How to Speak: 5 Ways to Become a Better Speaker
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Carol Roth | 11 Comments
This blog features Carol Roth's tough love on business and entrepreneurship, as well as insights from Carol's community of contributors.
Speaking at events is a great way to spread your important messages and cement your status as an expert. However, being a great speaker is an art, not a science. Here are five ways you can quickly become a better speaker.
Don’t memorize your speech: You may think that the best way to give a flawless speech is to memorize the content word-for-word. In reality, that is a myth and is not recommended. Memorization not only lends itself to sounding over-rehearsed (aka not natural), but also, if your mind goes blank at any point during the presentation, you will lose your place and potentially create an awkward silence (or worse, start to panic).
Instead, create bullet points of the content, stories, data and key takeaways that you want to get across in each part of your presentation. Then, speak naturally about them. If you remember all of those key points, great, but if you forget some, no sweat- you can move on to another next point. Having a looser structure also gives you the flexibility to change up stories and information in your speech based on the audience. And, as an extra bonus, you will deliver a more natural sounding, engaging presentation.
Talk to the audience before the presentation: Meeting with the people you are going to be speaking with before you give your speech has several benefits. First, it warms them up to you. Second, it lets you gauge their sense of humor, which is particularly critical if you are a speaker that tends to let a curse word fly or uses off-beat stories or language. Finally, you can get feedback to incorporate into the presentation. It’s incredibly effective to use audience members as examples or transitions in a speech because it creates intimacy with the audience and more engagement. If you are talking to small business owners about marketing and Mary told you a great story about how she used an unusual marketing tactic, incorporate Mary and her story into your presentation. “Speaking of clever marketing, earlier I was talking to Mary, who is sitting in the third row, and she told me how she used a PR stunt with 400 puppies to get new clients…”.
Amp up your visuals: I think most speakers know to not read directly from slides (and if you didn’t before, you do now). But if you do use slides during your presentation, use them in an unexpected way. Include a short, fun video or use some photos with humor. I saw John Morgan present recently and when he was talking about how people want to do business with trusted brands, he had a photo of a beat-up old van with “Want some candy?” spray painted on its side to illustrate why you don’t do business with strangers. Maybe consider having an illustrator like Jocelyn Wallace do some great art for key messages or just consider having your presentation done professionally. This can take your entire presentation up a level.
Take the pressure off: Even the most seasoned speakers get nervous prior to presenting. The most effective way to take the pressure off of you is to flip your mindset and think about your audience (rather than yourself or the speech). Remember that you are there to provide them with valuable information and if the audience members leave with one or two new items, reminders or a new perspective, you have made it worth their while. Focusing on being helpful or in service of the audience will help you to relax.
Get interactive: One of the best speakers around is Michael Port, who takes audience participation to a whole new level. During the presentation, he has the audience repeat back to him or make gestures back of the key points of his speech. This keeps the audience involved, but even more brilliantly, it gives them devices to remember the material. I often will stop in the middle of the speech to ask audience members to throw out examples of ideas that I present as well. As you plan your speech, think about where you can involve the audience and what devices you can use to involve them in the presentation so that you are talking with them, not just to them.
What are your favorite speaking secrets? Share them below.
Author: Carol Roth Carol Roth is a business strategist, deal maker and author of the New York Times bestselling book, The Entrepreneur Equation. She has helped her clients, ranging from solopreneurs to multinational corporations, raise more than $1 billion in capital, complete hundreds of millions of dollars in M&A transactions, secure high-profile licensing and partnership deals, create brand loyalty programs and more.
Carol is a frequent radio, television and print media contributor on the topics of business and entrepreneurship, having appeared on Fox News, MSNBC, Fox Business, WGN TV Chicago and more. Additionally, Carol’s Unsolicited Business Advice blog at CarolRoth.com was recently named as one of the Top 10 small business blogs online.
Twitter: @CarolJSRoth
Public Speaking for Kids
kidsspeaking Thanks Carol - great tips for seasoned business entrepreneurs and young speakers alike!
Liz Radzick
I like to use eye contact and actually look at individuals in the audience - but not rapidly and multiple times in the same sentence. I look at one person per sentence so that my brain gets a chance to focus on what I'm saying and connect instead of "spraying" the audience like a broken sprinkler. You can even look at one person per phrase if you're worried about creeping someone out by looking at them for too long.
And in the case where you're in an venue where the stage or video lights are so bright you can't actually see the audience, practice ahead of time with a few post-it notes stuck around your rehearsal room. The muscle memory from looking at specific points will help you overcome the paralysis that often accompanies 50,000 watts of light penetrating your retinas onstage.
hackmanj
Some great tips Carol. I should have invited you to join us for yesterdays podcast about the same topic. This information greatly enhances what we covered. Enjoy your day!
My latest conversation: Better Public Speaking Podcast
darlenecary
hmmm...I love the idea of getting the audience involved. Humor is harder too pull off well for me. Cathy (below) is so right about just being yourself. I try to keep in mind I'm there to help, and what would I say to my best friend sitting there asking for marketing help?
And of course know your material backwards and forwards so the energy just flows. Thanks for a great post!
CathyPresland
Great tips Carol. I think you also need to be natural and true to your personality. I had a guy work for me who was the funniest person to listen to when he did presentations. But I just can't do that - so I know to stay away from jokes and forced humour. Stay natural :)
Cathy
skooloflife
Great stuff Carol. Speaking has been something I"ve done a bit of over the last year and while I think it's important to rehearse, I think you make a great point about not memorizing. When you do that you come across robotic and stiff. It's kind of a trainwreck. I love that you brought up slides since davidcrandall and I are obsessed with good slide design. I think most people have terrible slide design that makes me want to gouge my eyes out. I even have gone so far as to say "the slides shouldn't be very meaningful without the presenter. If they are, they're too complicated." I'm sure you've probably come across Garr Reynold's book Presentation Zen. That's my public speaking bible. Anyways, you've brought up some really great point and important takeaways.
My latest conversation: Leo Widrich | BlogcastFM: The Blogger's Podcast | BlogcastFM: The Blogger's Podcast
JohnMorgan
Thanks for the shout-out Carol! These are excellent tips. I especially like the one about talking to the audience before the presentation. I don't see many speakers take the time to do this, but I've found that by the time I hit the stage the audience is already on my side. I can also share specific stories or examples that make sense to that audience.
prosperitygal
JohnMorgan well then I get a gold star chuckle as this is one of my fav parts...talking to crowd before. I find when you show genuine concern for what they want to learn that day during the presentation they open up more and participate when you ask;)
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Thanks Carol. I think that talking to your audience before, during, and after your presentation makes things much easier. I like to make my presentations more like conversations.
Cheers,Marc
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