7 Creative Ways to Empower Public Speaking
1. Customize your message for the audience
Before you choose a topic and plan your speech, you need to know your audience. Your content will vary based on who is listening to you. You may be speaking casually to a room full of peers or presenting an academic paper to an audience of professors.
For powerful public speaking, you must consider factors such as the age and knowledge level of your audience. When you speak to children, your language and presentation will differ from when you’re speaking to adults.
2. Use presentation tools wisely
It’s important not to rely on presentation tools like slideshows to the point where your speech becomes boring. You must know what the software can do and how best to use its features. To avoid such last-minute technical difficulties, check the presentation tool you plan on using in advance.
For example, if you’re using a Macbook for your presentation, one of the technical issues that could arise is accessing presentation files. MacOS permissions determine which users and system processes have access to folders and files to ensure security. Repairing disk permissions can sort out the problem so everything runs smoothly in your speech.
Verifying disk permissions on a Mac is safe. You can do so manually or use a third-party application that does all the heavy lifting for you.
3. Make a connection
When learning how to speak in public, it’s essential to connect with the audience. You can do this through body language and eye contact. Look directly at specific audience members throughout your speech. Don’t just scan over the whole audience. Focus on those who are interacting with you instead of those who seem less engaged and you will be more confident and relaxed.
4. Tell a good story
Public speaking examples often show how storytelling makes a speech more relatable and engaging. Business stories differ from others as they aren’t just for entertainment — they have a specific objective.
It’s important to be authentic and candid when telling any story. Here are some tips:
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Speak about how a customer’s problem was solved by using your products or services. It helps to include figures such as your product reducing a customer’s supply costs by 20%.
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Describe how your company came to be. Your mission and motivation can help an audience to relate to it.
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Explain what motivated you to develop a new product. Perhaps you saw a need to improve safety in the workplace after witnessing an incident that injured many people.
5. Use props for effect
Using props can help to introduce humor and playfulness into a speech and drive a message home. If you’re talking about the importance of budgeting, a toy piggy bank could be an entertaining prop. It’s important to check your props and practice with them before speaking. You don’t want to rely on them to make your speech funny. Instead, they should support your humor, offer an element of surprise, or add variety to your speech.
6. Practice your speech
You won’t be an effective speaker unless you learn that you need to practice. The more familiar you are with your speech, the easier it will be to deliver it powerfully. You will be able to identify when you need to take pauses and which points to highlight. You will learn to modify your pace and speak more slowly rather than nervously rushing through it because you’re afraid you will forget what to say.
7. Recap at the end
Wrap up your speech by recapping key points. This doesn’t mean repeating yourself, though. Instead, remind the audience of the most important aspects of your speech so they will retain them long after your speech ends. Finish off with a thank you to the audience for taking the time to listen to you.
Conclusion
Incorporating these tips into public speaking will lead to a more powerful effect on your audience. You will tailor your speech to the audience, connect, interact, and tell stories. The presentation tools and props that you use will enhance what you say rather than become distractions. Practicing your speech and recapping the main points at the end will ensure that your listeners have something useful to take away.
