Tell Them Something They Don't Know
When an author is trying to come up with a topic for his next story or novel, the old pros in the writing came will always give him the same advice. “Write about what you know.” That is because if you speak from your own area of expertise, you will speak with authority and passion. And authority and passion not only make for a great story or novel, they make for a really good public speaking event as well.
When you are putting together what you will use for your talk to that group you want to amaze, you want both of those elements, authority and passion. But on top of that, you have to give them something to make it perfect. You have to tell them something they don’t know. To achieve a balance of what is familiar with what is new and fascinating will be the stuff of your research and preparation for public speaking.
The Greatest Public Speaking Secret Of Them All
Any guide to success in an endeavor will tell you that there is no magic formula to success. But in a lot of fields of endeavor, there seem to be “insider secrets”. And taking on the challenge of becoming a truly great public speaker is a noble ambition. But if you could learn the insider secret that makes the difference between good public speakers and great ones, that would help you make that transition.
Actually there is one great secret to what makes speakers that really shine in front of a group so great. But it isn’t magic or something that you can take as a pill and an hour later, presto, you are ready to stand up and dazzle the crowd. It is a very simple process that is something you already know a lot about. It is just simple, old fashioned hard work and preparation.
What's Your Problem
How you approach that moment when you stand up to give a speech depends a lot on why you are giving the presentation. Now we are not talking about the fact that you have to give the speech to pass your general education speech class in junior college or that your boss is making you give the speech because he is to darn lazy to do it. Instead to really give a good speech, you must know that the speech is designed to do. By identifying what the goal of the speech is and what you want the audience to experience from your presentation, that will give you a lot of information both on what kind of content to use but on your attitude and “approach” when you actually get ready to give the talk.
Its All In The Voice
Maybe one of the most common occurrences that happens in a public speaking situation is to see someone in the audience go to sleep on you. When you are the one going to sleep, you just hope the speaker doesn’t notice. But when you are the speaker, you know that you do notice and you wonder what you are doing wrong. You worked hard on your speech and you thought it was pretty interesting stuff. So why do they doze off?
Well you are in good company if you see that happen. For some reason this phenomenon happens routinely in churches all over the country every Sunday morning. And that preacher is a skilled public speaker who you would think could keep that crowd riveted. But in many public situations, even when the speaker has decades of experience, he may still not know how to keep that audience awake. That is because there is a public speaking technique that if you learn it early, you will be come of the rare public speakers that routinely is considered to be “great” no matter what the quality of your material.
Don't Fear The Pause
If you listen to experienced speakers, it’s easy to see some real differences in how they step through their presentation than maybe how you go about giving a talk when you are called upon to speak in public. But it is a good exercise to use every opportunity to listen to different public speakers and learn from them. From speakers who are not effective, study why they are and learn how to correct those problems in your presentation. For speakers who are very good, learn what they do that works and copy their methods without shame. It’s all part of learning from each other.
One thing that jumps out when an experienced public speaker is holding an audience in the palm of his hand is that he is totally relaxed up there. That is a calculated relaxation. In fact most of the methods he uses such as his use of hands, the vocal range of his voice, where he looks and how he moves are all carefully planned and part of that presentation and who that speaker is. And all of those things come with time and practice. So if you need a few times in front of a group, or a few dozen times before you can begin to get that relaxed, be generous with yourself and allow that public speaking is the kind of thing that you can read about all day long but you don’t get good at it until you get good at it.