Almost everyone has to write a speech at some point in time. For those of us who aren’t writers it’s a hard and laborious task. For those of us who aren’t performers or comfortable up on stage it’s scary and luminous. And for those of us who unfortunately have a combined lack of both, it can be overwhelming.

I have two speeches coming up in the next few months. Both of them are Maid of Honour speeches. At times the thought of standing up in front of a room of people, some who know me and some who have never seen me before, is daunting. Other times I’m just unsure of what to say, not because I don’t know these beautiful women well, but because it’s hard to narrow down fantastic moments in our lives and script them into an unforgettable speech.

Unforgettable speeches can take you from a small, short elevator ride to a room full of hungry investors. While each speech needs to be written differently, they all have the same core elements in play: an audience, a topic and a desired result. So here are the steps I’ve taken to write successful speeches for any crowd.

1. Know your audience. Who are they, why do they want to know about what you’re talking about and what do they already know about it? You want to relate your topic to them. If it’s a bride for instance, talk about people, occupations, and character attributes that are well known and relate to the person in discussion. People want to feel like they understand and know what you’re talking about.

2. Play to their emotions. Draw them in. Like any good movie or television show you want to hook your audience and make sure you get them at the beginning.

3. Keep it to the point. Don’t go off on tangents because those end up being boring 90% of the time. Keep to the point of the story and make sure that every point along the way can come full circle.

4. Know your product. Whether this is a topic, a person or a device, making sure that you know everything there is to know about it will make all the difference. People want to hear from the experts, not from someone that heard something from someone else that might be true. Share your experiences with it. It makes it more believable and in that sense, more likeable.

5. End with a bang. Whether this is a flashy ending or a “get-your-Kleenex” moment, you want to leave everyone wanting more. Sometimes it’s best to leave while you’re on top, just like Seinfeld. However, don’t take this too far and make everyone wonder why you just walked off stage mid-sentence. It has to make sense.

If you can make these steps work for your speech you’re bound to create something unforgettable.