What do you fear most? According to some research in the U.S., the majority of study participants said they were more afraid of delivering a speech than anything else, even snakes or heights.
Since my time in college I’ve given many public speeches. I’m thankful that my university work included a speech class because I learned two things that have helped me enormously:
1. Basic Speech Organization
.Tell them what you’re going to tell them
.Tell them
.Tell them what you told them
That’s the ultra simple, easy to remember but highly effective way to organize a speech. Most people don’t listen closely enough to comprehend and remember everything that’s said in a speech. Therefore, it’s important for the speech writer to be very clear about the most important message that they want to get across.then repeat the essence of that message at the beginning, middle and conclusion of the speech.
Students in the speech class where I learned this little technique were given an assignment to test its effectiveness by seeing how professional speechwriters use this type of organization. By reading the full text of important speeches in the’New York Times’, one can easily see that major speeches all follow this outline.
The second best tip I learned in that class was how to keep from sounding nervous. When I first gave speeches in that class, my nervousness was apparent to the audience because my voice would waver when I first started.
The cause? Nervousness, not breathing correctly.
The solution? Start your speech by taking two deep breaths while you smile at the audience. The few seconds not only relieves your tension but catches the audiences attention. The few seconds of quietly standing at the podium, without speaking, also subconsciously conveys a message of proficiency to your audience as so many professional speechmakers use this little tip.
In the class I learned to practice this breathe/smile step at the beginning of every speech until it became automatic.
Hope this helps and good luck in delivering your next speech.