Tips to Improve Public Speaking

Whether we're presenting in front of an audience or talking in a team meeting, we all have to speak in public. Speaking in front of an audience is very important, even if you don't make regular appearances in front of a team, there are numerous situations where proper public speaking qualities can help you enhance your career. Public speaking is the best way to improve your position as a professional and create PR for your occupation. It is an art and can arouse anxiety, fear, and shyness, but proper preparing and practicing can help you perform exceptionally well. In short, it can enhance your status, increase your self-confidence, and open up a number of opportunities.

Good public speaking skills are essential in all phases of your life. Whether you are addressing a conference, making a speech, training a team or attending a meeting. You must have heard some common good public speaking advice to speak clearly and slowly, and make eye contact with the audience. However, there is a lot you can do to become a good public speaker. With some tips and practice, you can become a better speaker. This article explains you how:

Know your audience: The audience is an essential part in a public event. Understanding your audience is most important, whether you are giving a presentation, lecturing in a class, or speaking at office conference. To do this, you don’t need to have skilled knowledge of the type of audience, but you should know enough to speak according to their interests, likings, or leadership. A good public speaker knows, what his audience cares about, what are their problems and what they already know about the presentation or topic. Give them information in a manner that is useful to them. You can’t delight everyone all the time, but think about whom you are talking to and what kind of information they are looking for, be it facts, a particular story, motivation or a heartfelt thank you. The bottom line: Do your homework before addressing them.

Avoid filler words: As a speaker, developing and maintaining credibility is essential to win the trust of your audience. You should convince them that your concepts and ideas are valuable and that they should devote their precious time listening to what you are saying. According to Maria Ralph, the founder of Public Presence Agency, mental floss one way to show your authority and knowledge is to replace filler words with a pause. Finish your sentence with a gap for a final close. Nothing challenges your credibility like filler words.

Keep your sentences simple and short: You must have heard: Keep it simple and short. This just means you should not strain your audience by forcing them to follow a lengthy and complex sentence. Don’t overload them with too many pieces of data.

Speak to one person at a time: One of the most important and terrifying things about public speaking is the crowd. The crowd only can make you nervous or will send shivers down your spine. To overcome this, speak to one person at a time. Select one member from the crowd and refer your entire speech to him or her. It’s the most soothing way to handle the audience.

Simplify your core message: When you’re delivering a long presentation or speech, it’s very common to talk about facts, figures, and statistics and forget the core point you wanted to convey. Remember, adding more information into a speech doesn't create more value for the crowd. It will make your audience completely forget about your message. You should focus on one basic point that you want people to remember in your speech and take action on.

Practice more: The more you practice, the more you will be effective while speaking. Look down at your speech notes, stumble on main phrases, as you try to recall your words. Some people practice in front of a mirror, some sign up for toastmasters, some record their speech and hear it again and again. If possible, watch some experts talk about public speaking, learn how they speak, their body language, hand movements, etc. You can also read blogs from professional speakers or, such as Amy Cuddy or Olivia Fox Cabane.

These were the few golden tips, following which can make your public presentation remembered. Always remember, if you speak well in public, it can really help you get a job, career advancement, and educate others. The more you prepare yourself to speak in front of the public, the better you'll become, and the more self-confidence you'll have. There are many more strategies and tactics for speaking in public, but if you apply these strategies to your speech, you will have a basis for a more pleasant stage presence. Using them to your benefit will allow you to make dramatic enhancements in your capabilities as a public speaker.

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