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Public Speaking Is An Art Form
Do you have a fear of public speaking? If you said yes to this question don’t worry because you aren’t alone as many people have the same fear. Public speaking is a practice that can make you feel vulnerable because you have to articulate your opinions and thoughts to a critical audience. If that isn’t stressful enough, you also need to try to keep the audience engaged through persuasion and education in regards to your topic.
So starting now, I want you to think of public speaking as an art form because engaging with an audience with captivating communication skills is a beautiful experience. Thus, don’t underestimate the benefits and importance of public speaking in your life because it is used everywhere from classroom presentations to job interviews.
Do You Want To Become A Captivating Speaker?
If you are feeling anxious about me even talking about public speaking, don’t worry I want to share some tips with you that can help you improve your professional speaking skills. These tips are beneficial to anyone who wants to become a better public speaker. Therefore, if you want to improve your public speaking skills here are three ways you can become a more captivating public speaker.
1. Public Speak Regularly
This is an obvious way of how you can improve your public speaking because practice makes perfect. But here is a twist, speak more often about different topics and use different styles of speeches. Don’t just speak based on prepared speeches about one topic you enjoy, step outside of your comfort zone. Try speaking about different topics, try different speaking techniques (persuasive vs inspiring) and try to speak without preparation. By practicing these exercises you will be forced to become more adaptable when public speaking.
2. Join A Professional Public Speaking Club
In 2016, I decided to join Toastmasters because I wanted to improve my public speaking skills further. Toastmasters is an international public speaking association that helps members become better speakers. I knew Toastmasters would help me identify my weaknesses for improvement and also give me an environment to practice and experiment in. I thought Toastmasters was a positive experience because you gain feedback, you speak about different topics, you utilize different presentation styles and are required to practice regularly. Thus, I recommend Toastmasters to anyone who is scared of public speaking and even anyone who is already a great speaker. The positive environment will help you get over your fears and the experienced speakers present will help you improve your skills.
3. Speak About Topics Without Preparation
This tactic is very difficult because speaking about topics without preparation makes it even harder to persuade and engage an audience. But this was actually one of the reasons I wanted to join Toastmasters because I heard about the “table topics” exercise. Table topics is when you go up to the front of the room and you have to speak about a question you are asked or a topic selected for you. There is zero preparation involved and the entire presentation is off the top of your head. This exercise forces you to really think through your thoughts, organize your ideas and engage the audience. Thus, if you want to become a better public speaker, I feel speaking about topics with zero preparation will force you to improve your communication skills and story telling.
Become An Expert Communicator
So if you are looking to improve your public speaking skills remember to speak more often, join a public speaking club like Toastmasters or Dale Carnegie and practice speaking without preparation. These three tips will help you improve your public speaking and communication skills which will essentially help you captivate your audiences.
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