Motivational Public Speaking

Addressing a gathering irrespective of its size is difficult. Your audience has several sources of data, especially since the advent of the internet. Listeners expect much more than the net can provide and due to easy access to technology they expect a presentation peppered with visual aids and not a boring talk.
This article gives you quick, precise and practical tips on effective public speaking out of my experience of delivering over 1,500 talks in the past two decades.
You may be wondering how to commence your talk, how to order your content and the benefits of acquainting yourself with your listeners. Here are some methods and solutions.
To grab listeners’ attention, make a dramatic beginning by uttering a shocking sentence or an anecdote.
Some good opening lines to grab the attention of your listeners could be, “Some time before I was stuck in a forest in the middle of the night…..” or even start with something about the society, “Most of you are against sex education in schools, but how many of you have really thought and said this?”.
Use any method but if you are able to get listeners to look up then you have achieved your triumph.
Be vibrant and bubbly
Deliver your speech with vigor and vibrancy. Modulate your voice, adjust speed of your delivery to suit the need of the point you are making. Use pauses and move around the stage, employ hand gestures and facial expressions. Demonstrate actions as you talk.
Organize
Organize your talk into main topics, sub topics and introduce them as you begin your speech. Gather enough data to provide instances for each of the main topics. Charts, graphs, maps, pictures, movies, slides etc help drive home the point.
Movements
Sew your topics together to make up your speech with seamless changeovers. You could use numbers or expressions. Summarize each topic before starting the next and link topics wherever necessary. A prologue, two or three chapters and an epilogue would make an ideal and intelligible speech.
Narrate anecdotes
Narrate your experiences as you talk and demonstrate how it connects you to the subject being deliberated upon. This will help build rapport with the listeners, especially on the feelings plane.
Presentation items
One good way to make your presentation interesting is to have something interesting to show such as charts, graphs, pictures, maps, slides etc. Make sure these visual aids are visible to everyone in the audience. Ideally check visibility before the speech. Don’t just display the aid, explain it suitably for listeners to understand and appreciate. Start your explanation before it is brought on to the stage and continue till it is taken out
Compelling speeches
If the objective of your talk is to make listeners buy something or take some action, be sure to include testimonies of users and experts, preferably well known and respected. Use analytical data to drive home the depth of the issue. Recommendations, tales, anecdotes and numerical data make your speech all the more influential.

Remember it is impossible to become a “perfect” orator. It takes a lifetime to develop public speaking abilities. . But if you follow the points that we drafted then it will be easy to get here.

Defeat the panic of oration
Do you feel as if you are going to faint or falling ill or get the gut wrenching feeling, whenever you are required to address a gathering?

Does this pervade your being constantly, a number of days prior to the talk and aggravate as you stand on the podium even to the extent of making you wish that you should get buried inside the depths of earth.

Well you are not alone in this. There are millions of people who freak out at the thought of addressing a gathering. According to few researches the fear of public speaking is one of the worst people could profess.

Oration is the concept of addressing a gathering with an intention to persuade, enthrall or disseminate knowledge to your audience. The biggest panic of delivering a talk is the nervous feeling that is associated with it. Numerous simple and effective ways to conquer this panic and elevate yourself in your career with an additional skill of public speaking.

Here are few pointers that will assist you develop your oration abilities. Cultivate a positive attitude and believe that 99 percent of your apprehensions are fictitious and the remaining 1 percent can be dealt with easily. First of all decide inside your brain that you will not stammer and be firm in speaking and you will be like that. Never commit your talk to your heart. In case you forget even one or two expressions then you are doomed to get nervous and confused. One of the better ways to remember a speech is by having small chits of paper with main subjects and topics written. You can pause while speaking and look at the chits to see where you are headed.

Stress on the speech areas that you are strong in. This will help you build self-belief. And when you are full of self-defeating thoughts it is difficult, so try to keep your focus on constructive thoughts.

If by chance self-defeating feelings about your oratory capabilities do creep into your mind, put them behind and start thinking of the skills you are good at. This will create affirmative outputs.

Hypnosis is a great tool to take assistance from to get rid of nervousness and has been used for the past several years. The scare about addressing groups is in your sub-conscious mind. And the practical or conscious mind sees only negative things hence the effects are felt. Through hypnosis your sub-conscious mind can be instructed to cultivate a different perspective about oration.

So the bottom line is throw your fear out of the window and you will feel a new confidence surging through your being.

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Several aspects of your body language impact on the delivery of your speech. Some of these factors are discussed below.
Look into the eyes of the audience:

Make eye contact with your listeners:

If it’s a small gathering then alternate between people if it’s a large group then look at small groups. Take a sweeping glance at the group you are addressing before starting. Stand on the podium, smile, glance at your listeners and then start your talk, this will help garner attention.

To ensure eye contact, use small bits with speech outlines/ points and not read your talk. Pepper your talk with quotes; hard data etc and reading this out will evoke trust.
“Wow” factor:

Build in a “wow” factor in your presentation. Aspects of your talk should evoke a “Wow!” from your listeners. This factor could be an anecdote, numerical data, dramatic point, or a highly evocative visual that helps listeners understand. This factor will also enhance your enthusiasm.
Comedy:

Lacing your speech with some comedy makes it more interesting and lighter and more productive. And make your listeners more open to accept your views and establish you as an amiable individual. Keep comedy less till you gain lots of firsthand knowledge.
Recall some embarrassing incident of your past and make a joke out of it. Never make jokes about your audience but always to make it about yourself. Show them that you are open to take jokes at yourself.
Avoid long anecdotes, they become monotonous after sometime. Use cartoons as visual aids and display them along.
Make your audience to think:

As you close the speech make sure that your listeners have something to take back. Sometimes the closing comments may produce better impact. It is human tendency to recall what they heard last. So it is good to discuss your main points and choose the last words so that they create impact on your audience.

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1.> Loosen the tensed flesh of your body by indulging in some physical activity.
—> Get your hands together and push them into one another before your heart for about 5 seconds. Intertwine your hands by rotating them in opposite directions and lock your digits, yank on them for 5 secs. Loosen and flutter your upper limbs and paws. Do these exercises a number of times for best results.
—> When you are on a seat, tug the base of the chair upwards for about 5 secs and then drive it down for the next 5 secs. Soothe your muscles and sway your arms and hands. Rehearse this exercise numerous times.
—> Push your palms into the wall at chest level for about 5-10 sec. Cool down. Do this for a number of times. (Yul Brenner practiced this exercise to conquer stage fear).
2.> Note down the main theme of your speech which you want your listeners to remember for a long time and stress on that point when you deliver your talk.
3.> While writing your speech use dynamic verbs, powerful adjectives and descriptive phrases to enable your listeners to ‘notice’ what you are describing. One way to draft a good speech is by reading others speeches.
4.> A startling but little know statistic about audiences is that over 83 percent of them derive knowledge by seeing, so whenever you feel necessary use display boards, signs, charts, maps etc.
5.> When you prepare your speech keep the tone as if you are talking to an individual not as if you are addressing a crowd. This way you will come across as a habituated speaker and less of an advisor.

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Public Speaking is commonly defined as “addressing a group of people in a disciplined, intentional and previously thought out style”. The main goal of a speech is to convey a valuable message to your audience. The information could be anything, explaining a subject, demystifying an issue, persuading them to take action etc.

Public speaking is mostly a one-way transfer of information and its effectiveness hinges on the capacity of the orator. Whether the speaker can bring about a perceptible change in the listeners life or attitudes is secondary. Orators are feared by governments as they wield vast abilities to influence the decision of people. By delivering an absorbing address the speaker can persuade his audience to take action immediately, while the same speech if delivered shoddily can damage the goodwill of a product/ company/ service in the eyes of the audience.
Well prepared and presented speeches can make even the most mundane subjects sound enlightening and spectacular and vice versa. Anybody can achieve this state of effective public speaking by suitable training, preparation, research, rehearsals and adapting a systematic approach to the talk.
The skill of public speaking is vitally important but rare to be found. Many assured looking people lose their nerve when faced by a crowd. They just break down and become a stammering, stuttering bundle of nerves struggling to deliver a proper sentence. All the calm, strength, confidence seems to come to naught at this moment. The horror is so great that even our body reacts; racing heartbeat, sweaty palms, weak knees, stammering etc are common symptoms.
My initial memories of the public speaking horrors were when I was 13 and was competing in a debate competition. I had to present my case to an audience of about 400-500 peers and though fully prepared and assured about my case and quite sure of winning, I just couldn’t utter a word on the stage. I saw so many kids in front of me critically examining me and then shivers went down my body and I literally went into amnesia.
All my efforts went in vain and the students made fun of me in sign language. I took over half my allocated time to begin and delivered my speech. Later as I grew up I examined this stage fright and discovered that this is known as ‘Glossophobia’ and also realized that I am not alone with this fear there are millions of us out there who experience glossophobia day in and day out.
One can become an effective orator by submitting to the stage, rehearsing, overcoming this panic and hard work at practice and training how to become a good speaker. The old adage ‘Success if 99 percent hard work and one percent luck’ is good to remember at this juncture as it exemplifies what successful public speakers practice. To get adequate practice one must take every opportunity to speak to a gathering, make mistakes and learn from them.
Command over the topic of speech is another important tool for success in oration. You can deal with the listeners’ questions only if your knowledge about the subject is deep enough. Undergo suitable training to become a good public speaker but nothing beats the practice. Observation is another important tool; you should study the methods and style of famous and successful public speakers and try to adapt them in your speeches. This will stand you in good stead. Practicing in front of friends, family and work colleagues will also help in overcoming your fear of public speaking.
Remember the three keys to become an effective public speaker, thorough understanding, numerous rehearsals and tremendous exposure are vitally important. If you can achieve this you could become a world-class public speaker soon.

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Delivering a talk to a group of unknown people can be scary. Most of us are less afraid of death and more scared of delivering a speech. So if you also suffer from this public speaking phobia, remember you are not alone. But don’t stop at that try to conquer this fear and learn the techniques that can be used to overcome these fears.

Consider the entire crowd, be it 10 or 100 or even 1,000, as a single individual. This can be achieved by making eye contact with one member of your audience and rattling couple of statements to them. Apart from giving a personal touch, this helps make you feel more confident that you are speaking to only one person. An oft-quoted myth advises those who are scared of looking at the crowd to focus on something inanimate such as the wall or furniture or table etc. Don’t do that. Looking at something else can prove to be a big distraction and take your focus out of the central idea of your speech. But when you make eye contact with your listeners your nervousness will vanish and you will deliver a winning speech.

Just keep in mind that your listeners have come to listen to you and they respect your word and want to learn from you. They are unaware of your nervousness and you don’t have to worry about that.

It is essential to put in emotions to your speech. It makes you concentrate on your talk and take away your tension. When you feel what you say, the impact is much higher and you will relate to your listeners better. Simply put, if you are not passionate about what you are talking about, how can you expect others to be interested?

Make your talk absorbing and entertaining. One of the ways it to make your listeners involved, crack a joke, tell a story, and relate funny incidents this will make you popular among your audience. Comedy is one of the best ways to make your listeners respond at a feeling level. If your audience laughs with you they won’t laugh at you. Use hilarious incidents to illustrate points of your speech. Don’t use dry/ sarcastic humor, use popular jokes, never experiment or overdo. Remember your audience expects value out of your speech and haven’t come to listen to a bunch of jokes.

Your talk should be centered on the theme of common interest to your listeners so that you can relate to the audience better and quicker. So as long as you make your talk sound like a conversation and give some good information, your amateur knowledge on the subject is good enough. Building a sound fellowship with your listeners is best done by making your talk interactive, ask questions, invite comments etc to do this.

Public speaking is a skill to be acquired and through practice and training anyone can master the craft. Unless you start you won’t be able to become an expert.

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Advise on how to conquer fear of public speaking is plenty and easily available. But the problem is that most of these recommendations aggravate the issue and not solve it. One of the oft-repeated ones is to be “well prepared and rehearse”. Perfectly valid but this is not the primary solution. By practicing and training one can improve knowledge base but not conquer fear. The problem is lack of faith in oneself, which you need to take control if you don’t want to make a fool of yourself on stage.

Remember that the solution lies in the content of your presentation and not in training or how you talk.

1. Talk about your life:

One of the easiest ways of conquering fear of public speaking is by talking about your own life and experiences. This helps because you know yourself intimately well and have an authority to speak, this makes you feel assured. Prepare a listing of your achievements, the things you have learnt, work, profession, college life, your pastimes, vocations, family, etc and deliver talks on them. You will see a great change in the way you perceive yourself on stage.

2. Tell a story:

Don’t preach, tell a story, convert your life incidents into stories and tell them to peers, co-workers etc socially and at breaks during work. The key to public speaking success is by peppering talks with stories and incidents liberally. They are easy to remember and also to capture listener’s attention. Use books of fables, short stories and folk tales if necessary.

3. Talk with intent:

Before you start preparing your speech, ascertain your intention behind the talk. Ask yourself these questions: Why do you want to speak? What do you hope to accomplish? What do your listeners’ want to hear? Human retention is low and your listeners wont remember every word of your talk. Give them one strong point and focus your speech around it. Announce this in the beginning so the listeners know what they are getting into and cap it up with a clear action plan for the audience. All memorable talks have had a definite purpose.

4. Write down and adhere to three or four points to build your talk around:
One of the greatest errors most of us commit is to talk too much and bore the audience. The speech should have one main theme with a few reference topics and liberally peppered with numerical data, anecdotes and humor will get you accolades for your talk. This will be light and have high recall value. Audience will be thankful for giving an interesting and intelligible speech. The positive result on you will be conquering of your scare of public speaking.

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The Book of Lists published a long time back says that the greatest scare of most people is that of public speaking and that this fear is far more than the fear of death. Further research in the subject has only confirmed this finding. Why is public speaking so stressful? It is due to extreme discomposure.

We are afraid of appearing stupid in front of other people, especially known groups like friends, co-workers and family. And the recall values of past discomfiting moments are so strong that we don’t even attempt to conquer our fears and change the scenario. And every time we are asked to address a group these memories haunt us.

These may not be of delivering a talk but of several incidents including stammering in class while reading, loss of memory on stage, being badly prepared during debates etc. And if we have had no memorable event to counter this then this scare will become a horror and might even result in requiring medical help.

Outcomes of the public speaking fear..

Makes us believe that we are “simply not capable”. We tend to begin conceptualizing an entire gamut of excuses to avoid addressing gatherings. “I don’t have anything great to say,” or “I have led a pretty mundane existence,” or “I am not used to doing this,” or “All that I know has been told by someone else,” etc. These and more such negative reaffirmations only serve to dumb us down and hinder our progress in public speaking.
This train thought results in a bad side-effect upon us i.e. we keep our head down at work, and never stand up to speak for ourselves, decline bigger positions and in effect damage our future career prospects. All these only lead to self-destruction and self-defeating attitudes which we accept and justify for our failure at career.

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You are feeling scared, parched throat, racing pulse and you feel as if you are going to collapse. Yes this is generally what someone who is scared of public speaking feels when he gets an assignment to address a gathering.

Well if you prepare well and strategize properly this can be replaced by an immense sense of confidence. Here is some well meaning advice culled out and compiled from expert public speakers. Following this you can become a good public speaker.
Your body needs lots of oxygen to feel strong and healthy, inhale long and deep to ensure lots of air supply to your lungs. Any kind of tension produces adrenalin which will help you deal with your panic which is generally caused by your lack of self-confidence. More air in your body means more oxygen to your brain, in turn more active and alert you are and hence any signs of fear will vanish.
Put up a confident and impressive and if necessary fearsome façade so your audience will take you seriously. Give a broad smile even if you are feeling scared inside, it will make you appear assured of yourself.
Drink lots of water to prevent your mouth and throat from drying. It is better to place a glass of water in front of the lectern where you will be speaking. This will give you a boost of confidence when you pause between your talk and take a drink.
Massaging your forehead will help relax and empower your brain with the necessary flow of newly oxygenated blood. Massaging will bring blood to those parts of your brain with which you think and communicate. Excessive adrenaline production which is a natural result of fear will make blood to flow to the fight centers of your brain.
Being well turned up, with adequate rehearsals and practicing your speech adds oodles to your confidence. Decide much in advance the general flow of thought and structure of your talk. Commit the vital parts of your speech such as the beginning, conclusion, numerical data, quotes etc to your heart so you can recall easily.
Clubs and organizations such as International Toastmasters Club and others help cultivate your public speaking confidence and skills. Join one of them and build up your communication skills and confidence.

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Across the world most normal people like you and me are scared of public speaking, irrespective of the size of the gathering. The fear stems more from not wanting to appear ignorant or idiotic.

The causes for this panic vary from insecurity about your looks or diction to tone, or firmness of voice to lack of confidence about subject knowledge etc all leading to the concept of low sense of self-worth. Change the way you feel about yourself and you will change the way you work and soon your fears will vanish. There are folks who will fall ill, feel faint at the prospect of exposing themselves to public judging and performance pressure. Some will stammer or talk too fast. Some shiver because of the tension. Though you will relax after sometime, it will be too late because you would have lost half the time.

Don’t you think it is simpler to conquer panic beforehand than to attempt it when you are in a tight spot? Ensure that you are equipped to speak well before you step into the auditorium. Deliberate about what you are going to say and how and how long you are going to take to tell all. If you enter the hall with prior knowledge that your talk is for a fixed duration of time then it is much easier to handle the situation. Ensure that you know your subject and you are ready to answer any question that may be asked by the audience. If you have a tendency for nervousness do something that will help you phase it out. This will make you feel immensely sure in front of your audience.

Scared of appearing an idiot in front of the audience? Introspect why you have that feeling? What kind of power do these people wield? Consider a worst-case scenario that you will say something stupid, what is the probability that someone in the audience will be bothered? By making an error if you are not jeopardizing your assignment or affecting your peace of mind, why should you bother so much about committing a mistake? If you are bothered about what others will think of you, don’t, because only your own feeling about really matters. Never let anyone else make you feel tensed due to some small error. Remember ‘to err is human’.

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Public Speaking is listed as one of the most horrifying feelings and there are several people who are less afraid of death and more of public speaking.

Does the thought of delivering a speech make you tensed? You can conquer this uneasy feeling and master the art of assured public speaking.

One of the most effective methods to conquer your panic about delivering a talk is by mastering the topic. Once you know your topic well you will have a sense of being in charge and have no panic about the mysterious.

Nervousness thrives when you think about small fears such as:

1.> Will I remember everything?

2.> Will my address be absorbing?

3.> Will I appear intelligent?

4.> Will my appearance be impressive?

All these and more questions will pop at you. But the main thing to deliver an excellent speech is to get ready properly. Better equipped you are then the better will be your speech.

As you get ready to deliver your talk ask these questions to yourself.

Who do you expect to come to listen to you? And why should they? What do they stand to gain? Have you prepared a coherent speech? How much time will you talk? How much time do you have to prepare? Where are you delivering the talk? Etc.

Ideally your address should deal with two or three main thoughts essential to understand your subject. Develop on the ideas and gather enough data.

Rehearsing your speech is vital for your success. Some methods can be reading aloud along with timing, using chits with keywords and broad outlines and not by memorizing.

Try to talk in a chatty style, record as you rehearse and examine the recording to identify areas where you’d need improvement.

Opening line

A good opening line could be to acquaint your listeners about the benefits of your talk. Start zestfully and optimistically.

Closing a speech

Run through highlights of your speech and ask your listeners to sit up and take note as you end your speech. Commit the last few sentences for best impact.

If you are the nervous types, the tension will remain inside irrespective how much training and rehearsals you do. But the above guidelines will help you achieve a less tensed state and once you conquer this horror, you will be amazed that you created such a big fuss.

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