Delivering a great speech and having a successful conference experience is not as hard as you might imagine. Becoming a good public speaker is about much more than simply overcoming your fears. It requires a concentrated effort on key principles as we will outline here so that you can master these skills:
Eye Contact
Keeping eye contact with your audience is powerful on many levels. It shows you are confident in your presentation. Throughout your speech you will want to shift your eye contact from one individual to the next. Don’t stay focused on the same person the entire time or the rest of the audience will feel left out.
Slow-Down
One of the most common things observed when listening to people speak is they seem to be in a hurry – they rush their words. This is clearly because they are nervous. However, your speech is so much more effective when it isn’t rushed. Use silence as an advantage. Pause often to keep yourself from babbling to fill the silence.
Vary Your Tonality
According to MotivationalSpeakerz.com, you will want to convey energy when you need to such as stressing an important point. Varying your tone will help keep your presentation interesting and memorable.
Public Speaking Anxiety
Learning to overcome public speaking anxiety isn’t as hard as you might think. By following practical guidelines, even the most nervous of speakers can learn to deliver a powerful presentation by staying relaxed and calm. In fact, by the time your finished reading this article, there’s a good chance you’ll feel better already.
Here are three tips to get you started.
(1) People Want You to Succeed
The first way to begin to overcome public speaking anxiety is to keep in mind that your audience actually wants you to succeed in delivering a powerful presentation. “If you can recognize that your audience wants you to be successful, it can really help your anxiety melt away” says Chris Johnson of the Coaching Institute. “Yes, there are certain types of people who thrive on watching others fail (mainly because they are failures themselves), but the fact is the majority of audience members do want you to be fun, interesting, and captivating.”
(2) Don’t Draw Attention to Your Nervousness
Another powerful way to overcome public speaking anxiety is to not let on that you’re nervous. Even if you are nervous, it doesn’t always show. There’s no need to draw attention to it as doing so will surely take away from your credibility. If you remain silent, your audience may never know you had any anxiety or nervousness at all.
(3) Turn Nervousness Around 180 Degrees
Did you know that the same energy that causes stage fright can also cause enthusiasm and excitement? Knowing this allows you to turn that energy into something that will aid you in delivering a captivating presentation. Use the energy to your advantage.
Final Thoughts
It is true that speaking in public does require a great deal of practice if you want to be able to get up on stage and deliver at a high level. However, your ability to overcome any self doubt or fears will subdue as you continue to practice.