How to be an AWESOME public speaker! Tips from an expert!!
Hello friends! Today I want to share some tips on how to be an awesome public speaker. I’ve consulted my partner for this post, as he does a lot of public speaking as part of his career and he’s really really good at it… no joke, he often tells me people asked him for selfies at the end of his speech. Meanwhile, I can’t even get on-stage without my knees and my voice shaking!
He works in the IT industry, so he’s used to speaking alongside a lot of Tech and Finance Speakers and he rocks it every time! These are his top tips on how to be an awesome public speaker! Let’s go!
Messaging must be concise and easy to understand
The temptation is to fill your speech with facts, figures and knowledge which will prove you are an expert. But here’s the thing… you ARE an expert, that’s why you have been invited to speak! So make your message concise and easy to understand for everyone in the room.
Practice, practice, practice
If you aren’t used to public speaking, then you need to practice your speech a LOT. Ask your friends and family to sit in on your dry runs and get used to presenting in front of an audience. I know it sounds embarrassing, but it will make speaking at the actual event a lot easier. This will also help you time the speech to perfection as there is nothing worse than a 10 minute speech which overruns to 40 minutes and vice versa.
Be confident
Admittedly, it can be hard, but try to be confident without being arrogant. If you struggle with confidence, then spend a few minutes before giving yourself a pep talk. Remind yourself why you are there and all the years of experience and knowledge you have in the subject. Also, the more you practice your speech, even if it’s just to your friends, the easier it will feel to be confident.
As for jokes, make sure you are confident in throwing any jokes in as if they don’t land, it can really throw your confidence and might be hard to recover. Similarly, something you find funny might be offensive to someone else. So, it’s often best to keep jokes out, just in case!
Use different presenting mediums
We all know a PowerPoint is a great visual aid, but have you thought about other ways you can make it a little more interactive. For instance, with a white board and signs, or audience polls to get a little participation and make people feel more involved. Not only will it be more fun for the audience, but it will also make it more fun for you and make you feel more confident. Also, when it comes to PowerPoint presentations, try to include lots of images rather than oodles of text.
If you can, do a course
Finally, if you can, it’s well worth doing a course in public speaking. They can often be only a day or two long but really be invaluable, especially if you have a big event and you haven’t got much experience speaking in front of a lot of people. My partner did one years ago as part of training at a former job and he found it super helpful, especially on the beginning of his career.
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Ta da! And there we have it! My partners top tips on public speaking! I honestly can’t stress enough how much speaking and hosting he does for work and he always gets incredible feedback on it. So I really hope these tips are helpful to you!!
This is a collaborative post.
