7 Simple Public Speaking Tips

Show of hands, who loves public speaking? Nobody? Anybody?

You are not alone if your hand didn’t shoot up. The fear of public speaking is one of the most common phobias. In fact, three out of every four individuals suffer from glossophobia, the fear or public speaking.

Luckily, public speaking is a learned skill and one that you can conquer over time. Follow these simple public speaking tips to help you conquer your fears and begin captivating your audience.

Control the Controllable

Anything that you can control, you should control. If you are speaking at a new venue, go there at the same time as you would. Scout out a good parking spot and a quiet place to gather your thoughts before you presentation. Check out the room and see where you will be speaking. Ensure that the audio/video equipment is working and you are comfortable using it. Anything that could possibly go wrong that day, try to prevent. Not only with this help prevent mishaps, but it will make you feel more calm and confident when you really need to.

Dress the Part

Confidence is key in public speaking. Do whatever you can to improve your confidence. Consider your audience and dress in appropriate dress. Buy a new outfit, get a manicure, buy some new lipstick, get a blowout. Do something (or all the things) to make you feel your absolute best because that will shine through in your presentation. When you feel your best, you do your best.

Know Your Audience

Understand your audience and what message they are looking for. Put yourself in their shoes. What would best resonate with you. What would speak to you and make you take action or think differently. Would you want humor or would you want a more serious tone? Would you want facts to influence your decision? Would you want actionable steps or something more strategic in nature? If you aren’t familiar with the audience, reach out to the meeting organizer. Ask them what success looks like for your presentation and ask them to connect you with someone that will be in attendance. What better way to find out what your audience is looking for than to ask them!

Practice, Practice, Practice

Practice until you feel comfortable and then practice some more. And practice with anyone that will listen and provide you honest feedback. One time I was preparing for a big project and I presented my material to my five year old son. He wasn’t able to provide very specific feedback but he gave me a confidence boost when he told me I was the best ever. If you don’t have an adorable five year old around, try rehearsing with a coworker or a friend. Every time you rehearse the material, you will feel more and more confident.

Not only do you want to practice WHAT you will say, but also HOW you say it. You will want to practice your tone, use of filler words, and pace of speech. When people are nervous, you tend to talk fast and/or use filler words in your speech. This can distract your audience fro the message you are trying to convey. Use an app such as LikeSo to help you practice this aspect of your public speaking skills. I downloaded this app and use it religiously as I’m preparing for big presentations. Not only did it help me with my pacing (I talk entirely too fast) but it also helped me identify a filler word that I wasn’t even aware I used. It’s well worth the $5 investment!

Outline

When you are drafting your material, draft your speech as an outline. Do not write it out in essay form. Watching someone read their speech is painful for everyone. As a speaker, it is too easy to get lose your place on the page so you increase the risk of fumbling your words. You also lose the ability to truly connect with the audience by limiting your eye contact and movement.

When I’m preparing for a new presentation, I always follow a simple process. 1.) I start with a high level overview. What key messages do I want to convey to my audience? I bullet point this out at a high-level. 2.) I then start to fill in the outline with more detail. Here is where I start to fill in specific facts or steps that I want to include. With this level outline, I ensure that I have my introduction, transitions (how you move from thought to another), and my conclusion completely scripted. This level outline is the one that I use to practice. 3.) I then condense this outline back down to a high level to use for the presentation. Hopefully at this point you will have much of the presentation memorized and this outline will just help serve as a guide if you lose your place when you are presenting.

Begin and End Strong

Public speaking experts know that the beginning and end of any presentation is the most critical. You want to start off strong and confident to capture the audience’s attention. Tell a story, share a fascinating statistic, make the audience laugh. You have a short time to make a first impression.

You also want fo finish strong. Every time you end a presentation you will want to briefly summarize what you discussed, repeat your key message that you want them to take away, and share clear calls to action. The audience should know why and how to take action and be energized to do so.

Tap Into Your Alter Ego

The last tip that I’m going to share is a tad unorthodox but probably the most effective. As we already established public speaking can be terrifying for most people. We also established that you need to bring your full confident self to the table in order to be effective. What happens if you are not quite confident? Well, then you fake it til you make it. Step into your superhero alter-ego before you step on the stage. Todd Herman is a world renowned performance coach and has written a book on this very concept, The Alter Ego Effect: The Power of Secret Identities to Transform Your Life. The notion is that you create an alter-ego of someone that embodies everything you desire. In this case, it would likely be someone that is extremely confident and knowledgeable in the subject matter, someone who is naturally charismatic and engaging, someone who communicates clearly and causes people to take action, and someone that is confident and poised. Before you take on public speaking, you step into this character and “become” them. This helps you perform better and ward off some of those insecurities and worries that you may have. I was a bit of a skeptic but this technique has been so incredibly helpful. In fact, many athletes, performances, and CEOs are client’s use this technique and have proven it successful.

You will make mistakes along your public speaking journey. Your first presentation will not be that great. But you know what? Your next one will be better. And the one after that even better. You will continually learn and grow with each presentation you give. You have a lot of great knowledge to share, now go out there and share it!