5 Surefire Tips To Better Public Speaking

If you search for "public speaking tips" with Google, you'll find more than two and a half million results. It seems that there is a nearly unlimited number of resources online which offer to help you overcome your fear of public speaking; but if you need to give a speech soon, the last thing you need is to spend all of your time looking for tips to successfully make it through your own upcoming speech.

Most of the fears people have about speaking in public come from within themselves, rather than having any sort of basis in how their audience may react to them. The people who will listen to your speech are far more concerned with the information you're presenting them than with how you give your speech. You may be anxious about speaking, but this anxiety comes from yourself - and the five tips which follow can help you to overcome this and feel comfortable with giving a speech in front of an audience.

Public Speaking Tip #1

KNOW YOUR TOPIC! I don't mean know your topic, I mean inside and out, upside down, what ever question someone could throw at you, you know the answer. You really need to be prepared to reach this level. You need to know your speech almost by heart; you need to know the products you will be discussing. Do your homework, you will know you have reached public speaking Nirvana when you get that "feeling", it will come with knowledge. Believe!

Public Speaking Tip #2

Before your speech, talk with as many of the audience members as you can. The more familiar you are with the people in the audience, the more confident and comfortable you'll feel when speaking.

By using your time before the speech to talk to people, you won't spend this time worrying. This alone will make you much calmer and composed when you speak. The more relaxed you are when you step up to give your speech, the better it will go.

Public Speaking Tip #3

Despite the conventional wisdom, it's not a good idea to picture your audience in the nude. This can be distracting and hurt your attempts at public speaking far more than it helps.

Public Speaking Tip # 4

If you find yourself filling in the pauses with ers, ums and uhs, you need to stop. Instead, repeat the sentence as if you're emphasizing it, replacing the uhs and ers with pauses; this has a dramatic effect which sounds intentional (and far more polished than the alternative).

Public Speaking Tip # 5

Use body language. A lot of people think that giving a speech is all about what you're saying. That's only half of the picture. You need to use gestures and other body language to add emphasis and energy to your speech if you want to be a truly effective speaker.

All of these tips are useful in helping you to overcome your stage fright and get comfortable with public speaking. Being able to give a speech in front of a group when needed can be very important for your career; there are people who actually pass up on a promotion because of their fears of having to speak in front of people!

There are many who fear speaking in public more than anything else. It is a very real fear which can be crippling in many ways. However, you can overcome your fear of giving a speech to an audience with these tips. While you may not ever come to enjoy the experience, you can at least learn to successfully speak in public and convey your points with your nerves none the worse for wear. The most important thing is to know your subject well so that you know what you'll be saying in your speech and prepared for the questions that your audience is the most likely to ask. Once you do this, the battle is more than half won - all you need to do is to step up to the front of the room and give your speech with confidence.

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