The Speech Sandwich Method: Master Your Next Speech
When I was five years old my mom made me bologna sandwiches. She would put one piece of bologna between two pieces of Wonder bread, add a little bit of Miracle Whip, and that would be my lunch. Looking back, I think it’s a wonder that I’m alive after eating that. At the time, I didn’t know the difference between one piece of bologna or multiple pieces of bologna. But if she didn’t add one piece of meat in my sandwich, I would have noticed. And that’s the same with a speech.
You need to give your audience content, real meat! You don’t want to give them so much content that they can’t eat it. Think of your speech like a sandwich.
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The top piece of bread is the rapport-building piece
If you did not have that rapport-building piece or top piece of bread and all you had was meat and the bottom piece of bread, it would be too hard for your audience to eat it and they’d give up and they wouldn’t listen. Now, by the same token, if you have the top piece of bread and not the bottom (which is the close), then your sandwich would fall apart and it would end up on the floor, meaning you don’t get any business.
When you develop your speech, you have to think of it like a sandwich. You need both pieces of bread, and your content or meat is in the middle. The top piece, again, is rapport. The bottom piece is the close, and you can put anything you want in the middle.
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The Meat of Your Speech
What goes in the middle? Your content. This includes your teaching points, stories, acronyms, quotes, case studies, and testimonials. Anything and everything can go in the middle, but it must be nicely housed between the other two pieces of bread.
The beauty of the speech sandwich is when you have more time to speak, you can raise the top piece of bread a little bit and add more. If you have less time, you can make it smaller. But no matter how much time you have, you still need a good piece of meat.
You are probably thinking, well, how much meat do I put in the speech sandwich? I’m glad you asked because if you’re doing a five-minute showcase, you only have time for one to two pieces of meat or your teaching points. If you are doing a 15-minute speech, then you have time for one to three pieces of meat. If you have twenty minutes, then you can put in one to five pieces of meat. If you are giving a 30-minute presentation, then have up to seven pieces of meat.
Any speaking time beyond thirty minutes, whether it’s forty minutes or an hour, you can deliver up to ten speaking points. Do not load up your sandwich with any more than ten. Instead, fill your speech with stories that support your teaching point. It’ll be far easier for your audience to digest stories than just turn on the firehose and give them a bunch of dry content.
Speaking of dry content, like any sandwich it needs to have a little bit of mayo or dressing. And what is the dressing? That can be stories, quotes, or testimonials anything that spices up your speech and makes it tasty.
When you get to the end of your presentation and the last piece of bread, create a strong close and invite your audience to take the next step with you.
Check out my Public Speaking Mastery online course here.
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