How to be Effective in Public Speaking

Most normal people start off fearing before starting a public speech. It’s one of the most valuable businesses/career skills you’ll ever have but It’s a skill that most definitely can be learned.

Of the universe of outstanding public speakers and presenters, some of them are just born that way; give them a stage and microphone and they rock the stage as the saying goes.   The other 99% of us, however, have to work at it.

Rules that can make us effective public speakers are:-

Make the Audience the Center of Your Universe:

You’re not the focus of the speaking engagement! No matter how many times you may tell yourself this obvious truth, you’ll have a hard time until you get it into your presentation. Ultimately, every good speaker cares more about the audience than themselves. This can be a tough prescription to fill if you have speech anxiety, which tends to wrap you in a cocoon of anxiety and self-consciousness

Focus on Relationships:

If the audience is the center of your universe, you’re already pointed in the right direction concerning what you’re there to do: establish a relationship and maintain it throughout your talk. If your content could live on its own, it would—there would be no need for anyone to gather to hear from you, and you could make your information an email attachment

Give Your Purpose Most of Your Attention:

Too many speakers confuse the topic and purpose. For instance, I’ll ask a client, “What’s your purpose with this presentation?” And the response will be, “Well,

Use Your Body:

Your body is a natural tool for communication—and a powerful one at that. After all, there’s a reason you’re not a brain in a bell jar communicating telepathically. Audiences need you to give physical expression to the things you’re saying.

Use Your Vocal Delivery:

Your voice is the most flexible communication tool you own, apart from the brain itself. It’s capable of a wide range of coloration and effects, from astonishment and incredulity to mockery and seduction and a hundred other intentions. To speak without vocal variation means using a “mono” or single tone, and from the combined word monotone derives the derogatory monotonous

To be effective in your speeches and presentations accept the strong relationship between performance and success. In fact, the more you can connect with audiences rather than remaining in the comfort zone of your content, the more successful you’ll be.

Public speaking is the process of speaking to a group of people in a structured, deliberate manner intended to inform, influence, or entertain the listeners.

Know the room
Be familiar with the place in which you will speak. Arrive early, walk around the speaking area and practice using the microphone and any visual aids.

Know the audience
Greet some of the audience as they arrive. It’s easier to speak to a group of friends than to a group of strangers.

Know your material
Practice your speech and revise it if necessary. If you’re not familiar with your material or are uncomfortable with it, your nervousness will increase.

Relax
Ease tension by doing meditation or breathing exercises.

Visualize yourself giving your speech
Imagine yourself speaking, your voice loud, clear, and assured. When you visualize yourself as successful, you will be successful.

Realize that people want you to succeed
They don’t want you to fail. Audiences want you to be interesting, stimulating, informative, and entertaining.

Don’t apologize
If you mention your nervousness or apologize for any problems you think you have with your speech, you may be calling the audience’s attention to something they hadn’t noticed. Keep silent.

Concentrate on the message – not the medium
Focus your attention away from your own anxieties, and outwardly toward your message and your audience. Your nervousness will dissolve.

Turn nervousness into positive energy
Harness your nervous energy and transform it into vitality and enthusiasm.

Gain experience
Experience builds confidence, which is the key to effective speaking.

In BM English Speaking in every session the participant has to do Public Speaking practice 20 times where the trainer will train the participant on English fluency, communication skills, pronunciation, and most important – body language.