Practice your speech every day and tell yourself each day, I am getting better and better at my speech and I will deliver it with total confidence.
You may think that listening to your inner voice seems a little crazy, however, if you pay close attention to your thoughts you will realize just how often your inner voice tells you negative things.
It is proven that people who do not acknowledge or believe in the power of their inner voice are less likely to be successful. Listen to your inner voice, repeat positive affirmations to yourself, practice your speech and you will be successful at public speaking.
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Take time out to listen to as many speeches as possible. A good listener is a successful communicator. Don’t forget to take down notes when you listen to these speeches.
Recognize speeches that you like and those you can’t stand. Examine the speeches you like, and there you will learn useful and helpful tips to develop your speech. Examine the speeches you dislike, and there you will learn what you should prevent.
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Give out fun and colorful handouts to get your audience involved. Make your handouts on colorful paper and easy to read. Depending on your audience, it is probably not wise to get too technical or make them too long so people will not get bored.
Make handing them out an enjoyable part of your speech.
Tags: public speaking, free public speaking tips
Do not read your speech verbatim. That technique is highly likely to to bore your listeners.
The only instance you read a speech is when you do it on behalf of someone else. Even when you do that, make it brief or summarize it. At the end of the summary, give out the entire speech in the form of a handout.
The written language and the spoken language are different forms of expression. What is beautifully written may not sound beautiful when it is spoken.
Do not appear to be hurried and hassled when you are about to begin your speech. You will look like you’re out of control.
Also, never apologize. Just begin with your subject.
Take a deep breath, relax, and begin in a quiet conversational tone as though you were speaking to a friend. It may be like plunging into cold water. It’s really not that bad - after you are in, the water is fine. In fact, having spoken a few times you will even look forward to the plunge.
To stand before an audience and make them think your thoughts after you is one of the greatest pleasures you can ever know. Don’t be afraid. Instead, look forward to it.
If you observe these 5 behaviours in your listeners, it is very likely there are obred with your speech and you need to change your approach.
- A lot of listeners sit with their arms folded.
- Vacant looks – no smiles or nodding of the head.
- Most of the people are yawning.
- Polite coughs which are more than usual.
- Nonverbal gestures like audience frequently looking at their watches, biting their nails, shuffling their feet, looking at each other, and worse, starting to exit the venue.
You can use your notes when you are making your presentation but be sure that they don’t appear bulky. The worst thing a speaker can do is to pull out pages and pages of notes before a speech.
Preparing 3″ x 5″ index cards is all right. Be sure your entire speech does not go beyond seven cards. A single sheet of paper with an outline of your speech is still the best. Be sure the letters on that single sheet are big enough to read.
To emphasize a word, speak it in a different way from the others words that surround it.
In other words, if you were speaking at a normal volume, raise your voice when you speak an important word. Or, if you have been talking loudly, utter the emphatic word in a deliberate whisper–and you have intense emphasis.
If you have been going fast, go very slow on the emphatic word. If you have been talking on a low pitch, jump to a high one on the word you are emphasizing. If you have been talking on a high pitch, take a low one instead.
Sometimes, for big emphasis, you can stress every single syllable in a word.
Develop your self-confidence with practice, practice and more practice.
Look for every chance to give a speech. The more you face the audience, the more you will develop self-confidence.
Begin with very short speeches that last three to four minutes. Always bear in mind that a short speech can barely go wrong.
Impromptu speeches make good practice.
Concentrate and be natural. Do not try to pretend to be someone else. Master your topic. Believe in yourself. If you don’t, no one else will.
Here are 6 ways to capture and maintain the listener’s attention and interest
- Establish eye contact with the audience.
- Do not talk if someone is walking down the aisle or if there is audience movement.
- Make appropriate pauses for the audience to catch their breath.
- Use interesting and powerful visual aids.
- Talk from personal experience and tell stories.
- Make your speech concise.
