My friend Rex, a pro speaker, said, Make them laugh, make them cry, leave them on a high.
Unfortunately, many speakers will instead:
Make them laugh, make them cry, leave them with a question/answer session.
What is wrong with this?
First, The last part of your presentation stands out to the audience. An off topic question may stick out and not your main point.
Second, your presentation ends on a low note. Question and answers sessions tend to be low energy, not high energy.
Third, people may be less likely to buy your products. They may be all pumped up by your closing, but after 15 minutes of questions and answers they are ready to leave.
What's the solution?
Best way handle Q & A in Your Presentation
Let's say I am giving a 45 minute talk with questions and answers. I may structure it this way.
30 Minutes Speech – 90% of speech
10 Minutes Q&A
5 Minutes – Final 10% of speech
The final 5 minutes will leave them on a high and they will walk out with my points fresh on their minds.
During that final 10% I will review and then tell a story or two to drive home the main point. Another tactic is to create anticipation for a story or idea in the first 30, and then resolve it in the final 5 minutes.
However you structure your presentation, remember Rex's advice and Make them Laugh, Make them Cry, and Leave them on a High.
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Study the famous speakers of the past and present and you'll find most use an important public speaking tip. They speak with enthusiasm and passion. Great speakers care about their topic and influencing the audience. We can learn from them and put some fire and passion into our presentation.
Here are three ways to help us speak with passion and enthusiasm
1. Choose topics you care about.
2. Think about how your message will impact the audience.
3. Act enthusiastic. Control your body and the feelings will follow.
You captivate the audience when you deliver your speech. Use this important public speaking tip and speak with passion and enthusiasm.
speaker with 5 speeches under their belt can out speak a trained professional speaker with years of experience and hundreds of audiences, if the inexperienced speaker is applying this next speaking tip.
Speech Preparation Tip #28: Practice, Practice, Practice
Experience and training are essential for public speaking. Experience helps ingrain good speaking habits that will come out in any presentation. However, an amature who gives a well rehearsed speech can give a better presentation than a professional who has not practiced.
Reading and practice will help you take your public speaking skills to a new level. However, don't forget to use a very powerful public speaking tip:
Public Speaking Improvement Tip #27: Watch master Communicators in action.
I'll never forget seeing Zig Ziglar in person. One thing that jumped out at me was his enthusiasm. Whenever I want to update my enthusiasm, I think of Zig. Just watching him helps me improve.
Do you watch the masters of public speaking?
With the age of Youtube, it is now very easy to see master speakers in action. Below are several videos. As you watch them, ask these three questions.
What is the speaker doing very well?
What can I learn from the speaker?
What could the speaker improve on?
You may think this last question is a little odd. Every speaker can improve and watching with a critical eye will help you improve your skills.
"Hi Arlen. This is John. We are looking for a speaker on August 12 in the evening."
"What can you tell me about the event?"
"………"
"Yes, John. My calendar is open. I do have some questions for you."
"Sure Arlen, go ahead."
Speech Research Tip #26: Be a Detective and Research your Audience.
Knowing your audience is essential before preparing and delivering the presentation. This knowledge will enable you to connect with the audience and tailor a presentation that hits home.
I may have the same keynote I give to various audiences, but I tweak it depending on if I am talking to Junior highers or retired seniors.
Back to the phone conversation. I asked John a series of questions to get a grasp on exactly who I would be speaking to. This helped me to create a "Chris" and focus my presentation.
What is the age of the audience?
Why are they at this event?
What is the purpose of this event?
What are they expecting from the speaker?
What can you tell me about them?
These questions enabled me to hit a home run and give a custom tailored presentation.
Five days ago I watched as Tom took first place in the Toastmasters International Speech Contest. He practiced a technique that only a few out of one hundred speakers use.
Speech Delivery Tip #25: Act out your Presentation
During his Speech Tom used several phrases:
"Men took off their suite coats and threw them down."
"Audience rushed out."
"The Speaker pointed at the audience"
Good action sentences. However, Tom acted out every single one. He woound up and pretend to spike a suite coat. He rushed to one side of the stage to give us a visual of the audience rushing out. When he talked about the speaker pointing at the audience, he pointed at us also.
The result? His speech came alive, the audience's attention was held throughout the speech, and it was very memorable.
How can you act out your next presentation? Look through your speech and see what you can act out.
When you are preparing a speech, what is your first step? Do you brainstorm a topic, make an outline, or research? Consider this next speaking tip:
Speech Preparation Tip #24: Find your Chris and Prepare the Speech for Chris.
Several months ago I spoke to about 50 energetic jr. highers. As I was preparing, I selected another jr higher in the area whom I’ll call Chris. He was a good representative of the audience I was speaking to. I prepared speech as if I was giving it to Chris.
I asked myself several questions.
What problems does Chris have?
What would keep Chris’s attention?
What info will help Chris?
I kept asking these questions and prepared a customized keynote for Chris. Yes, audiences are diverse and I did seek to add material to target the whole room because of the various backgrounds of the audience.
However, by focusing on one person it allowed me give a specific speech tailored for that audience. The result? Great interaction and a keynote that hit home.
Simple principle but very powerful.
Here are a few public speaking tips on preparing to speak to one person:
Select someone you know who represents the audience.
Ask yourself, “What would I say if it was just this individual in the room?”
Tailor the speech so it appeals to and impacts the diversity of people in the room.
Ug! That's what I thought after hearing myself on tape. I had just recorded a presentation and was listening to it. Every "um", awkward pause, and misspoken word flew out off the mp3 and smacked me.
Listening or watching yourself on tape can be painful. That's why many speakers never record themselves. But wait! If the audience had to sit through it, so should we!
Speaking Tip #23: Improve your Speaking Skills fast by recording and listening to every presentation–twice.
What are the benefits of recording and listening/watching yourself?
What get's evaluated get's improved. Just by listening to ourself we will improve automatically.
Our errors will jump out at us and we can fix them.
Minor adjustments will become clear.
When I started videotaping, I noticed I would often lick my lips and even wrinkled my forehead in an almost glaring way. The video camera gave me the brutal truth.
You can grab a digital recorder for anywhere from $30 to $100. Amazon is a great place to check. Flip phone cameras are between $100-$200. If you are serious about improving your public speaking skills, pick one up.
Why listen twice?
The first time you listen, evaluate yourself. What could your improve? What should you have left out? During the second time, just let it play as you do something else. I have been told that even if you are distracted, your subconscious mind is still picking it up.
Still not convinced about the power of recording your presentation? Try it on your next three presentations. Then compare your first presentation to the third. You'll notice a difference.
Grab your recorder and start taking your public speaking skills to a new level.
