A practical guide to public speaking

What is public speaking?

Public speaking is any situation where there is a speaker and an audience.

The speaker and audience can be together in the same location or be in contact via other communication sources such as teleconference technologies or web based tools such as Skype. Public speaking is one of the oldest methods of mass communication and has been a very important part of historical events such as revolutions, wars, peace treaties, royal crownings, political movements, and more.

Why do we need public speaking?

In a world where we have instant communication abilities across continents, and the next great idea is just a mouse click away, why do we still need public speaking?

Even with these advances in the various communications mediums aforementioned, the need for clear, and energized communication is still necessary and the most powerful method to accomplish this is through public speaking. Public speaking uses the human emotional element to both share ideas, but also to manipulate minds. Public speaking has the ability to energize, motivate, or bring people to tears and  blows, start bloody revolutions, or end wars. No other communication art to date has been able to do that. The Arab Spring revolutions in the middle east were coordinated using social media such as Twitter and Facebook, but what started them was public speakers who felt the peoples emotions, and new how to motivate them to act on those emotions. If electronic communication is a tool, then public speaking is the human element that controls the direction and strength of that tool.

What do you need to be a good public speaker?

• Passion
• Vision
• Conviction
• Confidence
• Clear voice
• Deep understanding of human emotion
• Good knowledge of body language
• Superb command of tone and pitch
• Humor
• Good eye contact
• Empathy

These skills are required to be a great public speaker, these are not all of the skills but some of the more important ones. Not knowing these skills does not mean you cannot be a good public speaker, but having these skills will only add to your effectiveness. The great thing is that public speaking abilities can evolve and get better with proper training and time so a bad public speaker today can be a great public speaker in the future.

When can public speaking take place?

Public speaking is successful when there is a receptive audience. The key is receptive, because an unwilling audience will not promote a healthy environment where the public speaker can communicate ideas and connect emotionally. Communicating emotions is much more important but also more difficult than communicating thoughts, especially in a non-receptive environment since to communicate emotions it is necessary to understand the audience on a deeper level, what this means is that even if you communicate your thoughts but you miss the crucial emotional factor, your message will be greatly diminished or made impotent.  To summarize; keep your emotional connection to the audience to successfully promote your ideas and receive their support.

When can public speaking take place?

Public speaking is best done when there is a strong need for guided change/action, or situations that require a large consensus. To measure readiness, it is necessary to be in touch with current events, environment, and have a recent and close connection to the emotional state of the target audience.

“Wisdom is knowing when to do things, and patience to wait.”

MARCUS ARVIZU

How does one do public speaking?

Public speaking is not so much something you do, rather it is someone you are. To do public speaking you must be a person that is mature, meaning you know what you believe in, what your personal style is, and is not afraid to tell the world. You cannot do public speaking successfully if you are afraid of criticism or peoples ridicule. Public speaking is having an attitude and sharing it with a larger audience successfully so as to be contagious and gain their undivided support or cause them to question more. If your audience after your speech leaves excited, in great group discussions, and asks you numerous questions, then you know you have been successful. 

Elements of Public Speakers

• Passion: this is that energy for life and for the things you love. If you do not have this, your public speaking will be much less convincing. People listen to someone who they feel has love for life and the causes they believe in. Someone who has not passion cannot for life cannot create passion in others and therefor will not be an effective public speaker.

• Vision: this is seeing a clear picture of where you want to go in life, imagining things that aren’t yet but that you know very well are possible and know a general idea of how to get there.

• Conviction: this is an unbreakable belief in your vision, everything you value, and the ultimate goal in your life. Conviction is necessary if you want to speak to people publicly and not have fear of their criticism or ridicule.  If you do not believe in yourself, why will they listen to you?

• Confidence: if conviction is belief in the vision, confidence is belief in ones personal abilities. Confidence allows you to feel safe in the knowledge that you are capable of taking on challenges because you have the necessary skills to overcome them. Confidence is only attained through life experimentation, it is not something that can be learned in books.

• Clear voice: a clear voice is having the ability to pronounce words in an easily intelligible way, and with sufficient volume to allow every audience member to hear you.

• Deep understanding of human emotion: human emotion is irrational and derives from the most instinctual dark corners of our brain, however that does not mean that emotions cannot be understood or better yet controlled. On the contrary, good public speakers can understand the emotions that the audience demonstrates and then control and manipulate them according to the goals of the speech.

• Body language: As a public speaker understanding body language is of great importance since over 50% of communication is through body signals. During public speaking the audience will demonstrate emotions through their body language, knowing basic body language will allow the public speaker to adapt and react accordingly to the audience and create a more effective speech. Also projecting emotions into the audience is possible through body language performed by the public speaker. Combining body movement and gestures together with proper voice modulations during the speech creates a superbly effective duo.

• Tone and pitch: tone and pitch give extra meaning and emotion to words and keep the audience more focused and interested. It is a known fact that monotonous speaking loses peoples attention quickly and puts them into a trans like state that can end n snoring audience members. If you want your audience focused on every word you say, vary the tone and pitch in your sentences and add excitement to your speech!

• Humor: the ability to understand what the audience considers funny and use it to grow good will. A very special way of using humor is to make self deprecating jokes; these are jokes that make fun of yourself and demonstrate to the audience that you are humble, yet confident about yourself, and do not take yourself too seriously. This is also the safest way to joke without offending anyone.

• Eye contact: this is the ability to make everyone in the audience feel you are paying attention to them and occasionally make eye contact with them. Of course it is impossible to make eye contact with everyone in the audience especially with large groups of people but giving the illusion that you are is realistic. There is a technique to do this, and with regular practice it can be mastered.

• Empathy: is something crucial that is needed in order to be successful in public speaking. Being able to understand and share the emotions of your audience not only allows you to come close to them, but it also makes you more genuine and trust able.

How to prepare for public speaking

These are a few key things you need to do before you give a speech

• Know your topic well (be the expert)
• Know your audience (their values, social class, culture)
• Prepare cloths and shoes that will reflect your audience
• Be well groomed and clean
• Know the speech patterns and local language
• Be familiar with the location you will deliver the speech
• Prepare notes with key phrases/sentences to remind you of the main topics
• Memorization is not necessary, but you should know your topics well enough to speak fluently about them
• Learn to improvise (in real life it is impossible to prepare for everything)
• Do not eat smelly foods that give you bad breath, avoid heavy foods that cause sleepiness or gas

Common Questions

Is public speaking only for large crowds?

The truth is public speaking is for any situation that has an audience regardless of the size.

• Company meetings
• Presentations
• Sales
• Customer service
• Teaching
• Daily life

The situations where public speaking skills are needed is endless. Public speaking skills make you an effective communicator, and someone that people want to listen to.

To be a manager do I need to know public speaking?

Over the years I have met many managers and company owners, and rarely have I met any who were good public speakers. The truth is that to be a manager or owner of a company you do not need to be good at public speaking, however if you want to be a leader, you do need this skill. Public speaking makes you someone people listen to with joy and interest, someone that makes people want to push forward and accomplish great things, someone that can motivate people to do the impossible and believe in a cause greater than themselves. If you want to be a  leader, then public speaking is a must for excellent communication!

My pronunciation is not good, does that matter?

The truth is most people who are not natives of a country do not have perfect pronunciation. However not having perfect pronunciation does not mean that you are not a good public speaker. As long as people understand you easily, you have adequate vocabulary, and you have a clear and strong voice, you should have no problem. In fact, having an accent can be part of your charm, or serve as a personal branding strategy.

Be proud of you accent!

My voice is small and soft, what can I do?

Many women and some young men have the habit of speaking with quiet and soft voices. The truth is that this is a psychological choice, and everyone can speak loudly and with strength. You have to have confidence and not be afraid when you speak. If you feel your voice is still not strong enough, then of course use a microphone or other speaking devices. Make sure that when you speak, you do so from the stomach, this allows you to project your voice more smoothly and loudly with a deeper and richer tone, and keep your back straight and chest out to make your voice clear. Make sure not to touch your mouth or cover it with your hand when speaking as this can cause your voice to be less clear.

My family taught me it is not polite to look people in the eyes

Look, what your family taught you is fine and it might be good to do under normal conditions within your local culture but when public speaking, this idea needs to go out the window! The reason your family told you not to look someone in the eye is because looking at peoples' eyes can be considered a direct challenge to their authority. But when publicly speaking you are the authority and must make everyone feel that you are the expert and in charge. The only way to do that is to look at people in the eye. Of course doing this is impossible since there are probably too many people in the audience to look at every single one. The technique is to pick two or three different points at the back and front of the audience, and look at those points alternately from time to time throughout the speech. Do not stare at these points for too long or you might make people feel you are  glaring at them. And probably the most important reason to make people feel you are looking at them is to give them the sensation that you are speaking directly to them as if they were the only person in the room with you, thus further connecting emotionally.

(This is just a brief introduction into the basics of public speaking, please contact me if you have further questions, I am always happy to help.)