The myth of the ‘born-to-be public speaker’ is just that – a myth! Yes, it is true we see people who go up on stage and simply kill it! Their natural, calm demeanor seems so powerful and awing. But you know what all of these people have in common? They practiced.
They worked really hard on this craft (yes, public speaking is a craft) and that’s how they developed this “gift”. If you’re one of those people who fear speaking, that’s only because you’re human! It’s normal to worry about people judging you when you have so many eyes staring right at you.
Hopefully, these 5 things great public speakers do to ensure that their speech has maximum impact will act as some sort of guidance for you!
We don’t want to talk to you about the obvious ways to become a more impactful speaker. Body language, speech tonality, structuring your speech, etc. are all technical aspects of public speaking which you can read about later.
Here, we want to focus on some simple but highly effective methods that great speakers have used (and still use) to inspire and influence their audience.
1. Simplicity
The first rule of public speaking? Keep it simple! This is something every mentor will advise you. Keeping your speech simple makes it consumable and leaves lesser room for errors. One very valuable thing we learnt from watching great speakers is – a speech does not have to be fancy to be effective.
Simplicity does not only apply to your speech content, even your body language and speech tonality can be very simple. All of this is highly valuable if you’re not very familiar with the stage.
Take Steve Jobs for example. His iPhone introduction presentation in 2007 is considered to be one of the best business talk of all time. Why? He took a technical concept and simplified it. This did two things – clearly proposed the benefit of the iPhone and inspired the audience to believe in Apple as the most visionary company of all time.
2. It’s Not About You. It’s About Them
As speakers, we tend to focus so much on content and delivery that we forget one of the most important elements that help make our speech truly effective – the audience! If we don’t keep our audience in mind while writing and preparing for the speech, even if the content and delivery is superb, the speech’s overall impact will fall flat.
Remember, your speech is not about you. You’ve been asked to speak for a reason and that reason is always to benefit the audience in some way – you might have been called to educate them on something, motivate them or maybe entertain them.
We often get so caught up in ourselves, we forget to study who we are speaking to in the first place.
Take a beloved pop musician for instance – Lady Gaga. Love or hate her, but her charisma and personality (not just her music) is something that’s got her to where she is. And the reason she is so good at pumping up her crowd is because she understands her audience – she knows what will get them going, what they want to hear, what buttons to push.
Every speech needs to be designed to communicate a particular message to a particular audience. No message can appeal to all audiences. So study who you are going to be speaking to before you speak because remember – it’s not about you, it’s about them.
3. Practice (Please!)
It baffles us how many people think they can just write a speech, go up and present it flawlessly. Here’s the thing – all the great speakers that we see have practiced their heart out for their speeches or are “naturally” good because of the simple fact that they have been doing it so often!
When you have practiced, you feel more confident about everything – about your speech, your ideas and of yourself!
4. Real Stories
As speakers, we may find ourselves struggling to find a speech topic to speak on and rightfully so! Because of the internet, most things have already been spoken about! What more new information can we provide that can be unique and add value to people?
That’s where you come in – not as a speaker, but more so as a person. Nobody has lived your life and nobody knows it better than you. The way you make your speech unique is by relating your topic to a personal, real story from your own life. That’s the only way you’ll tell people something they haven’t heard of before!
For instance, if you’re giving a talk on digital marketing, don’t just talk about the technicals of social media and creating a website. People can find that information anywhere with a quick Google search!
Instead, talk to them about how you have used digital marketing for your own businesses and how it’s helped you grow. Give them personal anecdotes and real instances that your audience can relate to and make them believe that what you are saying is indeed true!
5. What’s your point?
To create an impact, you need people to take action. Many people speak really well. They give out a bunch of ideas and keep the audience entertained with great confidence. But at the end of it, the audience goes back home and continues living life the way they always did. The speech did not inspire any change.
Why? Because the speaker did not tell the audience clearly what they should do at the end of the speech.
This is what is called a Call-To-Action or a CTA. This CTA is what will give the audience that one actionable takeaway which will help inspire the change you want. This also helps reinforce the main idea of your speech.
Here are some things to keep in mind while writing your CTA:
• Make sure it’s clear, direct and concise so the audience knows exactly what they have to do
• Have a CTA that is applicable to your audience. You may need to customize your CTA for different audiences
• Try and keep as fewer barriers to action as you can when you ask your audience to act on something
• Focus on benefits for your audience. Show them what’s in it for them if they follow through on your action!
Public speaking is an art which develops with time, practice and some embarrassing moments! Personally, we feel grabbing as much stage time as possible is the best way to become a better speaker. Each experience on stage (whether good or downright humiliating) will shape you up to be a more confident person – not just on stage. And that’s the beauty of public speaking – you don’t just develop as a speaker, you develop as a human.
