I started speaking in public from an early age. Throughout my early schooling and extracurriculars, I always tried to get involved in activities that required a presentation or any sort of public speaking. I remember stumbling often, making mistakes, and forgetting what I was talking about. Although I started being very bad, I started getting better once I learned certain aspects of public speaking that made it easier to be comfortable in front of a crowd of people.
Today I want to share with you three tips to improve your public speaking exponentially:
1) Practice Higher
I always think back to “TED Talks” when I think of practice. A well-organized “TED Talk” is the definition of practicing for a speech. These presentations usually only allow the presenter to use a slide show and a clicker with no papers, or references to look at while presenting. The speaker is alone with the crowd and their content. Speakers practice relentlessly to make sure they know every word, gesture, and anticipated crowd reaction in their presentation.
When you are getting ready to present in public, practice the material several times. Start by reading a transcript of what you plan to say several times until you get the content memorized to where you feel comfortable talking about it. Then start doing full runs in front of your mirror or in front of people you feel comfortable with. This will allow you to gauge gestures and crowd reactions. Remember that the level of practice often determines the level of your presentation, so start preparing as soon as possible.
2) Build Confidence
I remember one of the first times I made a mistake in public. I was in middle school and our teacher had asked us to prepare a presentation. I had the night before preparing everything for it and never went over the material. Once I started presenting, I had to present with a paper in front of me, not even an index card, and the worst part was that I was reading from it. I didn’t look up and stopped often to gather my thoughts on what I was reading. Does this sound familiar?
After you practice with the materials of your presentation, keep in mind that part of presenting in public also involves captivating your audience. This means being engaging and taking them into consideration. To build up your confidence, start by looking in the eyes of the people around you, or in their direction at least to keep them engaged with your presence. When you make a mistake or trip up with a word, do not stop to repeat it and move on. This will keep the mistake from disrupting the flow of your presentation. Build your confidence and get ready to charm your audience.
3) Speak Up
One of the biggest issues with bad presenting is when you can’t hear what the presenter is saying because they are speaking too low. I’ve lived through this myself and it’s not fun when somebody in the back speaks up to ask you to raise your voice because they can’t hear you. There are ways to avoid this and it’s often an easy fix once you recognize it.
In order to manage your tone of voice, you have to be mindful of your normal speaking voice. When you are practicing, try to speak at your normal tone and then raise practice speaking two levels above your normal tone. Try to see if you, or the people in front of you notice the difference and stay with the higher tone. To help you reach a higher tone, practice projecting you voice from the back of your mouth. Making sure everybody can hear your will help the crowd be engaged in what you have to say.
To bring it all together, you can deliver a stellar presentation when you practice for it, build up your confidence, and keep the right tone with the audience. Now is my turn to ask you, do you like speaking in public? How do you feel these three tips would help you?