We’ve compiled samples of effective 3-minute speeches from our talks to CEOs. If you want to learn how to deliver a short but powerful message, check out these real-world examples!
Topic – Word of mouth strategy
What has the most influence on a consumer’s decision to buy something?
It’s probably their peers and friends.
In fact, their word of mouth is much more powerful than advertising, media, or information on the internet.
When you buy something online, it’s natural to look for reviews or click on the review box.
You want to hear from people who have bought it before you make a decision.
Let’s say there are 10 positive reviews and 3 negative reviews.
Would that buyer buy the product?
They’re going to hesitate.
Because even though it’s only three, that buyer feels like those three reviews are all they have.
Desperate for word-of-mouth marketing, internet companies hire part-time reviewers and start deleting the bad reviews.
Even if it’s just a few good ones, they think.
“Did they get a part-time job?” You doubt and doubt.
But I still think I succeeded.
If you make people talk, if you make them think, that’s success.
Here’s an example from P&G.
The TV commercial for their dish soap was “cuts through grease”.
But when it came to word-of-mouth marketing, they did something completely different.
It sent flyers with a picture of a little girl saying, “Mommy, can I help?” and a sponge shaped like a child’s foot to AdBucket housewives along with the detergent.
The idea was to reach a natural audience of housewives with a story that said, “My child is starting to help around the house, and she thinks it’s fun to use this sponge with detergent to wash dishes.”
Not surprisingly, sales in areas where this marketing was done were twice as high as in areas where it wasn’t.
I want you to focus on creating a narrative and delivering.
I want us to think about how we can take something that’s buzzworthy and move people’s hearts.
I’m sure we’ll come a long way from where we are now.
Topic – it should reflect what your customers are saying
There are tons of brands that come and go every day.
They use celebrities to advertise and market their products, but they disappear so quickly.
As a result, many people are starting a new business or startup with a well-thought-out strategy that includes branding and marketing along with technology development.
The public is no longer fooled by star marketing.
It’s a very encouraging phenomenon.
However, the reality is that in an infinitely competitive market, some people succeed and some people fail every time.
Everyone wants to succeed, but it’s hard to do so in a competitive environment.
Some people say that if you work hard enough, you will succeed one day, so you just need to do your best at what you do, but does hard work really put you in a position to succeed?
Most of us think of benchmarking as the best marketing success strategy.
It’s true that benchmarking items that have proven successful in many areas and applying them to your own business is a great way to reduce the risk of failure.
I recommend thinking smaller and smaller.
The first thing I would recommend is to think about the content and scope of your business very small.
This is because focusing on a small area allows you to specialize and become the best at what you do.
However, many entrepreneurs fail to think small.
KakaoTalk, a mobile messenger service, ThreeSeven, a nail clipping company, Hanot Dosirak, a lunch box specialty store, Bongchu Jjimdak, a steamed chicken specialty store, Lock & Lock, a plastic container brand, Hongjin Crown, a motorcycle helmet specialty store, To Sokchon, a samgyetang specialty store, and Samsonite, a travel bag specialty store are some of the most successful companies that have achieved great success by focusing on one small area.
They were able to succeed by narrowing their scope and focusing on one thing.
When you need to order a lunch, most people search for a one-pot lunch to find a location.
When you think of bento, there’s only one alternative that comes to mind, and that’s a big deal.
It’s not uncommon for companies to start with a business that’s too big.
That’s why they fail.
People starting a business should keep in mind that they should never try to cover too much ground the way big companies do.
Rather, you should target one small area that you can do as well as possible and that you are most confident in.
Don’t dismiss a small market because it’s small, but remember that finding an area where you can be the best is where business success starts.
Theme – Our Authenticity
There are many kinds of metamorphosis, but perhaps the worst one is apostasy.
It’s inevitable that people change.
As we get older, our faces change, our personalities change, the way we treat people changes, and when I think about the person I was 10 years ago and the person I am today, I think there are countless changes.
Obviously, I’ve been in and out of society, mingling with people.
It’s clear that opportunistically throwing in the towel is the worst kind of transformation.
Then there’s conversion.
Whether it’s an ideological or political conversion, I think what distinguishes it from defection is its authenticity.
A few years ago, there was a case where a person who had fallen in love with Marxism-Leninism and Juche declared his conversion into the arms of liberal democracy.
Some have even used that experience to help the South in their efforts to eviscerate the supposedly weak North Korean left.
The question is whether we are sincere beyond appearances.
Who were we in the past?
The person I was in the past was not tired, but only venomous.
I was always right, always saying the right things, always making excuses for my mistakes.
I was always right, I said the right things, and I was a person of great conviction.
Anyone who differed from me was seen as wrong, and I rejected them.
I didn’t listen to others, so I wasn’t authentic.
Communication is not about being a smooth talker.
I’ve seen people who are very smooth talkers who don’t lead well, and conversely, I’ve seen people who are really stutterers who lead successfully.
The most important thing about a leader’s communication is not their speech, but the weight of their words.
To make your words carry weight, leaders need to work on aligning their thoughts, words, and actions.
Being human, it’s not surprising that alignment is difficult.
But it’s worth the effort.
Because when people see effort, they see authenticity.
May you become an authentic leader, and may you become a communicative leader.
Topic – The Silent Speech
On the 12th of this month, US President Obama’s speech at the memorial service for the victims of the Arizona school shooting became a hot topic.
He was talking about a young girl who was killed, and then he stopped speaking for a while.
After a full minute of silence, he continued his speech.
The New York Times reported that President Obama made an emotional connection with the entire nation, and it will go down as one of the most dramatic moments of his tenure. When I go to concerts, I’m much more interested and connected to the people who don’t speak well than the singers who do.
At one point, a singer turned to the audience and asked, “What do you guys want to do when you’re over 100?”
and asked the audience.
The audience suddenly went silent.
Each person was imagining what it would be like to live beyond their golden years.
It was a time of no sound, but perhaps a time for the thoughts of those who wanted to talk to him to connect.
How much time had passed?
“I’m thinking of building a cottage and growing a vegetable garden.” “I want to build a house on Jeju Island and live with my friends.” After listening to each person who raised their hand, he said.
“I’m going to… start… dating… when I’m… old enough.” His stuttering words were followed by a wave of laughter.
The unspoken time he gave was not silence, but a soul exchange with the audience.
I went to the dentist because my teeth were bleeding every time I brushed them.
The doctor told me that I needed to have my gums cleaned and that the first step was to remove my wisdom teeth.
He stuffed a wad of gauze in the space where they’d been removed and told me not to speak for four or five hours.
I used hand gestures, notepads, and facial expressions to let people know what I was thinking.
They understood my hand gestures.
Left in the silence, I wonder if the words I’ve been saying are a mask for the truth that could have been done without.
When I go to Dongsung-dong Horse Chestnut Park, I sometimes encounter performance art.
Once, a woman who looked to be in her mid-twenties took off all her clothes and ran through the crowd.
She tied her hands and feet together and hung upside down, much to people’s consternation.
Instead of binding the sinful world, she was binding herself.
They were naked, representing the sinfulness of all humans trapped under layers of clothing.
There was not a single word spoken.
And yet, the soundless movements made us listen and take a look at ourselves.
The doctor told us to avoid irritating food, alcohol, and bathing for the time being.
No verbal abuse, no flirting, no foul language, in order to sound normal and vital.
I was told to take medication if I was in pain.
There are prescription painkillers for pain, but where do you get a prescription for words spilled out of your mouth.
With his silent speech, President Obima healed the aching hearts of his people and bridged the gap in politics.
I wonder how much resonance my own voice can carry when I come to a world where people’s voices and silence are in harmony.
I want to pull the gauze out, and once my gums are in place, I want to start anew.
Like a child who begins to babble.
Thank you, everyone, for listening.
Topic – Start small
I grew up hearing the phrase “dream big” so many times.
For some reason, most people in our country love the word big.
As a result, many people start businesses that are too big for them.
We need to change the way we think about business success.
Instead of starting with something big, you should start with something small.
In fact, people often run businesses without even realizing they’re trying to do something too big.
Now, the phrase “dream big, but act small” is important for business success.
It’s hard to achieve success without taking “small steps,” or targeting “small areas.
So how do you do it?
What do South Korea’s top sports stars Park Ji-sung, Park Tae-hwan, and Kim Yeon-ah have in common?
They’re all successful because they’ve found what they’re best at, and what they do best.
Most importantly, they were able to develop their own weapons to beat the competition and succeed.
Dunkin’ Donuts’ focus on doughnuts, Rottweiler’s focus on English buns, and Maxim’s focus on blended coffee are all examples of what made them successful.
It’s all about focusing on one small product, and one small product only.
The first step is to take a good look at your knowledge, experience, and skills and know what your specialty is.
In a cutthroat business ecosystem where you have to fight off competitors to survive, if you can’t find your niche, you’ve already failed.
Once out of curiosity, once out of interest, and once out of sheer boredom, you’re setting yourself up for failure.
It’s all about finding a small niche that only you can do, and the best niche for you.
Topic – You need to be open with a lot of information
There are tons of unemployed people out there, and yet small businesses are screaming that no one is coming to them.
Most small business owners will tell you.
They say that they’re understaffed because job seekers have high standards.
But is their answer correct?
If you interpret “eye level” as “salary expectations,” I think it’s a half-right, half-wrong diagnosis.
All other things being equal, or in the absence of all other information, it is natural for young job seekers to be concerned about salary.
Salary is the most obvious way to fulfill the human need to survive.
If you take salary out of the equation, then obviously lack of information is a key reason for the labor shortage.
In fact, you have to wonder if people are afraid to knock on your door because they don’t have any information about your organization.
For example, job security, interpersonal relations, organizational culture, compensation system, corporate vision, job description, etc.
But what’s the reality?
Most of the time, when a small business posts a job, the only information they provide is that they are looking for a few people with these qualifications for this job.
If you’re curious, you can browse the company’s website, but it’s often just an introduction to their business and products, and you won’t find any information about people management that you’d want to know.
This is because companies say that people are the most important thing in business management, but in reality, they don’t care much about people.
To solve the small business talent shortage, it’s time to start reaching out to job seekers, not the other way around.
We need to seriously think about what job seekers want in terms of people management and implement what we can immediately, and present what we can’t immediately as a future vision.
When you show that you really care about people, people are drawn to you.
And when that happens and you get an influx of great talent and you get a competitive advantage, there’s nothing better than that.
Korean SMEs have experienced unprecedented growth in world history.
Isn’t it time for our vibrant entrepreneurial spirit to take another leap forward and turn to people?
Topic – We need a vision
Thank you, everyone.
There is a lot of talk on TV about youth unemployment.
But it’s even worse because there are no people on the ground.
Young people are competing to work for big companies.
They don’t look at small businesses.
So we don’t have talent.
The chosen ones go to work for the big companies, and the rejected ones go back to work for the big companies to fulfill their purpose.
There has to be a way for us as SMEs to appeal to talent.
The first and second most important thing in running a company is people.
To be chosen by them, we have to work hard.
First of all, we must have a vision, which is the compass of the company.
Even if you’re a small business, if they can see the future, they’ll take bold steps.
Give them the sense of accomplishment that they’ve grown with you and had their share of the growth.
In a complex environment, if a company is dragged along by change instead of responding to it, it will fail to be sustainable.
When the environment changes rapidly, companies often lose sight of the path they were meant to take, and that’s where vision comes in.
When a company has a clear set of values and dreams, it’s less likely to be swayed by unstable circumstances.
It will give your employees a sense of trust and, like a compass, will keep you on track.
Once you understand the big picture, not just the small changes, and create a vision that aligns with it, you’ll eliminate a lot of waste in your company’s strategy execution and resource utilization.
In times of uncertainty, we’re all scared.
Even if you’re sitting at your desk today, you’re afraid you’re not going to be there next month.
That’s why people try to work two jobs.
It’s not like having an alternate job gives them peace of mind.
I think leaders in organizations need to be able to clearly articulate what the company is going to do so that people don’t feel insecure.
Thank you, everyone, for listening.
Topic – Practice recognizing employees
There’s a quote from an organization leader who climbed to the South Pole.
He said, “Organizations are relative. You have people who are slow, and their slowness causes frustration, and then you have people who are assholes. We had an asshole who would tie the lifelines together, and you have to tie the lifelines very tightly, and one day one of the guys went out with the asshole and fell into a crevasse, a deep crack in the surface of the glacier. Luckily, 20 meters down, the cliff narrowed and he got stuck. When he came up, he made animal noises, grabbed a pickel and said he was going to kill him.
But would he have sent the incompetent person away, because there’s nowhere to send him, and he’s destined to climb with the group anyway, so he couldn’t. The leader’s approach was to see the good in the person.
One day there was a storm, and we had to go out and tie up the rubber boats, and all of a sudden this incompetent person would put on a special suit, put on goggles, and overact.
He ended up being the last one out, but he still called the crew over and praised them.
“I was the fastest to put on the special suit while you guys were stalling.” He said it while blowing bubbles.
He was the leader.
To his surprise, they began to change: their eyes became lifeless, the thudding of their flip-flops turned into a swoosh, swoosh, swoosh. Their bodies relaxed.
This is the joy of, “My boss finally acknowledged me. The truth is, I have a hard time giving compliments. I go through leadership training, but it doesn’t work. I have a lot of work to do, I only have a certain amount of time to do it, and I don’t know if I’m going to get it all done in that time, and I’m like, “What’s the point of complimenting when I’m pissed off?
But I think acknowledging others is a matter of practice, and with practice comes feedback. I can already hear it in your voice. Compliments are practice. Hopefully, you wake up in the morning determined to give compliments twice a day. It’s important to keep in mind that it’s very difficult to see the good in others unless you’re determined to do it.