7 Tips for Successful Public Speaking

Public speaking is a taxing task. There are a lot of factors that one needs to consider before getting on stage in front of a large audience. Naturally, nervousness comes to all of us when we are faced with such situations. If you want to become an expert in public speaking, you need to practice, read, study, and develop a few skills of your own.

Here are 7 little tricks that will help you overcome the fear of public speaking:

Acknowledge nervousness

The first thing that you need to do to get a little comfortable in front of the audience admits that you are nervous, to yourself as well as the crowd in front of you. This way your audience will be more understanding and forgiving if you happen to make any mistakes. Moreover, you will also feel relaxed after having admitted your nervousness.

The best way to tell the audience about your nervousness is through a joke.

Redefine your audience

The audience in front of you consists of both people smarter than you and people who are not so smart. When you first climb the stage to address the audience, you might see them as expert individuals who are watching your every step and evaluating your public speaking skills by public speaking course. Nevertheless, you can always convince yourself that the people you are addressing are your fellow students or whoever makes you feel less nervous.

See the audience as your old friends, relatives, students, or people of your choice, as long as you are able to feel comfortable or speak with great confidence in front of them.

Invest in visual aids

Provide your audience with a beautifully crafted PowerPoint presentation along with detailed notes about the topic of your speech. This will help you keep your audience busy with the slides and notes most of your speech and relieve some anxiety of being observed. You can also speak to people who are not looking at you as giving a speech to people who are not looking at you is easier.

Make intentional mistakes

When you make intentional mistakes, you get a chance to connect with the audience by cracking a joke or making a humorous remark. For instance, drop your notes on purpose and while picking it up, crack a joke about how the presentation is only going to get worse from that point onwards.

The point is to connect with your audience whether by committing intentional mistakes or through humorous statements.

Speak to one person at a time

Most people are afraid of the crowd they have to face when speaking publicly. Newbies might even forget their lines and remain dumbstruck after being confronted with a large crowd. To overcome this fear of public speaking, you need to talk to one person at a time.

Select a member from the audience and dedicate your entire presentation to them.

Be impressive with your personal opinion

When you are speaking to the public, put in a few of your personal opinions in the speech. You must prepare these personal opinions beforehand and know exactly where in the speech you would like to integrate them. Nevertheless, while presenting, you must make it look like you just thought of the idea.

Have fun

This is the most important thing to take into account. You must be able to have fun while you are addressing a crowd. Experiment with new ways to deliver your point to the audience, integrate Question & Answer sessions, and make your points easily explainable. Whatever you do to present a great speech, make sure you are having fun.