At some point in your life, you may be asked to give a speech, whether it be for a small gathering, for a toast, an award presentation, a eulogy, a school assembly, or an inspiring talk for a large crowd. An opportunity for public speaking may come knocking on your door. Are you ready?
One of the fears around public speaking is the fear of failure, either making a major blunder, or forgetting your speech and finding yourself standing in front of the crowd in silence, at a loss for words.
The fatal mistake in public speaking is failing to prepare. According to Dale Carnegie, in the audio book, Public Speaking to Win, a well-prepared speech is already 9/10 delivered (Chapter 1). Being prepared and ready will land you in the 90% range of success in public speaking. Preparation is the essential key to public speaking. You want to go before your listeners ready, well-rested, ready, and well-prepared.
Speech readiness does not have to be a challenging hurdle to public speaking. In fact, if you take the time to spend the time preparing a speech, the process can quickly build confidence in public speaking.
Tips for Speech Preparation
- Collect 100 thoughts and discard 90 of them in your process of fine tuning your speech
- Goal is to be brief and clear
- Articulate clear concepts of your talk
- Make yourself easy to understand
- Be exact in your meaning
- Practice your speech both silently and aloud
- Practice so that you use minimal notes when speaking
- Another goal is to put your heart in your talk
- In other words, practice your speech until you know it by heart
- Not memorized, but know it enough where you can speak from your heart
- Practice enough where your speech becomes a story from your heart
- You want to make the environment of your speech conversation-like
- Be natural and as genuine as possible
- Practice so you can be comfortable, truthful, and your best self
Great public speaking is an art in telling stories. People are always interested in stories, that is what makes us human. Use plain language to tell your stories in your speech. Don’t make the speech complicated or too technical. Your audience will feel interested in the topic of your speech to the degree you are sincerely interested in it yourself (Chapter 9).
I am a member of a Toastmasters Club at work, and one of the club members* gave some great advice in preparing speeches. He recommends preparing a speech in three stages:
- Write a detailed outline and/or write out your speech – go ahead and script out what you want to say verbatim, or write a detailed outline on what you want to say. Then practice the speech silently and aloud.
- From the script or detailed outline, pare down your words to an abbreviated outline. Then practice giving your speech aloud.
- With the abbreviated outline, write down a few bullet points of key words. Then practice your speech aloud. It is OK to practice several times until the key words trigger what you want to say, so you can give the speech by heart.
I am a huge fan of speech preparation, and I utilize the three steps as well as several of the bullet points listed above. I practice my speeches several times aloud and in various places – alone in my office, while driving in the car, and sometimes in the shower.
The amount of input into preparation is worth the effort because the time investment builds confidence and deepens your knowledge of the speech topic. No matter the outcome, the growth in confidence and learning is priceless.
What helps you build your confidence?
What is your best tip in preparing for a public speech or presentation?
I welcome your comments.
*Thank you to Toastmaster club member, Lukas Velush, for the advice on speech preparation.
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