Would you like to be better at public speaking? If so then you are not alone, many people struggle with standing up in front of people and speaking, but there are ways in which you can improve your skills and feel much more confident about your speaking in public. As someone who used to detest speaking in public, I can certainly sympathize with anyone out there who also has a real phobia of doing this. I was fortunate enough to get some help from my old school mate Nabil Fakih, who just had this really natural ability to stand up in front of a crowd and talk. Nabil helped me in so many ways and now I too feel much more confident when I have to deliver a speech. Whether you need to do a talk for class, as a best man or even in your job, here is how you can improve your ability to speak in public.
Script and Practice
If you are struggling with your confidence then you simply cannot afford to try and just get up there and speak, you have to have a script to use which you have rigorously practiced. In doing this the script itself will give you confidence and as soon as you have learned it you will feel infinitely more confident about standing up and delivering it. The reason why you have to ensure you practice this is because knowing the words is only half the battle, you also need to know how to use your voice at certain moments in the script.
Body Language
Body language plays a really important role when you are speaking in public and this is going to be something else which you’ll have to practice with your speech. In fact moving your arms and pacing around the stage can actually be good for your breathing, which is going to make a big difference in how you deliver the speech. Arms and hands can be used to round off important points and they will make a big difference to how well the speech is received.
Knowing When to Stop
No matter what the reason for the speech is, you can’t just deliver it like a stream of consciousness, you also need to understand when to pause. Normally this will be after you have made a key point or a joke, to let the audience take a moment to digest what you have just said. When you do stop it is also a great time for you to catch some breaths before you go into the rest of the speech.
Eye Contact
Just before you stand up to talk, highlight someone from the center, the left and the right side of the audience, these will be the 3 people that you are speaking to. It can seem uncomfortable to make eye contact with people but in selecting just three you can make it much easier, and you will also ensure that you appear to be looking at the room on the whole.
Focus on these aspects of your speech and you are going to be just fine.