For many people, speaking in public is one of their greatest fears. The thought of standing up in front of an audience and delivering a speech leaves them feeling terrified. If this is one of your fears, do not be alarmed. The following tips will help you overcome your dread of public speaking.
Make sure that you stay focused once you get out there and start talking. Your message will not be received well if you go too far off topic. Do everything you can to stay on the original topic, or you may risk scaring away a large portion of your audience.
Know your speech through and through. Once you are able to give your speech without looking at your notes, you can start to perfect your delivery. Once you have the speech memorized, you can ad lib once you are on the stage.
Always face the audience consistently when speaking in public. Do not permit other things that may be occurring in the room to distract you. You are attempting to convince the audience of something, so they need your full attention.
Make eye contact with your audience members. Doing so makes them feel as if you are speaking directly to them and helps keep them engaged. It also makes you appear confident and poised. Look at various members of the audience as you speak to help engage as many of them as possible.
Do not use a laser pointer to run over words as you read them from a screen. This gives your audience the idea that you think they are incapable of reading for themselves. Once they begin to feel insulted, it will be much harder for you to convince them to listen to you.
Project your voice when you speak in front of an audience. This is particularly true if you do not have the benefit of a microphone. You want everyone in the room to be able to hear you, so do not be afraid to speak as loudly as necessary to accomplish that. There is no point in making a speech that most of the audience cannot hear.
Never tell the audience that you’re sorry for being nervous or any other issue that comes up. Chances are they didn’t even notice in the first place. Even if they do, coming across as lacking in confidence detracts from your position of authority on your speech that you are making.
If you are asked to speak about an unfamiliar subject, be sure to make the most of your research time. Study a wide variety of texts, videos and actual examples of your topic. Talk with people who know about it. When you speak, you can choose to talk about your research and share what you have learned rather than attempting to present yourself as an actual expert.
Once you have absorbed the information in this article, you will realize that there is nothing to be afraid of. Public speaking is quite easy once you learn a few tips and tricks. The next time that you have to give a speech, just remember what you have read here to make things go smoothly.
