10 Tips for the Aspiring Speaker

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Guest Writer: Nyree Burt

In my years as a public speaker, I have come to know some really good techniques for helping beginning speakers to grow and develop and I want to share some of these public speaking tips with you.

Public speaking can be a really horrifying experience and some people have even developed a phobia about it. Having some uneasiness when you are about to get up in front of an audience is quite normal. Even the people who do this for a living are a little nervous. If they weren’t it would be time for them to quit what they are doing. Nerves give you an edge, without that edge you will probably bore your audience. However being fearful and irrationally petrified will not do you any good.

Here are a few public speaking tips to help you overcome the nervousness and deliver an entertain, motivating or informative speech.

1. Know your material. You should be so immersed in your topic that you need hardly refer to your notes. Notes should be brief bulleted points on a small piece of paper, which are only there for you to glance at from time to time.
2. Be familiar with the venue. You need to visit the place you are going to speak. Arrive early and take a walk around the room. If there is a stage, familiarize yourself with the steps up to the stage and with the equipment on the stage.
3. Test the audio-visual equipment. If you are giving a PowerPoint presentation, make sure that all your laptop equipment including spare cables is there and working and make sure that the data projector has a spare bulb and that it is working too. Don’t forget to test out the microphone and have someone run a sound check. Check, check and double check. Nothing is more character-testing than having audio-visual equipment break down and you can’t fix it. I’ve known people whose data projector bulb was broken and they didn’t have a spare and another person who left the cable that connects their laptop to the data projector at home and there was a huge amount of panic as the venue was searched for a replacement. You will NOT present a professional demeanor if your equipment is faulty and you haven’t checked it all out.
4. Visualize yourself giving the speech. Get a clear picture in your mind of you standing up and delivering the speech or presentation. See yourself succeeding at captivating your audience and informing or entertaining them. When you can visualize yourself being successful, you will be successful.
5. Know your target audience. If at all possible, mingle and greet some of your audience as they arrive and make them instant friends. You will find it much easier giving your presentations to a group of friends than a group of strangers. Know the specific nature of the guests. Do they belong to the same business type or organization and what has brought them together today. Once you have determined this, put some anecdotes or items of interest relating to their common interest, into your presentation. Perhaps you could make a positive statement about the geography of the town or city you are speaking in.
6. Relax. Deep breaths and a few yawns are a marvelous way of de-stressing. Don’t have an alcoholic beverage for ‘courage’ before speaking. It does NOT beat the fear, but it will dull your mind and produce tiredness so that you will bore your audience. It will make you think you are giving a really scintillating performance when really, you’re bombing out.
7. Don’t apologize. Apologizing only draws attention to the things you really don’t want or need attention to be drawn to and which the majority of your target audience didn’t even notice.
8. Turn the anxiety into positive energy. Gather your nervous energy and transform it into positive, motivating enthusiasm and dynamism.
9. Concentrate on the message not the medium. Whatever you focus your attention on will begin to dominate your thoughts and feelings. So focus all that attention towards your message and your audience rather than on your anxiety and concerns and you will find that the butterflies in your stomach will begin to fly in formation.
10. Understand that people WANT you to succeed. Your target audience will want you to be stimulating. They want you to be informative and they want you to be entertaining. Once you realize this then you can RELAX and enjoy your message, enjoy your rapport with the audience and enjoy the whole process.

These points have been some of the most rewarding things I have learned. Learning them, understanding them and practicing them are what gave me the success I have today.

I hope these Public Speaking Tips will help you to grow and develop as a public speaker.

About The Author

Nyree Burt is an author and a public speaker of some skill and experience. She has won awards and competitions for speaking ever since she was a teenager. She has addressed corporations and held training sessions in Australia and New Zealand and can add significantly to the skill level of anyone who desires to improve their public speaking skills.

She has many great Public Speaking tips on her blog at Nyree’s Public Speaking Tips.