Holidays are right around the corner. Holiday parties, corporate gatherings, and family events provide an opportunity for you to meet new people and reconnect with old acquaintances. These events are opportunities to put your best foot forward by presenting your ideas and making an impact on your audience.
We are all not born with the gift of confident public speaking but it is an art which we can master. Here are a few tricks to nudge you in the right direction toward public speaking.
1. Join a Toastmasters Club today. Toastmasters provides an informal platform to practice your speech and improve speech delivery, intonation, and presentation styles. This will be helpful in adopting a positive and confident approach to the speech and overcome public speaking anxieties.
2. Overcome stage fright and anxiety by visualizing your speech and the audience. Focus on a friendly face in the audience and draw confidence from positive acknowledgement in the audience. Before delivering your speech, try relaxing breathing exercises, which can be done anywhere, anytime you feel stressed.
3. Practice your speech. Once your speech is prepared, take time to practice your speech. Practice in front of friends. Practice in front of your mirror. Practicing your speech will help you become familiar with your speech and improve your confidence in the speech delivery. Sometimes it is helpful to memorize the first few lines of the speech as it helps to kick start the speech easily and capture audience interest. Time yourself when you practice and be aware of the speech length. Preparation and practice helps in effective speech delivery, and is a key strength of successful public speakers.
4. Be aware of time limits. The length of your speech is an important aspect to the success of the speech. A short speech can leave the audience feeling disappointed and a lengthy speech can leave them feeling restless and impatient. The length of the speech should be decided based on the audience, content, and logical flow of the speech. It helps to practice the speech multiple times in front of different audience to gauge the impact of the speech length. Editing the speech and constantly asking yourself “How can I say it in fewer, more impactful words?” helps to refine the speech length and in making it more effective.
At Toastmasters, you will get an opportunity to master your holiday speech in an informal group. And if you find yourself not raising your hand for holiday toasts or even if you are the one doing the holiday toasts- this is the right time for you to join the Toastmasters Club! Remember, every Toastmaster’s journey starts with a single speech!