7 tips for Public Speaking
7 tips for public speaking that apply to shining at work, and just about everywhere else
- Gratitude is always the best place to begin.
Any and every speaker opportunity is an honour. Thank the host and the audience for the possible mountains they moved to show up and listen to you.
- Lead with your best stuff.
Make an entrance. Put forth your big point right away. Start with your best story, your funniest joke, your guiding theory. Don’t make them wait to see you shine. Grab them from the get-go.
- Ask questions.
Frame your stories into questions and you’ve created a conversation. This creates a connection between you and your audience
- Actively respect your audience.
You won’t always be presenting or pitching to your friends, to people you “like”—find the common ground and put your love there.
Your audience can sometimes get nasty. Always remember you are on stage and remain elegant
- Plan your finish.
Wrapping up can be the hardest part of a talk because you’ve either used up all of your good stuff, you’ve gone over time, or you have space to fill. Hold on to your closing gold nugget so you can leave on a high note either way.
- Know how you want to feel when you’re done your presentation.
Ultimately, you can’t really control what the audience does and if you try to, you’re likely to fumble. You just don’t know.
What you can aim for is how you want to feel. And when you anchor into that feeling, your energy gathers a momentum and you get into the magical flow.
“Character is like a tree and reputation like its shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing.” Abraham Lincoln
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