Be Confident - Be Bold! - Tips to Make You a Better Public Speaker
Speaking in public is not an easy task, at least for most of us, because it can only go either way - bad or good. Additionally, the outcome strongly influences what people think of us, which makes it more anxiety-provoking and a great concern for anyone.
Whether we are talking in a group, in a class, or in front of a huge crowd, we certainly want to give it our best shot every time. Fortunately, while not everyone is born as a great public speaker, we can learn to be one. So, instead of crossing those fingers and hoping that everything goes well, here are some tips to help you be successful at this undertaking.
1. Know your purpose - Before you start preparing for your presentation, you must know what your purpose is. What do you want to accomplish? Are you trying to inform? Persuade? Inspire? What impact do you want to make on your audience? To help you stay focused in preparing your material, you need to answer these questions. You need to know what outcome you desire.
2. Plan carefully - It is important to plan carefully and think of effective structures or ways to deliver your message. Also, remember that how you start is very critical. Take for example the beginning of a book. If you do not get interested with the first few lines, then you will surely not continue reading it. Same goes with public speaking. You should persuade and intrigue your audience to listen to you with how you begin your speech. Try to catch their attention with a fact, an interesting statistics, or anything that will turn their heads to you.
3. Master your material - Talk about something you know and are interested in. know more about it than what you include in your speech. Do your research on the topic, and anticipate questions and prepare the correct answers. Additionally, you need to simplify your message. Although it is a bit tempting to bombard your audience with all the stuff you know, this will only overwhelm and eventually bore them. So, focus on the more important aspects of the topic and provide them with the information that will surely stay in their minds.
4. Engage with your audience - Before you can effectively engage with your audience, it would be wise to know them first. You can do this by greeting them as they arrive at the venue. Introduce yourself and make €friends.€ It becomes a lot easier to talk with people you know than to complete strangers.
The best way for you to effectively engage with the audience is to close the gap between you and them. One of the most common mistakes that speakers make is trying to prove that they are smart, and that they know everything. Being chosen as the speaker is already enough of an evidence that proves your intellect, especially on the subject matter to be discussed. So there is no need to prove anything.
Your goal is to impart information, persuade, inspire (or whatever it is) and not simply to impress. Try to be real, humorous and more self-effacing. You can also tell personal stories because these put your audience at ease and humanize you as a speaker. In fact, some people will easily remember your stories than the figures and facts you have presented. Also, encourage your listeners to participate. Let them ask questions, and let them answer yours. The more relaxed and connected your listeners are, the more they will pay attention to you.
5. Practice, and practice more - No one's perfect, but we can do things perfectly. So, there is a good reason why people always say, practice makes perfect! Not that you should be obsessed with perfection, but practice and gain experience so that you can be successful in your task, which will also greatly benefit your listeners.
Therefore, it is important that you rehearse, possibly with all the equipment you will be using during the actual talk. Consequently, it is also advisable to prepare your material as early as possible so that you can have more time to practice. First, do it by yourself so that you can work on your words and fillers. Tweak your phrases until the flow is smooth as butter. In fact, you can even video record yourself. This will let you see areas that need to be improved or corrected. You might be wandering too much. You may not have an ideal posture. Your gestures might be so distracting. Or, you may have a repetitive speech pattern. All these can be seen and heard on your video footage which gives you the chance to improve yourself.
Then, you can do a dry-run in front of a small audience. Invite your family and friends and let them be your audience. After which, ask them for their opinion on how your presentation went.
Another good thing about practicing is that it gives you more confidence, and thus, calms your nerves. Additionally, think of positive thoughts. Imagine yourself giving a successful presentation. Pause. Breathe. Relax. Of course, it is but normal to have a certain level of anxiety before the presentation itself but if you know your purpose, have carefully planned and mastered your material, know your audience and did your practice, then nothing can stop you from delivering a great presentation.
Whether we are talking in a group, in a class, or in front of a huge crowd, we certainly want to give it our best shot every time. Fortunately, while not everyone is born as a great public speaker, we can learn to be one. So, instead of crossing those fingers and hoping that everything goes well, here are some tips to help you be successful at this undertaking.
1. Know your purpose - Before you start preparing for your presentation, you must know what your purpose is. What do you want to accomplish? Are you trying to inform? Persuade? Inspire? What impact do you want to make on your audience? To help you stay focused in preparing your material, you need to answer these questions. You need to know what outcome you desire.
2. Plan carefully - It is important to plan carefully and think of effective structures or ways to deliver your message. Also, remember that how you start is very critical. Take for example the beginning of a book. If you do not get interested with the first few lines, then you will surely not continue reading it. Same goes with public speaking. You should persuade and intrigue your audience to listen to you with how you begin your speech. Try to catch their attention with a fact, an interesting statistics, or anything that will turn their heads to you.
3. Master your material - Talk about something you know and are interested in. know more about it than what you include in your speech. Do your research on the topic, and anticipate questions and prepare the correct answers. Additionally, you need to simplify your message. Although it is a bit tempting to bombard your audience with all the stuff you know, this will only overwhelm and eventually bore them. So, focus on the more important aspects of the topic and provide them with the information that will surely stay in their minds.
4. Engage with your audience - Before you can effectively engage with your audience, it would be wise to know them first. You can do this by greeting them as they arrive at the venue. Introduce yourself and make €friends.€ It becomes a lot easier to talk with people you know than to complete strangers.
The best way for you to effectively engage with the audience is to close the gap between you and them. One of the most common mistakes that speakers make is trying to prove that they are smart, and that they know everything. Being chosen as the speaker is already enough of an evidence that proves your intellect, especially on the subject matter to be discussed. So there is no need to prove anything.
Your goal is to impart information, persuade, inspire (or whatever it is) and not simply to impress. Try to be real, humorous and more self-effacing. You can also tell personal stories because these put your audience at ease and humanize you as a speaker. In fact, some people will easily remember your stories than the figures and facts you have presented. Also, encourage your listeners to participate. Let them ask questions, and let them answer yours. The more relaxed and connected your listeners are, the more they will pay attention to you.
5. Practice, and practice more - No one's perfect, but we can do things perfectly. So, there is a good reason why people always say, practice makes perfect! Not that you should be obsessed with perfection, but practice and gain experience so that you can be successful in your task, which will also greatly benefit your listeners.
Therefore, it is important that you rehearse, possibly with all the equipment you will be using during the actual talk. Consequently, it is also advisable to prepare your material as early as possible so that you can have more time to practice. First, do it by yourself so that you can work on your words and fillers. Tweak your phrases until the flow is smooth as butter. In fact, you can even video record yourself. This will let you see areas that need to be improved or corrected. You might be wandering too much. You may not have an ideal posture. Your gestures might be so distracting. Or, you may have a repetitive speech pattern. All these can be seen and heard on your video footage which gives you the chance to improve yourself.
Then, you can do a dry-run in front of a small audience. Invite your family and friends and let them be your audience. After which, ask them for their opinion on how your presentation went.
Another good thing about practicing is that it gives you more confidence, and thus, calms your nerves. Additionally, think of positive thoughts. Imagine yourself giving a successful presentation. Pause. Breathe. Relax. Of course, it is but normal to have a certain level of anxiety before the presentation itself but if you know your purpose, have carefully planned and mastered your material, know your audience and did your practice, then nothing can stop you from delivering a great presentation.
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