As I cleaned out my office desk earlier today, signifying the end of my summer internship with the prestigious Rubloff Residential Properties, and the beginning of my Sophomore year at DePaul University. I came across some of my notes from the beginning of the season that I wanted to share with everyone. One issue that troubles many people if not everyone at one point in time is speaking to an audience and I have a few pointers to reduce that tension.
1. Relate – If you want to catch the attention of any audience member you must relate your speech towards them, no matter how unappealing it may be. If you are a mathematician trying to persuade investors to use your new formula on predicting key-opportune investments. Then use terminology they understand and can relate to you dont want to lose any of your audience droning to them about the procedures and physics you had used, and be sure that you are using grammar that they can follow.
2. Entertain – You want for the audience to have fun the worst stage fright arises when you are speaking and no one responds. If the situation is serious deliver a speech that has your audience gasping; if it is informative then throw in a story that a majority, if not all of the audience might have encountered before then go into details of what you intend to say. Having a response from the audience is crucial to many speeches it shows the audience you want to communicate with them and not just at them.
3. Capture Attention – When you are speaking the eyes of the audiences wonder around the room. If you are staying still behind a podium it is showing you have a defensive viewpoint to your guest. Open up that defensive barricade by moving about if you are on stage or walking an invisible line fornt of your viewers if in a smaller setting such as a classroom, but be sure to stay in front of your audience and to never turn your back to them. One issue that is often faces is when someone enters the room late, all of your attention and momentum from speaking quickly shifts towards the person whom just walked in. What you should do is walk in the direction of that person while continuing to speak and slowly regain the attention of your viewers then walk back to your originating position, all without turning your back to them.
I hoped these tips helped some of you with trouble speaking with an audience. I am going to attach a video of Google’s very own Matt Cutt discussing SEO content, watch how he interacts with his audience and notice his calmness with them, developing a rapport such as this with your audience really sets forth a great prominence for you as a speaker.
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Nice article, James. I echo your sentiments, paticularly your first point which you have (appropriately) placed as number 1.
As speakers, we must ask the question “What’s in it for me?” from the point of view of your audience. How is our speech or presentation relevant for them? Why should they care? Why should they listen to us when they could be doing dozens of other things? As you say, we must relate to them.
Speakers often overlook this most fundamental of questions. A speech is not about the speaker; it is about the audience. You might have the most interesting topic in the world, but if it is not relevant to your audience, you will be wasting your time and theirs.
I wrote a blog post on this very point for my public speaking blog. The link is here – http://wp.me/pwfa1-dg – and I hope that you and your readers find it helpful.
Cheers!
John Zimmer
http://mannerofspeaking.wordpress.com/
Great advice! I have clients that come to me for tips on public speaking and I have worked with many different people to help them get over their fear. I believe that these tips could manage ones fear in public speaking.