Everyone believes it so it must be true… Public Speaking is horrifying! Right?! Well, whether or not you believe this to be true, it makes good sense to set yourself up for success. So here are 10 Public Speaking Tips that will help you give a great presentation and help you WOW your audience!
1. Pay attention to logistics. A poor room setup and microphone can ruin an otherwise great presentation.
2. Use appropriate humor. Every audience expects some degree of entertainment value.
3. Address hecklers. Hecklers in business audiences are the know-it-alls that hate every speaker. Try to interview them ahead of time to get on their good side so they don’t try to undermine your presentation.
4. Reveal yourself. To help create rapport tell some personal things about you, your family or even your dogs.
5. Use emotional language. Choose your words carefully to push the emotional buttons of the audience members.
6. Use props to make points. They break up the presentation and make you more interesting.
7. Practice. There is no substitute for practicing parts of your speech over and over until the words flow easily.
8. Move the audience to action. There is no sense getting up to talk unless you get the audience to do something because of your appearance.
9. Research the audience so that your comments can be absolutely targeted to them.
10. Bring solutions. If you’ve researched your audience well, it should be easy to bring possible solutions to their problems. You will always be welcome back if you do this.
