Public Speaking Skills Training

The Art of Public Speaking
Our Public Speaking training courses are designed for both the inexperienced presenter or as a refresher for the more experienced members of your company or organization. The Public Speaking Training Company’s public speaking skills training courses and workshops are offered in most major cities across the United States and Canada. All public speaking skills training classes are kept to a maximum of ten participants. This guarantees that all students will have ten digitally recorded in class practice exercises. The public speaking skills training course is conducted by two senior level instructors. This assures all participants that they will personally have the necessary face to face interaction to assure their success.
 

Our public speaking skills training courses will eliminate your fear or inexperience in public speaking and dramatically improve your speaking skills whether you are persuading, educating, or informing. Our highly interactive public speaking training courses focus on professional business communication including preparation, structure, delivery, and strategy, use of visual aids, and handling questions & answers. Contact us today by phone at 713-627-7700 or via email: service@publicspeakingtraining.net

Public Speaking Training: Speech Practice That Doesn't Take Forever

So tedious! So annoying! So BORING!!!

That's how I usually feel when I'm practicing a new speech.

Here's the thing: delivering your speech can be so much fun if you know it cold. I know that if I don't have my public speaking piece down, the event is going to be stressful and uncomfortable for me. The negative self-talk will be roaring through my head the entire time if I'm not prepared.

But the practice sometimes is as big of a drag as folding 5 loads of laundry in one sitting. I want to be done already!

So here's my approach to practicing a new public speaking piece:

Prepare the content early so that you can practice only a little every day for the next few weeks.

Use your daily speech practice to work out the timing and content sequence initially. For example, for a 35-40 minute presentation, have your public speaking piece content thoroughly outlined (I like bullets) approximately two weeks before delivery. Then take 20-30 minutes per day practicing to refine and edit your content, especially your opening and your call to action.

Practice your public speaking piece in segments, and time each segment carefully.
An egg timer is an excellent tool for this part of your public speaking piece practice. With your outline handy for reference as needed, talk through each bullet point in your public speaking piece aloud. What's the point of that particular piece of content? Does it fit into your overarching goal for your audience? How will you transition to the next bullet point? Work through the answers to these questions for each segment of your public speaking piece not just by thinking it through it but by talking it through.

Warning: do not underestimate the importance of timing practice! Doing so will prevent you from digging yourself into a hole during delivery by going off on a tangent and then struggling to get yourself back on point, wasting valuable time. Stay focused on the goals of your talk and where you're taking your audience next during the course of your presentation.

That's knowing the mechanics of your presentation - when you know the order of your content subtopics, have them memorized, and have practiced timing thoroughly. That's what you need before you can really fly and use the presentation to connect and engage with your clients.

That way you're not just getting up onstage and "getting through" your public speaking piece. First, that's no fun!! Second, you lose an opportunity to send a strong message to your listeners.

Here's your goal: when you're up on stage, you want to be fully grounded in your intention for your audience.

Have you ever learned to play a musical instrument? You can't play a song well if you don't know where to place your fingers or are still struggling to see the sequence of the notes. When you perform at a recital, you teacher makes you memorize your pieces, doesn't he? It’s only after that point that you can put real expression into your playing.

And for the Martial arts analogy. You can't connect with your training partner and take control of the interaction if you don't have the footwork or hand positions fully memorized first. It's only after you know that order well that you can start working on being in command of your partner and truly making your movement powerful.

Remember, you have to know the material first before you can start having fun with your public speaking piece delivery and your audience.

Multitask while practicing segments of your public speaking piece.

Reduce the tedium of working out the mechanics of your public speaking piece. Save time by practicing the 10-15 minute segments aloud while you're doing some other relatively mindless activity, like folding laundry or driving your car around town.

Do three "dress" rehearsals, from beginning to end.
At this point, you know your public speaking piece content, you've got your transitions worked out, and your timing is well under control. You know where you're going to go during your talk, and perhaps more important, you know where you're not going to take your audience in order to stay on time.

Practice your speech projecting your voice across the room. Stand up and apply body language. Practice as if you won't be standing behind a podium. You can practice while looking into a mirror, in front of a friend, or looking at family pictures set up across the room. I personally like to look out of a window onto the horizon when I practice.

If you have a video camera, tape yourself to check on any unwanted body movements. For example, I sometimes have a tendency to tilt my head to the left a little, so I tape myself to make sure I'm not doing that. It's a great way to stop those small unconscious physical habits that your audience is usually far too polite to tell you about.

Once you have one public speaking piece down, you can repurpose the whole thing, if not only parts of it, many times over in future public speaking piecees, so a good amount of public speaking piece practice up front will serve you well in the long term. Practice time will become shorter as you get more experienced, just as content preparation time does so.

Lily Iatridis: link

Subject: Public Speaking Training