angela
You have prepared a presentation, the hard part is over right? Unfortunately for most, the hard part is just beginning because now you have to actually practice and eventually deliver your presentation in front of a live audience.
Fear not, in this article we have outlined the need-to-know basics of public speaking; physicality, delivery, and memorization tips. Remember, perfecting your delivery is a journey, so pick 1-2 tips to focus on at a time rather than the entire list at once. When you’ve successfully added the first few, pick a couple more, and so on.
Physicality
Your physical presence is as important as your verbal delivery; constantly shifting your weight can be as distracting as saying “um” all the time.
Here are 4 physical delivery basics to focus on:
1. Have a firm stance.
- Plant your feet shoulder width apart versus ankles touching.
- Don’t shift your weight back and forth.
- When you do move, move with purpose, 2-3 steps at a time versus a small 1 step at a time.
- If you need structure, try using a 3-point movement: start center, move to a spot on the left, move to a spot on the right, go back to center, repeat.
- Move when switching to a new point or at a new paragraph in your presentation.
- Never walk backwards; the idea is to keep open body language with the audience.
2. Make eye contact.
- Move your focal point throughout the audience as you speak.
- Make eye contact with audience members for minimally 3 seconds at a time versus constantly scanning and never stopping to make direct contact.
- If you cannot look people directly in the eye, try looking at a person’s forehead, it usually feels like you’re still looking directly at the person.
3. Gesture with confidence.
- Keep your hands open, not closed in a fist or curled up fingers.
- Vary your gestures.
- Don’t be afraid to not gesture, you can speak while holding your arms at your side and it looks relaxed and confident to your audience; it may feel awkward to you, but it is not for your viewer.
- Practice your presentation in the mirror to see how you are or are not gesturing; if you’re feeling brave, videotape yourself or practice in front of a friend.
4. Keep open body language.
- When walking to the left, lead with your left foot.
- When walking to the right, lead with your right foot.
- Remember what we know about non-verbal communication; delivering a speech is no different.
Verbal Delivery
Whether you are delivering your speech from a podium, stage, or boardroom, the following tips will help develop your verbal delivery.
1. Be confident.
- Even if you’re not, fake it!
- The audience feeds off your energy, so if you can fake confidence, they will buy it. You begin with a perceived authority as the presenter.
- Don’t start your speech by making excuses for how much you’ve practiced or not, how nervous you are, etc. Just begin as if you were so excited to do this.
2. Talk with the audience, not at the audience.
- Don’t think of your speech as a speech, this tends to make people speak in a very forced, unnatural style.
- It is simply a conversation where you happen to be speaking for a majority of the time.
- So engage with the audience just like you would tell a story to a friend.
3. Vary your inflection and tone.
- Have excitement when appropriate.
- Don’t over-stress information, lightening your tone is just as effective or more effective in making your point versus OVER STRESSING YOUR WORDS to make your point.
4. Deliver your information as if it is the first time you are thinking of it, this helps keep an engaging conversational tone.
- Remember, your audience has never heard this speech before, so write it in a way that assumes nothing and deliver with enthusiasm every time.
Memorizing Your Presentation
The majority of presentations allow for notes, slides, prompts, or some combination of these aids, making fully memorizing your speech verbatim unnecessary. That said, you do want to practice and be fully familiar and comfortable with your speech and slides. Here are a 2 ways to memorize your presentation.
- Write out your entire presentation as you would ideally say it.
- Read it over and over.
- Repeat it back to yourself out loud section by section until it is committed to memory.
OR
- Write out your main ideas/points/goals.
- Learn main ideas and key takeaways you want your audience to remember.
- Talk through your content out loud, over and over, trying different phrasing and approaches until you find the phrasing you like.
This is my preferred way to prepare because it allows you to experiment with different approaches, helps you learn your presentation, and keeps your delivery fresh. Also, if you get off track during your speech, you will have practiced multiple ways to say the same thing which will help you easily get back on track without stumbling over your words.
The key to both of these approaches is practicing out loud so you hear yourself and how you will sound to your audience. Some sentences read well, but are difficult to say or understand when said out loud. Listen for this and adjust as needed.
Are you preparing for an upcoming presentation? Now that you’re confident in your delivery, check out our 6 Steps to Develop Your Next Presentation.
