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The great thing about public speaking is that just about everything that we are trying to do has been done before. When you get ready to give your next speech, listen to the voice of experience from other more accomplished speakers and use their guidance to transform your speech into a true experience for your audience.
3 Tips For Giving A Better Speech
One of the best things about working to become a better speaker is that many other speakers have traveled this path before us. What this means is that if only we’d be willing to take the time to listen to what they have to tell us, we can become better at speaking. Here are three time-tested tips from experienced speakers that will allow you to share the importance of public speaking with your next audience..
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Start Strong: It’s been said before, but we can never say it too often – how you get introduced can have a big impact on how your speech turns out. What this means is that you need to take control over how you are introduced – don’t leave it up to other people. Write out the introduction that you want used. Make sure that this introduction is not a boring biography. Instead, infuse it with information on your speaking credentials, your life experiences, and just exactly what you plan on talking to this audience about.
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Your Style Says A Lot About You: When we stand in front of an audience, we are basically standing there naked – it’s just us and our voice. Experienced speakers know that their sense of personal style can help to both capture and hold their audience’s attention. This is a tricky area because what you want to do is to personalize your appearance in a way that will appeal to your audience. However, you don’t want to do anything that is going to distract from your speech or cause your audience to not pay attention to what you are saying.
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It’s Homework Time: Your goal for any presentation is to help your audience to get as much out of the presentation as possible. In order to make this happen, you’ve got to do your homework. The best example of this is when any sort of award is being given out, take the time to look up and talk to last year’s winner. By doing this you’ll be able to embrace your audience and offer them much more.
What All Of This Means For You
Just about anyone can give a speech; however, very few of us can give speeches that become a memorable experience for our audience. What we need to do is to listen to those who have done it before and learn from them.
The next time that you are going to be giving a speech, you need to make sure that you start it off with a great introduction. Use your own sense of personal style to capture and hold your audience’s attention. Finally, create a connection between you and your audience by doing your homework before you start to talk.
It’s not easy to make a connection with an audience and then get them to pay attention during your entire speech. However, by following these three tips, you just might be able to share the benefits of public speaking with your audience. By connecting with your audience, you are that must more likely to end up changing their world with your speech and that’s why we give speeches.
– Dr. Jim Anderson
Blue Elephant Consulting –
Your Source For Real World Public Speaking Skills™
Question For You: Do you think that you should ever introduce yourself?
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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
We’d all like to become better public speakers. However, that’s simply not going to happen if we are too afraid to get up there and give our speech. Even if we can get on stage, no matter how good our audience’s listening skills are, we may be constantly battling our fears and it’s going to take away from the speech that we give. How can a speaker overcome stage fright?