Move around the room! Get your audience involved. Don’t stand behind a lectern. A lectern puts a layer between you and the audience. A handheld mic is okay, but a cordless lavaliere mic is much better. As much as you can… get your audience out of their seats and involved….laughing. People remember 10% of what they hear, 30% of what they hear & see and 70% of what they DO.
Getting your audience to laugh is not as difficult as one might think. For example you might try, “Ladies and gentlemen, I’ve been asked to make an announcement; even though, I don’t think it’s my place to begin my presentation with an announcement that has nothing to do with my topic. Anyway, I’ve been asked to tell you…..’In the event of a fire….follow me.’”
Voice and clarity are important. One way to achieve clarity is to emphasize the last sound of each word. It may sound odd at first but not to the audience. It will sound very polished.
This cannot be stressed enough….pause! No more than six (6) words…at a time…without a pause. Even less….than six….will be effective. All great speakers….pause.
Use a full voice. Think of great speakers….Paul Harvey, Kennedy, Reagan, Clinton, Obama….all utilized a full voice….and paused. Marlon Brando stated that the hardest part of acting is doing nothing….the long pause.
I would not write a presentation. You might try writing on index cards some keys words pertaining to each aspect if your presentation. TALK about each word. The main thing professional speakers are doing now is telling stories, primarily about themselves. If you can tell a story about each word/topic on your cards, your speech will have a better flow.
Too, after you written all the words on index cards, try to think of an acronym/word and use that to keep your presentation in order. For example, you may have written on an index card, risk, objectivity, pessimistic, neutral, encouragement and self. Think of the first letter in each word and arrange them to PERSON….or any other word of your choosing.
For example use PERSON to keep you on track:
P - pessimistic
E - encouragement
R - risk
S - self
O - objectivity
N - neutral
Practice what you will say about each word. NOTE: you are using this to keep you on track, but the audience has no clue. They will just think you are THAT good! You can keep your index card(s) on you in the rare event you get lost. You will leave them wanting more!
You could begin by speaking to associations and clubs, such as Toastmasters for free. Why for free? There are people in your audience, who work for businesses looking for speakers…who they will pay. There is much more to learn, but that’s should give you a start.
Outstanding....
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