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.

WATCH: Behind the scenes with David Cameron and his speechwriters

Conservative Party leader David Cameron gave a landmark speech at the Conservative Conference on October 8. He's long been known as a fine speechmaker, and some of his secrets are revealed to viewers of this 2006 clip of him talking with his speechwriter and other advisors about an upcoming speech.

If every speaker and speechwriter could sit down and watch this clip togehter, the speechwriting world would be a better place.

Oh the luxury it must be to work with speechwriters! But Vital Speeches called Cameron "Britain's best speaker," and it's really instructive to watch these people at work.

One day this summer, while walking with my family on the Santa Barbara pier, my son excitedly pointed out to me a large starfish floating in the water.

We talked that day about the starfish's amazing powers of regeneration. We couldn't help but wonder, wouldn't it be great if people also could grow back lost limbs?

But then it occured to me that in a metaphorical sense, we can!

Many of my clients express anxiety that they will forget part of their speech and that this will get them off track and ultimately ruin the whole speech.

It's not quite an argument for mindmapping, but it's awfully close. Read the whole post for the explanation.I

"Only connect! That was the whole of her sermon. Only connect the prose and the passion, and both will be exalted, and human love will be seen at its height. Live in fragments no longer. Only connect, and the beast and the monk, robbed of the isolation that is life to either, will die." ~ Howard's End

I love this statement: Only connect. It is the crux of human relationships, of course. And it is the crux of the speaker/audience relationship. You can have good material, perfect organization and skilled delivery, but if you don't connect with the audience, something critical is missing.

Lisa Brathwaite suggests nine ways to connect with an audience. Besides the text of her message, Lisa provides a downloadable audio message at her site.

Every speaker speaks with notes - even the ones that insist notes shouldn't be used at all!

When speaking 'without notes', our brains are still referring back to what we have written in preparation for the speech, or referencing touchpoints in the room that represent tentpoles in their presentation. Even if you are speaking off the cuff, you are pulling information out of your head as fast as possible, essentially looking for notes in the broad files of your brain.

Without getting mired too far into the neuroscience of note usage, let's look at ways you can use notes effectively in your presentations.

One of the bugaboos of Toastmasters seems to be that you can't speak with notes. Here's a blog post by Rich Hopkins, a finalist in Toastmasters' International Speech Contest, that says otherwise and provides seven ways for doing it well.