5 Tips for Improving Your Public Speaking Skills

I was asked to write an article for Natwest on Public Speaking. 

Q. What issues do people have to overcome to be successful at public speaking?

A. Most people fear looking silly infront of others. They are petrified of the public shame. This fear was very useful 1000s of years ago, because it protected us from being banished from the Tribe, and possible death. Nowadays those fears still exist, but society has evolved quicker than the context of our fears. The fear of public speaking is no.1 of all fears, above death and spiders. Focus on not taking yourself too seriously. Focus on the value and gifts you bring to others, and the fact that speakers are the leaders of the world. This should diminish and contextualise your fear. Many people fear being heckled, or publicly not knowing what to say. This can be overcome by caring about your audience more than yourself, and falling back on gratitude and accepting you don’t know it all. If I don’t know the answer to a question, I tell that truth, and try to connect the person with someone who may have the answer. I don’t have to know it all. I can’t know it all. People can tell when you blag. A few seconds of silence is OK, in fact it adds power to your speech.

Q. How can being good at public speaking benefit a person in their career?

A. Many people argue that world leaders such as Obama and Churchill were in their positions as much because they were great orators, as they were politicians. Steve jobs built a vast personal brand through his memorable keynotes. Influencers on social media grow millions of followers and do big brand deals thanks to their speaking skills on stage and video. Good speaking skills can help you influence people, get more of what you want, guide your kids to success, manage and lead a staff, build a successful online profile and become a person of influence. It its a very highly paid part time business too, with speaking fees from ￡3,000 to ￡100,000 to more than ￡1million for a 90 minute talk!

Q. What successes have you seen as a result of helping others become better at public speaking?

A. My life can be measured before I learned public speaking and afterwards. Personally, in business and in relationships I was failing, alone and lacked confidence. This spread across most areas of my life. Once I educated myself on public speaking, these areas of my life improved dramatically. I have seen people take an existing business or speciality and finally start to make profits from it through public speaking. I have seen people build training business and income packaging and teaching what they already know and do. I have seen people repair marriages, inspire amazing children, start Podcasts and YouTube channels, become an influencer and build a vast fan and client base. Perhaps the greatest gift of public speaking is the inner belief and confidence it builds. It also gave me two world records, and I was never good enough at anything else to get that!

Q. What would be your top 5 practical tips for better public speaking?

A. My top 5 practical tips for public speaking are:

1. Get on a starter course for public speaking. Expert Speaker Discovery (see below), Toastmasters, Carnegie

2. Use the ‘What, Why, How, When, What if’ 5 step model as a framework to deliver your message and content

3. Get a Zoom H1 or other dictaphone and record all your speeches, Listen back and tweak each time

4. Start with creating a good 30 second elevator pitch you can use at networking events, and expand as you go

5. Start doing (live) videos on social media to force you to practice, engage and improve your speaking skills

Rob Moore