Hold A Successful Speech: Public Speaking Techniques

Not everyone can speak in front of an audience. Many people have to deal with stage fright when speaking in public and that derails the audience’ attention from the actual speech and onto the speaker’s emotions. If you’ve ever held a public speech, then you might have experienced shaking or black-outs and you might have even forgotten the things you wanted to say. Fortunately, there are some public speaking techniques that can help you prepare, organize and hold your speech successfully.

Step 1: Prepare Your Speech

Forget about the public speaking techniques for a moment. The first thing you need to think about when you have or want to hold a speech is choose a topic. Make sure the topic is appropriate for the event and do your research on it. Read around the various matters on your topic and pick some things you want to talk about. Think about your audience and make sure that it’ll be interested in hearing what you have to say. You have to tailor your speech after your audience. Therefore, if you will speak in front of students, they might become impatient or bored at some point, so make sure you incorporate some jokes and stories within your speech. This is a great public speaking technique that will draw them right back into your speech and you’ll have their attention at all times. Also, choose the right words. So if you have a PhD in chemistry, don’t use scientific wording when you’re addressing an audience comprised of students. However, if your speech is for an annual event organized for scientific purposes, you must address your audience accordingly.

Step 2: Organize your ideas

After you’ve chosen all the matters you want to address in your speech, make sure you organize them in a logical manner. All ideas must be interconnected, so you can use short stories or jokes to create a bridge between them. Bridging is a common public speaking technique used by many well-known speakers. You can also use metaphors to connect your ideas. Choose your second best subject to start with. The best of any public speaking techniques is to have an epic end. Therefore, leave the best for last, and start off with the second most interesting thing you want to talk about. Keep in mind that most certainly your audience will remember your first and last words. Another thing you have to worry about is time. Always make sure your speech fits within the allotted time.

Step 3: Hold Your Speech Successfully

Use your voice as your primary key. If you recite your speech or if your voice is monotone, your audience might start yawning. Thus, avoid this by varying your vocal tone and volume. Also, make sure you take long breaths before starting each paragraph. Running out of breath is a common mistake and it can ruin your whole speech. A public speaking technique that must be used with every speech is gesturing. While holding your speech, use hand gestures and body language to punctuate what you’re saying. Another thing you must avoid doing is to look into your notes all the time; try to maintain as much eye contact as possible with your audience. This will give load you up with self-confidence and it will make your speech more profound. By doing this you might even engage some of the audience members into a debate. Use the audiences’ feedback to enhance you speech and make it even more interesting.

Step 4: Watch how the Pros do it

Another great way to overcome your fear is to watch and really analyse how other great speakers deliver their message. There are many great speaking venues that you can visit to learn the ropes from the best. Some of these speakers make upwards of $100K per speech. Here's a great source of Public Speaking Venues this summer that you may want to visit if you are in the Southern New Jersey Area. The Summer Speaker Series

In spite of these three easy steps and public speaking techniques, the fear of speaking in public will still be there. Therefore, if you want to make sure your speech is successful, try to cure yourself from this fear. The best way to do this is with the help of a simple book called “Overcoming Fear Of Public Speaking”. This book will help you get rid of your public speaking fear in just 21 days. “Overcoming Fear Of Public Speaking” uses cognitive psychotherapy that will make your thought and choices rational and positive. Another thing taught in the book is the technique of mind mapping so that instead of stuttering and forgetting what you wanted to say, you will be able to associate words and thoughts with ease. Nothing bad can come out of it, so just try it!