Practical Communication and Public Speaking Skills TEST
PUBLIC SPEAKING EXTRAORDINAIRE session #3
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How to Become a Public Speaking Extraordinaire in 3 Days
PUBLIC SPEAKING EXTRAORDINAIRE
Session #3: How to Become a Public Speaking
Extraordinaire in 3 Days
Important Learning Advisory:
To experience better learning, it is recommended that you print and follow this transcript
while listening to the MP3 audio. There is ample space at the bottom of every page for
you to write your own notes and jolt down ideas. Happy learning!
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How to Become a Public Speaking Extraordinaire in 3 Days
In the previous session, we have covered on how to distill unorganized thoughts into one
core message, and how to produce your own high impact presentation in 30 minutes or
less. This session will focus on showing you how to go from untrained, mediocre
speaker to expert persuader in three short days!
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What take expert public speakers months to years of trial and error you can now take the
bare essentials to become your very own successful public speaker in just three days.
This doesn‟t mean that you will become a flawless speaker, but I guarantee you will
make lesser mistakes by doing what‟s proven, as practiced by renowned great speakers
and leaders from just about any giant industry!
In each of these days, you will be exposed to different methods, which will help you
overcome your public speaking barriers, build your self-confidence, and especially stage
fright, the biggest fear many people experience at the beginning of their public speaking
experience.
I will also show you how to craft simple presentations through mind-map process, and
most importantly develop your own style of speech that stands out from your competitors.
Lastly, I will show you how to move and compel your audience to answer your CALL TO
ACTION.
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How to Become a Public Speaking Extraordinaire in 3 Days
As said before in Session 1, I have reason to believe that even people who consider
themselves shy or introverts have just as much of a chance to succeed and become
great public speakers as their extrovert counterparts.
Here is a HUGE myth about introversion t hat I want to take the opportunity to dispel. A
formal study shows that introversion has little or no link to the person being shy or
socially intimidated. As a matter of fact, contrary to popular opinion, INTROVERSION is
merely just a social preference.
Being an introvert does not mean that the person is unable to speak in front of large
crowds, or unable to handle himself well in the company of people.
That said, the single biggest misconception about introverts is that they are socially
anxious and shy. This cannot be any further from the truth. The problem is that because
of this popular myth, many introverts themselves have been led to believe that they will
learn and perform less well in areas that extroverts and sanguine have an advantage
over, namely public speaking and communicating with others.
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This is not true because while introvert-natured people have preference to be alone most
of the time, deep in thought, and rely less on friends, this does not mean that they are
not excelled in the area of public speaking or socializing for that matter.
Having said that, if you identify yourself as an introvert, good news! The biggest myth
has been busted. This is exactly why I believe ANYONE can be a great public speaker,
extrovert or introvert. Don‟t let your outgoing friends push you into submission believing
that you can‟t do it!
Now let‟s cover the three day program in going zero to hero in public speaking.
DAY ONE is dedicated to rehearsing your techniques in public speaking from scratch.
As covered in Session 2, you need to set solid goals before you can go on to rehearse
your speech.
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Important questions to ask yourself when setting goals are: WHO are your audience?
WHAT is your message? And WHAT is your medium or media?
Once you have set your goals, the next aspect of your speech you need to look at is
your presentation.
How long is your speech going to be? With the exceptions of running long seminars, if
you have control over deciding how long your speech will be, I recommend keeping your
speech within the 10 to 45 minutes range. Anything longer can snap your audience
attention span.
What is your core message? If you have set your goals with clarity, you will know what
the main message of your speech is. As mentioned before in Session 2, the core
message is the main reason your speech is conceived.
And then design your presentation around that core message. Many speakers use
Powerpoint program or other forms of illustrations to deliver impact with their
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presentations, while more experienced ones simply use a whiteboard and marker pen
spontaneously.
Let‟s look at how to structure your speech so that it‟s organized, smooth in flow and
delivers your main message across the room effectively.
Basically, a speech structure can be broken down into five distinct components:
OPENING SENTENCE, TRANSITIONS, STORIES, USE OF VISUALS, and CLOSING.
OPENING SENTENCE. Usually, the introduction starts with giving a warm welcome and
gesture to the audience. “Hello and welcome to…” Also don‟t forget to thank your
audience for attending and taking a peak interest in listening to your speech. An
example of that line is: “thanks for choosing my 6-figure Internet Income Blueprint
seminar, and congratulations on taking the first step in investing in yourself!” Do not
spend too much time with the introduction – no more than 60 seconds.
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How to Become a Public Speaking Extraordinaire in 3 Days
Use TRANSITIONS in between points as you move on to the next highlight of the
speech. The use of transitions is powerful as it links the train of thoughts of your
audience while keeping them in the same trance as you deliver your speech. Examples
of transitions include: “where I‟m leading you up to is this…” “This is because…”
“Speaking of…” “Having said that…” and many more examples.
STORIES. Did you know that implementing story-telling techniques into your speech can
make your presentation all the more compelling? The Bible uses stories to deliver strong
message. Children remember fables better through stories. Stories are not only easy to
remember but also exciting. At the same time, short stories deliver strong messages and
telling relevant stories will strengthen the message of your speech.
Did you know that the average human mind remembers only 10% of what he hears after
two weeks? This is according to the Cone of Learning. And did you also know that the
average human mind remembers TWICE as much of what he hears AND speaks after
two weeks? This is why having presentations like Powerpoint or a white board can offer
visual aid to your audience. If for any reason using Powerpoint slides is not available to
you, resort to using whiteboards to deliver your points across, and encourage audience
to take notes.
Finally, the CLOSING. To conclude you should tie everything together, summarize,
make an appeal, call to action, or challenge your audience – depending on the goal of
your presentation. Sum it all up by bringing up the objectives in the beginning and
reinforce that these goals have been achieved.
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With the presentation side taken care of and you have mind mapped your speech, it‟s
time to practice delivering it before you go live. There are three important factors to
delivering a powerful, high impact speech: your facial expression, body language and
tone of voice. Did you know that the meaning of your message is communicated by
Your words: 7%
Your body language: 55%
Your tone of voice: 38%
Up until now, we have focused a great deal on how you structure your presentation,
which has to do with your words – the 7% part. Your body language and tone of voice
accounts for the majority of your success with public speaking, especially your body
language, should you be presenting in front of a live audience.
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Did you know that a person can show 92 totally different facial expressions? This is why
for this exercise, it is imperative to practice in front of a mirror. Preferably, a full length
mirror where you can view yourself in full. Regardless of your personality temperament,
smiling is an important facial expression to adopt throughout most of your speech,
although it‟s perfectly okay to show a variety of other facial expressions when the
speech demands it.
Next, body language. Realize it or not, when you are presenting in front of an audience,
you are performing as an actor on stage. Body language can be covered as a topic of its
own, but you won‟t need that in this three-day crash course because I will be giving you
just what you need to know. For starters, avoid sitting down or standing in the same
place for too long. Walk around on stage and don‟t just face one direction or one section
of members on the floor. Gentle, non-arrogant hand gesture is preferred over standing
still and reading from a prepared speech anytime. I also want to remind you NOT to read
from prepared notes, at least not for an extended length of time. It is acceptable to
glance at your notes for key points once in a while. And if you are using Powerpoint
presentations, you can do away with that.
Body language makes messages more meaningful and memorable, relieves
nervousness and adds punctuation to your speech. The key to having good body
language is to have a good posture, be natural, spontaneous and conversational. Focus
on communicating and sharing ideas, not on performance or sermonizing. The best way
to practice body language is to incorporate body language into your everyday
conversations. Try speaking in front of your mirror while moving your hands using simple
movements. Once you get into the habit of using body language it will come naturally
during your presentation.
Now your tone of voice. The ingenuity of your intentions is above all. Because if you
speak with conviction, you will naturally speak confidently. Speak loudly and clearly, do
not mumble. Amateur speakers often make apologies, and this is one school of thought I
want you to go against the grain: do NOT apologize to the audience, even if you make a
verbal mistake. If you make an error, correct it and continue. Also, avoid using
complicated jargons or buzz words that only a few people know. The best litmus test is
to ask yourself whether a 10 year-old understands the word you plan to use. If you think
so, go ahead. If you think otherwise, discard the word and use another word that‟s easier
to understand. Remember, your speech is rendered useless if people don‟t understand
what you speak. You might appear smart, but your message fails to deliver.
Your tone, pitch and volume should not be too loud or too soft to prevent yourself from
sounding too aggressive or too timid. Adding variety to your vocal patterns allows you to
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enforce certain points into the heads of your crowd. For example: "Never… never…
never… give up". In addition, a well timed pause can effectively dramatize your ideas,
provide emphasis to certain points, or induce anticipation in your audience. Some good
uses of pauses include- Pausing after a joke to provide emphasis, or pausing after being
introduced to give your audience time to focus back on the presentation.
When practicing, smile and practice out loud even if you are not talking to an audience. It
helps build confidence and create the atmosphere of the actual public speaking. Practice
posture by standing up straight. It helps to increase energy and enthusiasm.
Now let‟s go for a field exercise. Move away from the mirror after you have done ample
exercises to self-evaluate. Get your family member, close friend, or spouse to be your a
mock audience. Let them know you are practicing your speech and get their permission
to spend some time with you, so you can improve yourself. Gather input from them after
a short practice session. Don‟t worm your way out of this exercise because eventually,
you are going to be speaking in front of a crowd larger than this.
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Reflect on your flaws and qualities which could use improvement. Ask your mock
audience to be very critical, you want to be able to learn from all your mistakes, big or
small before attempting to deliver the live presentation, when results and feedbacks can
be a lot harsher and possibly unforgiving.
DAY TWO – incorporating style and humor. One common trait among great presenters
is that they have their distinct style and personality. Style makes your pitch memorable
and injects personality into your talk thus keeping your audience excited. Judging from
your style, you can either excite your audience or put them to sleep. Therefore, you
should be focusing on conveying your style in the most exciting manner as possible.
Telling your own stories is a good way to expose your audience to your style and it gets
people to relate with you at a more emotional level.
Avoid monotone and copycatting speeches, especially if they are well renowned. This is
the reason why a lot of Network Marketers are perceived as „copycats‟ or gained lower
respect when over-quoting from Robert T Kiyosaki of Rich Dad, Poor Dad fame.
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Dressing up is a good way to illustrate your style. By looking the part, such as by
wearing a captain uniform or by sitting in a wheel chair, you can really impact your
audience at an emotional level. Even if you are comfortable in dressing casual most of
the time, dress professionally and make this the exception when presenting on stage.
Wearing a coat, suit or blazer makes you stand out of the crowd right away. People
naturally develop an intuition and knows who the person in charge is when he walks into
the room. That‟s going to be you. This is why you need to appear to have „authority‟ and
not look like one of the audience. Stand out right away.
Also, don't wear too much jewelry which distracts your audience. Stay away from colorful,
distracting outfits and colors that blend into the background. Always remember that their
main focus should be on what you are going to say. Keep neat and presentable.
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Style can be incorporated in many ways. For example: the success story/hero. Speak of
yourself as someone who overcame a huge obstacle in life. This helps establish
credibility and inspire the audience. Be confident with your style, be positively forceful
and definitive. Indirectly, your style will help you to connect better to your audience and
thus making them more likely to listen to you.
Humor is a great way to get your audiences' attention and liven up the atmosphere. If
you want to use humor in your presentations, make sure that the jokes are original,
relevant and clean. Don't make fun of others, use self depreciating humor instead. For
example, if you are a man of short stature you might want to make fun of your height to
illustrate a point as long as the joke is relevant to your material. If your jokes fail to make
your audience laugh don't be discouraged. Just say "I'll remember not to tell that joke
anymore" or "My mom thought it was funny". In the end of the day, just relax and have a
great time. Your audience would not hesitate to loosen up seeing that you are enjoying
yourself.
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Some hard and fast rules on using jokes, though: make sure you stick to clean ones. Do
not share jokes that imply sexual, dirty or offensive meanings. If you come from a multi-
cultural background, all the more you need to be sensitive to the various beliefs of your
mixed audience.
Also, don‟t make jokes at the expense of other people. Avoid use of vulgar words and
profanity, and lastly, do not over-use jokes in your presentation. One or two will do.
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Moving on to DAY THREE. Today is a new challenge! Today‟s challenge is to deliver a
five minute speech – formal or casual – to a group of two to four friends. Where you
have previously talked to a mock audience of one, now you are going to take on a small
crowd!
Alternatively, you can record your rehearsal though it is preferable you practice live with
a small group. Tape your presentation in audio, and if possible, video format so you can
review your presentation. Particular attention must be given to pacing and timing and
don't forget to observe body language.
Pay attention to non verbal messages even during your rehearsal. Walk in straight and
tall, make eye contact with your audience, smile, put your hands beside you and begin.
Refrain from standing still in one position by walking around instead. This helps to
dissipate nervous tension.
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We‟re going to spend the rest of DAY THREE improving your speech practice. Let‟s start
with identifying yet another common problem beginning speakers face: timing. There are
typically two types of time problems: taking up more time than required AND finishing
earlier.
And I have a different spontaneous response to each of the problem.
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IF YOUR SPEECH IS TOO SHOT OR YOU HAVE FINISHED BEFORE SCHEDULE: in
my opinion, this problem is less serious than the other. You can make use of the time
available to open the floor for questions and answers. Also, you can share a story to add
unexpected value to your speech. So it pays to keep one or two short stories up your
sleeves.
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How to Become a Public Speaking Extraordinaire in 3 Days
Now this is a bigger problem– IF YOUR SPEECH IS TOO LONG. Prevention is better
than cure, and this is why I always encourage you to rehearse before going live. So you
know that if your presentation takes longer than permitted time, be glad you found out
now than later. Shave off the less important key points before the actual presentation.
Also, use certain slides as indicators that your speech is about finish soon. As a
reminder, do not keep looking at the clock, watch or timer – or mention anything about
“running out of time”. Those are just as bad as brain farts, and you are wasting valuable
time when it could be effectively used on delivering the speech.
In any event you run out of stage time and have not completed your presentation, stop
and make a conclusion of everything you have just said. Adopt a professional stance
and don‟t even hint that there‟s actually more to your presentation than what you had
just delivered. The audience will take what they expect and this is important why you
should never over-promise in the first place.
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HANDLING QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS is another important sub-skill to develop in
your course of public speaking.
At the beginning of your speech, announce that you will handle the questions only after
your speech has ended. This is so you don‟t have to risk letting your flow of speech
getting interrupted by questions – relevant or not – that can derail you off-topic.
More on this will be discussed into greater detail in Session 4.
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The final element in improving your public speaking is to eliminate as many „brain farts‟
as possible. A „brain fart‟ is when your mind blanks out temporarily, or you couldn‟t think.
This is often the result of fear or lack of preparation, or lack of response towards
impromptu situations.
„Brain farts‟ are not only time wasting but also displays lack of professionalism. To
eliminate as many „brain farts‟ as possible, substitute your moments of „mmms‟ and
„aaaaahs‟ with silence. Don‟t be in a hurry to talk.
Keep a small in your note or jacket, containing key points to elaborate. This is so you
can produce a smooth flow of speech that is linked together and relevant.
Don‟t forget to breath regularly, that‟s very important! It calms your nerves if you are new
to public speaking or not used to speaking to large crowds. And especially, speak slowly!
If you speak too fast, not only will people find it hard to understand you, your words will
often be taken less seriously.
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Platform skills play a crucial role in getting your audience to stand up from their seats.
Attention should be given to pacing, pitch, volume, vocal variety and use of gestures.
These tools can help you to clarify and support words, dramatize and emphasize ideas.
It can also help you to dissipate nervous tension and stimulate audience participation.