Some people are able to stand up and give a speech without a second thought. Others are petrified at the thought of public speaking. You may be a capable public speaker, or it may be one of your biggest fears. In either case, the following advice may be of use to you.
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.
When you are speaking in public, there is usually a time frame that you need to stick to. Make sure that you get to your key points before your time is up. Otherwise, you will have wasted all of our time since the audience will not have received the message you were trying to deliver.
Be as familiar as possible with your material. Keep to facts and other information that is directly related to your speech. Work them in on the fly depending on how you gauge your audience. They can also be used to make the speech stronger or to answer audience questions.
When you arrive at the podium take a deep breath and engage the audience with your eyes and smile. Take a moment to calm your nerves and use your nervous energy as a way to energize your speech. Allow your audience to feel your excitement for what you are talking about.
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.
If you are anxious about public speaking, practice deep breathing techniques. Doing some deep breathing and full exhalation prior to speaking helps calm you down. Breathe in for a count of four, and then breathe out for a count of five. Repeat this until you feel your breathing and heart rate calm down.
If you are nervous when you first stand up to speak, there are a couple of things you can do. Either choose a person toward the center of the audience to focus on or focus on a point at the back of the room. An EXIT sign is a good choice. This will help calm your nerves.
One key to a successful speech is to make it an appropriate length. Basically, when a speech is too short, you may not be giving all the information the audience is looking for. On the other hand, if your speech is too long, your audience may become bored and you may lose their attention.
Whether you enjoy public speaking or are afraid of giving speeches, you should have found some useful advice in this article. Being able to speak in public is a very useful skill, so be sure to reflect upon these tips frequently. Doing so can really pay off in many different situations.
