3 THINGS YOU MUST GET CLEAR ON, TO BECOME A BETTER SPEAKER

One of the biggest learnings I've had recently has been about the power of clarity and I have to say it's been really eye-opening.???

I was doing a mini-course on?The Law of Attraction recently and one of the things the presenter shared was that *indecision* is one of the biggest enemies of getting what you want.?

Or in other words, you can be doing lots of things to get you to a destination, but if you don't have clarity on *exactly*?what that destination is, you won't get there. Or, it will take?a hell of a lot longer that it needed to.?

It seems pretty obvious when you hear that?or read that.

But this made me think about how 'unclear' I've been about some of my own biz related goals?and how frustrating it's been not hitting them.?

So I sat down and got as specific as possible. I quantified my goals. I put numbers in them. I made them?so specific, that I'd be able to "tick" them off my list and be very clear in my mind that they?were completed. In essence, I removed all ambiguity surrounding them.?

... and you know what? As soon as I did that with the one i've been most wanting to hit, I achieved it!?

Now this got me?super obsessed with how clarity can help in all areas.?That's what's prompted this Article. I want to share with you the 3 ways I believe clarity can help you become a better public speaker.?

1. THE POINTS YOU WANT TO MAKE

So many people approach presenting in terms of what information they want to share with others. The problem with this is when you operate from a place of?'information sharing', it can come across a bit confusing to your audience.

They're always thinking "what's in it for me".??So if you don't define a clear point, it's going to be hard for your audience to make sense of what you're speaking about.?

So, before you give any presentation, ask yourself what the point of it is.

Not 'what' you'll cover, but 'why' you're talking about it in the first place and what your 'audience' can 'do' with that information.?

If you can define this ahead of any talk you give (no matter how informal it is), you're going to drastically improve the clarity of your message and the value people will place on it.

You can read more about how to do that?in my article "How to catapult the value an audience gets from your talk" .

2. WHERE YOU'RE AT NOW AS A SPEAKER

Do you know what your strengths and development areas are as a speaker?

Are you aware of how you deliver a talk and how much you say 'ums and ah's'? Do you know what areas you specifically need to work on, or what things you need to avoid to become a better speaker? Or are you flying blind?

A great way to answer these questions is to record yourself giving a presentation and watch it back.

In fact if you can watch it back with the audio off and then just listen to it with the audio on, you'll get a great sense of what you'll need to tweak to make your talks even better.?

For a lot of people I know this is hard to do. I get it, trust me! But if you can't face watching yourself on video, how do you think you're ever going to feel comfortable putting yourself out there for other people to watch? For personal experience, the more you watch yourself, the easier it gets.

Or, invest in a Coach who can give you an outsider's perspective, help you identify your blindspots and where to focus your efforts for the biggest bang for buck.

3. WHERE YOU WANT TO BE

Most of us spend a lot of time worrying about how our presentation is going to go. Things like "Will I completely stuff this up?", "I hope I don't go red", "Ahhh I'm freaking out that I'm going to embarrass myself in front of 500 of my colleagues..."or "What if they don't find it interesting at all!?"

These thought patterns are technically there to help us, as once we've thought of what could go wrong, we can then brainstorm what we can do to minimise that risk.?

However, unlike in the physical world where we can walk or run away from something scary, we can't always avoid speaking in public!?

Also, the more you stress about something, the more likely it is to materialise, because you're focussing on it.?

So, it's important to focus on what you *do* want to happen instead and channel all of your energy around making *that* happen.

It's easier said than done, but there's scientific proof that this technique works, so it's well worth the effort to switch your thought patterns up.

If you'd like more detail on how to do this, I go into more detail about it in my article here "Why you need to incorporate visualisation into your pre-talk prep ".

In the coming month, if improving your public speaking skills is important to you, I challenge you to focus on getting greater clarity. Whether that's on the point you're making, your current skillset or your future goals.?

Which aspect will you get clearer on?

Emily

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Want more tips and tricks to help you improve your public speaking??Signup ?to my?Monthly NEWSLETTER?and you'll never miss out.

Emily Edgeley | PUBLIC SPEAKING COACH |?www.emilyedgeley.com