J.K. Rowling

· There’s More to Life than Being Happy by Emily Esfahani Smith

· How to Live Before You Die by Steve Jobs

· But the Blind Can Lead the Blind by Vera Jones

What do you notice about these speeches?

· They are memorable

· They are structured

· They are straightforward

· They are REAL

In short, those are the elements of a great speech. Yes; it takes some talent to write a brilliant speech. The good news, however, is that you can get better at it.

You Can Do It, Too!

• Find the Purpose of Your Speech

Elena Roberts, a professional writer from EssayGeeks , shares an important tip: “Before you even pick the topic, find the purpose of your speech. I’m a motivational speech junkie. I listen to speeches every day, but that doesn’t mean I like wasting my time. I can easily spot a speaker who knows nothing about the audience and introduces a random topic, mostly based on personal experience. Then, I close the tab and search for another speech to listen.”

The first step is to understand your audience. If you’re giving a speech to students, you should address their struggles and give them solutions. If you’re talking to children, you should bring the speech to their level.

Your speech should share information, teach knowledge, and motivate people to take action in a relevant way.

• Make It Memorable

When you listen to a great speech, some of the words stick with you for a long time. You may even pin few quotes and go back to them later on. People don’t want to hear the same things over and over again. They want new approach to age-old questions.

It’s important to be as unique as possible. Express your personality from the very beginning.

• Open with a Bang

The moment you get on stage and start the speech – that’s when your audience is most willing to listen to you. Do not waste that moment.

Here are few suggestions for an opening that can engage the listeners:

· Intriguing questions

· An interesting anecdote that’s related to the theme

· A brief story with a clear point related to the theme

· Surprising facts or statistics

· A meaningful quote that inspired you to tackle that topic

• Be Straightforward

You don’t see a great speech with digressions and lengthy openings. The best ones get straight to the point.

Focus! Don’t waste the time of your audience.

• Have a Structure

Why do you think people write their speeches? Why don’t they just get in front of the audience and speak?

It’s all about the structure. When you speak without following an outline, you tend to make digressions. That’s a good way to lose a listener.

Great speeches have a clear structure that holds the attention of the audience. Develop an outline and write a speech with a clean logical flow.

Do you know why people love motivational quotes and speeches? They can see someone understands what they are going through. If your audience doesn’t believe you’re authentic, they won’t take your fake message.

Be human. Share things you’ve been through. Give advice you believe in. That’s the most important secret to a brilliant speech.

7. Call Them to Action

What’s the whole point of listening to a motivational speech? These people want to change something. They want to make their lives better. They want to help other people. Your speech should give them a trigger to do that and a direction to aim for.

Writing a great speech is a huge challenge. Inspiring people, however, is a priceless experience. The result is worth the effort.

Home > Blog > Speaking 101 > 10 Motivational Speech Examples To Inspire You Today

10 Motivational Speech Examples To Inspire You Today

Whether you’re a speaker or not, there come times in all of our lives where we need a little motivation. Maybe you’re struggling to find your purpose or are unsure about your path in life. Maybe you just had a bad day and need a reminder that tomorrow’s a fresh start. In either case, looking to famous speakers – and their corresponding motivational speech examples – is one sure way to boost your mood and help you find the energy to keep on keepin’ on. 

Here, we’ll look at ten different speeches from some of the most famous motivational speakers of the 21st century. Some are serious and take a candid look at difficult issues in the speakers’ lives. Others are humorous, designed to balance tough topics with laughter. 

Whatever tone you need to hear at this moment, at least one of the following speakers is guaranteed to brighten your day. They’re also all incredible examples for you to follow, simply from a speaking standpoint, when you next step on stage or record a virtual event . 

Hopefully, you get as much out of these examples as our own team did and are able to put the corresponding takeaways to good use. 💓

Steve Jobs: Commencement Speech At Stanford (2005)

First of our motivational speech examples is Stanford’s 2005 commencement speech, delivered by the late Apple founder Steve Jobs. Since his passing , much has been said about Jobs, some positive, some negative, with some people going so far as to publish their criticism or praise. However, regardless of whether or not they personally admired him, few will argue against Job’s brilliance. Even for those that scrutinized his business practices or personal life while he was alive, there’s little doubt that he was a major force in shaping the world we live in today through the technology he created. 

In this speech, Jobs’ mindfulness for these differing views is readily apparent, and overall, the entire speech is surprisingly humble. Jobs structures his speech as three simple stories, and of course they’re anything but simple, once you dig beneath the surface. 

One is a rags-to-riches story, which is expected, considering Jobs’ success. Second is a story of adversity in which Jobs explains the issues he faced after being “fired” from Apple. 

But it’s the third story – one about death – that’s truly surprising. It’s not a subject you’ll hear in many commencement speeches, let alone motivational ones. Yet, in telling this story, Jobs manages to present it in a way that it’s not depressing or scary but instead inspires his audience to live life to the fullest. 

In the same way, as you shape your own motivational speeches or as you approach challenging situations, remember that simplicity and logic are all well and good, like the stories Jobs includes at the beginning of his speech. But, if you want to truly stand out and conquer your challenges, be courageous! Approach tough topics head-on, don’t be afraid to be unconventional, and you’re sure to leave a mark, just like Jobs did.

Richard St. John: 8 Secrets of Success TED Talk (2005) 

Second of our motivational speech examples is that of author, marketer, and analyst Richard St. John , namely his 2005 TED Talk. TED Talks have become a staple in the world of motivational speeches, and it’s easy to see why this one made the cut. Based on his book , 8 To Be Great , St. John’s speech cuts to the chase in a way that most speeches don’t. In fact, it’s only three minutes long! 

Plus, although many of his points are simple, the speech itself is structurally brilliant, condensing 7 years of research and 500 of St. John’s interviews into a presentation that, despite its brevity, keeps audience members on their toes. Altogether, it’s a brilliant example of the use of momentum in storytelling. When it starts, for instance, St. John begins with “It all started one day on a plane,” which for many listeners – myself included – would seem like a signal to tune out a bit. It’s like hearing a speech that starts with “Webster’s Dictionary defines…” It works, but it’s used a lot . 

That said, the rest of St. John’s speech is the polar opposite, and quickly jumps from one interesting point to another without any wasted words or time. It also incorporates carefully-placed jokes. That way, even though he covers a lot of ground, his audience remembers all of it. It also allows him to connect with his audience and, unlike many speakers, share his information without appearing to be on a pedestal. 

With your own experiences or motivational speeches, St. John’s speech offers two important lessons. First, keep it simple. You don’t have to be flashy to be memorable. Second, don’t be afraid to laugh. In presentations, humor makes you more relatable and memorable, and in life, it makes hard times easier to handle. 

Dan Pink: The Puzzle of Motivation TED Talk (2009)

Third in our list of motivational speech examples is another TED Talk, this time from career analyst and bestselling author Daniel Pink. As an author, Pink’s built his reputation on many “legs,” including his publications, awards – even a stint as chief speechwriter for former U.S. Vice President Al Gore in the late 1990s.

Like these accomplishments, Pink’s TED Talk is a model for any speaker that needs to take a boring topic – like business or politics – and turn it into something inspiring and engaging. In this case, the former of these topics is presented as a puzzle. To start with, Pink explains the common economic approach to performance, saying “If you want people to perform better, you reward them. Right?… That’s how business works.” 

However, what he says next is what really puzzles you, as a listener: There is a mismatch between what science knows and what business does….the solution is not to do more of the wrong things, to entice people with a sweeter carrot, or threaten them with a sharper stick. We need a whole new approach.”

Ultimately, the topic of performance in the workplace is a relatively common one and the question “How do I motivate myself at work?” is a common puzzle. But Pink tackles out-of-the-box thinking in an out-of-the-box way and, in the end, concludes his story with a clear takeaway from the evidence and unconventional analytics he’s shared.

Likewise, with your own speeches or decisions, start by considering all the evidence you can find. That’s just a good rule of thumb, no matter what field you’re in. But, after that, try to consider it from another angle. Like Pink’s speech, it’ll make your topic vastly more interesting, and you’re almost guaranteed to grow, personally, because of your learning process.

Mel Robbins: How to Stop Screwing Yourself Over (2011)

Number four of our motivational speech examples belongs to Mel Robbins . As speakers go, Robbins is widely respected for her unique and candid approach to difficult situations, or, as I call it, the “gut-punch” approach. In other words, she’s not afraid to talk frankly about tough stuff. 

Dig beneath the one-liners and snarky comments, though, and Robbins’ approach is really about being direct to the point of bluntness. Some of the things she advocates are platitudes – focus on getting what you want, tell yourself the truth, force yourself out of your comfort zone, etc. – but she always backs it up with data that makes the gut punches land that much harder. 

Beyond her speaking style, however, Robbins is also known for engaging with her audiences. In this speech, for instance, she not only picks an individual from her audience to highlight the overwhelming odds of simply being born (this is the data we just talked about). She then goes on to meld that statistic with a model of the human brain, saying “I describe one side of your brain as autopilot and the other side as an emergency brake” and explaining her method for getting out of your own “autopilot” mode to meet your goals.

In this way, by presenting evidence but then relating it to a real person in the room, Robbins takes a subject that could be complicated or boring and makes it relatable. Likewise, if your speaking material – or your mood – has a tendency to flatline, change things up! Be blunt with yourself and candid with your audience. Then, do whatever you need to connect your message to other’s lives. Just like Pink’s speech, taking this Mel Robbins, “gut-punch” approach will make you relatable and likable, making you memorable.

Michelle Obama: Commencement Speech at Eastern Kentucky University (2013)

Next in our list of motivational speech examples is another commencement speech, this time from former lawyer, bestselling author , and First Lady to the 44th President of the U.S. Michelle Obama. 

Since stepping into the spotlight at the White House, Obama’s been regarded by many as a woman of power, and her personal and professional accomplishments are without question. In some ways, they’ve even helped her become a celebrity. This level of fame, however, is precisely where Obama’s similarity to celebrities ends. 

For many celebrity motivational speakers, speaking is just a gig, and the amount of time they want to spend on it corresponds directly with the money they receive to be there. In cases like these, it’s clear to the audience that the speaker may not even believe what they’re saying on stage or want their audience to succeed. They just want the paycheck. 

Yet, despite Obama’s popularity and prominence, her approach to speaking is anything but flippant or snobby. It’s all about connecting with the audience in a way that shows true generosity of spirit. In fact, every point Obama touches on is quickly translated and related to her audience in a way that’s both personal and powerful, making it clear that this speech isn’t haphazardly thrown together or something she’s said to hundreds of other audiences. It was carefully crafted to tie her core values – resilience, conscientiousness and service – into the setting and the needs of her audience, so they could leave with personalized affirmation and action steps. 

By doing this, Obama never fails to deliver a message that is both moving and quietly powerful. To do the same with your own speeches, follow her lead and remember who you’re there for: not the check, not the glory, but your audience .

Brené Brown: “The Power of Vulnerability” (2013)

Number six of our motivational speech examples is the shortest on this list, a less than three-minute short film from University of Houston research professor Dr. Brené Brown . 

Although Brown originally gained traction with her 20-minute TED Talk in 2010, this speech (or “mini-speech,” rather) takes the topic of that talk – vulnerability – and concentrates on a single facet of it. Specifically, she focuses on empathy and the age-old question of how to express empathy rather than sympathy and, in doing so, authentically connect with the person you’re trying to support in the moment. 

It’s a hard question, but, like Richard St. John’s speech, Brown shares a lot in a short message. In many ways, it’s her brevity that forces you to sit up and listen. In a little more than two minutes, her message is simple: When someone you know feels down and alone, don’t try to make things better. Just be there with them, and stick around, even if it takes them a while to bounce back. 

To illustrate her point, Brown presents her speech alongside an animated cartoon in which a fox is the depressed party and a bear comes to her aid. This helps her take a challenging and sometimes uncomfortable situation and not just make it engaging but also light-hearted. 

Similarly, if your speech tackles a tough message, consider presenting with a visual aid to lighten the mood, and keep the message as brief as possible. Don’t be the motivational speaker equivalent of “that guy,” i.e., the speaker who drones on and on but keeps repeating the same basic points. Use your speaking ability and visual aids to make a connection in the way that suits your audience best.

Jim Carrey: Commencement Speech at Maharishi University of Management (2014)

Seventh of our motivational speech examples is a 2014 commencement speech, this time from comedian, actor, and artist Jim Carrey. As you’d expect, part of Carey’s charm is his sense of humor, and it’s largely through his comedy that he keeps the audience engaged through serious topics. He’s also mindful of his tendency to walk the comedic line and uses this unpredictability to keep his audience paying attention, as they can pretty safely assume he has another joke up his sleeve.

Additionally, besides humor, Carey also engages his audience with something we’ve yet to touch on: authenticity! Unlike the other speakers in this list, Carey is widely known for his eccentricity more than anything. Most recently, as he’s shared more and more of his artwork, he’s also gained considerable attention for his creativity. Throughout his speech, although many speakers might choose to “dumb down” these attributes, Carey instead thrives on them, staying true to his authentic self, just as he encourages the members of his audience to be. 

To conclude his speech, Carey states: “You’ll come up with your own style, and that’s part of the fun… You are ready and able to do beautiful things in this world, and after you walk through those doors today, you will only ever have two choices: love or fear. Choose love and don’t ever let fear turn you against your playful heart.”

With your own speeches – and your own personal choices – keep this mindset close and remember to be yourself. Like Carey says, “you are ready and able to do beautiful things”. Plus, I can almost guarantee there are people out there who could benefit from the stories you have to share. Just stay true to yourself, stay humble, and your audience won’t want to look away.

Simon Sinek: Live2Lead (2016)

Next in our list of motivational speech examples is a speech from writer and TED speaker Simon Sinek . As author of the bestselling leadership book Start With Why , Sinek first appeared in his 2009 TED Talk , “How Great Leaders Inspire Action.” 

Since then, he’s gone on to publish a number of additional books centered around leadership as well as how to “wake up inspired, feel safe wherever [we] are and end the day fulfilled by the work [we] do.” These three ideas can be seen consistently throughout his ongoing work, speaking included. 

In this speech, specifically, Sinek deals with leadership in the business world, but his approach is based on the idea of destroying stereotypes everywhere. In short, he’s there to “blow up” paradigms and share new ones, based on his own research and experience. Here, Sinek focuses on “trust” and “communication,” for the former. Then, he proposes replacing them with “empathy” and “perspective,” for the latter. 

Although this may sound ordinary, Sinek demonstrates that he’s not just replacing one stereotypical topic with another. He’s also urging audience members to ditch their preconceptions about that topic, so they can approach it with an open mind. After having done that, he’s then careful to only provide extremely relevant and powerful arguments for his “new take” on the topic. That way, he provides details without overwhelming the audience.

Overall, these switches between “blowing up” and building provide a sense of balance in Sinek’s speech. In your own speeches, aim for a similar balance for your audience. Keep in mind that you’re there to educate but not berate with a ton of new ideas. It sounds simplistic, but staying consistent and on-point is key if you want your audience to leave inspired to act. 

Simon T. Bailey: To Break Through, Find Your True Calling (2017)

Number nine of our motivational speech examples is a 2017 speech from Simon T. Bailey. If you’re a regular SpeakerFlow blog reader, you already know there are many reasons Bailey is legendary among professional speakers. For one thing, his personal branding and digital presence are two of the best in the speaking industry. For another, his humility is seemingly endless despite his success, a trait that’s perhaps best summarized in his book, Success Is An Inside Job : “Success is not significance. Money is not meaning. Power isn’t purpose.”

In this speech, we see this idea reinforced through the third thing that sets Bailey apart, namely his speaking skills. Because he’s talking to a business-oriented crowd, in many ways, this skill isn’t immediately apparent. Truthfully, the first part of his speech is traditional. While it’s undeniably engaging, it’s sometimes a little hard to see why he’s such a renowned orator. 

Then he digs deeper. After his initial “traditional” approach, Bailey pivots to a creative angle, explaining how to “invent your future” and be unconventional in simple ways to slowly change your mindset. He then goes on to incorporate topics like emotional equity and commitment, love and respect as universally important values, and his trip to South Africa to “get free.” Combine this surprising switch from “conventional” to “creative” with Bailey’s optimistic tone, and you can almost feel the audience connecting with him. 

To create the same atmosphere on your own stage, aim for a similar element of surprise. Remember that you’re there to speak for more than a few minutes. Consequently, building up to a powerful ending is crucial, even if that means starting slow. 

Matthew McConaughey: Commencement Speech at University of Houston (2018)

Last but not least in our motivational speech examples list is a 2018 commencement, delivered by Matthew McConaughey. 

As an actor, McConaughey has arguably delivered motivational speeches in almost all of his movie appearances. In fact, whether it’s The Lincoln Lawyer , Mud , We Are Marshall, or Dallas Buyers Club , one of his best tricks as an actor is to take each of his characters by the horns and deliver a rousing speech at a critical point in the film.

Outside of the big screen, however, McConaughey’s commencement address for the University of Houston reflects similar confidence and power, in his words, his clothing, and his body language. As a well-known celebrity, this isn’t entirely surprising, especially considering his famously “swoon-worthy” movie persona. 

That said, when he gets to the heart of the matter, McConaughey dives well beneath the surface. His pointed words about motivation, success, and life being both tough and unfair are striking in a way you don’t always hear from celebrity speakers. He may begin with platitudes and stereotypes. But, the more he explains, the more intimate the speech gets. This makes it more memorable than even his best movie speeches.

So, what can you take away from McConaughey’s speech? Simply put, whenever you’re trying to put your best foot forward, whether you’re on stage or just walking down the street, remember that being memorable doesn’t require heels or a suit. For McConaughey, who here rocks a beard and open-collared dress shirt, it’s his words that make people pay attention, not a flashy outfit or dramatic entrance. 

Likewise, in your own life, the same can be true. Just speak with confidence and conviction, and no matter how you look or what you’re wearing, people will listen. 💖

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Jim Carrey is a very cool person! Every time he’s smiling with charming look, His speech is also very motivating! Thanks for sharing with us,

Agreed! It’s hard to look away when Carrey’s on stage or on camera, for sure. (And thanks for reading! 😊)

Usually, I am not doing comments anyone but it’s interesting, I really feel better to hear this.keep it up.

Glad you found these speeches inspiring, and thanks for the kind words! 🙌

You really don’t need to change the world, you just need to master your own self, align your values, your personality, and your purpose to your vision. That’s the core of making for a better world.

Well said! 🙌

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Speech Script: Motivational Speech

A motivational speech has the power to uplift, inspire, and ignite positive change in the hearts and minds of listeners. Whether you are speaking to a small group or a large audience, the art of delivering a motivational speech requires careful planning, effective communication, and a genuine connection with your audience. In this article, we will explore a step-by-step guide on how to write a motivational speech that resonates with your audience, leaves a lasting impact, and empowers individuals to take action towards their goals.

Table of Contents

Motivational Speech Tips

Understand your audience.

Before you begin crafting your motivational speech, it is crucial to understand your audience. Take the time to research and analyze their demographics, interests, and needs. Consider their aspirations, challenges, and the common experiences they share. This knowledge will help you tailor your message to resonate deeply with your listeners.

Define Your Purpose and Core Message

Every motivational speech should have a clear purpose and core message. Ask yourself: What do I want my audience to feel, think, or do after hearing my speech? Identify the main idea or theme you wish to convey. Whether it is to inspire action, instill self-belief, or encourage personal growth, having a well-defined purpose will guide your speech writing process.

Start Strong with a Compelling Opening

The opening of your speech sets the tone and captures the attention of your audience. Begin with a strong hook that grabs their interest, such as a captivating story, a thought-provoking question, or a powerful quote. Engage their emotions and create a connection from the very beginning.

Share Personal Stories and Examples

Personal stories and examples are powerful tools to connect with your audience on a deeper level. Share your own experiences, struggles, and triumphs that relate to the core message of your speech. Authenticity and vulnerability will resonate with your listeners and make your message more relatable.

Use Vivid Imagery and Metaphors

Paint a vivid picture in the minds of your audience by using descriptive language, vivid imagery, and metaphors. This helps to create a sensory experience, making your message more memorable and impactful. Metaphors can simplify complex concepts and make them easier to grasp, enhancing the overall understanding and retention of your ideas.

Provide Actionable Steps and Practical Advice

To make your motivational speech actionable and meaningful, equip your audience with practical advice and actionable steps they can implement in their lives. Break down complex ideas into manageable tasks, offering guidance and strategies to overcome challenges and achieve their goals. Inspire them to take immediate action and empower them with the tools they need to succeed.

Utilize Rhetorical Devices

Rhetorical devices such as repetition, parallelism, and rhetorical questions can add emphasis, rhythm, and impact to your speech. They create memorable phrases, highlight key points, and engage your audience on a deeper level. However, use them sparingly and purposefully to avoid overwhelming your listeners.

Build Emotional Connection and Empathy

Emotions have a profound impact on human behavior. To make your motivational speech truly powerful, connect with your audience on an emotional level. Show empathy, understanding, and compassion. Acknowledge their struggles and challenges, and uplift them with words of encouragement and support. By creating an emotional bond, you can inspire them to believe in themselves and take action.

Use Powerful Concluding Remarks

The conclusion of your speech should leave a lasting impact on your audience. Summarize your main points, restate your core message, and end with a memorable call to action or a thought-provoking statement. Leave your audience with a sense of empowerment, motivation, and a desire to implement the lessons they have learned.

Practice, Refine, and Deliver with Confidence

Once you have written your motivational speech, practice it repeatedly. Pay attention to your tone, pacing, and body language. Use gestures and facial expressions to enhance your message. Seek feedback from trusted individuals and make necessary refinements. On the day of your speech, approach the stage with confidence, enthusiasm, and a genuine desire to inspire and uplift your audience.

Motivational Speech Example #1

Ladies and gentlemen, distinguished guests, and fellow dreamers,

Today, I stand before you to share a message of inspiration, empowerment, and limitless possibilities. Each one of us possesses within us a reservoir of untapped potential, waiting to be unleashed. It is my purpose here today to ignite that flame, to awaken the dormant dreams and aspirations that reside within your hearts.

Life is a journey filled with ups and downs, challenges and triumphs. It is easy to get caught up in the whirlwind of daily routines, responsibilities, and societal expectations. But I am here to remind you that you are more than just the roles you play or the titles you hold. You are unique, extraordinary beings with the power to create the life you desire.

In this moment, I invite you to close your eyes and envision your greatest aspirations. Picture your dreams as vividly as possible. Feel the exhilaration that comes with achieving what you desire most. Now, open your eyes and realize that these dreams are not mere figments of your imagination—they are your birthright, waiting to be claimed.

But let me be honest with you. The path to achieving your dreams may not always be smooth. There will be obstacles and setbacks along the way. You may face self-doubt, criticism from others, and moments of despair. Yet, it is during these challenging times that your true strength and resilience are revealed.

Remember, my friends, that failure is not the end but merely a stepping stone towards success. Embrace your failures as opportunities for growth and learning. Let them fuel your determination and ignite the fire within you to keep pushing forward. As Thomas Edison once said, “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”

Believe in yourself, even when others doubt you. Surround yourself with individuals who uplift and support you, who see your potential even when you may not see it yourself. Seek out mentors and role models who have walked the path before you, and learn from their experiences. Remember, success is not a solo journey—it is a collective effort.

Embrace the power of gratitude and positivity. Cultivate a mindset of abundance, knowing that there is enough success, love, and happiness for everyone. Celebrate the achievements of others, for their success does not diminish your own. Your journey is unique, and comparing yourself to others only hinders your progress.

My dear friends, the world needs your unique gifts, talents, and perspectives. You have a purpose—a calling that only you can fulfill. Do not let fear or self-doubt hold you back. Take that leap of faith, step out of your comfort zone, and embrace the unknown. For it is in the realm of uncertainty that miracles happen, and greatness is achieved.

As you embark on this journey, remember to take care of yourself. Nurture your mind, body, and soul. Surround yourself with positivity, practice self-care, and prioritize your well-being. Remember that success without fulfillment is an empty achievement. Find joy in the journey, and let your passion be the driving force behind your actions.

In conclusion, my fellow dreamers, I challenge you to rise above mediocrity, to step into your greatness, and to live a life that inspires others. Believe in the power of your dreams, for they hold the key to your ultimate fulfillment. Embrace the challenges, persevere through the setbacks, and never lose sight of the incredible potential that resides within you.

Together, let us create a world filled with individuals who have embraced their greatness, who have dared to dream big, and who have made a positive impact on the lives of others. Let us be the catalysts of change, the beacons of light in a world that often seems dim.

Believe in yourself. Believe in your dreams. And let us embark on this journey of limitless possibilities—together.

Thank you, and may your journey be filled with boundless inspiration and unwavering determination.

Motivational Speech Example #2

Ladies and gentlemen, esteemed guests, and fellow seekers of greatness,

Today, I stand before you as a messenger of possibility, armed with words that have the power to ignite the fire within your souls. I am here to remind you that deep within you lies an unyielding reservoir of strength, courage, and untapped potential. Today, I implore you to awaken that dormant force and unleash it upon the world.

Life is not meant to be a mere existence. It is meant to be a grand adventure, a journey of self-discovery and personal growth. Yet, it is easy to fall into the trap of complacency, to settle for a life that is comfortable but unfulfilling. I urge you to break free from those chains of mediocrity, to dare to dream and pursue a life that sets your soul ablaze.

Understand that the journey to greatness is not an easy path. It requires perseverance, resilience, and an unwavering belief in your own capabilities. There will be obstacles in your way, naysayers who question your abilities, and moments of self-doubt that threaten to derail your progress. But remember this: the greatest triumphs often arise from the ashes of our toughest battles.

Embrace failure as a stepping stone to success. Each setback is an opportunity to learn, to grow, and to refine your approach. Do not let fear of failure paralyze you; instead, let it fuel your determination to rise above adversity and emerge stronger than before. As Winston Churchill once said, “Success is not final, failure is not fatal: It is the courage to continue that counts.”

Believe in the power of your dreams, for they are the compass that will guide you towards your true purpose. Cultivate a crystal-clear vision of what you desire to achieve, and let that vision be the driving force behind your actions. Visualize yourself standing at the pinnacle of success, and let that image propel you forward, even when the path seems arduous.

Surround yourself with a tribe of dreamers and doers, individuals who see your potential and lift you higher. Seek out mentors who inspire and challenge you to reach new heights. Remember, you are the average of the five people you spend the most time with, so choose your inner circle wisely. Together, you can create a symphony of success, each contributing their unique talents and strengths.

In the pursuit of greatness, it is essential to remain steadfast in the face of adversity. Let perseverance be your guiding light, and let determination be your fuel. When the world tells you that your dreams are impossible, let that be the catalyst that propels you forward. Embrace the discomfort of growth, for it is through challenges that we discover our true capabilities.

But amidst the pursuit of your dreams, do not forget the importance of compassion and empathy. Lift others as you rise, for true success is not measured solely by personal achievements, but by the positive impact we have on the lives of others. Leave a legacy of kindness, generosity, and inspiration in your wake, for the true measure of greatness lies in the hearts you touch along the way.

In conclusion, my fellow seekers of greatness, I urge you to seize this moment, to embrace the boundless potential that resides within you. The world is waiting for your unique gifts, your passions, and your contributions. Do not shrink back in the face of adversity, but rather, rise above it and let your light shine brightly.

Believe in yourself, for you are capable of more than you can ever imagine. Embrace the challenges, persist in the face of setbacks, and never lose sight of the extraordinary person you are becoming. Let your journey be a testament to the power of the human spirit, an inspiration to all who witness your unwavering determination.

It is time to unleash your greatness, to chase your dreams with unrelenting fervor, and to create a life that leaves a lasting impact. The world is waiting, my friends. So go forth, with courage in your hearts and fire in your souls, and let your motivational roar be heard in every corner of this earth.

Thank you, and may your journey be filled with unwavering belief, audacious dreams, and infinite possibilities.

Motivational Speech Example #3

Dear friends, dreamers, and believers,

Today, I stand before you to remind you of the incredible power that resides within each and every one of you. We are living in a time of boundless opportunities, where the only limits that exist are the ones we impose upon ourselves. It is my mission to inspire you to break free from those self-imposed limitations and embrace the extraordinary life that awaits you.

Life is a precious gift, a tapestry of moments and experiences that shape us into who we are meant to become. Each day is an opportunity to paint your own masterpiece, to sculpt your own path, and to create a legacy that will inspire generations to come. But to do so, you must first believe in your own potential.

Belief is the cornerstone of achievement. It is the unwavering faith that you have what it takes to overcome any obstacle and reach for the stars. Believe in your talents, your abilities, and the unique gifts that you bring to this world. Embrace the truth that you are here for a reason, that your dreams are not mere fantasies but a roadmap to your destiny.

But belief alone is not enough. It must be accompanied by action. Dreams without action are like birds without wings—they may soar in your mind, but they will never take flight. Take that first step, no matter how small or daunting it may seem. Break down your goals into manageable tasks and commit to taking consistent action towards their realization.

Embrace the power of resilience. Know that setbacks are not failures but opportunities to learn and grow. When faced with adversity, rise above it with unwavering determination. Let your setbacks become the stepping stones that propel you forward. Remember, the greatest success stories are often born from the ashes of perceived failure.

Surround yourself with a tribe of like-minded individuals who uplift and inspire you. Seek out mentors and role models who have walked the path before you. Learn from their wisdom, their mistakes, and their triumphs. Remember that success is not a solitary journey—it is a collective effort. Together, we can achieve far more than we ever could alone.

Embrace the unknown and step outside of your comfort zone. Growth lies in the realm of uncertainty. Take risks, try new things, and embrace failure as a necessary part of the journey. As J.K. Rowling once said, “It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all.”

Remember to nourish your mind, body, and spirit. Take care of yourself, for you are the vehicle through which your dreams will be realized. Prioritize self-care, cultivate healthy habits, and surround yourself with positivity. Fill your mind with empowering thoughts, feed your body with nourishing food, and let your spirit be fueled by gratitude and joy.

And above all, never forget the power of perseverance. Success rarely comes overnight. It is the result of countless hours of dedication, hard work, and unwavering commitment. When you feel like giving up, remind yourself of why you started. Let your passion be the driving force that propels you forward, even when the road ahead seems long and arduous.

In conclusion, my dear friends, I urge you to seize this moment. Embrace the power within you, believe in your dreams, and take inspired action. The world is waiting for your unique contributions, your creativity, and your passion. Embrace the journey of self-discovery, unleash your potential, and create a life that is filled with purpose, joy, and fulfillment.

You have the power to make a difference, to leave a lasting impact on the world. Believe in yourself, trust in your abilities, and know that the journey may be challenging, but the rewards are immeasurable. Embrace the adventure that lies ahead, and let your motivational spirit shine brightly for all to see.

Thank you, and may your path be illuminated by the fire of your dreams and the unwavering belief in your own greatness.

Final Thoughts

Crafting a motivational speech is an art that requires careful thought, preparation, and a deep understanding of your audience. By following the steps outlined in this article, you can create a speech that resonates with your listeners, ignites positive change, and inspires them to reach their full potential. Remember, a well-crafted motivational speech has the power to transform lives, instill belief, and create a ripple effect of positivity in the world. So, go forth, share your message, and empower others to embrace their greatness.

About Mr. Greg

Mr. Greg is an English teacher from Edinburgh, Scotland, currently based in Hong Kong. He has over 5 years teaching experience and recently completed his PGCE at the University of Essex Online. In 2013, he graduated from Edinburgh Napier University with a BEng(Hons) in Computing, with a focus on social media.

Mr. Greg’s English Cloud was created in 2020 during the pandemic, aiming to provide students and parents with resources to help facilitate their learning at home.

Whatsapp: +85259609792

[email protected]

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Engage. Empower. Inspire

"As an internationally recognized motivational keynote speaker, Jody has the expertise, the passion, and the experience to deliver the right message to revitalize hardworking professionals."

- “A Great Speaker” Byron, Washington County Treasurer

How to write a motivational speech

There is no better way to influence a group of people than through public speaking. Today, people count on email, social media, blogs and several online means to communicate ideas. However, nothing trumps the power of getting up in front of a room, looking people in the eyes and sharing your energy and ideas. Look at any influential leader today, and you will see he regularly gives motivational speeches to move a room to action. 

Any leader who cowers at public speaking needs to understand it's powerful impact on a team, culture, and morale. Without regular motivational speeches, groups lack congruence, purpose, direction, and confidence.

You can learn to become a powerful speaker, and reduce nerves, stress, and anxiety around public speaking .

Stop Making it All About You.

When I started as a motivational speaker, I remember the days when I would approach the stage, overwhelmed with fear and self-doubt. My mind kept gnawing at me with reminders;  I have to be interesting, I have to say it correctly, I have to be energetic .

The trouble with this thinking is it’s all about me. I was so wrapped up in preserving my self-worth that I forgot to focus on the audience. 

In any area of life, the pressure to perform mounts when the focus is self-absorbed, eventually it can exhaust you to burn out.

With the help of the book,   Feel the   Fear and   Do it   Anyways , I learned to focus less on me and more on the audience and the goal of the speech. 

Motivational speaker, Dale Carnegie says, being interested in other people is a lot easier than trying to get others interested in you. 

Here are some tips for writing and delivering an outstanding motivational speech:

Actively involve the audience and think of yourself as a facilitator rather than a performer. Ask for audience input, feedback, and ideas throughout the presentation.   Also, have empathy for the audience and forget about yourself. We often assume other people are judging us when they are too busy thinking about their life problems. 

Focus on your motivational speech message, not on yourself.  Instead of worrying if the audience likes you, focus on how your message will help and support them. Let the audience judge the words, not you

How to Write a Motivational Speech

Open a speech with something that gets people's attention. A startling fact, quote or story will help set people up to listen. Also, consider using interaction right away, so the audience knows this is not a passive learning experience or just another speech.  Next, set out your objective. A speech objective anchors you and your audience to your message. It will help a speaker stay on track with the speech and guide the audience toward your goal.

Once you have developed your speech objective than you will design your content around the objective.

Take the audience on a journey

First, decide on the destination. Tell the audience the result, so they know what they are investing their time in and don’t get lost along the way.   Be very clear and specific about your goal.

Also, provide guideposts along the way, so they know when you are switching directions. 

Motivational speaker Hugh Culver suggests using the formulae -story, lesson, and application to illustrate a point.

The audience needs you to Segway for them the lesson to take away from the story and application of their lives. 

Be Motivational and Inspire Hope

A motivational speech is different from other types of speech. It has to be motivational with the purpose of moving people forward. Thus, you're not just sharing information, you are organizing the message around a goal and using motivational techniques to influence others.

To persuade others, you have to tap into their emotion, not just logic. Ignite passion through story, analogy, humor or interaction.  Story and analogy draw an audience in by describing events that they can relate. A story can elicit emotion like fear, inspiration, sadness, joy and more. The feeling is critical to help the audience tap into the emotive part of their brain. Stories also illustrate points.

Humor and interaction keep an audience awake, focused and engaged. A laugh in the middle of a speech floods the brain with endorphins that wake you up and creates interest. Interacting forces the audience to think about the message and pay attention.  When time allows, you can sprinkle in some fun audience-interactive games or activities. Anytime a group comes together and has fun, it builds rapport, creates memories and decreases stress.  

  A leader's most magnificent job is to give people hope, and your team needs optimism to lift them up.  Thus, leadership should have a  goal of providing regular inspirational speeches with the objective of spreading faith in uncertainty. Many people today are overworked and overwhelmed and starved for inspiration. With the pace of change in work today, people just need to feel like what they are doing is not getting lost in the shuffle and that it means something.  Connect work activity to the team, organization or greater community good, this is essential to keep people focused and motivated.

Some teams are working to build something that doesn't exist right now. Thus, they have to believe in it and belief requires hope. It's easy to continue doing thing the way you have always done them because you have concrete evidence that it works.  

Hope believes that our efforts will contribute to something worthwhile. For instance, you don't say I believe in gravity or coffee because you have proof and experience with it - it already exists. What leaders often overlook is that their team needs hope and to believe in something down that road that doesn't permeate their lives right now. This unknown can be challenging for organizations, and they need confidence that its possible. 

Building Your Content

Less is More

Never overwhelm the audience with too much information. People will only retain two or three points anyways, so be clear on what those ideas are. 

Trying to dump everything you know about a topic on your audience will cause information overload, and many people will tune you out. 

Statistics are not impressive unless you point out why they are essential. Unravel a learning point with several techniques: analogy, interaction, humor, etc

Rhetorical devices like questions (i.e., could we do better?) or repetition and parallelism help build momentum and reinforce ideas. Relying on these devices can make writing a motivational speech a lot easier, and it creates consistency in your speaking style.  How long should you speak?  A motivational speech does not have to be a 60 minute or more. In fact, it is better for leaders to deliver short 5- 10-minute motivational speeches on a more regular basis to reinforce direction and keep momentum high. These short motivational speeches serve a purpose to appreciate and celebrate progress, provide information or to boost morale. Often a motivational speech is to celebrate an achievement. Thus, highlight what the team has accomplished as a group, recognize specific individual efforts and tie it all back to what the goal is and a vision of where you're headed. Most people don't feel enough appreciation in their work, and lack of recognition is the number one reason people leave their job. 

The Audience Doesn’t Know your Speech

Once I finished a speech, got off the stage and suddenly realized I forgot an entire section of my talk. I was mortified but soon realized the audience doesn’t know anything was left out. You can’t miss what you didn’t know about in the first place.

I often see speakers stumble and apologize for messing up, this just wastes time and undermines your confidence. If you just carry on as nothing happened, nobody will know the difference. 

Energy & Confidence

Fake it until you make it

Increase your energy and act like you’re incredibly excited about your audience and your message. If you feel nervous, just pretend you’re confident. Act like a confident person, and eventually, you will catch up.

The body doesn’t know the difference between a real and an imagined thought, so if you tell yourself you're scared, or you tell yourself you’re confident, either way, you’re right.

Body Language 

Confidence starts in the brain. If you believe you are uncomfortable or lack certainty, it will show. 

Act the part, act as you belong, that you are prepared and confident and others will treat you like you do. Confidence is what gets you in the door, without it you miss out on a lot of opportunities. 

Natural is Overrated

I once took a public speaking seminar about being authentic. The main idea was to be yourself. It’s  encouraging to know that being who you are naturally is all you need. However, the best motivational speakers I’ve known increase their energy and presence on stage. In a keynote speech delivered to hundreds of people, you have to have enough power to infect everyone. Most people don’t naturally walk around emphasizing specific words or projecting their voice to fill the room

Also, the idea of trying to be natural seems- unnatural.

  How to Influence Different Audiences

Knowing your audience is key to public speaking. But what does this mean and why is it so critical?

It means you want to Influence from the perspective of the audience. Usually, your own style   of influence only works with people similar to you. 

It’s far more difficult dealing with people who don’t think like you. With these audiences, first, you have to find out what really does matter to them. Uncover their magic buttons by listening to them. 

When I started as a motivational speaker, I did well with female audiences because we share similar experiences and perspectives. I found it much easier for me to influence this group because we are more alike.

The most difficult groups for me to connect with were blue-collar male audiences. Our perspectives were worlds apart, so I had to figure out what makes them tick. After listening to many of them over the years, I’ve found they are very hands-on, hard-working people. Thus, I stick to concrete hands-on advice, related to their work. They don’t do well with generalities; it has to be connected to their job.

Next, they are usually family oriented, so I evolve key points around family.

Finally,  they also like to laugh at themselves, so I engage them with interaction and humor.  Thus, small adjustments help create a much stronger connection with an audience. 

Always start writing a motivational speech by researching and understanding the audience. I often use a questionnaire and interview audience members before a speech.  Some of the questions that help me understand the audience include: What is important to people in the audience? What do they most need to hear? What are this audience top sources of stress and joy? What is a typical day? What are some buzz words or acronyms that the group use regularly? By knowing the audience, you can relate to them in their language.  How to Overcome Stage Fright 

We all have times in our lives when we doubt ourselves. Doubt can quickly come screaming to the surface when you are thrust in the limelight in front of hundreds of people and expected to perform

Fear creates a deep emotional outpour that goes along with physiological changes like sweaty palms,  shakiness, increased blood pressure, heart rate and more.  None of this lends itself to a focused, dynamic performance. 

Circumvent the fear by focusing on your message and the audience -use this to stay in the present moment. Don’t let fear and self-doubt pull you into negative dialogue in your head. 

The Motivational Speech Close

People remember the first and the last words that you say. Thus, close your speech with a call to action, it should link to and reinforce your objective. Therefore, you want to end where you began and remind people of what they have learned along the way.

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How to Write a Motivational Speech for Students

You are tasked by a headmaster or a professor to do the daunting task during every school ceremony: giving out a speech, particularly, a motivational speech . If you’re an expert in giving out speeches, you probably don’t need this advice, but if you’re not used to it, you need all the help you can get. There are lots of preparations to do. You think what will be the theme of your speech and you need to practice in delivering it out loud. Don’t fret, because here are the things that will help you in your speech.

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Keep in mind that speeches are tricky to do in a school setting. If you are the unfortunate one who will give boring speeches, nobody would listen to you (except for the people sitting in the front row who are courteous enough to actually try to listen to you speak). Your speech may last a lifetime if it is delivered in a monotonous voice. The following tips are the ones you should learn if you’re giving a talk, and politely share them with up and coming speakers if it is your turn to be sitting in the audience. You may also see speech examples in pdf

Valedictorian Speech Example

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Motivational Speech Topics Example

1. Have a Point in Your Speech

When giving a speech, always think what will be the point of your speech. What message do you want to convey to the students that they should remember? What is the main lesson can you give to them to be always motivated in their studies? You’re there giving a speech in the first place and don’t waste everyone’s time by just warbling mumbo-jumbos that leave your audiences asking “What is he even talking about?” Respect your audiences by making sure your message is clear and everyone will get what you are talking about. If your speech is about “not giving up even when failures seem to hinder you from your goal”, then focus your speech on that theme. You may also like presentation speech examples & samples

 2. Put Structure in Your Speech

A basic but often forgotten rule; A good speech needs a beginning, a middle, and an end. You’ll find that your students react best if you tell them early on in your speech what you plan to tell them and give them mileposts along the way.

It is also time to start writing your speech . Nothing is more effective when you already have an idea of what will be your speech all about than writing it right away. The best way to organize a speech is to first make a speech outline . After that label the key points in your speech and make sure you stay on your topic.

Remember, not to dive right away into your remarks. You can tell the audience up front how you want to arrange your talk, and even perhaps what your main points are.

3. Connect with Your Audience

Of course, you know that the students are your audience. This is easy on your part since you already know their gender, age, location and common interests. Once you’ve figured that out, you can aim your efforts to where the audience feels as if your speech talks to them one by one. Motivation comes from believing to be able to pursue their dreams and goals, and believing comes from the heart. Make sure you touch their heart. You may also check out speech examples for students

Think of your speech as a two-way communication even though you’re doing the talking. The communication process will not depend completely on you. Audiences may react to your words, whether they nod or shake their heads, laugh, cry, or get shocked; you should be getting a response from them. Imagine that your relationship with the audience began when you arrived at the venue and will continue after you leave. You may also see thank-you speech examples & samples

You also need two things in your speech: confidence in your message and a respectful understanding of your audience. Recognize that while you’ve spent hours into making your message, the students in their seats only get a relatively short time to hear it. Don’t talk down to them, but translate your words into language they’re comfortable with. You may also like speech templates and examples

4. Don’t Make Your Speech into a Narrative Essay

It’s not a rare occurrence that some things that look humorous on the page work well when delivered orally, while other things that seem smart on paper fall flat and uninspired when spoken aloud.

The best way to make your written speech work well both in written and oral forms; model your text after poetry, lyrics, and other great speeches. Another tip is when you prepare your final draft, write it in a way so that each new thought begins on a new line. The final draft should look more like a poem than a written novel. You may also check out introduction speech examples & samples

5. Tell a Story or Better Yet; Tell Your Own Story

If you want to become a motivational speaker, the best topic to refer to for motivational speeches is to start looking for it in your own life. Make a list of goals you have met and achievements you have earned, specifically related to your co-curricular activities. For example, graduating from college, being the top of your class, overcoming failures in a particularly hard subject, etc. You may also see informative speech examples & samples

You need to figure out your specialty, whether it is leadership or dedication etc because people tend to be more willing to listen if you’re an expert in a certain field. In other words, if you know what you are talking about and you show your intelligence in this topic, people are more willing to listen to what you say since they believe you know what you’re talking about. You may also like special occasion speech examples & samples

Second, you must identify what you have to offer. Lucky enough, everyday goals can be used in providing material; in the student’s case, how to get an A+ in all your subjects, how to survive a hard subject, how to balance co-curricular and extracurricular activities, etc. Talk about how that changed your life and the struggles you had to endure. Talk about how you overcame these hindrances and adversity and how you pushed hard to get through it. Pour your heart out on the table to the audience; they love to connect to the emotion that you offer and hopefully, it will help inspire them. You may also check out speech examples in doc

6. Practice Your Speech

Once you have finished writing your speech, familiarize it. Don’t just merely memorize your speech. You need to know your speech not just by mind but by heart. Once you have it familiarized and memorized, there is no need for you look at your note cards or the screen (if applicable), which gives you the freedom to have eye contact with your audience. This is a good tactic as this does not only make the audience feel like you are talking to them one-on-one but at the same time gives you the boost you need to be exciting on stage. Since this is a motivational speech, you need to connect with your audience to show that you are talking to them. You may also see appreciation speech examples & samples

7. Join a Local Toastmasters Club

If you need to improve the way you speak in front of crowds, you can seek help by finding your local Toastmasters club in your area. Toastmasters is an international non-profit organization that helps people practice speaking skills at weekly meetings. This will help hone your skills in making and delivering speeches and this will help you feel more confident about giving out speeches in front of people. What is great about joining a speech club is you will have the opportunity to test your skills in front of an audience and not just by practicing alone. You may also see award speech examples

8. Own the Stage

Remember, you are not just a random person talking in front of people. You are a performer, there to inspire and motivate students to keep on studying hard and focus on school. Put on a great show. Give a reason why students should follow your example and suggestions. If you won’t be able to deliver this, then you are wasting everyone’s time. This is literally your time to shine and prove your skills in delivering speeches, so give your 101%. It’s much better to be over-prepared than to find out that you can’t utter a word on stage because of your crippling anxiety. You may also like youth speech examples

9. Keep it Simple 

Remember, this is a speech in a school ceremony. Putting on a show with props and costumes are not necessary.   When you speak to the audience, keep your message simple and strong. Sometimes, less is more. Make your message memorable by delivering messages that students can bring with them and apply it to their academic life. You may also check out leadership speech examples & samples

Because I Could Not Read: Motivational Speech Example

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Motivational Speech Example

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Once you’ve mastered these tips, you are now on your way to become a bonafide motivational speaker. You may be so good at it, you can do this for a living. Good luck on your speech and remember, to keep it genuine. You may also see acceptance speech examples

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'When it comes to luck, you make your own.' 50 motivational quotes for peak inspiration

It is often said, "The pen is mightier than the sword." And it's true – words can hold a lot of power . They can uplift and inspire others to tackle the challenges and hardships in their lives, they can break a person slowly over time or deliver instant heartache with a simple sentence.

But, for now, we want to talk about the good words. When you're feeling down or lacking motivation, you might turn to certain quotes for inspiration. Whether they come from your favorite author or actor, these messages may remind you to keep pushing forward and continue trying in whatever you do.

If you're looking for more, here is a compiled list of motivational quotes from throughout the decades:

50 motivational quotes

• "It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are." — E.E. Cummings
• "Your self-worth is determined by you. You don't have to depend on someone telling you who you are." — Beyoncé
• "Nothing is impossible. The word itself says 'I'm possible!'" —  Audrey Hepburn
•  "Keep your face always toward the sunshine, and shadows will fall behind you." —  Walt Whitman
• “You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose. You're on your own. And you know what you know. And you are the guy who'll decide where to go." — Dr. Seuss
• "Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference." — Winston Churchill
• "To bring about change, you must not be afraid to take the first step. We will fail when we fail to try." — Rosa Parks
• "All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them." — Walt Disney
• "Don't sit down and wait for the opportunities to come. Get up and make them." — Madam C.J. Walker
• "Champions keep playing until they get it right." — Billie Jean King
• "I am lucky that whatever fear I have inside me, my desire to win is always stronger." — Serena Williams
• "You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream." —  C.S. Lewis
• "It is during our darkest moments that we must focus to see the light." —  Aristotle
• "Believe you can and you're halfway there." — Theodore Roosevelt
• "Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage." — Anaïs Nin
• "Just don't give up trying to do what you really want to do. Where there is love and inspiration, I don't think you can go wrong." —  Ella Fitzgerald
• "Try to be a rainbow in someone's cloud." —  Maya Angelou
• "If you don't like the road you're walking, start paving another one." — Dolly Parton
• "Real change, enduring change, happens one step at a time." — Ruth Bader Ginsburg
• "All dreams are within reach. All you have to do is keep moving towards them." — Viola Davis
• "It is never too late to be what you might have been." — George Eliot
• "When you put love out in the world it travels, and it can touch people and reach people in ways that we never even expected." — Laverne Cox
• "Give light and people will find the way." — Ella Baker
• "It always seems impossible until it's done." — Nelson Mandela
• "Don’t count the days, make the days count." — Muhammad Ali
• "If you risk nothing, then you risk everything." — Geena Davis
• "Definitions belong to the definers, not the defined." —  Toni Morrison
• "When you have a dream, you've got to grab it and never let go." — Carol Burnett
• "Never allow a person to tell you no who doesn’t have the power to say yes." — Eleanor Roosevelt
• "When it comes to luck, you make your own." —  Bruce Springsteen
• "If you're having fun, that's when the best memories are built." — Simone Biles
• "Failure is the condiment that gives success its flavor." — Truman Capote
• "Hard things will happen to us. We will recover. We will learn from it. We will grow more resilient because of it." — Taylor Swift
• "Your story is what you have, what you will always have. It is something to own." — Michelle Obama
• "To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people just exist." — Oscar Wilde
• "You define beauty yourself, society doesn’t define your beauty." — Lady Gaga
• "Optimism is a happiness magnet. If you stay positive, good things and good people will be drawn to you." — Mary Lou Retton
• "You just gotta keep going and fighting for everything, and one day you’ll get to where you want." — Naomi Osaka
• "If you prioritize yourself, you are going to save yourself." — Gabrielle Union
• "No matter how far away from yourself you may have strayed, there is always a path back. You already know who you are and how to fulfill your destiny." — Oprah Winfrey
• "A problem is a chance for you to do your best." — Duke Ellington
• "You can’t turn back the clock. But you can wind it up again." — Bonnie Prudden
• "When you can’t find someone to follow, you have to find a way to lead by example." — Roxane Gay
• "There is no better compass than compassion." — Amanda Gorman
• "Stand before the people you fear and speak your mind – even if your voice shakes." — Maggie Kuhn
• "It’s a toxic desire to try to be perfect. I realized later in life that the challenge is not to be perfect. It’s to be whole." — Jane Fonda
• "Vitality shows not only in the ability to persist but in the ability to start over." — F. Scott Fitzgerald
• "The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any." — Alice Walker
• "Love yourself first and everything else falls into line." — Lucille Ball
• "In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: It goes on." — Robert Frost

50 positive life quotes to inspire, and lift your spirit each day

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