Public speaking is a great (debatable) byproduct of entrepreneurship. Though overcoming fears of public speaking is an altogether separate topic, how to make your speeches memorable is easy with a bit of strategy.

Dr. Nick Morgan, the author of “Give Your Speech, Change the World“ talks about it in his blog in Harvard Business Review. How do you report on all the activities of the business in the past year without resorting to a laundry list of information that will turn your audience away from you? An information dump, he says, inevitably ends up seeming desperate and it implies you don’t know where to stop.

Here are some tips from Dr. Morgan, who is the former speech writer to the Governor of Virginia:

• Focus, focus, focus – You don’t have to say everything. Speeches are not a good way to cover all the information about the company. Issue a written report if you want to convey that information. What you should focus on the highlights.
• Tell a Story and Stick to it – The story should demonstrate what you are saying in ideas. Choose no more than 3 areas to talk about.
• Avoid insiders language – Use terms that everyone can understand. Not technical mumbo-jambo but turn it around to make people understand how what you plan will change their lives for the better.
• Begin in the middle – You can tell when rhetoric is empty, and that is the thing that should be cut. Speeches are much more interesting for the audience when they dispense with the polite nothings and get right to the point.
• Leave them wanting more – When a CEO starts talking we are all ears, but when the same executive goes on for too long, the result is “catastrophic for the dignity and effectiveness of both the office and the person,” he writes.

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