Public speaking fear can be a major obstacle if you want to progress your career. Here are several public speaking tricks and a suggestion if you are searching for a public speaking class. Know Your Audience. Your Speech Is About Them, Not You. Before you begin to craft your message, consider who the message is intended for. Learn as much about your listeners as you can. This will help you determine your choice of words, level of information, organization pattern, and motivational statement. Organize Your Material in the Most Effective Manner to Attain Your Purpose. Create the framework for your speech. Write down the topic, general purpose, specific purpose, central idea, and main points. Make sure to grab the audience’s attention in the first 30 seconds.
Add some style: If you are using presentation slides, then make the most of them. More than being pretty, the slides should be functional, but adding a bit of fun and colour usually doesn’t hurt. Here are three quick tips to improve slides: Keep the words on each slide to a minimum; Ensure any words or visuals are large enough to be seen at the back of the room; Only include images, videos and animations to help clarify your points. (Don’t add them if they have the opposite effect!); You don’t want to have everything you are going to say in the slides. Just prompts to help remind you what to talk about and audio/visual media to enhance any point you are making. The best way to deal with the (sometimes unfortunate) need to speak publicly is to embrace it, realise how it will help you and your audience, and enjoy the conversation that it sparks. See more info Overcome fear of speaking.
Take long pauses. Similar to slowing things down, make a point to take long pauses. And make them longer than you even think is appropriate. It can have a great impact on emphasizing key points and emotionally connecting to the audience. Practice tone and projection. Don’t just eek your way through a speech using the same tone and volume. Tone and projection add a layer of entertainment and help keep the audience fully engaged from start to finish. These too must be practiced religiously.
What people say ? First of all, I must admit that I hate public speaking so the title of this book immediately grabbed my attention. Could the author really deliver what he promised? Absolutely and then some! Speak with no Fear is not just about getting over your fear of public speaking it’s also about life changes, life experiences and how we can deal with these tricky little situations. It’s a book about confidence and embracing your inner self. I truly enjoyed reading it and took a lot of precious jewels from it. If you’re on the fence, don’t consider, buy! The Amazon book can be obtained here: Overcome fear of speaking ebook.
Speak to one person at a time: One of the most terrifying things about public speaking is the crowd. Just by looking at the crowd, all in silence just to hear you speak, will send shivers down your spine. To overcome this, you just need to speak to one person at a time. Choose one member of your audience and dedicate your whole presentation to him or her. Just assume that everyone else is not paying attention. When someone asks you a question, change your focus to that person and answer the question as if the two of you are in a coffee shop chatting away. Isn’t that the most relaxing way to handle a crowd?
Mike’s training stretches from private Spanish speaking schools in Mexico, national college debate tournaments, master classes in cultural leadership, certifications in coaching, and his current MBA. Mike has been a professional speaker for 18 years and has spoken to groups of 10 to 10,000. Source: https://thepublicspeaking.school/.