Very few of us get invited to speak based on our name alone. You’re invited to speak because you know something. You have experience with a topic, and maybe you’ve spoken about it before.

Once the general topic or subject of your talk is nailed down, get to work answering these three questions:

Giving a good speech often has very little to do with the minutes in front of your audience and everything to do with the time and care taken before you ever stand up.

My friend knew that if the employees expected the same talk at the same time, there was a greater likelihood that they’d just tune it out. If you fly often, it’s likely that after a few flights, you don’t listen to the standard safety message anymore. You’ve already heard the same thing many times before. Why listen?

The challenge, though, is that the safety information is important. In case of emergency, it helps people survive. The information my friend needed to share was important too, and he needed his audience to listen.