You Can Excel In Public Speaking
--
How to charm people with your oratory skills
The Chapman University Survey on American Fears revealed that American people fear speaking in public more than sharks, heights, or drowning. This is a remarkable fact that made me ask myself questions like:
- Why are we scared of talking in front of other people?
- Why some of us prefer to die rather than talking about the company’s new product?
- Why do we pretend to suffer a voice loss the day before our presentation?
- Why can’t we remember all the slides/pages we have studied on the day of our speech?
- Why do we stutter, mumble while talking?
- Why is the audience not listening? Why are they leaving?
I did a lot of public speaking, and I am grateful for that. It made me better because as they say, the more you do it the easier it gets. I am also an actor so we can say speaking in front of 500 people a day is my job. And I love it. And I want you to love it too because public speaking, as Dale Carnegie would say, is an art. It will serve you in all areas of your life, so embrace it!
I am now going to give some tips to start, improve, and master your ability to charm others with your words (with some exercises from acting, too! ), so let’s get started.
Speak the speech, I pray you, as I pronounced it to you, trippingly on the tongue. But if you mouth it, as many of your players do, I had as lief the town crier spoke my lines
-Hamlet
CHANGE YOUR PERSPECTIVE
First things first. We cannot do a great speech if our mind gets in the way. Remember, conquer your mind and conquer the world is not just a fancy quote to make feel better, it’s a way of life!
When we are out of our comfort zone, our thoughts will wander and we have no way to prevent this. And I’ll tell more, we must NOT! We should let our stream of thoughts flow freely, and focus on our goals at the moment such as:
- engage our audience more
- show more enthusiasm
- summarize our speech
- speak with a correct diction
and so on.
To do this we must change our mindset. Change it from a passive/negative to a more positive/growth-oriented one. How to do this? Just remember that the audience wants you to succeed, they want to learn something new and find the solution to their problems. They didn’t pay the ticket to make fun of you. No Sir, they paid the ticket to go there and get out as better people.
So when you are preparing your speech, remember ( if you can choose) to speak about something that makes you vibrate with passion, be authentic, and positive! Also, be willing to fail.
Fail early, Fail often, Fail forward
-Will Smith
You will not be perfect the first time. And neither the 100th, so be ready to fail and adapt to the situation. A useful exercise that I learned from acting is the “Improv Exercise”, it will teach you to improvise and expect the unexpected.
Exercise 1-
Don’t memorize the speech right away. Try to convey its theme by improvising with your own words. Do this until you are confident about what you are going to say, no doubts just straight facts.
WORK ON YOUR DICTION
Next comes the work on the text. What good is the speech if we can’t be understood? If we mumble our words or speak too fast? So now we are going to work on the “technical” side of our work, including but not limited to, diction (how we articulate the words), pace (the rhythm and speed of our speech), volume, and intonation (pitch changes during the speech).
We must be clear while we speak to engage others, that’s why we should work on our diction. Remember, it doesn’t matter what accent you use as long as you speak with a free voice, meaning no tensions or blocks. To improve our dictions, we must work on our speech muscles (jaw, tongue, and lips). Here are two simple Diction exercises to try while approaching your text:
Exercise 2-
Without voice, mouth the text shaping every vowel and touching every consonant especially the last ones like -ing, -d, -th. Then, speak the text.
Exercise 3-
Speak the speech with your tongue out, trying to sound as clear as possible. Then, do it normally without the tongue out.
If you don’t want your audience to fall asleep, try to change pace and intonation during the whole speech. Never settle, be passionate about what you are saying and it will come naturally.
Definite speech means clarity of mind
-Mark Twain
Pauses are also very important. Avoid filler words such as “ahm…um…you know…like…” and so on. Pauses will feel natural to an audience and remember, they cannot hear your heart bouncing!
Notice how Obama makes the audience breathe using the power of pauses. Silence is gold.
EMOTIONS AND INTENTIONS
Another important point is, as stated before, how much passion and purpose we put in our speech. This, dear reader, is an essential element if you want to win the listeners.
While you are writing your speech remember to choose a goal for it, and then pursue that goal during your presentation. For example, let’s say you are going to talk about climate change. The goal for your presentation can be “to open their (public) eyes” or “to transform them”. On presentation day, keep in mind your goal and your intention will transpire.
The human brain starts working the moment you are born and never stops… until you stand up to speak in public
-George Jessel
There is a thing called charisma that the best orators have. Charisma is the ability to attract others and, contrary to popular belief, there are many types of charisma. Luckily, charisma can and should be learned so I advise you this Youtube channel to start doing it.
PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT
Remember to practice your speech again and again. Do it in different settings, moments, and situations. You should be able to do it while getting dressed, driving, watching TV, and sleeping. It should be second nature to you.
Exercise 4-
Go through the text very quickly without stopping, but never “skim” over any of the words. Then, do it again but very slowly hitting every word. Do it quickly again for the last time.
Once you master this exercise, you and the text will become the same thing. A charming weapon.
90% of how well the talk will go is determined before the speaker steps on the platform
-Somers White
Try to record your presentation and correct any mistakes you may do (too fast, too dull, monotone, etc..), watch great speakers from the past, or even TEDx.
Be confident, public speaking will make you priceless.
