What Shall I Talk About?

At the ASC, your speeches can be about anything you want (provided it’s not offensive) and one of the questions we often get asked is “How do you come up with speech ideas”. As many of our clubs take a well-earned break for the summer, for our speakers and members of the ASC, it’s a great time to start planning and coming up with new speeches.  So in this post, we thought we’d share a few ways to fire up your imagination and come up with a few fresh ideas.

1. One of the main places you will get ideas and inspiration is from listening to other speakers. That doesn’t mean copying their ideas, but you’ll be surprised at how ideas, breed more ideas. For example, you’re listening to a speech about someone overcoming their fear of dogs. That reminds you of a news item you read about a dog who saved someone’s life. There are all sorts of speech ideas that could flow from this: a speech about canine psychology, a story about how a dog rescued you (or someone else), an educational speech about different breeds, the list goes on.
2. Newspaper articles are always a great source of ideas.
3. Look back. Is there something from your childhood or past that you could develop into a speech?
4. There’s always Google or social media. You could try scrolling through the images on Instagram to see if something inspires you. Perhaps a photo of a beautiful building leads to an idea about architecture.
5. Talk about what you know and love. Most of us have a personal passion or hobby and whilst it may seem obvious to you, other people may never have heard of it. Geocaching, crochet, open water swimming, drawing – they can all form the basis of a great speech!
6. Think about the particular assignment you are doing. When you’re working through the ASC programme, different levels focus on different public speaking skills. So if you’re working on the level that is about descriptive language, a speech about insects could work very well. Just think about all the details: the tiny, hairy legs, the bulging big eyes, that thread of silver cobweb tickling your face. What subjects could you use to showcase the required skill?
7. Listen to what’s going on in the world. What are people talking about? On the TV? In your friendship circles? Has something topical happened in the news about which you have a view or particular perspective? Perhaps there’s been a volcanic eruption somewhere in the world? Or maybe the football has inspired you to get active?
8. Observe the world around you. We’re living in strange times and just by watching people, you may come up with a brilliant idea. Have you noticed a mask-wearing trend? Perhaps there is a speech in the making about all the new words we’ve introduced into our language since the pandemic.
9. Think about what makes you laugh. Or cry. Or what makes you extremely angry. One of the winning speeches at our national competition was a very funny speech about customer service and how annoying it can be to be constantly asked, “How was it for you?”.
10. Stop thinking about it. It’s a well-known fact that taking a break from a difficult task often provides the mind with the freedom it needs to think and be creative. And this applies to coming up with ideas and content for your speeches. For example, one of our speakers explained recently how she was out running early one morning in her local woods where she kept getting cobwebs across her face. And then ping, it gave her a great idea for a speech about insects. After all, there are some great word pictures associated with creepies and crawlies as we’ve already mentioned.

So if you’re worried that you won’t have any ideas about what to speak about at a Speakers Club, please don’t. The more often you come, the more ideas you’ll get and suddenly you’ll find it becomes second nature and you’ll hear yourself thinking, “There’s a great speech in that”.