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- Public Speaking — How to Nail It
What's in store for this edition:
Deliver a memorable talk
Speaking Publicly and Nailing it!
You’ve prepared what you want to say. Now, the question is how to leave a lasting, favorable impression. With practice, refinements, and more practice, you’ll soon find yourself nailing it!
Your delivery includes key elements like tone, pace, appearance, naturalness, body language, enthusiasm, and calming your nerves.
Tone: Good voice quality is achieved by breathing properly and relaxing tense muscles. Vary your tone appropriately—there’s nothing worse than a monotone speech unless you want to put your audience to sleep.
Pace: Pay attention to pacing, especially when important points need emphasis. Pause for changes in thought, emphasis, audience response, or when the situation requires it.
Personal Appearance: Dress appropriately for your profession—one step above your audience’s attire is a good guideline. Your appearance will be noticed throughout your presentation, so avoid extremes. Don’t be sloppy or overly casual, nor too flashy or gaudy (unless that’s part of your persona).
Naturalness: Authenticity cannot be faked. Be yourself, and make your speech conversational and sincere. Public speaking can be nerve-wracking, but if you don’t manage your nerves, you may come across as stiff or awkward. This will make your audience focus on your discomfort rather than your message.
Presence: Be a poised speaker. This means maintaining natural posture, using gestures that complement your speech, and controlling your voice.
Enthusiasm: An enthusiastic speaker can inspire action and hold the audience’s interest. Enthusiasm is contagious and gives life to a speech. Show appropriate animation for key parts but be judicious—don’t come off as bombastic or overly emotional.
Reduce Anxiety: Reducing anxiety will improve your poise, voice quality, pace, and naturalness. How can you reduce anxiety?
Prepare thoroughly: Pay special attention to your introduction. If you nail that, your nerves will start to settle after the first few minutes.
Practice aloud: Rehearse your speech ahead of time to build confidence and reinforce memory patterns.
Get experience: Join speaking clubs, volunteer for workshops, or participate in activities that require public speaking. You could also try guesting on a podcast.
“No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.”
Do this now: Record and review: If you have a speech coming up, record yourself and review the footage. Be honest about what needs improvement. Ask a trusted friend or colleague for feedback.
Extra credit: If possible, visit the location where you’ll be speaking and rehearse there. Familiarize yourself with the microphone, lighting, and stage setup.
Next episode: The Foundations of Visual Storytelling.
Term to Learn
Crutch words (or pause fillers) are words, phrases, or sounds that fill pauses in speech but have no real meaning (e.g., “um,” “uh,” “actually,” “you know”). Work to eliminate these from your speech.
FAQ
Q: How long is too long for a presentation?
A: It depends on your audience and your topic. Research shows that most people begin to lose concentration after about 7 minutes. Keep your presentation sharp by asking questions, using props, showing graphics or video clips—these are all good ways to regain your audience’s attention.
Get PR techniques from recent news.
Newsworthy
9/11 Commemoration of Terrorist Attacks
Before you post on social media memories or commemorations of 9/11, think carefully about whether you should or not. No one will care if you remain quiet, however if you do it wrong, then you’ll get plenty of negative attention.
Essential strategy by PR Daily:
No branding
No tie to sales in any way
Keep it simple with just a few words of text
Any imagery should avoid depicting the actual attacks. Don’t retraumatize viewers with photos of the fiery towers. Instead, use imagery of memorials, American flags and so on
One post is sufficient
✍️ Key PR Takeaway: Some brands need to speak, especially if their companies we directly affected, the majority of brands do not.
Learn from others.
100% Cool : 0% Cringe
Miami Dolphins receiver detained is taking the high road.
Hours before kickoff, Tyreek Hill was detained for a short time by police after a traffic incident. The wide receiver was ticketed for a moving violation and it’s not clear why the situation escalated.
“Hill, who says he wants to be a cop one day, said he wants to partner with police in the future to turn his pregame incident into a positive impact.”
✍️ Key PR Takeaway: Use your platform to turn ugly situations into something with a positive impact.
Useful PR Resources.
🧰 TOOLKIT
The Ultimate Public Relations Trello Template
Are you using Trello? If so, make use of the free Ultimate PR Template brought to you by Attention Seeker.
It will help you keep track of all of your projects you have going on, send you reminders of what is coming up, and has smart links to the Attention Seeker newsletter for tips and how-to’s for each section. Who can remember it all? Trello and Attention Seeker can help!
Attention Seeker of the Week
Zimbabwe “Zim”
Zimbabwe “Zim” 4 years old Boxer, when he wants your attention he grabs a sock with his formadable mouth and runs back and forth, never breaking eye contact with you, making sure you see him. Yes Zimbabwe we see you and your cute face.
Do you want your furry attention seeker to be featured? I’d love to meet them! Send us a picture of there cuteness, along with name, sex, breed, age, and what they do for attention. Let’s get them some attention!
Trying to get better after a stint of sickness with COVID. Hope you stay healthy.
Until next week, keep your shades on and stay cool.
Your fellow Seeker,
Keren
🕶️
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