Chris Gardner, Nick Vujicic, and Robert Kiyosaki are just some of the biggest names in modern public speaking. Undeniably, they have made their mark in society and touched the lives of many with their eloquence and interesting stories. And any aspiring public speaker with a story to tell look up to them. However, the path to making your voice heard like these well-acclaimed personalities is no easy feat. It is a long and winding road, nevertheless, it is an important journey to conquer.
Publicly voicing your experience and ideas will allow you to motivate change and influence your audience’s decisions. It is an essential skill for presidents, lawyers, debaters, and individuals planning to take on a leadership role. And if you’re already one or thinking of becoming one, there are a couple of roadblocks that you need to avoid to become an effective and admirable speaker.
So without further ado, here are the common mistakes public speakers commit and here’s how you can avoid them.
Most Common Blunders in Public Speaking
Not preparing for the opener
Building good rapport with your audience starts with a captivating opener. Not a lot of public speakers think too much about this, but it’s a great way to grab the attention of your audience so they would listen to what you are about to say. In short, it is going to be their initial motivation to become active participants from being passive listeners. Hence, you want to make sure that your audience is highly engrossed in what you are going to share, so make something sweepingly outrageous.
For starters, never try to justify why you’re there to give a speech or worse, start with an apology. Remember to never begin a speech on a negative or apologetic tone because that will set the mood of the entire talk. So your job isn’t to prove your credentials, but to impart a story worth sharing. That said, you can start with a simple yet interesting anecdote that you can use to drive your next talking points. However when using a brief story as an opener, try not to stray too much from your real objective and don’t reveal too much information. Keep it short and sweet, and you’re good to go.
Verbal tailgating
On a normal day, you might consider yourself a fast talker, so as to get things done efficiently. However, you need to avoid this as much as possible when giving a public speech as this will make you appear anxious, tensed, and unsure. For others, it might even make everything seem rehearsed or memorized. If not, your audience might find your talk confusing and difficult to follow. This is why it is important to make an active effort to squash this habit.
So, how can you avoid this? First is to be aware of the moments you catch yourself tailgating your sentences. Second, take short pauses from time to time. This will help you to really think about what you are supposed to say next. And as an additional tip, you can also change the speed and intonation of your voice to show conviction, highlight certain words, ideas, or to drive a point.
Not knowing your audience
Trying to appeal to everyone will end you not appealing to anyone. Being familiar with your audience and their interests will allow you to gauge what type of tone will resonate with them the most. Today, it is an important skill as 64% of consumers prefer brands that they can relate to over brands that can’t convey any relevance at all.
Before a speech, make sure to do a little research and identify your audience’s demographic. Tailor your piece to the audience’s age, gender, education, and other aspects that you deem relevant. This is your key to building rapport faster with them.
How to Avoid Them
Overcome your fear
Jitters are a part of the deal. Even great leaders like Abraham Lincoln experience their fair share of stage fright. Speech anxiety may manifest in difficulty in breathing, slurred speech, and a variety of other signs. It’s actually more common than you think. As a matter of fact, glossophobia or public speaking anxiety affects 73% of the population.
Nonetheless, a trick that you can do to overcome your stage fright is to think about why you want to share your thoughts in the first place. Realigning your frame of thinking away from yourself and your insecurities will boost your purpose and allow you to think of yourself less and focus on the task at hand that is, delivering the message to your audience. But if that doesn’t work too well for you, you can also breathe using your diaphragm or belly. It’s a yoga practice that lowers stress levels and high blood pressure.
Be conversational
Your audience wants to feel spoken to. That’s why delivering your speech in a deadpan manner won’t make much of an impression on them. It is crucial to communicate the emotion that drives your address, not just cold hard facts and statistics. Make sure that you vary your tone and add some emotion.
This can be done by changing your intonation to highlight particular words or thoughts to stress out their importance. Apart from this, you can also ask questions to your audience. You can even have them share their stories and experiences. On the other hand, you can even try changing the vernacular of your speech and lessen the use of technical terms or jargons to make it more easily understandable.
Pay attention to your posture
Would you take advice from a confident person standing straight or a person slouched and averting the gaze of passersby? You’ll probably choose the former, right? Think about this the next time you practice the way you carry yourself. The power pose or just having better posture helps you more than you think. Apart from communicating expertise from the outside, it also boosts testosterone and lessens stress hormones, making you feel more empowered to deliver your speech.
Exercise this by facing the audience with a straight body. It also helps to stand with your feet slightly apart and tilt your chin. Make sure you have your hands resting on the side of your body so you can make gestures more comfortably.
Don’t be too focused on your notes and slides
There’s nothing wrong with keeping handy notes to help you through your presentation. However, most speakers overdo this and lose the opportunity to make meaningful gestures or eye contact. The same goes for speakers that have visual aids such as PowerPoint presentations. You want to avoid this as much as possible and remember that your audience can read, too.
To rely less on notes, you can revise your speech and opt for shorter sentences that are easier to remember. For presentations, it is best to treat each slide on your presentation as talking points rather than a condensed version of the current point you’re trying to make.
Final Tips Before the Speech
Since the dawn of public speaking in ancient Greek and Rome, humans have consistently innovated the way we disseminate news and ideas so don’t worry if you catch yourself still making these blunders. Public speaking is a skill that you can improve on with practice and a lot of confidence. Especially if you’re just starting out, make sure to keep an eye on these rookie mistakes and through consistent practice and application, it will allow you to eventually master the art of public speaking.
Power of Storytelling is a great platform to grasp over the skillset of storytelling. They provide storytelling coaching and other such courses that can help develop your personality as well as vision.