Public speaking

FoxEye said:
Confident hand gestures.

A straight, slightly raised arm shows your audience you're a person of authority.
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Not sure I'd suggest that - Pretty sure I heard of a successful public speaker fond of raised straight arm gestures in 1930s Germany!!!
 
LabR@t said:
What's the best way to improve yourself at public speaking? I find this hard but would love to improve.
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Do you have to do much now?

If not then going from a cold start can be quite, if not impossibily daunting.

2) Acting lessons really help.
3) Practice in front of people you know and ask for feedback. Practicing in front of a mirror does not work until you are well experienced and simply using it to refine on the day.
5) Film yourself, watch it back. Review, appraise, improve. Takes about a month to make demonstrable improvements.
6) Create mannerisms from habit. Nothing over garish, quirky or showy but something regular. Whether than involves expressing and emphasising on certain words, specific hand movements on words etc; something to create familiarity between you and the audience.
9) Decide if you are a high energy expressive speaker or more calm & considered and stick with it. Switching from one to the other periodically mid flow becomes jarring for the audience.
15) Have an entourage. Have someone in the audience giving you real time feedback. Subtle cues really help.
 
The only and obvious way to be better at speaking is if you are standing and banging whilst speaking, the words will simply flow like water.
 
I actually think a large part of success is down to natural levels of intelligence, confidence, and charisma.

If you're a dim-witted monotone-talking dullard, then you can practice 'til the cows come home and it will remain difficult.
 
I used to be absolutely petrified about it. Proper anxiety attacks beforehand, stuttering on presentation, etc. Was awful and I knew it which made it worse.

What I realised a few years' ago is that by being super prepared I was rail roading myself and unable to react to anything that may happen at the event (very interactive).

Now I do almost no prep. Just remind myself of a few key facts a couple of hours before and maybe have a single sheet of A4 info.

For my event last Friday night (zoom...) the marketing person wanted me to go through beforehand what I'd say / cover and I basically told her I had no idea but that it would be fine... didn't go down well from that side :). The feedback I've been forwarded from their customers this week was properly good.

For my wedding speech I wrote 3 things on a piece of paper the morning of the day so I didn't forget to mention them and just winged it with a bottle or so of wine in me. Still married.

From my side: a pint before, know your subject, enjoy your subject.

My subject is booze though so all of the above could be a bit useless if you're doing an IT presentation.
 
Infiniteey said:
Practice.

Practice and film yourself. It will seem cringy and awkward when rewatching it but you will really see what you are doing wrong and how to improve.
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This all over. It was staggering to see how many nervous 'ticks' I had when I recorded a speech a few years ago to try and improve it. Way too many 'ummms', swaying from one leg to the other, speaking too fast etc. I practiced several times recording each one and making an effort to reduce those, and by the end felt and sounded much better.
 
I think most has been said, practice (by that I'd say practice speaking in public as much as possible; not just practice, practice the same piece). Knowledge and passion about the subjects. I don't know what your work is but a good opportunity is to start leading group session or deliver some training and gradually increase audience sizes.
 
There are no shortcuts, you've just got to keep practising in genuine scenarios until you're somewhat comfortable.

Ask for feedback from others after the sessions as sometimes we're our own worst critics and we overthink every little thing that went wrong.

TM is an option once things are back to normal, wouldn't see much point in doing zoom sessions as delivering over video call feels completely different in my experience.
 
As has been said, slow down. Practice


speaking


very


slowly.


Make eye contact with your audience. Video yourself to spot your "pause" phrases - things like "obviously", "essentially", "so". If you are presenting slides, don't look at them while you're speaking. Eye contact, remember?
 
- slow down
- run through your speech first a couple of times, time it if appropriate
- you can do what Jordan Peterson does, which is speak to individual audience members for a few seconds at a time, since he says an 'audience' is just made of single individuals. Watch any of his lectures and you'll see him doing it.
 
Depends on how public.

Speaking to a packed auditorium is more difficult to prepare for than leading a company meeting.

For speaking in public to groups of 5-20 people, then you can start by just lecturing your friends, then move on to a local debate club or think-tank. You will learn meeting craft and the tricks associated with managing people though doing this.

For larger groups all I can recommend is either tricking yourself while on stage to forget that you are talking to a group, or alternatively you could practice though taking up the preforming arts.

You could also try youtube charisma videos like:
https://www.youtube.com/user/charismaoncommand
 
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