10 Tips for Kick-Starting Your Public Speaking
A few of our favourite tips to help you prepare and deliver a great speech.
- Be prepared. Your audience is giving you their time and consideration, so rehearse enough to be confident you'll leave a good impression.
- Organise your speech in a logical sequence: opening, main points, summary.
- Start strong. Begin with a powerful opening that grabs your audience's attention, such as a startling fact or statistic, an interesting story, or a touch of humour.
- Be conversational. Avoid reading word for word. Instead, refer to notes or points from an outline so your speech has a more free-flowing, natural tone.
- Speak slower, pause more. Speak at a somewhat slower rate than usual, with pauses to underscore your important points.
- Speak with passion. If you're truly invested in what you're saying, you'll hold your audience's attention. Use your voice colourfully.
- Make eye contact. It establishes an immediate bond with an audience, especially when you focus on individual listeners rather than gazing over the room as a whole.
- Use gestures, body and facial expression. Practise using your hands naturally on important words, and bring some verbs to life by acting them out.
- Be patient. It's easy to get frustrated if you make a mistake, but public speaking takes time to master. Keep practising and you will reach your goals.
- Practise and rehearse often. Ask friends to be your audience, or practise in front of a mirror, and use a timer to help you pace your speech.
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