5 Tips to Improve Your Public Speaking
Cockroaches? Scary.. but manageable..
Snakes? Manageable too..
but Public Speaking? Frightening!
Based on research done globally an estimate of 75% of the world’s population fears public speaking that means for every 4 people you know, 3 of them have that fear.
If you’re one of them, read on.
There are many ways to tackle on this anxiety and to help propel you to become better in public speaking. In this Public Speaking series let me share with you how to utilize these 5 tips to boost your Public Speaking skills!
Here are my Top 5 Tips to Improve Your Public Speaking:
Tip #1: Competence Comes before Confidence
Most of the time when we are nervous it is due to the lack of familiarity with three things. The People, Place and/or Presentation. Building our competencies in these 3 areas will help you overcome that stage anxiety.
In order to build familiarity with people you have to meet up with your audience and introduce yourself to them. That way you know them, they know you and you won’t feel like you’re speaking to strangers when you’re on stage.
For the place, can you visit the venue early so that you know how the layout is like? Can you rehearse on your stage or platform so you won’t feel like you’re standing on a foreign place?
For presentation, it is a question of how much time did you spend rehearsing and practising your content. The more the better!
Tip #2: Change Your Focus from "Me" to "Them"
Let’s face it when we are nervous on stage our main focus will be things like “What if I mess up?”, “What if I look dumb in front of these people?”, “What was the next point again?”, or even “How can I end this quickly!”
These words that you’re telling yourself shifts your focus away from being in the moment. The best presenters in the world are always in the present when they give their presentation because they want to be with their audience. They want to give the best value that they can to their listeners.
Instead of thinking “How will I look in front of the audience?”, change that to “How can I give the best value to my audience?”
Tip #3: Speak How You Feel
Most of the time when presenters relay information they do it in a readers voice. Flat tone and downright boring. The best kinds of presenters are able to take the most boring information and speak in a way that excites people. Why? That’s because they speak with passion.
Hence in your next presentation instead of using your readers voice, speak how you feel. Every line and point in your speech is conveying an emotion. Speak with that emotion and you will see a drastic change in your presentation.
Tip #4: Practice Communicating with Gestures
Presenters who use more gestures appear more confident, enthusiastic, and energetic. Sometimes it is difficult to know what kind of gestures to use when you present and that’s understandable. Start small, perhaps during a simple conversation with other people use your gestures more often and notice how you’re using them!
Tip #5: Tell Stories
As the saying goes “Facts tell, stories sell!” Stories have the power to connect with people’s emotion and it is one of the most effective presentation hooks ever! Sometimes in your presentation instead of just telling us the numbers, facts and data perhaps you could add a story representing those information. Paint us the picture through stories!
Keep practicing, keep refining and keep improving at least 1% a day!
Remember that no one in the audience wishes you to fail, so do your best with the right mindset, keep practicing, refining and improving!