How to Be a Public Speaker
You started learning to talk as a toddler. In a very short time, you learned how to string whole sentences together for your family. With practice, you became better at speaking, eventually taking part in group conversations at home and in school. Speaking became so easy that you didn’t even have to think about it; it was as natural as breathing. Then, one day, your teacher called you up in front of the class to make a presentation, and your speaking skills failed. You could not concentrate, you skipped from subject to subject, and you stuttered occasionally. Your classmates, the same ones that you had spoken to easily a few minutes earlier, were embarrassed for you. What happened? Public speaking happened and, unlike everyday speech, public speaking is an acquired skill, one with certain techniques and strategies that you must master in order to comfortably speak in front of an audience. Here is how to be a public speaker.
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Instructions
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How to be a Public Speaker
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Have a passion. Presumably, if you’ve been invited to speak, you have knowledge, or expertise in a certain area. It is essential that you also be passionate about this interest, because passion is contagious; your audience will catch your excitement and respond in kind.
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To be a public speaker, you must know your audience. Teenagers have different dispositions and interests than do business executives. You will need to adapt your speech to the needs of your audience. In some cases, you may not even be able to talk about your subject to some particular groups, in others, you can still talk about your subject, but you will need to modify it to suit the needs of your audience. For instance, if your subject is “saving for retirement,” you might talk to the business executives about how close they are to retirement and how, based on that, they might need to consider certain options. For teenagers, however, you might want to approach this subject with an understanding that, for them, retirement is a very foreign concept and something that they don’t need to think about for a long time. You might open your speech by telling them why retirement is important for them to think about NOW, why they’re so young, and how early planning will benefit them.
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Pick your subject. The subject matter for your speech should be based on three elements: your audience, what you’ve been invited to speak about, and what you hope to achieve with your speech.
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Take notes about the key points, and any other information, that you want to include in your speech. Transcribe these notes in either outline format on notebook paper, or on index cards, one point/idea per card. Arrange these notes into speech format, with a clear beginning, middle, and ending.
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Although there are many different ways to present a speech, an easy way for a beginner is to introduce yourself right away, tell the audience your particular expertise/interest in your subject, and why it is important for them to know what you have to tell them. The middle, and biggest, part of your speech should tell them facts about your subject. This part should include all the information that supports your opinion about your subject. The ending should summarize all the points you have made and tell them what these points prove and what they should believe, or do, about it.
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While you are speaking, keep your legs relaxed and do not lock your knees. Locking your knees restricts blood flow and can cause you to faint, which will definitely not improve your reputation as a public speaker!
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As you speak, make eye contact with various members of the audience. Hold the eye contact for a few seconds with each person, and make sure to choose only those who seem interested in your speech. This technique will not only make those audience members feel like you are speaking just to them, it will also make you feel like you are speaking just to them, instead of a huge audience. This will ease your nervousness, helping you to be a public speaker.
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