Proven Tips For Public Speaking Success

If you want to be a successful public speaker then there are a number of proven tips that you can follow. We have some of those tips for you in this article. Public speaking is nowhere near as difficult as some people think it is. By using the right techniques, you can be a very confident public speaker.

 

Add Persuasion to your Public Speaking

 

When the opportunity arises for you to make a speech in public then we recommend that you go for it. It is one of the best ways to generate more leads and sales for your business when you do it right. Your aim should always be to provide an inspiring and persuasive speech to your audience.

 

We recommend that you always start with your desired outcome in mind when you are putting your presentation together. Think about what you want your audience to do when they have heard you speak and how you can persuade them to do this. 

 

The key to persuading your audience is engaging with them. You need to ensure that the content of your presentation is what your audience wants and that you entertain them as much as you can. Be sure to maintain good eye contact and smile when you are presenting. Use good calls to action in your presentation to guide your audience to do what you want them to.

 

Interact and check for Feedback

 

Interaction is something that you must build in to your presentation. Nobody wants to sit and listen to you for a long time without be able to contribute no matter how good of a public speaker you are. A method that works well with public speaking is to ask your audience a question at the end of each of your sessions.

 

If you are presenting to a live audience then you can give them a choice of answers and then ask for a show of hands to see who chose the right answer. With a webinar, there will be a chat box that attendees can use to share their answer with you.

 

At a live event you can see your audience and with some online events you will be able to see at least some of them. It is important that you focus on your audience in order to gauge their mood. If you are seeing bored faces then you need to change things up. You must be flexible when you are a public speaker.

 

Don’t try to be someone else

 

Some presenters will try to be someone else at a public speaking event. This is usually because they have some insecurities about who they really are. This is hard to maintain and we recommend that you do not do this.

 

Instead, concentrate on being yourself. Letting your personality shine through will be appreciated by your audience. Tell them a good back story that supports your true character. This will help to build trust with your audience.

 

Have a great Start and a great End

 

Starting your presentation off in the best way is critical. Use different techniques to get the attention of your audience such as anticipation, controversy and shock. If you do not move your audience in the beginning, you will be fighting a losing battle.

 

End in a memorable way as well. Your audience will remember you if you end in a great way. Make an important statement or use another technique to ensure that your ending is as memorable as possible.

 

Plan Your Public Speaking Success

You probably already know that it makes sense to plan for any public speaking engagement that you have coming up. There are several advantages to doing this properly as you will see in this article. We would never advise that you head into a public speaking engagement and deliver something “off the cuff”. It is very likely to end in disaster!

 

Overcome Nervousness with Planning

 

A lot of people are nervous when they have to speak in public and this is a natural thing. Even the most seasoned of confident speakers will experience nerves from time to time. It is actually a good thing to experience nerves at a public speaking event. The reason for this is that it will create an adrenaline rush in your body that will ensure that you stay alert.

 

Preparing your presentation will help a lot to minimize the nerves that you experience. It is essential that you are as comfortable as possible with what you are presenting and it is a good idea to practice in front of someone that will tell you the truth. As an alternative, you can record yourself and then go over the recording with a critical eye.

 

Knowing your Audience will help a lot

 

All successful public speakers find out as much as they can about their audience before they present to them. When you really know your audience well you will be able to create a connection with them a lot easier. 

 

Knowing your audience will ensure that you will provide them with what they want. You need to know what the burning questions are that they have about your niche. Providing answers to these questions will delight them and they will perceive you to be an expert. 

 

Audience engagement is critical and knowing your audience will help here. You can anticipate what they want to know and what questions they are likely to ask. Tailor your content to the needs of your audience and your presentation will be a great success.

 

Create an Outline for your Presentation

 

Some people like to create a full script for their presentation but we recommend that you do not do this. Reading from a script is not a good idea with public speaking as it can make your delivery sound very flat. You will also lose eye contact with your audience because you need to keep looking at your script.

 

It is better to create an outline for your presentation that you can glance at from time to time to ensure that you stay on track. Use bullet points or a list of the important things that you need to talk about. You can also highlight any important points that you need to make within a section of your presentation as well.

 

Use the Correct Visuals

 

An audience at a public speaking event will expect you to use visuals such as PowerPoint slides. This is perfectly normal for a business presentation. Be careful not to create too many slides for your presentation though. Having too many slides can divert the focus of your audience which you want to avoid.

 

Any visual that you use needs to enhance what you are saying. If this is not the case then the visual is useless. When you are using slides do not reveal all of the content on them at the beginning. Make a point speaking and then uncover this on the slide. 

 

Improve Your Conversation Skills To Be A Confident Speaker

A lot of people do not realize that if they improve their conversation skills then they will be more confident with their speaking. Having good conversation skills brings its own rewards as well. Here we will discuss some proven methods for developing your conversation skills so that you can be confident with anyone that you meet.

 

Decide on your Intention

 

Any important conversation that you are going to have should have an intention. We recommend that you plan for these important conversations and identify what your outcome or intention is. The bottom line here is that you need to decide what the purpose of your conversation will be. Things will definitely go better for you when you do this.

 

A Friendly Approach is recommended

 

When you want to approach someone to begin a conversation it is essential that you get your body language right. You must make the best first impression that you can and often people form this impression without you saying a word.

 

Be sure to establish eye contact with the person but do not turn this into a stare. Keep your hands visible at all times and smile at the person. It is best that you adopt a relaxed posture when you are approaching someone. You want to give the impression that you are friendly and open.

 

Have some Conversation Starters ready

 

Are you good at starting conversations? Most people are not and will end up saying something that will not be well received by the other person. Starting a conversation well is tough and you will need to practice this.

 

A tried and tested conversation starter that you can use is “hi, how are you?” and then you can introduce yourself. There are a number of great conversation starters that you can find online. It is a good idea to go through these and make a note of those that you are comfortable with. Use them to get the conversation rolling.

 

Keep the Conversation going

 

Good conversationalists will look for ways to keep a conversation going. They do this by asking the right questions so that they can find out what really excites a person. You can then use conversation sparks which will result in a dopamine rush for the person you are conversing with.

 

Good Conversationalists tell Stories

 

Why do good conversationalists tell stories? Because it works of course! Who doesn’t love a good story? When you have mastered the art of storytelling you will be a hit with most of the people that you hold conversations with.

 

Encourage others to Respond

 

Always bear in mind that a conversation is a two-way thing. Some people get carried away and want to dominate conversations. This is not a good idea. You can be seen as the leader of a conversation without having to resort to this.

 

You can use certain questions to elicit a response from the other person. After telling a story you can ask “how about you?” Ask this in the right way and you should get the other person to open up more and contribute to the conversation.

 

Finish the Conversation with a Lasting Impression

 

It is likely that you will want to leave a lasting impression with a number of people that you have a conversation with. This is very true in business and it can be in your personal life as well. Think of ways that you can create a lasting memory of your conversation for others.

 

Developing The Traits Of Confident Speakers

Modelling successful people so that you can be successful too is something that has worked for centuries. It can be a great way to shortcut your success and it certainly applies to becoming a confident speaker.

 

You need to know what the most common traits of confident speakers are and then develop these in yourself. So, in this article we will reveal the most important traits that confident speakers possess so that you can work on developing the same traits.

 

Confident Speakers are Confident

 

Yes, this is obvious, but it is essential that you realize that confidence is the number one trait that you need to possess to be a successful speaker. When you are confident with your speaking you will attract many people that will hang on your every word.

 

If you do not feel that your confidence level is sufficient enough then there are several ways that you can give your self-confidence a boost. You do need to put in some effort on a consistent basis to improve your confidence though. Watch videos of confident speakers and check their delivery, their body language and more.

 

Confident Speakers tell Stories

 

People love to listen to good stories and confident speakers know this. They always use a storytelling approach when they are speaking because they know that it works so well. You will be able to drive a high level of engagement when you tell a good story.

 

A lot of people avoid telling stories because they don’t feel like they have any stories from their own life that are worth telling. This is usually not the case in reality and we recommend that you dig deep to uncover some good stories about yourself. 

 

Another thing that you can do is to search online for good stories of someone else’s life that will relate to what you are going to speak about. The bottom line is that there is no excuse not to tell good stories.

 

Confident Speakers have Passion in their Voice

 

The most successful speakers will use passion in their voice and this is great for audience engagement. Would you sooner listen to a passionate speaker or one that has a monotone delivery when they are speaking? You already know the answer to this.

 

If you are not passionate about your subject then how can you expect others to be? Confident speakers are able to inject the right amount of passion whenever they are speaking. It may take you a while to emulate this trait but it will certainly be worth it.

 

Confident Speakers are Concise

 

A confident speaker will always use the least number of words possible to get their message across. They respect the time of others (and their own) and they never want to be perceived as someone who just talks for the sake of it.

 

If you need to work on this then you must do that. Nobody will want to listen to you if you just ramble on and on repeating yourself several times. 

 

Confident Speakers can read the Signs

 

A confident speaker can tell if their message is being received and whether their speech is being well received or not. You can develop this trait too as it is so important. If the signs are telling you that things are not going that well then you can change your approach to improve things.

 

Why Planning Is So Important For Confident Speaking

Planning what you are going to talk about will help you to be a more confident speaker. Of course, we are not expecting you to plan every conversation that you have. But it is a good idea to plan for the important ones. It is especially important when you are addressing a group of people such as a large audience on a webinar.

 

It can be tempting just to “wing it” and skip any preparation. The problem with this is unless you are supremely confident with your speaking it is not likely to turn out well. In this article, we will discuss why it is important to be prepared.

 

You will have more Options

 

The worst possible thing that can happen to you when you are speaking in any situation is to run out of things to say. Imagine addressing a large number of people and then having to deal with an awkward silence because you don’t know what to say next. Your reputation will take a nose dive if this happens.

 

When you plan your important conversations and presentations you can identify a number of options that you can take should you need to do this. Yes, it does take effort to plan and prepare, but the results that you will achieve will justify this effort.

 

Your Words will Flow better

 

A major benefit of planning what you are going to say is that it should result in a better flow of your words. When you practice your speaking, you should find that you develop a more natural flow with your words.

 

Practicing will also help to boost your confidence. When you have rehearsed everything, you will feel a lot more in control. There is no need for you to create a script and read from it. It is better to create an outline and refer to this.

 

You will be more Focused

 

Staying on topic is a very important thing to do and confident speakers are masters of this. It helps to avoid not having enough to say or saying too much. Unfortunately, there are a lot of speakers that do not have the right focus when they are speaking and things can quickly come off the rails in this situation.

 

Create a Backup Plan

 

What are you going to do if something goes wrong when you are speaking? Maybe you notice that your audience is not as engaged as you want them to be for example. If you plan what you are going to say then you can come up with ideas for a backup plan if something goes wrong.

 

When you Plan it will help you to Anticipate

 

Confident speakers are usually able to anticipate the questions that their audience is going to ask them. Some of this comes from experience and some from the planning that they do. During the planning of their speech, they think about the type of questions that are likely to come up and prepare to answer these questions.

 

Planning helps to minimize speaking errors

 

We recommend that you record yourself speaking when you are in the planning stage and look for errors. Maybe you have repeated yourself or you are using too many “ums” and “ahs” when you speak. You need to be critical when you watch your recordings back so that you can minimize these errors on the day.