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Public Speaking

• 12-12-2012
• Communication
• by admin

Few days ago, I had to talk to someone briefly about public speaking. Usually, it takes time to learn about it, and even more times even years of practice, to really become good at public speaking.

Few days ago, I had to talk to someone briefly about public speaking. Usually, it takes time to learn about it, and even more times even years of practice, to really become good at public speaking.

But, taking into account that I really needed to summarize as much as I could, it came into my mind a book that I read some time ago called “How to be brilliant at public speaking”, by Sarah Lloyd-Hughes. It’s a simple, fun, easy but effective book.

In this book, the author is trying to summarize in a very nice manner how one should approach the public speaking and I am going to give to you a brief about it now.

So, Sarah Lloyd-Hughes calls it the House of Public Speaking. And I believe it is a really fun and easy way to remember this, but at the same time, really effective.

What she’s saying is this:

The house has three pillars and three levels, as you can see them above.

I will start with my favorite pillar …

The EMPATHY pillar - it refers to some very important rules, I believe.

1. know your audience as well as you can, before you meet them. What they like, who they are, what they are interested in, etc
2. you have to build your speech according to what THEY want, not according to what you want!
3. You talk TO them, not TOWARDS them.
4. Focus on their emotions, this way you will forget about yours.
5. Show them you know things about them, that you invested time and energy to learn about them and their interests.
6. Ask feedback from them. By this, not only that you will make them feel good, but also you will obtain important information on how you should improve your work.

The FRESHNESS pillar

1. You must create an experience, something memorable and new for them
2. Focus on the message, but also on their emotions, interactions with them, creativity. Forget about power points, or use it just for the main ideas or for some pictures.
3. You must always think of how to come uo with a fresh, new and better version of yourself, in front of your audience.
4. They may forget what you say, but they will never forget  how they felt.

The BALANCE Pillar

1. try to find the balance, by integrating a bit of everything: statistics, jokes, stories and experiences, etc.
2. do not memorize it. Make it a story and tell it like you feel it, this way the presentation will definitely gain its natural course, therefore their balance.

And then, there are the levels…

The Awareness  level – think about and be fully aware of what you say and how you say DURING the process. Learn to do and say things consciously. You gain this “talent’ simply by practicing, by being attentive to your voice, the way you dress, your body language, the way people respond to you. Basically, be aware of what you are doing while you are doing it! IN other words, by reaching this awarenss level, you actually get more an more an in control.

The FEARLESSNESS level – through practice and feedback, you learn to conquer step by step your fears. Feedback is essential so that you get aligned to the public perceptions and expectations.

The AUTHENTICIY Level: the message , the style, everything has to be about you! To represent you! This way all the process will be natural, clear and attractive. Also, focus around one big idea and keep it fresh, authentic and alive. They say that if you cannot write your message in a sentence, you cannot talk about it in an hour.

Of course, this is a very short summary, but I believe it gives you the big picture of what it is and what can be developed in public speaking abilities.