How to Write a Talk

Do you want to know a little secret of mine?  

I LOVE speaking in church.  Love it.

So much that I start to hope they'll call me to give a talk when a long time has passed since my last talk.  My dream job is to be a motivational speaker.  Oh, how I would just love that job!

But I know I am an anomaly. Most people would rather do most anything on this planet than speak in church.  So I thought I'd give you an outline that has helped me when I write a talk. 

How to Write a Talk

AGD- This stands for an attention getting device.  

Start out your talk with a story that relates to your topic. I almost always use a personal story.  Steer clear of dumb jokes or churchy urban legend stories.  This should only be 1-2 minutes. Look back at any conference talk.  They always start with an AGD.  *Think President Uchtdorf and how he begins with a pilot/flying story. 

Introduce 3 subtopics that you will cover.  These are all related to your main topic. Just give a one line title for each sub topic. 

Talk about subtopic 1.

Talk about subtopic 2.

Talk about subtopic 3. 

Conclusion.  Refer back to your beginning story, highlight your 3 points again and end your talk.  This should only be 1-2 minutes. When you bring up the story from the beginning it helps the listener to think back through your talk to the beginning and ties your talk together.  

And that's it.  You can easily go write a talk now without shaking in your boots, right?  Ok, maybe not.  So let me give you an example.  

Example Topic: Family History

I just gave this talk so I'll use the points from my talk.

AGD- (Story) When I turned 12 years old, my grandma immediately included me in temple trips with my cousins (story goes on for another 30 seconds...).

Introduce 3 subtopics- Today I am going to talk to you about why we do family history work, what resources are available to us and how we can get involved. 

Talk about subtopic 1- Why we do family history work (I shared a quote from true to the faith as well as a quote from Elder Scott, along with my own thoughts on why we do family history.)

Talk about sub-topic 2- Use the available resources (I shared some of the resources such as websites, our stake's family history center and family history consultants in the ward.  I shared a story about my experience with a family history consultant.) 

Talk about sub-topic 3- How can we get involved in the work? (I shared 5 ways that we can get involved in the work along with a story to help support one of the points and another quote from Elder Scott to support another point.) 

Conclusion. I am so grateful that my grandma instilled in me a great love for doing temple work for my ancestors (see how I referenced the first story?) She taught me why we do family history work and why it is so important.  Now that I am gaining an interest in finding names for myself I am grateful for all the resources available which will allow me to get even more involved in the work (see how I referred back to all 3 points?). I bore my testimony and ended the talk.

Seem easier now?  I promise if you organize your talk it will make things so much easier!  When I start preparing for my talk I prayerfully come up with the 3 subtopics and then I start taking notes of ideas, stories, scriptures or quotes (I do a bit of research in the scriptures and on LDS.org) that I want to talk about in each subtopic.  Then I use that outline to write my talk. 

Lastly: Some DO NOTS for giving a talk: 

1.) Do NOT start by saying how nervous you are.  In most talks I would have absolutely no idea someone was nervous unless they told us first.  If they mention it then I start to get nervous for them and don't listen as well. 

2.) Do NOT start by saying you got called last night to give your talk or how you totally forgot about this talk until you saw your name on the program when you walked in.  This will discount anything you will say and make your listeners much less interested in listening to you.  

3.) Do NOT apologize for anything at the beginning of your talk... like being sick or not knowing much on the topic or for not preparing due to forgetting about your talk until midnight the night before, etc... 

4.) Do NOT say "Well, if nobody else gets anything out of this talk then that's ok because I learned a lot while preparing it." No. Just no.  

Be confident and go get 'em tiger!