The Ultimate Public Speaking
Tips to Hook and Impress Any Audience
According to experts, public speaking is one
of the most important and beneficial skill sets for your career. It helps to
increase confidence and shapes the perception of others about you when you
deliver a presentation.
Despite these benefits, however, many seem to
fear public speaking. According to experts, roughly 80% of people get
increasingly nervous and lose sleep before a big public speaking moment. Some
experts even suggest that the fear of public speaking rivals death. Yet, most
people will be put in a situation where they will be expected to speak in front
of a crowd and these moments can sometimes be career-defining.
If you have been tirelessly trying to get the
butterflies in your stomach to fly in formation when you’re thrust to speak to
an audience, you’re not alone. Here’s an easy to follow step-by-step guide
(with all the public speaking tips you need) on how you can overcome your fear
of public speaking and impress your audience even if you’re a beginner.
Table of
Contents
1. Prepare for your
presentation
Identify the
context of the event
Know the
demographics of the audience
Organizing your
content
2. Develop a
presentation that will captivate your audience
Start strong
Use storytelling
techniques
Use visual aids
effectively
3. Overcome your
nerves and stage fright
Embrace your
anxiety
Be
conversational and authentic
Know your
content
Mouth your words
when rehearsing
4. Deliver an
impressive speech
Hand gestures
Body language
Tone of voice
Pause and
emphasis
Time management
5. Summing it up
1. Prepare for your
presentation
A speaker’s worst fear is to see that the
audience is bored or has gotten no value from the speech. This is why
thoroughly preparing for your presentation is vital.
Here are a few easy steps to prepare and
research for your presentation:
Identify
the context of the event
For example, if you’re speaking at an
industry conference on AI Technology – you can be sure that your audience will
include practitioners and technicians in that space. Recycling basic content
about their industry that they’re already aware of is a definite way to quickly
lose their attention.
Instead, it’s likely you’d want to introduce
big ideas that challenge what they already know about the industry currently
and where it’s moving towards.
When Steve Jobs famously unveiled the iPhone
in the 2007 Worldwide Developer’s Conference, he was tackling an existing
industry norm of buttons on cell phones. Needless to say, his gamble paid off
and set the foundation of the smart phones we now know today:
That said, Steve’s presentation style might
not be for everyone, it’s up to you as a presenter to decide how best to
deliver your speech when the time comes.1
Know
the demographics of the audience
It is important to know the demographics of
your audience as it determines how you can make your tone suitable and content relatable
to them.
If you’re speaking to audiences from a
particular generation, consider including examples that will resonate with
them. For example: when speaking to millennials, try referencing recent news on
developments in technologies they use every day (e.g. SnapChat or Netflix) to
be more relevant to them.
Organizing
your content
You can have the best ideas. But if they
aren’t sequenced in the right order, you’re basically back to square one.
Most experts agree that various presentations
follow different ‘story arcs’ where they usually fall within three big acts:
the Start(or Hook), Middle and Conclusion.2
These structures can exist in all sorts of
ways such as a Problem, Solution, Call-To-Action type framework for sales. We
see this mirrored by numerous presenters where they establish a cause for
concern upfront before addressing these concerns with a product or method.
After you’ve decided ideas you’d like to
flesh out, begin organizing them in an order that will keep the audience hinged
on your every word. In this video, Aimee Mulins tells a story about adversity
followed by resolution later on in life:
2. Develop a presentation
that will captivate your audience
Picking a good topic and conquering your
stage fright is half the battle won in public speaking. Putting it all together
in a presentation that flows well and engages your audience is what
differentiates a blockbuster speech versus a lacklustre talk.
Start
strong
It’s been said that the first 30 seconds of
your presentation determines whether the audience want to listen to you or not.
Here are some proven ways to grab the
attention of your audience:
- Start
with an anecdote. If you can draw relevance to your
speech topic – sharing a quick story related to the topic is a great way
to appear more relatable and lead audiences into your punchline.
- Use
an analogy. Analogies
are a fun and interesting way to begin your presentation. Comparing two
seemingly unrelated things can help build a case for what you’ll say next.
Not only that, it can be helpful if you need to explain a complex
situation that your audience may not understand.
- Use
a memorable quote. Starting with a memorable
quote
can help enhance your credibility and reinforce your own claims especially
if it comes from notable figures or experts. It can also help inspire the
audience which will then make them excited about your idea. The end
result? It makes them more engaged with your presentation. Killing two
birds with one stone!
Use
storytelling techniques
Presentations are hardly ever a one-way
dialogue. You’ll want to take measures to engage the audience and make the
presentation a conversation.
Try to pose provocative questions or use
props. Asking questions to the floor engages your
audience presentation and also demonstrates that you value their opinion on
things. In some cases, getting your audiences to visualize problems might be
more effectively demonstrated than theorized.
Bill Gates is an iconic example of how using
props can really drive a message through when he released a swarm of mosquitos
during his speech to communicate how people from countries with a high level of
malaria infection feel:
Use visual aids effectively
Visual aids such as presentation slides are
an opportunity to enhance and drive your message home with 43% added recall for
presentations according to Prezi.
Sometimes putting all the information on a
slide may steal the audience’s attention away. To prevent that, you can make
use of evocative images that supports your speech to either transport audience
members into a particular scene or to draw analogies for relevant messaging.
3. Overcome your nerves and stage fright
Picture this: moments before your speech,
your heart’s pounding profusely in anticipation for what’s coming next. You
step behind the podium and all eyes are on you. The pressure becomes
overwhelming and you freeze, unable to utter a single word.
It’s been long known that public speaking
outranks even death as the top fear of most individuals. This then leads to the
question – how do the pros make it look easy?
Embrace
your anxiety
The truth is everyone gets nervous, even
seasoned speakers. As Mark Twain put it nicely:
“There are two types of speakers: those that
are nervous and those that are liars.”
Remembering and embracing that you’ll always
get those butterflies in your stomach leading up to your presentation is half
the battle won. Learn to harness that flush of adrenaline and energy to engage
with your audience early on.
Be
conversational and authentic
It’s easy to have a conversation with someone
in a personal one-to-one setting. Public speaking does not need to be that
different. Imagine speaking to one audience member at a time when you’re up on
stage and you’ll find that it’s easier trying to connect to one person at a
time than a whole room.
Presenters like Elon Musk sometimes appear
comical on stage, but always authentic. He speaks direct to the audiences and
in a language they can understand:
Know
your content
Knowing your content at your fingertips help
reduce your anxiety because there is one less thing to worry about. So one way
to get there is to practice numerous times before your actual speech. However,
you don’t want to memorize your script word by word. It can work against you
should you forget your content.
Instead, memorize the over-arching concepts
or ideas in your pitch as it helps you speak more naturally. This will let your
personality shine through. Speaking exactly from a memorized script may make
you sound rigid and robotic.
Still, if you need to have a reference just
in case you forget your speech, it is okay to have prompts in your slides or
cue cards.
Mouth
your words when rehearsing
Another method that most speakers use to
embed their presentations into their conscience is to ‘mouth’ the words as they
rehearse.
Not only do you begin to instinctively
memorize your presentation each time you practice, it also aids in muscle
memory when you need to deliver the speech on stage naturally.
4. Deliver an impressive
speech
We’ve gone from prepping for a presentation,
finding ways to engage your audience with presentations and combating stage
fright. All this is left with is for the speaker to steal the show by
delivering an impressive performance during the speech.
Here are some things you’ll want to take note
of to ensure you’re in tip-top shape when it’s showtime:
Hand
gestures
Seasoned speakers swear by this and amateur
speakers use it to great success.
Hand gesturing is a great way to avoid
looking stiff and awkward on stage. A key tip is to have your hands held high
above your waist at all times and let your hands gesture naturally as you talk.
This makes you look more confident and also engages well with audience.
Body
language
What great speakers have in common is how
confident they are. Just like any other human being out there, these people
also get the jitters before every speech – even great speakers like John F.
Kennedy will spend months preparing his speech before hand.4
Most people struggle to be confident and it
is okay. Not everyone can talk confidently especially in front of a large
crowd. But sometimes, confidence is not all about how you speak but through
your body language.
Standing tall and with good posture can do
wonders for your perceived confidence and your actual performance. Using big
hand gestures and standing firmly on your feet, a shoulder width apart, helps
even the most nervous presenters open up on stage.
“Our bodies change our minds and our minds
change our behaviours, and our behaviour changes our outcome.” – Social
Psychologist, Amy Cudd
Small gestures like these give signs to your
audience how to think and feel about you and whether they should listen to you
in the first few seconds of your presentation. Hence, it is important to take note of
your body language as it is a stepping stone to make you feel
or at least look confident – even if you’re not.
Tone
of voice
Your voice plays a critical role in your
success as a presenter. According to an analysis of media appearances by 120
top financial communicators, the sound of a speaker’s voice matters twice as
much as the content of the message5 and even an evaluation found one
of the most popular TED talks concluded these very speakers have 30.5% higher
vocal variety than other speakers that are less popular.6
Technical speakers focus a lot on how they
train their voice as they articulate words. Some use a higher pitch when
communicating an idea with energy and a lower pitch in solemn instances.
In short, it is about matching your emotions
to the idea. For example, if you are sharing a sad story, it only makes sense
to match that mood with your voice in a lower tone and volume.
Pause
and emphasis
Pauses and emphasis are a powerful tool in a
presenter’s arsenal. When used purposefully in the right moment, it can create
a dramatic flare to further reinforce what you have said, make the audience
ponder over a topic or it can provide time for the audience to let the message
sink in. It’s basically a ‘full-stop’ or ‘period’ used but in spoken word.
Time
management
Ending too early or too late can spell
trouble for speakers that are on the clock for an event’s schedule. At times,
event schedules get delayed and leave little time for speakers to deliver their
full speech.
The key tip to avoid an awry moment is to be
very familiar with your content and to practice several versions of your
presentation at varying durations.
Summing it up
And there you have it, these four big steps are
what will help you ace your public speaking.
Don’t shy away from your next chance to speak
in public. Instead, make full use of the opportunity and apply these public
speaking tips:
1. Study your audience before preparing your topic
2. Develop a presentation that will captivate your audience
3. Overcome your nerves and stage fright
4. Never Wing It. Practice Your Voice, movement and
time-keeping
Eugene Cheng
https://www.lifehack.org/688597/the-ultimate-public-speaking-tips?ck_subscriber_id=168781672
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