Greetings to you, dear one! Recently, I came across a group of young folks who wished to become ardent speakers. However, they had neither the aura, skill nor grit needed to become a pro at public speaking. This was why I decided to put up something to help not just these young ones but adults all around the world. Public speaking is a skill that must be mastered and an art that must be learnt.
Public speaking is the art of speaking face-to-face with a live audience. It is a learnable vocation and takes time to be refined just like any other vocation like skiing, knitting and carpentry.
A lot of people have found it hard to deliver while getting their opinions across to an audience because they have no empowerment in public speaking or seemingly because they have underrated speaking in public. Some have even attributed it to being shy or introverted.
Read: 7 Ways to Improve Your EQ
However, the truth remains that no matter the personality type you might have, it is not normal for you to be unable to pass across vital information to a large audience.
As a business person, one's public speaking abilities go a long way in attracting potential clients or sending them away. As a student, the inability to be able to convey your thoughts properly might cost you some juicy grades especially if you have to make presentations before your professors. Overall, nobody likes to listen to someone who has no proper arrangement of his line of thought. How can public speaking become one's second nature, then?
1. Get a hold of your emotions and mindsets.
A man's emotions and state of mind are some of the factors that can make or mar him. Anyone who will do well in the art of public speaking must first get rid of the "victim" mindset where you feel everyone is out to get you and so, you feel it's normal for you not to be able to pass across your thoughts.
Going to a platform where you are to present certain business ideas, opinions or research results with a mind filled with fear will make you fail undoubtedly. Before any public speaking appearance, you must make sure to get a firm grip on your emotions and prevent it from going haywire.
2. Organize and know your points beforehand
Getting on stage, another thing that could affect a person negatively is having a haphazard organization of what one is about to speak about.
An orderly arrangement of your points and materials serves as a confidence boost for you and prevents a situation where you become blocked and have to stutter through your points. The proper organization also gives you a hedge in interacting beautifully with your audience.
Knowing your points ensures that in the presence of unpredicted hiccups, you could scale through your presentation smoothly.
3. Avoid excessive eye contact with your audience.
While it is necessary to carry your audience along by looking into their eye, most times, direct eye-to-eye contact should be avoided at all costs. This is because your audience contains a variety of people who carry different auras and this means that some of your audience's eyes are so bright that it seems they speak, some are dark that they pull you in and your train of thought gets disrupted and some are so mirthless that your emotions become wrongly placed.
This is why it is advised to keep eye contact as minimal as possible.
4. Practice hard.
Becoming an expert at whatever you find yourself doing is not all about wishing and daydreaming. It also encapsulates practising hard. Everyone knows that consistent practice makes perfect whatever you do.
For a public speaker who wants to experience a break out above the norm and stand before the crème de la crème of the society, he must cultivate the ability to practice within either small or medium-sized groups. This helps to hone speaking skills and also means that when criticisms are made, one can accept them with a heart that is ready to learn.
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