The 7 Key Strategies to Gain Confidence in Public Speaking

Public speaking is an art, it is something you grow and develop over time, just like learning anything new it takes perseverance, practice and focus. There are a lot of strategies available for you to become a successful public speaker, conquering your fear and nerves more often than not is the largest hurdle often face when speaking in front of large audiences, actually audiences of any size for that matter. Listed below are 7 key strategies to help you build your public speaking confidence.

Know What you are Going to Speak About

You don't have to memorise line by line what you are going to say. However, you must know what you are going to talk about. Summarising the points is a good way of making yourself comfortable and will ensure that you don't have to search your material for the important points. If there is a dais, having a piece of paper with the points would help too.

Try to Calm Your Initial Nerves by Trying Something Different

You could start speaking with a question or a poll, just to ease yourself into the task ahead. It will also be an ice breaker with the audience and takes away all the eyes staring at you, capable of making you more nervous.

Prepare and Rehearse

Knowing about the subject you will be talking about, preparing for questions on the topic and most importantly rehearsing your speech in front of a few friends or colleagues. One of the easiest ways to feel comfortable talking about the topic, and to an audience, by doing so first with people you are comfortable with.

Ease your Nerves with Humour

If a witty remark or two can endear you to the audience, why not use it? In fact, that is amongst the best ways that can take the nervousness away, pass on the message and yet walk back, comfortable with the audience and yourself. The most popular speakers have always been people who were witty and known for their sense of timing and humorous remarks.

Examples and Stories

When you give examples and stories, you can afford certain things which a normal speech made of words and statements wouldn't allow you. These include pauses which wouldn't be appropriate in the middle of a speech, if not for conversational examples that tend to ease things for you. In fact, examples and stories along with humour tend to add an interactive element to the speech.

Watch Yourself Speak in a Mirror

This is an age old tradition which is very effective as it helps you polish your speaking skills by being your own critic.

Audience are Not Critics

Try to think of audience as learning from you. Very rarely will you have an audience that is highly critical or hostile. Focus on friendly faces in the audience if possible.

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