807 Steal the Show

FIND YOUR BIG IDEA. Anyone can craft an engaging speech. You have to start with something that drives you. Whether you’re speaking to one person or a thousand, once you find your big idea, you can continue with a few key steps that will guarantee to keep your audience wanting more. You must demonstrate that you can view the world from your listener’s perspective. Say what the consequences will be if they don’t accept your offer. And what the reward will be if they join your movement. For this Five Minute Friday, I revisit a conversation with my good friend Michael Port, who breaks down five key components of speech writing and why they work. Michael Port is a New York Times bestselling author and former professional actor having appeared in numerous films and on television. These days, Michael can be seen on MSNBC, CNBC, and PBS as an on-air expert in communication and business development and as the host of his own podcast Steal the Show with Michael Port. From creating a powerful speech to preparing for an interview, Michael assures that including these components will win your audience over. Learn how to write an incredible speech in Episode 807. In This Episode You Will Learn: What Michael means by “big idea” (1:10) Why you need to show your listener that you understand how they feel (2:16) The importance of feeling a little pain around change (3:50) How demonstrating the consequences before the reward is key (4:00) If you enjoyed this episode, check out the show notes, more at http://lewishowes.com/807, and follow me on instagram.com/lewishowes Get more from Lewis! Get my New York Times Bestselling book, Make Money Easy! Get The Greatness Mindset audiobook on SpotifyText Lewis AIYouTubeInstagramWebsiteTiktokFacebookX

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Lewis Howes?

  This is Five Minute Friday.

• 0:11Lewis Howes?

  Welcome everyone to this podcast episode with my man, Michael Port. And I'm very excited about this. Michael Port has become a good friend of mine. He's a New York Times bestselling author. He's written six books, including Book Yourself Solid, The Think Big Manifesto, and the brand new book out today, Steal the Show. He's also probably the only New York Times bestselling business book author to have also been a successful professional actor, guest starring on shows like Sex and the City, Law and Order, Third Watch, All My Children, and other movies as well.

• 0:50Speaker 01

  When you create any kind of content for a speech, and you can apply this to any kind of writing that you do, or any other type of information product, so to speak, you need to have a big idea. There's gotta be something that drives you. There's a reason that you're bringing this topic to bear. And as I said before, the big idea doesn't have to be different to make a difference. If you think about Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech, his big idea was that all men and women are created equal. Well, that wasn't exactly different.

• 1:28Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 1:28Speaker 01

  That was in the Constitution. But the problem was, it didn't actually exist. So that was what made it so important and so pressing, and that it had to be addressed. But it wasn't different. And so, that's important to remember. The big idea is something that you care about, that you feel needs to be addressed. And then, if you have a big idea, you can make a promise. And that promise is what you deliver. And it's got to be, of course, incredibly relevant to the person on the other end of the promise. Number three, you need to make sure that you can demonstrate how the world, that you know how

• 2:09Speaker 01

  the world looks to the person on the other end of that conversation.

• 2:15Lewis Howes?

  What do you mean by that?

• 2:16Speaker 01

  Well, you know, if I, if I'm speaking about, say, public speaking performance and I say, "Look, it's easy. Any dummy can do it." I mean, come on, you know, and you know what? Being funny is just easy. Any dummy can do it. Well, I'm gonna have, I'll say, three people will listen to me. That's about it. Because they'll go, "This guy's so out of touch. He doesn't understand how I feel."

• 2:40Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 2:41Speaker 01

  And so, and so even if...

• 2:43Lewis Howes?

  If you started out saying, "Listen, I get it." Public speaking is...

• 2:47Speaker 01

  It's notoriously difficult.

• 2:49Lewis Howes?

  And it's rated as like one of the top three things that people are afraid of the most.

• 2:53Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 2:53Lewis Howes?

  You know, people are paralyzed by this. It can consume their entire mindset. Like, and I've been there before. I get it. Then you'll be able to connect with 98% of the room.

• 3:02Speaker 01

  Exactly right. As long as it's true, you know, we can't pretend. You know, like, I can't, I wouldn't want to make up an origin story that says, "Well, I was once a young man who never spoke."

• 3:14Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 3:14Speaker 01

  And, you know, like, "And I was given an opportunity to go in front of my town council, and I froze." You know, that's just, it's just made up. So you need to be honest about, you know, how you are, and they won't mind if you have some talents that they don't think they do, as long as you understand how they feel. That's what's important. So that's number three. Number four is being able to demonstrate the consequences of not adopting this worldview or not adhering to this big idea, not going after this promise, because...

• 3:50Speaker 01

  You know, if we don't feel some pain around a change, we may not be willing to move forward. And then, of course, number five is being able to demonstrate the rewards of realizing this promise. But if we introduce the rewards first, they may not be enough because people may see, you know what, I mean, that would be so great to have or so great to do, but it's just, it's so far off. It's not possible, you know?

• 4:18Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 4:19Speaker 01

  But if you can, if you can really push them, you know, to realize the negative consequences of not making a change, then they might be more willing to get into action, then eventually see that those rewards are actually possible. And this is true for a speech and it's true for, say, an interviewer, for example.