The World's Best Speech Plan
   
We would all like to be more confident speaking 'off-the-cuff'. Perhaps you can remember the occasion when you said exactly the right thing at exactly the right time. It felt great! But, unfortunately, those occasions are all too rare. Most of the time, we think of the right thing to say two hours later, or in bed that night. 

If you can become familiar with a speech plan called the IBET plan, you will find that these occasions - when you impress those around you with your 'off-the-cuff' comments - happen more often. It works this way - the plan gives you a format to follow; and you know that, if you you follow that format, you will put what you say into a structure that appears to the listener to be logical, well-thought-out and easy to follow. Here is the plan -

I Statement - Make a confident statement starting with 'I'
Because Statement - Give the reason for you opening statement
EXAMPLE - Tell a story or give an example that illustrates your statement
Tie it up- Give a quick summary (and finish by restating your opening point)

Once you have become convinced that it works with ANY topic, you will start your comments with confidence - knowing that the plan will have you say the right thing next. 

This is the big secret - most people appear to lack confidence in these situations. Even though they know a great deal about the topic, they are worrying about what they will say next - and this means that what they are saying NOW is often compromised. The IBET plan allows you to concentrate fully on what you are saying at the time; being confident that it will give you what to say next.

This is more obvious if you look at the opening 'prompt phrases' for each step -

By following this plan the speaker automatically has a ‘prompt’ as to what to say next. It gives the overall ‘mini speech’ an opening, body and conclusion as well as an air of confidence. It encourages the speaker to tell a story and linking a point to a story has proven to be one of the most effective ways of making the point more memorable. It also has the advantage of being very popular with audiences! Best of all, IBET works every time, in any situation.

Using IBET for Prepared Speeches

IBET is also excellent as a plan for when a speaker does have time to prepare in advance.

It can be adapted for longer, more complex presentations by simply extending the ‘middle’ so that, in effect it becomes IBEBEBET. There may be two or three reasons to back up the main point. Each reason is accompanied by an example.

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