To top the world as an expert in public speaking, it may require experience and knowledge. Experience can be learned through reading, study, and practicing. Most public speaking is a learned skill. So, how do you acquire the ability to have that voice and display confidence when speaking?
Confidence comes from your perspective. It is the edge of what you are seeing. This is also called pre-conceptualization. There are things that you see that you can comprehend and this can also become the way that you view them. In the end, a speaker can talk himself into a corner.
Though there is no law that states public speaking must be perfect to succeed, if you have a great eye for detail, your audience will see the perfect presentation from a different perspective. These people do not expect perfection because it is not fair and their ears are on overdrive.
There are some who feel that public speaking is a free speech issue. I disagree. We are in a democratic society. You are allowed to speak your mind but then again the crowd also has the right to hear your story and let it go over in their minds.
It is important to remember that public speaking is a job and everyone will judge you based on how you present yourself. You are not afraid of public speaking because you think you will have an audience for eternity. People tend to have a short attention span, and they don’t remember every word that is spoken.
They will judge you based on their stage presence. They will notice things that you cannot. Stage presence is considered to be your physical appearance, voice, and mannerisms, which are the five elements of public speaking.
Some of the most important aspects of your stage presence is how you dress, the lighting, your behavior, and how you walk. Some will say your voice will be a huge deciding factor, but it is not always true. The biggest mistake that people make is to go for style over substance. When you walk into a room, it is hard to remain focus for an hour but in the end, it will pay off.
I remember when I was in high school, one of my teachers introduced a new idea in one of the classes. I remember he came out with a podium and told us to come up and announce what we were going to do.
We all had this “crack” in our voices as we walked up. The teacher gave each of us a prop. His was a chair and I believe mine was a stool. One of us would stand up and give a short speech, while the other talked about his subject.
This speech was given by an unknown, nervous guy, but the crowd thought he was brilliant. He finished up by saying “Now, each of you get up and say the name of your topic”. This way, the only one that could hear what was being said was the one who stood up.
He told us to think of the podium as our chair and the stool as my stool, and we all did. That is why, when speaking, try to have someone besides yourself standing beside you and use props to give your speech that it can build your confidence.
