Great Speakers Know How To Get Off To A Great Start

How you start a speech determines how it will all end…
How you start a speech determines how it will all end…Image Credit

The next time that you give a speech, what can you do to boost your chances of the speech being a success? We all know about the importance of public speaking and since none of us want to waste our time or the time of our audience, long before we take the stage or the front of the room we need to figure out what we can do to make the speech that we’re going to give a great speech.

Three Things That You Can Do To Make Your Speech Great

What can you do in order to make your next speech great? What will transform an ordinary speech into a great speech is if you are able to find ways to connect with your audience. In order to do this, you need to understand what they are looking for you to do.

The first thing that you’ll need to do starts before you even open your mouth. You are going to have to relax. Your audience is going to be able to tell if you are nervous. If you are tense or uptight about standing before them, then they’ll start to feel nervous also and they won’t be able to focus on what you are saying to them.

Don’t let this happen to you. Make sure that you have some time reserved before you are scheduled to begin your speech. Use this time to create a mental picture of yourself being successful. By seeing yourself this way, you’ll be able to calm yourself down and reduce how nervous you feel.

The next thing that you need to realize is that one of the simplest things that you can do can have the biggest impacts: smile. By taking the time to remember to smile while you give your speech, you’ll do a better job of connecting with your audience.

The true power of the smile can only be realized when we are actually using it. What we all too often forget is that when we smile, our audience will react to it. When they see us smiling, they’ll smile back at us and that will put them in a good mood to listen to what we are trying to tell them.

Finally, you need to realize is that one of the keys to your success is going to be your ability to make good eye contact with your audience. It’s not just important that you make good eye contact, but also that you don’t make bad eye contact. If you are not looking at your audience then you’ll be looking elsewhere and that is going to make you look shifty.

Take the time to actually look at your audience while you are giving your speech. By doing this you’ll be able to read their faces. You’ll know if they are following your speech or if you are losing them. Once you know this, you’ll know how you should adjust your speech in order to have the maximum impact.

What All Of This Means For You

Anybody can give an ok speech. However, the next time that we stand before an audience we want to give a great speech. One of the benefits of public speaking is that we can change lives. It turns that that this is possible to do, we just have to know what needs to be done.

The very first thing that you have to do when you are giving a great speech is to relax. If you are tense, then your audience will become tense. Next you have to remember to smile. Doing this will cause your audience to smile back at you. Finally, you need to make eye contact with your audience.

None of these three tips are groundbreaking; however, you would be amazed at how often public speakers forget to do them while they are delivering a speech. The next time that you are standing before an audience, take the time to remember these three tips and your speech will turn out to be great!

– Dr. Jim Anderson
Blue Elephant Consulting –
Your Source For Real World Public Speaking Skills™

Question For You: Do you think that it is possible to smile too much while giving a speech?

Click here to get automatic updates when The Accidental Communicator Blog is updated.
P.S.: Free subscriptions to The Accidental Communicator Newsletter are now available. Subscribe now: Click Here!

Note: What we talked about are advanced speaking skills. If you are just starting out I highly recommend joining Toastmasters in order to get the benefits of public speaking. Look for a Toastmasters club to join in your home town by visiting the web site www.Toastmasters.org. Toastmasters is dedicated to helping their members to understand the importance of public speaking by developing listening skills and getting presentation tips. Toastmasters is how I got started speaking and it can help you also!

What We’ll Be Talking About Next Time

When it comes time to give a speech, since we are aware of the importance of public speaking we tend to spend a lot of time thinking about how we want things to end up. It turns out that although this is important, perhaps what we really should be doing is spending more time worrying about how our next speech starts off.