The key to any successful speech is to maintain some sort of dominance, control, and command over your audience. But how can you achieve all this when you display a lack of self-confidence in the way you present yourself and your speech? Apologies for being so direct! But if you want to be your best and win over your audience, you may want to stick around for more.
If you’ve seen Kevin Hart perform on stage, you must, if not for his jokes, have been inspired by how he wins over his audience. The goal of any professional speaker is to inspire, inform, and to entertain. Well, Kevin Hart may not be a professional or inspirational speaker, but truth be told, for you to wow an audience, you must have some entertainment traits in your genes and if you don't, it’s only a matter of learning. If you have fear of public speaking, well, you're not alone. The blunt truth is that very few people, if any, are natural speakers.
When it comes to business presentations, it is more about confidence in your delivery. In a recent Slide Heroes' article about presentations for business, the author says that there are certain mistakes people make as a result of relying heavily on presentation advice for speeches instead of actual tips for presenting business reports, proposals, and so on. Knowing the do’s and don'ts can help you win your audience’s attention and give you the confidence to nail it on your presentation. Before getting to the real juice of this article, how will you tell if you're losing your audience?
Any great speaker out there will tell you that the secret to becoming a great speaker is to know when you’re losing your audience and what to do about it. It’s important to understand that your audience will start to judge you from the moment you’re announced as the presenting individual to the minute you leave the stage. This must be terrible, right? Actually, it’s not! Here’s why.
Listening to long and boring speeches is a common phenomenon that is not limited to any genre of audience. Rather, knowing when you’re losing your audience is key to becoming the best speaker. Here are some signs that you’re losing your audience.
At the point when you realize that you are losing your audience, it’s important to immediately change your approach, perhaps by asking the participants to stand, wave, clap, and so forth. You may also want to crack a joke, tell a story, or whichever trick you can pull to get your audience’s attention back.
Without further ado, here are some tips to help bump up your confidence when presenting and win over your audience.
One mistake that most speakers make is that they struggle too much to be who they are not. Do you know why the likes of Winston Churchill, Martin Luther King Jr., James Baldwin, and Mister Rogers will in ages to come, be considered as the best public speakers? You guessed it right. They were unique in their own ways! Just because your role model is an all guns blazing type of speaker doesn’t mean that you should use the same style. Take a minute and find yourself. Your audience will be looking for that unique quality in you for them to show an interest in your presentation.
Hey, if they are not there for your speech, let them have something they can stare at! Truth is, your audience will start to size you up the minute you walk into the room. And before you utter the first word, your attire speaks volumes to your audience. Clothes are an important element to any public speaker because believe it or not, it’s the first thing they’ll notice, not your sweet voice. However, you also need to realize that different presentations call for different choices of clothing. This is because, in some speaking situations, you may want to show a sense of similarity with your audience.
Dressing up a notch higher than your audience can help earn you respect, let you stand out and drive the point home… that you’re smart! However, remember to avoid noisy ornaments and other items that could distract your audience. Other than that, once you start speaking, your audience will lose interest in your clothing and focus on what you have to say.
The first few words you throw out of your mouth can break or make the direction of your speech. It’s okay to have captivating opening lines, however, you don’t want the rest of your speech to fall off a cliff because of lack of direction. You want to ensure that the same attention given to your killer opening lines will remain constant throughout your speech.
You can say your killer opener lines from the time you introduce yourself. A good self-introduction should be able to catch the attention of your audience within the first few seconds. In that way, you can quickly build rapport during your self-introduction.
But, how can you deliver killer opener lines? It’s important to equip yourself with different self-introduction speech topics that you can choose from whenever you have a public speaking engagement. Your self-introduction must be short and sweet (not more than two minutes long) to quickly build rapport and establish your credibility as a speaker.
Here are some examples of killer line topics that you can incorporate into your speech to win over your audience:
You can quote a famous saying of a hero, celebrity, artist, politician, or any personality who inspires you. But, avoid overdoing it by keeping only three to five quotes in your speech.
You can establish strong credibility by sharing statistical data, your brief insight, and citing its source. Examples include market projections, forecasts, survey results, clinical study findings, and incidence rates.
If you’re a music lover, you can share a song lyric or even sing a line to catch your audience’s attention. This tactic would be very entertaining to your audience and even help reduce your anxiety.
The key to being able to win over your audience lies in captivating their attention rather than boring them with endless fables. Remember, higher chances are that you have to observe the allocated time, and this means you have to keep it short. Here are some tricks you can use to keep it short and neat.
The aura of confidence around you says a lot about the kind of speaker you are. Your confidence will help to improve your body language and maintain eye contact. Persuasive speakers know how to transition between emotions and building a sense of truth even when they are promising life in Pluto. But the most important thing is that the secret of persuasive speakers lies in the art of talking conversationally instead of reading speeches.
Being able to win over your audience is no easy thing. In some cases, you’ll need to be up to date with current affairs, here and there in the entertainment fronts and perhaps some trending topics on social media. This is what it means to introduce a fresh vibe. You do not want to give your audience the idea that you’re boring and that you’re not concerned with other genres.
Great speakers will always visualize how their speeches will end. And you’ll be surprised that it always ends well. Having this mindset at the beginning will help you to keep things short, neat and interesting without having the need to rush to the ending.
They say that practice makes perfect. This couldn’t be any truer. It is important to consider getting as much practice as possible, and this sometimes requires you to get exposure. In today’s business world, your public speaking skills are highly valuable. And as a public speaker, you’re going to meet different types of audiences. With the few tips above, you can be more composed, confident, and ready to nail your presentation, while you win over your audience.
