At first, the thought of public speaking may send you into a discouraging tunnel of disarray. We’ve all been there… but don’t let it anymore! With the help of JGPR Academy, public speaking can be a breeze. Whether you are speaking at an event, a press conference, or in any other scenario, it is important that you are able to successfully inform your audience. Even better, do so in a way that is captivating and impressionable.
Practice, Prepare, and Practice Again
In order for things to go off without a hitch, it is vital to have your speech or statement well outlined. Do so by organizing your speech in a way that makes the most sense for your audience. Ask yourself, what do they want to hear? Moreso, how will they best absorb this information? Keep it simple, and make sure to strategically plan how you will flow from one main point to another. Once you know what you are going to say, practice over and over again: read it outloud, speak into a mirror, or even record yourself delivering the speech with one of your smart devices. This way, you can take note of where you stumble on words or the negative body language you didn’t even know you were doing.
Keep Your Audience Engaged
Many times, audiences can have a short attention span. With this, you want to make sure that you keep them interested. Start with a hook. This way, from the beginning, they will be interested in what you have to say. Following this, add meaningful hand gestures, use visual aids, or even intermingle personal anecdotes or humor into your speech. Keep it snappy. With that being said, this is not always possible, and that’s okay. At times, you will be required to deliver lengthy speeches with a lot of talking points and details to go through. When these times arise, just try your best to integrate audience grabbers throughout.
Speak with Confidence
Most importantly, speak with tenacity. Enunciate your words and be aware of filler words such as, “um”, “you know”, etc. Nothing takes away from your main point more than distracting and unnecessary words. If you find yourself wanting to say a word such as “like”, take a breath instead. By doing this, you can refocus yourself and knock it out of the park. On top of this, avoid reading directly from your speech. When reading, it is a lot easier to start to stumble or lose the place of the sentence you were on. Your intonation could even start to fall flat and overall, you may appear less authentic. Instead, make a notecard of a couple of notes. That way, you won’t miss any important points you needed to make. All of your preparation will pay off, so just breathe. You got this!