Since I was 13 I have always liked to speak in public. I can only put it down to going to stage school and having to stand up and improvise every week. When I was 14 at secondary school we had to stand up and do a 5 min presentation on anything we liked, I choose "Reducing the age of sexual consent in gay people to fall in line with heterosexual people"! A risky topic for a 14-year-old, but it was because I felt confident in my delivery and the points I was making. Every week now I have to present for my job and I love it. People often comment and say that I am a "natural" or that I speak well. I thought then it might be useful to share some of my secrets.
- Prepare - it might look like I am a natural, it might seem that I am able to run through a 20 min presentation without looking at my notes, but this is because I have prepared. I have already written out what I am going to say. I have practised it numerous times (the longer the speech, the more times you need to practise it!) and so when I stand up I already know the rhythm of the speech. I know where to pause and I know how long it will be. I have a card in front of me with bullet points to show me the different sections of the speech as re-assurance and to help me keep on track.
- Be Confident - Easy said than done. Remember if you have prepared you know what you are talking about. Your audience have never heard what you have to say before, this will be their first listen. They don't know if you have missed something out or not, so don't let it worry you. By having prepared; being confident then is a lot easier to outwardly project.
- Be Passionate - Passion sells. If you believe in what you are saying, so will everyone else. As a 14-year-old standing there in front of my peers, explaining why consent for sex should be the same was risky, but actually I was passionate about it and as such people agreed with my point because I was passionate. It doesn't matter what the subject matter is, people buy from people and people will buy your message if you are passionate about it.
- Be Loud - However loud you think you are, you are not being loud enough. There is nothing worse than sitting listening to someone constantly straining to hear what they have to say. If you have something to say, make sure everyone can hear it.
- Move around - If you stare at one spot on the wall, you will fall asleep. The same goes for presenting, if you stand still people will fall asleep. If you stay still people will switch off. Move around it keeps people engaged. Don't hide behind a table, get out there an engage with your audience.
- Eye contact - Make eye-contact. Clearly if there is a room of 50 people you can't make eye contact with everyone. But pick 3-4 people in the room to make eye contact with and make sure they are in different parts of the room; then do this at different points of your speech, especially the key moments. It will help you move around but you will be surprised at how many more people engage with you and what you are saying.
- Tone of your voice - Work on the tone of your voice, this comes with preparation. If you can increase of vary your tone you will find people say you have an interesting voice. That is already better than a dull, monotone voice!!
- Get Feedback - Feedback is so important. Don't get it from your friends or family, they will only tell you how great you are. Get it from your audience, especially those that you didn't think engaged with you. Ask them what they thought? And why they didn't seem interested? You will learn a lot. I would also say get someone to video you. It is really awkward to watch yourself but you will learn so much about your posture, how quick you speak, how you delivery came across and the bits that you were uncomfortable with.
I hope that has been helpful. This is what works for me. I hope if you take one thing from this it will help you present better.
Ben Whibley - Manic Merchandise - www.Manic-Merchandise.com