Practice This

Dale Carnegie book The Quick and Easy Way to Effective Speaking is perfect for those who want to make a serious improvement of public speaking skills. It is concise and it is value packed with tons of practical principles of effective public speaking.

Applying the principles you make sure your message is clearly delivered to the masses.

by Victor Bezrukov

Core Principles For Effective Public Speaking

I have chosen the following principles as they are the bedrock of the effective public speaking according to my observations. Each principle is followed by the example form my personal experience. It might not be always in synch with what the author meant but it surely helps me delivering a better talk.

• Take Heart from the Experience of Others. I attended tons of sessions but I can clearly remember two of them. One session was about programming and the other about personal development. Both presenters used the same technique beyond many others – they used a metaphor throughout the whole session. One was Thailand’s Tuk-Tuk and the other was 6 Donuts. Use metaphors throughout the talk. People won’t remember your core materials but they will do remember the metaphors connecting you/your stuff with it unconsciously.
• Keep Your Goal Before You. You can have a great materials to present but if you are not focused on the objectives of your talk you will waste your time and the time of your audience. First slide must be simple list of the objectives. Once set – stick with this. Example for session objectives – "Build better time table", "Write more fast code", "Lose weight", "Read books faster", "Blog efficiently".
• Predetermine Your Mind to Success. This simple principle helps me motivating myself during the talk. When I am motivated I speak with passion. When I speak with passion the audience gets engaged. When the audience engaged the session is enjoyable and get remembered.
• Seize Every Opportunity to Practice. Practice the flow of the session – speak out loud in front of the mirror. Practice jokes you plan to use. Practice the demos. Practice. The more you practice the more you talk will look spontaneous and easy going.
• Speak About Something You Have Earned the Right to Talk About Through Experience or Study. This one is hard to overestimate. Speak about something you personally did/accomplished. Otherwise you will hurt your brand. I did this once. One of the evaluation forms I received was saying "I attended the session because of the speaker, but the session was disappointing".
• Be Sure You Are Excited About Your Subject. Who wants to listen to bored speaker? No one. If you want to carry out your message you mast be super excited. Avoid telling the audience "I am so excited". Show them you are excited – here is quick example. Here is another.
• Be Eager to Share Your Talk with Your Listeners. Share with the audience your precious how-to’s and insights. This will both build your brand and trust. Do not tell them you were successful – share with them the path to success.
• Limit Your Subject. Sometime being Eager to Share may hurt. It defiantly hurt me when I was trying to share everything I knew during the one hour talk. The only thing the audience took from the session was confusion. Focus on something limited but make it shine.
• Develop Reserve Power. Do not limit your subject too much though. The audience might want to go deeper or wider. Prepare backup slides and the topic. Show the audience your were preparing(respect). When asked demonstrate the deep dive (expertise). Do not go too deep/wide though. Leave the audience wanting more. Expect to be invited next time to give the talk…

Self Test

• Do you keep your objectives before you when you give the talk?
• Do you share your deepest insights with the audience or just tease them?
• Do you prepare a small surprise for the audience that is beyond the plan?