Five Ways to Mas­ter Pub­lic Speak­ing:

Pub­lic speak­ing. It’s not for every­one, but some­times you have to learn to love it.

It could be advan­cing your career, build­ing your per­son­al brand or just an oppor­tun­ity too excit­ing to refuse. Just like any oth­er skill, you can learn to be a great pub­lic speak­er.

Exec­ut­ive and speak­er coach Kat­rina Howard would know. She’s spent years help­ing Can­ber­rans pre­pare for speak­ing events, includ­ing pre­par­ing speak­ers for the TEDx­Can­ber­ra stage.

Most tips for a ‘good’ present­a­tion, says Kat­rina, include the usu­al advice: do your research, be pre­pared and remem­ber to make eye con­tact. These are a good place to start, but if you want take your present­a­tion to the next level, a little extra is required. Kat­rina shares the ingredi­ents you need for a great present­a­tion: com­mit, cap­tiv­ate, con­nect, cha­ris­ma and cour­age.

Com­mit

Under­stand­ing and con­nect­ing to “why” you’ve com­mit­ted to the present­a­tion or pitch is a huge motiv­at­or. Ask your­self:

• Why is this present­a­tion import­ant?
• Who is going to bene­fit from it and in what way?
• What’s the “great­er good” or goal here?

Once you’re clear on this, it’s easi­er to com­mit your­self “all in” to the task. Make sure you write it down for future ref­er­ence.

Down the track, if nerves and anxi­ety about your present­a­tion emerge (and they will!), com­ing back to your list of “whys” can help you over­come these and get back on track.

Com­mit­ment also means agree­ing to the work involved – put­ting in the time to research, con­sult with oth­ers, rehearse and get your­self as pre­pared as pos­sible. Com­mit to give your best.

Cap­tiv­ate

Use storytelling to cap­tiv­ate your audi­ence, and take them on a jour­ney. Stor­ies get our atten­tion, chal­lenge our per­spect­ive and can change the way we think, act and feel. Integ­rate stor­ies from per­son­al exper­i­ence or a case study, or use meta­phors and images that relate to your top­ic. Even data and stat­ist­ics can tell stor­ies of great­er mean­ing and pur­pose.

Integ­rate stor­ies from per­son­al exper­i­ence or a case study, or use meta­phors and images that relate to your top­ic. Even data and stat­ist­ics can tell stor­ies of great­er mean­ing and pur­pose.

Good con­tent shouldn’t be pre­dict­able or fol­low an expec­ted for­mu­la, but it still needs to be logic­al and make sense, so your audi­ence doesn’t feel con­fused and “switch off”. Like a good con­ver­sa­tion, it should be diverse, and include moments of new inform­a­tion, cre­ativ­ity, sur­prise, and at times, emo­tion that moves people.

Con­nect

Don’t assume the audi­ence knows who you are and why you’re there. Make sure you start by intro­du­cing your­self. Explain who you are, why you’re there, and why you’re qual­i­fied to speak on the sub­ject.
Oth­er ways to con­nect with your audi­ence dur­ing pub­lic speak­ing include:

• Body lan­guage: Mod­el open­ness, pos­it­iv­ity and con­fid­ence, even if you have to “fake it until you become it” a con­cept from social psy­cho­lo­gist, Amy Cuddy. I highly recom­mend her TED talk on “power poses” and how it helps with con­fid­ence.
• Eye con­tact: Con­sciously con­nect with indi­vidu­als in each sec­tion of the room, rather than scan­ning quickly then look­ing down at your notes or the slides behind you.
• Voice: Record your­self dur­ing rehears­al and listen to your pitch, speed and dic­tion. This will help identi­fy if your speech is too fast or too high, inaud­ible or mono­tone. Try con­sciously vary­ing your pitch and speed until you sound more nat­ur­al.
• Move­ment: Stand­ing still makes it hard for audi­ences to stay con­nec­ted over time. Mix it up by mov­ing to dif­fer­ent parts of the stage, and incor­por­ate nat­ur­al look­ing hand ges­tures for emphas­is.
• Inter­ac­tion: Ask your audi­ence ques­tions and draw on their know­ledge and input. People remem­ber things more when they feel val­ued and involved.

Cha­ris­ma

Nobody likes a robot. And nobody likes a fake. We’ve all exper­i­enced a speak­er who drones on with no cha­ris­ma. It’s easy to switch off. Like­wise, if they’re all charm but no sub­stance, we imme­di­ately lose trust.

In your own unique and genu­ine way, bring your­self into the room – show some of your per­son­al­ity, pas­sion and energy. If you’re too nervous or ser­i­ous for people to con­nect and stay engaged, that’s a prob­lem!

Be charm­ing, in an authen­tic, respect­ful and informed way. Show the audi­ence your smile, warmth and sense of humour (where appro­pri­ate). Cha­ris­ma doesn’t have to be loud and over the top – it can be small and subtle, such as a thought­ful open­ing line, a shared look, a joke, or just a raised eye­brow.

Cour­age

It’s not easy to expose ourselves in front of oth­ers – to be vul­ner­able, chal­lenged and judged. It takes cour­age. It’s import­ant not to let fear take over.

Here are a few things I’ve found help­ful and know oth­ers have too:

Come back to your why. Is the great­er goal, or mean­ing for this present­a­tion great­er than your need to be liked, at all costs? Is it great­er than your fear of stuff­ing up?

Remem­ber that your doubts and feel­ings aren’t reli­able facts or evid­ence that you’ll fail. Feel the fear and do it any­way!

It can help to take a longer view. Ima­gine your­self after you’ve delivered your present­a­tion. The audi­ence was engaged and pos­it­ive, the out­come was the best you could wish for. Dur­ing rehears­als and plan­ning, con­nect with those images and feel­ings of deliv­er­ing a suc­cess­ful present­a­tion. Wear this sense of poise and mas­tery when self-doubts or nerves arise.

And finally, before you enter the build­ing, man­age your energy with mind­ful breath­ing, being fully present in the “here and now”.

Take five deep breaths into your belly, inhal­ing as you count up to three, exhal­ing longer as you count up to five.

After your last breath, take a moment to con­nect with your cour­age and simply, to be your­self.
Now begin…

This art­icle was ori­gin­ally pub­lished on Her­Can­ber­ra and has been repub­lished with full per­mis­sion