Be a Better Speaker: Tips from Carol and Catherine

It isn’t often that Carol and I post on the same topic around the same time on different blogs – but that is exactly what happened recently.

I suspect that many of you are speaking, or are considering speaking to grow your business. Here on Business Unplugged we strive to give you the information you need to succeed, and here are some of our best tips to look like a pro when you are standing in front of a group.

Since Carol’s name is on the door, let’s look at her tips first:

1. Memorize concepts, not content.
2. Chat up audience members before your presentation.
3. Enhance your visuals and audio.
4. Flip your mindset to ease your nerves.
5. Get interactive.

You will want to check out the whole post 5 Easy Ways to Become a Better Public Speaker — Fast on entrepreneur.com.

I’ll see Carol’s tips and raise you five more:

1. Create clean slides with only the most important points.
2. Use large fonts people can actually read.
3. Start and finish strong.
4. What’s in it for them? Make sure they know!
5. Deliberately slow down your speech cadence and don’t mumble.

You can see my whole post 5 Easy Speaking Tips to Make You Look Like a Pro on the Made in Chicago Speakers Bureau site.

So that makes 10 tips. If you are just beginning to speak, these are a great start.

If you are an experienced speaker, I’m sure that you will realize that you could be doing one or two things better.

As our friend Barry Moltz says, “Speakers speak.” Go get ‘em!

What other tips would you add? Did any of these strike a chord? We would love to hear your thoughts in the comments below.