A Few Tips on Public Speaking

A Few Tips on Public Speaking

   Recently I took a course on public speaking by a group called "own the room".  I felt it was a very helpful course and I wanted to share some of my major takeaways with you all. 

   As many people may guess, public speaking is one of the greatest fears of most people. It is also the best way to get your message across to large groups of people at the same time. In the fitness business, it is necessary to constantly get your face exposed in the community you work in.  This will help you gain exposure and more exposure equals more business. The following tips may help you get more comfortable with public speaking. 

• Start off with a BANG! Don't stand there and talk bout yourself for 20minutes. If people are coming to see you talk they already assume you are qualified to speak. Start off with a story, quote, poem, riddle,joke,  etc. Something that will grab their attention. The audience  decides if they are going to listen to the rest of your speech after the first 10 minutes. So make sure you draw them in early. 
• Create emotion. As in sales people buy based on emotion, they also will decide if your speech is great by the emotion you draw out of them.  When applicable try to get them to feel what you are talking about. 
• Eliminate weak language. Weak language are words such as "um", "sooooo", "like", "you know what i mean".  These words waste time.  There is nothing wrong with silence, often times you will use these words to fill time while you are thinking of what to say next. Instead just pause and wait for your next thought to come to you. Pausing, when used correctly, can actually draw the audience in more. 
• Watch your tone. According to the class i took, they stated that 7% of our total communication is from words, while 38% is from the tone of your voice. So when you need to emphasize a point you must talk loud and use emotion. A mono-tone speech will get you no where. You need to play with the tone, volume, and speed of your voice. 
• Let your body talk. 55% of what you communicate during your speech is body language. Be sure to use this well. Standing behind a podieum will not get you noticed. You must use your hands, move around, and harmonize your body with your talk. This is a two way street. Your audience will communicate with their body language as well,. so if you notice them tuning out it may be time to switch things up. That brings us to our next point
•  Involve the audience. When at all possible, get the audience to participate in some way. You can make them raise their hands for a quick survey of the room, you can ask questions, make them draw something, or test them in some way. Whatever it is, just get them to participate, this will ensure that you have their attention and that they are getting your message. 
• Less is more with Powerpoints.  Less words on a power point is better. They do not want someone to read definitions on a slide. The power point should be bulletin points that you use to keep you on track and remind you of what you need to talk about next. You want to make yourself the center of attention at all times. 
• Energy is contagious.  You must have passion for what you are talking about. Don't agree to do a talk on a topic that you do not care about. Your energy and passion will be contagious to everyone in the room. Approach the speech as you would a championship game. You want to leave all you got on the field. When your done, you should be spent. 

Bonus. Here is one bonus point that I use for myself. Practice, Practice, Practice. I go through my entire speech at least 5 to 6 times before it is performed to an audience. I stand in front of a mirror at FLO and deliver my speech as if the crowd is in the room. I plan the jokes, the emotional parts, the pauses, the questions, everything. So on the day of the presentation I am not nervous because it is something I have done a few times already. 

These are just a few of many tips however these tips can save you from looking bad on stage. I have been to many conferences and listened to tons of speakers and I can say from experience that many of them can benefit greatly from these tips.