Public Speaking Tips

JenNipps

Have you JHS today?
Kind Benefactor
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 12, 2005
Messages
3,672
Reaction score
379
Location
south-central Oklahoma
Website
www.jenifernipps.com
These are some things I've (re)learned or been reminded of since I joined Toastmasters in March.

I'm only going to list a few so I (hopefully) don't sound like a know-it-all. Feel free to add any tips you have, too.
  • Don't apologize for leaving something out. Your audience will never know unless/until you point it out.
  • Don't apologize for being nervous.
  • Try to engage your audience through humor or personal anecdotes where appropriate.
 

Soccer Mom

Crypto-fascist
Kind Benefactor
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jul 5, 2006
Messages
18,604
Reaction score
8,039
Location
Under your couch
My tip of the day:

Practice: not just inside your head, but actually practice speaking the words aloud.

Don't just do it once. Repeated practice will not make you wooden. It will make you confident. Did you nail writing the first time you tried putting pen to paper? Of course not.

Speaking is a skill very much like writing. It takes practice. The more you do it, the more confident you will be.

Do it in front of someone. It doesn't have to be your spouse. In fact, it's often harder in front of a loved one. Try your pet. Your cat won't care and your dog thinks you're wonderful no matter what. But a human audience helps.
 

scope

Commonsensical Maverick
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Mar 30, 2008
Messages
2,763
Reaction score
251
Location
New York
As in writing, have a good opening hook to gain attention.

Know who your audience is and gear your choice of subject matter and language to them. Be clear.

Find ways to get your audience involved. Feedback, Q&A, etc.
 

katiemac

Five by Five
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 11, 2005
Messages
11,521
Reaction score
1,661
Location
Yesterday
Know who your audience is and gear your choice of subject matter and language to them. Be clear.

In my eyes, this is NUMBER ONE RULE.
 

JenNipps

Have you JHS today?
Kind Benefactor
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 12, 2005
Messages
3,672
Reaction score
379
Location
south-central Oklahoma
Website
www.jenifernipps.com
I definitely agree. :)

I had thought of some other tips earlier today, but I did some catch-up work and didn't make note of them, so of course now I've forgotten what they were.

Oh well. They'll come back to me eventually.
 

escritora

.
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Dec 21, 2007
Messages
2,995
Reaction score
616
Though a PowerPoint presentation may add value to a presentation, use it only as a tool and not a crutch.
 

katiemac

Five by Five
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 11, 2005
Messages
11,521
Reaction score
1,661
Location
Yesterday
Though a PowerPoint presentation may add value to a presentation, use it only as a tool and not a crutch.

Also a good one! I like the 5 x 5 rule. No more than five lines a slide, each line no more than five words.
 

L M Ashton

crazy spec fic writer
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Mar 26, 2005
Messages
5,027
Reaction score
518
Location
I'm not even sure I know anymore...
Website
lmashton.com
I prepare my speech ahead of time - not just the broad brush strokes, but every single sentence. I prepare it the same way I would a paper - organized, subsections if necessary, and so on. When I print it for the event, I'll use a larger font so I can read it easier. One side only, paperclipped not stapled. And number all the pages. Definitely number all the pages. Dropping the thing five seconds before you're supposed to start... Eh, yeah, I definitely number the pages. :D

Because I have all the details written down, I'm less likely to forget what I intend to say next. I'm less likely to stumble. I'm more likely to sound natural, not stuttery, and more likely to get through it with much less nerves. :)
 

maestrowork

Fear the Death Ray
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 11, 2005
Messages
43,746
Reaction score
8,652
Location
Los Angeles
Website
www.amazon.com
Make eye contact. I know it's scary for some and there's this old advice saying "imagine them naked sitting on the toilet." That's just silly.

Make eye contact. Think of them as friends instead of people judging you. Ask questions (even if you don't expect an answer). Make it interactive even if it really isn't -- basically, having a dialogue with your audiences.

If you're using a Powerpoint or Keynote presentation, keep the slides clutter-free with 3 to 5 bullets on each slide and keep them short. You don't want them to try to read what's on the screen when she should be focusing on your speech. The presentation is just a tool.

Have a great opening -- practice! It's the worst if you appear nervous right from the start and you lose the point you're trying to make. It'll take a while for you to recover. It's better to have a great, well-practiced opening to calm and ease yourself into the speech.

Also allow at least 5-10 minutes for Q&A. And if no one asks any questions, have a few prepared anyway. Or recruit a couple facilitators (if they're there) to ask some questions.

Make it fun, informative and entertaining, and relevant -- it doesn't matter what topic it is.

Drink water. It's not good if you have a cracked voice.

To practice: videotape yourself. And yes, you will NOT like what you see and that's how you can fix all the problems: gestures, inflection, posture, eye contact, face expressions, etc. Also, you can time it and also listen to the speech to see if it's boring...
 

talkwrite

Passion in full bloom
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Apr 27, 2007
Messages
4,200
Reaction score
194
Location
Behind the windmills of your mind
Website
www.linguisticworld.com
Don't hide behind a podium.
Walk around the stage and learn to project your voice- this keeps the audience alert and attentive.
When making a point nod directly at one person and smile-
Let the audience be the deciding factor as to whether you take questions during or only at the end of your presentation. If it is a tough crowd- hold off or you can get stumped or intimidated during your presentation and that is deadly. If it is a light hearted topic and crowd, bring on the comments and questions during. _ Secret tool: if you are running short on material and long on time , the latter works for filler and people love to tell their own story wrapped in a question.
Engage your audience with questions that they don't get to answer out loud like "haven't you ever "...and "do you remember as a child " This tool encourages them to involve themselves in your presentation and participate more in the Q&A.
 

san_remo_ave

Back at it
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Sep 27, 2006
Messages
3,336
Reaction score
628
Location
Middle TN
Website
www.elainegolden.com
I find it's best to structure a presentation around the rule of three:

1. Tell them what you're going to talk about.
Opening: This is where you introduce the topic you're going to discuss.​

2. Tell them.
Body: This is where you provide the details of the subject.​

3. Tell them what you just told them.
Closing: This is where you summarize the main points.​

This simple method of repetition drives home the topic to your audience and facilitates retention.
 

Gehanna

Introvert
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Mar 8, 2005
Messages
2,139
Reaction score
429
Tips for coping with public speaking fear/anxiety.

Before The Event
  • Engage in the regular practice of relaxation techniques to lower stress and promote the quality of nighttime sleep.
  • Use visualization techniques to mentally "see" yourself mastering the delivery of your speech/presentation/lecture ... This includes visualizing the audience in the manner you want them to respond.
  • Flood your subconscious mind with positive affirmations.
  • Build confidence by having a friend or family member role play being a difficult or disruptive participant.
Day Of Event

Before arrival of the audience:
  • Familiarize yourself with the room or location in which the event is being held. Look around to take in as much of it as possible.
  • Battle fear and anxiety with creativity! Spark your creativity by pretending to be an audience member and visualize yourself giving the speech/presentation/lecture ...
  • Go to the stage area and familiarize yourself with it. Visualize the audience being present and rehearse.
  • Be silly and purposely make a fool of yourself on stage. -- Go on, no one is looking ... yet. :D Act like a chicken or some other farm animal. The point is to get you laughing at yourself. Just make sure there are no cameras rolling!! lol
As the audience begins to arrive:
  • If possible, meet and greet them. Begin to establish rapport in advance.
  • Go to some private area and engage in stretching and deep breathing exercises. Consciously search your body for areas of muscle tension and focus on relaxing them.
  • Recite empowering affirmations as mantras.
  • Engage in prayer.
During Delivery
  • Remember to breathe.
  • If your hands are shaking, avoid holding anything that would evidence the trembling. Items such as paper, a hand held microphone, and glass of water are classic examples.
  • Until your nerves begin to calm, avoid making direct eye contact with the audience. Instead, try looking just above their heads.
  • For rapid speech, slow your cadence by pausing between words and sentences.
After The Event
  • Take time to reflect on the event and give yourself an objective review.
  • When identifying any negative experiences, avoid labeling them as bad mistakes.
  • Use your objective self review to learn from and build on.
  • If you received participant reviews, use them also to learn from and build on.
  • Identify positive experiences and incorporate them into affirmative tools for building confidence and self esteem.
Feel free to add your own tips and techniques to this thread.

Sincerely,
Gehanna
 
Last edited:

Clair Dickson

A dark core to every cloud
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jun 28, 2008
Messages
2,557
Reaction score
571
Location
SE Michigan
Website
www.bofexler.blogspot.com
I just go with the assumption that I'm going to look like the biggest idiot to stand in front of a crowd. So anything I do to lessen just how stupid I look, is a bonus. =)

And if you can laugh at yourself, people will laugh with you.
 

JenNipps

Have you JHS today?
Kind Benefactor
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 12, 2005
Messages
3,672
Reaction score
379
Location
south-central Oklahoma
Website
www.jenifernipps.com
I agree with the laughing at yourself part.

I've never been all that concerned with looking like an idiot. I'm usually about 100% certain I do. lol. That kind of got proven yesterday when I was serving as Toastmaster at a Toastmasters meeting and got flustered. I started introducing the speaker before I'd even really started the preliminaries.

Where my fear came into play -- starting to be not as much of a factor finally -- was along the lines of "What if someone asks me something I can't even begin to answer? They'll think I'm a fraud and I'll never be able to come back!"

Heh. Yeah. Whatever. lol
 

Gehanna

Introvert
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Mar 8, 2005
Messages
2,139
Reaction score
429
I have a secret to share about how I deal with my public speaking fear and anxiety. Keep in mind that my quirkiness gives rise to quirky behavior. By now, I have made that truth more than obvious on the forums. :e2woo:

Pointing out to the audience that you are nervous and fearful is a "no-no" in public speaking. Fortunately for me, I get to move beyond this ideology.

Because the majority of my topics relate to the psyche, I specifically point out how nervous and fearful I am. In doing so, I use myself as an example of what being nervous and fearful can look like.

I show the audience my shaking hands and then I have them observe me to identify other physical signs of my fear and anxiety. From there, I go on to describe the internal experiences I am having such as a rapid heart rate. I encourage them to reflect on and share how they experience and communicate their own fears and anxieties. After this, I explain that my fear and anxiety will begin to decrease as the session continues. I request, for the purpose of later discussion, that the audience continue to observe me for evidence of increasing psychological comfort.

By doing this, I assist the participants to begin meeting one of their obvious objectives. By obvious, I mean one of the objectives as identified on the syllabus. That particular objective deals with having the participants demonstrate their understanding of non-verbal communication. The non-obvious objective, being the objective which is not identified on the syllabus, (also part of my overall mission), is to increase awareness of and appreciation for the human psyche.

The worst thing that could happen to me would be to lose my experience of fear and anxiety.

Now to keep the promise I made in my initial post and finish the tips for coping.

Sincerely,
Gehanna
 

JenNipps

Have you JHS today?
Kind Benefactor
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 12, 2005
Messages
3,672
Reaction score
379
Location
south-central Oklahoma
Website
www.jenifernipps.com
Another tip:

Unless it's an emergency or extremely disruptive, keep going through any interruptions.

Today, as I was giving my speech at Toastmasters, two ladies came in to use the microwave at the back of the room. I basically ignored them as best I could, what with the microwave beeping and all, and just kept going.
 

Yeshanu

Elf Queen
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 14, 2005
Messages
6,757
Reaction score
2,410
Location
Up a Tree
And number all the pages. Definitely number all the pages. Dropping the thing five seconds before you're supposed to start... Eh, yeah, I definitely number the pages. :D

:ROFL:

SMILE!

Unless your topic is of an extremely serious nature, smile. It will warm your audience up better than any joke.

Enunciate your words clearly. If you need practice in learning how to speak clearly, read the Dr. Suess book, "Mr. Brown Can Moo. Can You?" aloud a few thousand times. :D Yes, it really does work. It seems a little less silly if you have a child to read aloud to.

Or join a church choir with a really good choir director, one who insists that you add the "d's" and the "t's" at the end of the words.

S-p-e-a-k s-l-o-w-l-y! It might seem like you're speaking at a glacial pace because you just want to get the darn speech over and done with, but your audience will thank you. Pause slightly between sentences.

You've been told to practice. I agree, but practice both reading your speech, and speaking off-the-cuff. That way, if you do drop your papers and mess up the order, or arrive at the podium with an entire page missing your speech will continue. As long as you don't apologize, and as long as it makes reasonable sense, no one will even notice. Believe me--been there, done that, got the t-shirt.

And while practicing out loud is good, mental rehearsal is just as important for me. I can imagine myself not only making the speech, but making it in the physical space where I'm going to be speaking, to the approximate size and make-up of crowd I'm going to be speaking to.

As far as interruptions go, how you deal with them depends on the type of interruption. You can ignore them, but realize that if something's bothering you, it's also bothering your audience and interfering with their reception of your message. You can politely ask that the interruption be dealt with and cease, if there's someone else who can take responsibility for dealing with it. This is especially important for long talks and on-going interruptions. You can, if you're confident enough and it fits in, make it part of your talk. I've done that a few times with preaching. If the interruption is the fire alarm, however, your talk is over. Get out of the building, eh? :tongue
 

Cath

The mean one
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Mar 23, 2006
Messages
8,971
Reaction score
2,298
Age
50
Location
Here. Somewhere. Probably.
Website
blog.cathsmith.net
I absolutely agree with the "not standing behind the podium" thing. I find it more calming to walk around anyway - gets rid of some of the nervous energy.

Unlike some folks, I don't plan out every word - I keep a bullet list of topics I want to cover and make sure I know them well. Then I ask the audience to interrupt and ask questions during (as long as that's something the format will allow). That way they get out of it something that's useful and tangible for them.

Above all, I try to remember that I'm speaking because I know more than my audience, or because I can give them a different perspective or insight on the topic. They came to listen for a reason, so why be nervous?
 

C.bronco

I have plans...
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jul 3, 2006
Messages
8,015
Reaction score
3,137
Location
Junior Nation
Website
cynthia-bronco.blogspot.com
Remember to breathe. Sometimes I keep talking and forget to take in enough air. I actually got light-headed once. The glass of water helps me pause long enough to remember to breathe in.

(C.bronco has plenty of hot air).
 

johnrobison

A Free Range Aspergian
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jan 5, 2007
Messages
694
Reaction score
148
Location
Amherst, Massachusetts
Website
www.johnrobison.com
I have a story about speaking to the American Psychological Association on my blog today (link at bottom).

Suggestions . . . while some advocate writing a speech, I suggest learning to speak off the cuff with no notes. That way, you are more natural and more flexible.

Stand in the open, not behind something.

Be dynamic.
 

Dale Emery

is way off topic
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 19, 2008
Messages
1,429
Reaction score
311
Location
Sacramento CA
Website
dalehartleyemery.com
In six minutes you can make one good, solid point and support it. So make that point as concisely and pithily as you can, offer a few examples that your audience is likely to know (so you don't have to give a ton of context), and show how the examples exemplify your thesis. And either at the beginning or the end say why your thesis matters to the audience.

That's about all you can expect of yourself in six minutes. You probably can't say everything you want to say, and you certainly can't say everything that you know. So give them your most important point, well supported. And (if it's appropriate) tell them how and when they can talk to you further.

Presenters are often tempted to complain that they don't have time to say everything they wanted to say. DO NOT fall for the temptation. That will waste precious seconds of your six minutes telling them stuff that (1) they know and (2) they don't care about. Just give them the best six minutes you can.

Dale
 

Brenda Hill

Diva in Training
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Apr 27, 2006
Messages
500
Reaction score
101
Location
SoCal
Website
www.brendahill.com
What great tips, and I'm making note of them. Thanks!

Hoping to learn to speak in public, I attended a local Toastmasters meeting. I guess I expected lessons, but instead, they went directly to introducing speakers who gave timed speeches and then to other members who critiqued them.

If they don't teach with classes, how do we learn?
 

Dale Emery

is way off topic
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 19, 2008
Messages
1,429
Reaction score
311
Location
Sacramento CA
Website
dalehartleyemery.com
Hoping to learn to speak in public, I attended a local Toastmasters meeting. I guess I expected lessons, but instead, they went directly to introducing speakers who gave timed speeches and then to other members who critiqued them.

If they don't teach with classes, how do we learn?

The Toastmasters training materials give a series of short lessons that you can read on your own, then apply them to make a short speech. Each lesson focuses on one specific aspect of speaking, and your audience will give you feedback on that aspect plus ones you've learned earlier. The feedback is a really helpful element of the Toastmasters program. And the benefit comes not just from receiving feedback, but also from giving it. Observing presenters with an eye toward critiquing will give you ideas about what works and what doesn't (similar to what happens in a good writers' group).

Read a little bit, apply it, and get feedback. Then on to the next brief lesson. It's a nice progression. Stay with it for a half dozen (short) speeches, and see whether you're learning from it.

Dale
 
Last edited:

AncientEagle

Old kid, no need to be gentle.
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 12, 2005
Messages
2,090
Reaction score
513
Location
Southern U.S.
Fear/nervousness is your friend. It is your system recognizing the significance of what you are doing and gearing up to be keenly alert, as opposed to drowsily carefree. Use it as an energy source in your speaking--controlled, of course. That adrenaline is pumping for a reason. As a long-time paratrooper, I learned that fear kept me alive. God save me from people who profess to have no fear.

Never read your slides/charts/PowerPoints to your audience. If they can't read, they probably have no business being there to begin with. When you show them something in writing, it should be fairly brief, and you should then give them time to read it before proceeding.