4 Tips to Master Public Speaking

You just agreed to give a presentation on the benefit of virtual scribe companies. It’s no surprise that you’re a little nervous about it as you’re new to public speaking.

Fret not, we’re offering 4 tips to master public speaking.

Nonverbals are Key

While you might not consider nonverbals when you’re thinking about public speaking, they are incredibly important. Nonverbals work hand-in-hand when you’re speaking in front of others. It gives your audience cues into what you’re feeling and how it coincides with what you’re saying.

If you want to master public speaking, you need to also master your nonverbal communication. Smile frequently, give hand gestures, and make sure that you look relaxed and comfortable. Including all of these in your public speaking will help your audience connect more with you and be more attentive to what you’re saying.

Practice Makes Perfect

Who ever thought of practicing speaking? Well, master public speakers do. Even the best of the best speakers will practice their speech or pitch before they hit the stage. It’s important that you rehearse your speech before the big day. In turn, this will help you feel more at ease once you’re up there doing the real thing.

If you can, try and practice what you’re going to say in the location you’re going to present it. This will help you get more relaxed and acclimated to the environment. If that’s not an option, consider practicing in front of family members or friends. You should also encourage honest feedback from them. Did they understand what you presented? Is there any information they wanted to know but you didn’t provide?

Turn Anxiety into Excitement

Did you know that the feeling of anxiety and excitement both come from the same place in our brains? That’s right, both are states of arousal that are activated by our amygdala – the fight or flight system in our brain. That’s why a nifty trick to help you with public speaking if you’re feeling anxious, is to use that arousal to your benefit.

Instead of focusing on your anxiety, shift it to excitement. You can even say in your head or aloud before you go on stage, “I’m excited! I’m excited! I’m excited!” In a way, you’re tricking your brain to use your aroused state for good instead of fear. Try it out for yourself the next time you’re feeling anxious. You’d be surprised with how well it works!

Learn from Feedback, Don’t Get Discouraged

If this isn’t your first time public speaking, you’ve probably had feedback from prior speaking engagements. How did you use this feedback? Did it discourage you or did you use it as information to learn from? If you picked the latter, that’s exactly what master public speakers do.

Feedback and constructive criticism are the name of the game when it comes to public speaking. This is one of the best ways to grow as a public speaker. Don’t let it hold you back or make you feel bad; instead, harness the power that comes with knowing and learning from prior experience.