A little disclaimer before you check out today’s blog post/video. Improving your public speaking without having to practice is definitely too good to be true to some extent. Although you can reach a passable level of public speaking where you’re not embarrassed to put out content, or give speeches (the level I’m at now), you’ll never become an elite speaker without thousands of hours of deliberate practice. With that being said, I think the majority of people will find the tips below extremely useful, and you’ll be able to significantly improve your speaking skills if you apply them.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oAxdlTxIZ50
1. Know your material. This doesn’t necessarily mean you have to memorize your speech or even have an outline, though those can definitely be useful. The most important thing is you having a deep understanding of the most difficult concepts and nuisances of your topic. You should know you material backwards, forwards, and even inside-out. If you can’t explain your thoughts to a five year old you’re probably not ready to give a speech on that topic.
2. Be Passionate About What You’re Saying. Don’t seek validation from the crowd. You should believe what you’re saying is so valuable that you’re able to give off a passionate vibe and naturally captivate the audience’s attention through the law of state transference. When you’re passionate enough about a topic your audience will naturally be drawn into your frame.
3. Be congruent to your mood. If you’re under slept and you find the whole world hilarious then give a comedy speech and rattle off a bunch of jokes. If you’re in the forest after having spent the last hour meditating then give a calm, relaxed speech. When you give your speeches from a place of congruence the audience can naturally tell you’re being completely genuine and they’ll connect with you on a much deeper level. Don’t try to impress your audience by giving a certain type of speech just because you’ll think they’ll like it. People can tell when you’re being fake, and ironically people are most impressed by those that aren’t trying to impress them.
4. Socialize Regularly. This applies mostly to introverts as extroverts more inclined to socialize likely already do this. Socializing will benefit you as a speaker because it’ll reduce your cortisol levels and allow you to give off a more relaxed vibe. Additionally, it’ll allow you to be more present to the moment and socially calibrated with what you’re saying. This’ll allow audiences to emotionally connect with you rather than connecting solely on a logical level. Different people have different needs for socializing, but I’ve personally found 3-4 social events per week for a total of 10-20 weekly hours of socializing to be the sweet spot. Aside from the above benefits I’ve also found most of my epiphanies and ideas for blog content are the result of socializing so I highly recommend making socializing a priority.
5. Have a purpose for speaking. Don’t talk simply to be heard. If you yourself don’t believe your content is meaningful and a productive use of your audience’s time how could you ever expect them to give you their full attention? More importantly, why would you want them to? I think we have a natural desire to want to contribute to the success of others, but if we ourselves believe our content is sub-par and a less than optimal way for out audience to spend their time we’ll half-ass our talks because we don’t believe we’re worthy of our audience’s attention. Aim to provide more value with your speeches, and you’ll naturally develop more charisma, and an improved ability to hold your audience’s attention.
I Hope you found these tips helpful. Be sure to leave a comment if you’ve got any other unique ways to improve your speaking skills. Well, I’ll see ya guys later. Gotta go practice my public speaking. 😉
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