You're struggling with assertiveness in public speaking. How can you confidently improve your skills?

Building confidence in public speaking, involves several key strategies. Here’s how you can build confidence for yourself: ??Preparation and Practice ?Know Your Material: The more familiar you are with your content, more confident you’ll feel. ?Practice: Before speaking to students, practice in front of friends, family, or even a mirror. This helps you get used to the flow of your speech and receive feedback. ?Record Yourself: Recording your practice sessions allows you to observe your tone, and pacing. ??Master Body Language ?Maintain Eye Contact: This helps you connect with your audience and project confidence. ?Use Gestures : Effective use of hand movements can emphasize points and make speech more dynamic, and stand tall. Regards

I think to build assertiveness, you can follow this: Before the pitch, Prepare for the topic you will be presenting about carefully and know more details beyond this topic This will build your confidence. On the stage, start with 1 second of such quietness to build your confidence and catch audience’s attention. Focus on your body language and voice very carefully. This is very important for winning audience’s trust and attention all over the pitch. Don’t talk with same tone. However, The tone is the wining horse in your talk and also empowers your confidence.

1. Build Confidence: Strengthen your belief in your knowledge and expertise. Practice positive self-talk and visualisation techniques. a. Prepare Thoroughly: Research extensively and practice well. The more familiar you are with your material, the more confident you will feel. b. Manage Anxiety: Employ relaxation techniques such as deep breathing or self-talking. c. Visualise Success: Imagine yourself delivering a great speech. This mental rehearsal can help boost your self-belief. Note: I always think of "what worst can happen?". This thought helps me realise that we are humans and we might make a mistake, but it's OKAY. Embracing imperfection allows me to focus on delivering my message rather than worrying about being perfect.

Your voice is indeed a crucial aspect of your presence as a public speaker. It’s important to focus not only on the volume but also on clarity and modulation to ensure your message is effectively communicated. Practicing breathing exercises can significantly improve your voice projection, enabling you to speak from your diaphragm rather than your throat. This technique produces a fuller and more resonant voice. Additionally, varying your pitch helps maintain the audience’s interest and allows you to emphasize key points more effectively. Make sure to articulate your words clearly and pace your speech to avoid rushing, which can convey nervousness.

Body language is especially key in reasserting yourself in public speaking, in any setting. It's a way of showing your audience that you respect them and require them to take you seriously, and that you respect yourself and take yourself seriously too. Body language isn't just about posture. It's also ensuring you know what to do with your hands — engage your hands in your speaking, whether to point something out, or to convey an emotional response (such as raising a fist). Besides these, movement is important: don't just stand there (unless you absolutely have to), but don't pace around too much — set a focal point where you walk to engage with your audience, but stay close to it so their eyes don't wander and lose interest.

The more you know the subject matter you are speaking about, the more confident you will feel standing in front of an audience. Use your own experiences in the topic to engage the audience, whether it was a win to share how knowing a topic can make you feel enpowered or something embarrassing to make them laugh and how your rectified that embarrassing moment to bring them back to you and your topic. Remember, public speaking is another form of acting. Put on that speaker role and wow your audience with your knowledge.

Authenticity is what it’s all about. If you’re authentic as a person and in the message, everything else falls into place. Understand who you are, what your role is, and why you are delivering the message.