10 Tips to Take Your Public Speaking to the Next Level

October 26, 2009

by John Watkis

Are you looking for ways to take your pubic speaking skills to the next level? Here are 10 tips to help you get there.

1.) Research your audience

You can give the exact same speech to two different groups, but you shouldn’t expect the same results. Research your audience so you can address their specific needs, concerns and objections .

2.) Speak the language of your audience

When you know your audience and can speak their “lingo”, you gain immediate respect from them. They will know  you took the time to understand them before speaking to them.

3.) Analyze every event

Do you know what time of day you’ll be speaking? Who will be speaking on the program before you? After you? Is this a one-day program? Or is this a multi-day conference? The answers to those questions will help you to be better prepared when you give your speech.

4.) Know your subject inside out

If you don’t know what your audience thinks and feels about your subject, then you only know your subject “inside”. Knowing your subject “inside out” means understanding the subject from both points of view.

5.) Work on your voice

Like it or not, your voice is a crucial part of your speeches. If people are distracted, bored or irritated by your voice, your message will be lost on them.

6.) Master timing

Sometimes “how you say it” is as important as “what you say”. Knowing when to slow down, speed up and pause have an effect on the way your message is received.

7.) Rehearse on video

Video will tell you what your friends and colleagues may be too nice to say. It can be a painful process (it is for me), but you’ll gain valuable feedback that can’t be put into words.

8.) Write and rewrite your speeches

The most memorable and successful speeches in history are speeches that were written and rewritten … period. This doesn’t mean you have to read your speech, but you’re better off writing it.

9.) Listen to speeches whenever you can

You can learn something from every speech you listen to. You may learn what to do … or you may learn what not to do. In either case, there’s always something you learn by listening to others speak.

10.) Organize your content in an easy-to-follow sequence

A well-organized, easy-to-follow speech makes it easier for the audience to stay with you every step of the way. The less  they have to think about where you were in the speech or where you’re going next, the more they’ll be able to enjoy the journey.

new thinking for nonprofit communicators

At the recent annual conference of the Communications Network in Philanthropy, I had the chance to meet with hundreds of nonprofit communicators and hear about the reach, research and results they see with their communications vehicles. Now the Network has put available presentations and handouts from the conference online, so you can benefit from what we learned. One of the most popular so far is The Best Online Tools You Never Heard Of, with dozens of sites for pitching events, telling your story, fundraising, office support and more. Check out all the material for a view of how foundations and other nonprofits are navigating communications today.

Labels: for communications directors, nonprofit communications, social media

Metropolitan Diary

DEAR DIARY:

This happened to me the other day, and I was so moved, I thought New Yorkers should know about this.

I was crossing Lexington Avenue to catch a bus downtown when I noticed a bus waiting at the stop. As a visually impaired person with a cane, I tried to walk as quickly as I could.

When I arrived at the bus stop, the bus had already pulled away.

I was waiting for the next bus when a man approached me.

“May I help you onto the bus?” he asked.

“But it’s already moved on,” I told him. “It’s gone to the corner, so it’s not likely the driver will let you take me aboard.”

“I am the driver,” he said, and I realized he’d left a bus full of people waiting while he helped one astonished and grateful passenger walk half a block to climb aboard.

Would Ralph Kramden be proud of the softies of his profession driving our city buses? I am. Eleanor Roth

From the New York Times. This seems extraordinary, but it is much closer to typical. I have been amazed by the kindnesses people perform for me, embarrassed that I was probably not so helpful before.

Baptism

by Ted Thomas Jr.

Singing With the Dead) -->

Cold wind.
I help my father
into the shower
with his good hand
he grips my arm for support.

Inside he sits like Buddha
on a plastic stool
and waits for me
to begin.

I drench him
with warm water,
soap his head, his back,
the flabby stomach,
the private parts
private no more.

I had not before seen my father's
nakedness, nor the changing
contour of his being,
his growing helplessness.

His brown skin glistens
and I think of him
as a young man on the night
of my conception:

Panting, capable, shining
with sweat and definition,
the soft hands of my mother
grasping his shoulders.

I pat him dry,
he lets me dress him
in the white
hospital clothes,
oil his hair,
put him to bed
and forgive him.

All too familiar. Rings true to someone who's suffered a stroke.

1000 Cellphones and 2000 Text Messages Playing Tchaikovsky

I don't know what is crazier: This video of Tchaikovsky's 1812 overture played with 1000 cellphones and 2000 messages, or the videos showing how the whole thing was made.

People from Vodafone New Zealand, I can't wait for you to do other classics, like:

[Engadget]