To Be a Better Public Speaker

Posted on October 4th, 2007.

It is a week before the 3rd annual MediaSpeak Symposium and I am excited and busy getting ready for the event. October and November are busy months for me. I am tired thinking about all that I’ve taken on.

I will be an exhibitor at the International Coaches Conference in Long Beach, CA, October 31-November 3. On November 4 we are shooting 18 folks for the Video Demo Showcase and then November 9-11 is the 3 day training Authors’ SpeakEasy in LA. For my b-day, November 15 I am going to a Spa for 2 days with my fellow Scorpio friend for a well deserved mini vacation.

I was cruising around the Publishers’ Marketing Association website the other day and I found a great article by Patricia Fry, To Be a Better Public Speaker which I share with you today. I will add to her list of tips- to check out Speaker Services trainings especially if you are a professional or author who is interested in public speaking, marketing your services and products and growing your business through speaking. If you need assistance please call me or e mail me at susan@speakerservices.com and I will gladly guide you to make good choices for yourself.

One more thing-my webman, Sam Levy, tells me that the Speakers’ Community Membership site will be ready very very soon. Meaning that you can sign up and try it out for 30 days… Saty tuned for the grand announcement.
Here’s Patricia…

Authors often engage in public speaking to promote their books. But not all authors are prepared and trained for this activity. And some authors don’t want to participate.

There are authors who:
• are absolute naturals in the public-speaking realm
• hate the thought of standing before an audience
• are game to speak in public but have poor oratory skills

If speaking is one of your planned book-promotion activities, please take advantage of the following advice for authors:

· Join Toastmasters and actively participate for at least a year. You will benefit in ways that you can’t even imagine. Go to www.toastmasters.org for a list of clubs near you.

· Volunteer for opportunities to speak. Take leadership of a project at work or for a charity. Offer to go around and educate citizens on a political issue or raise funds for the library expansion.

· Attend other speakers’ programs. If you are observant and alert, you will learn volumes about public speaking by listening and watching. How does the audience respond to the speaker? What techniques seem to work (and what don’t work) for this speaker? What would you do differently to put the audience at ease and make this a more pleasant experience?

· Get involved with a storytelling group. This is a particularly enjoyable way to improve your speaking skills, and you’ll also get training and practice in using vocal variety.

· Hire a voice coach. If you have a soft voice that doesn’t carry well or a voice that is not pleasant to listen to, a voice coach might be able to help. You’ll find voice coaches listed under music teachers in the Yellow Pages.

· Find a mentor—someone whose speaking abilities you admire.

· Start locally. Before heading out to parts unknown to speak about your book in front of huge crowds, plan speaking gigs in your area. Speak to the women’s group at your church, your local Optimists and Rotary Clubs, a gathering at the museum or bookstore, or even a group of neighbors.
Powerful Pointers
While each of us has a unique way of speaking, and we don’t want to be carbon copies of each other, some public-speaking rules always (or almost always) apply.

Speak out. Practice speaking up so that everyone can hear you, whether you’re addressing a large audience or a small group. Some speakers choose to sit down on the job. In a very small, intimate group, or when the audience is sitting in a circle of chairs or on the floor, speaking while seated is generally okay. But in a room containing six rows of chairs or more, you should express respect for those in the back by standing so that you can be seen as well as heard.

Don’t respond one-on-one when an audience member asks a question. Instead, repeat the question and then respond so that everyone in the room can hear you.

Make eye contact. Move your attention around the room as you speak, making eye contact with each person

Don’t apologize. Avoid sabotaging your presentation with excuses for not being well prepared or for poor speaking skills. Stand tall and appear self-assured, and you will gain the confidence of the audience.

Use vocal variety. Make your talks more enjoyable by using an assortment of vocal tones and pitches instead of speaking in monotone. If you need help developing vocal variety, practice reading to a child. Use your highest and lowest voice and everything in between.

Eliminate nonwords. Inexperienced speakers generally use so many fillers that Toastmasters actually has an “ah counter” at every meeting. Fillers also include uh, um, er, and so forth.

Eliminate verbiage such as “yada, yada, yada” or “know what I mean?” Likewise, watch the overuse of words like “really.” “I was exhausted” is a stronger sentence than “I was really exhausted.” You can explain how exhausted you were by saying, “I was exhausted beyond anything I’d ever experienced before,” or “I was so tired I slept for 14 hours.”

Be prepared. You will be more at ease if you know what to expect. Find out if there will be a lectern or microphone, for example. How many people are likely to be in the audience? How will the room be set up? Also, have your props or notes organized so there will be no annoying fumbling during your presentation.

Know your audience. Gear your speech to the needs and interests of this particular audience. When I talk about local history, I give a completely different talk to students at local elementary schools than I do when addressing civic organizations or historical society members.

Anyone can get up in front of a group and speak. How well you do it is what counts.

Patricia Fry is a full-time freelance writer and the author of 25 published books, including The Right Way to Write, Publish and Sell Your Book, which, she reports, is getting five-star reviews. To order the book read Patricia’s publishing blog.

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