My plan is to become a public speaking coach out in Seattle. From a quick perusal on Google, I’ve found a lack of diversity in the pool of public speaking coaches out there, most of them being older white people that cater to CEO’s, business professionals, and folks with a lot of money. I feel this knowledge and information is rendered inaccessible to a good portion of the population. Everyone can benefit from developing their public speaking skills, not just executives of Fortune 500 companies. Plus, I was hard pressed in finding any people of color offering these services, so that alone compels me to make this move. With that being said, here are a few techniques to help further your public speaking game.
3 way to improve your public speaking skills:
1. Read books out loud to yourself. By reading out loud you can improve on your enunciation. This will help you become conscious of speaking clearly. Read with the intention that you are improving your oratory skills, consider it like a form of shadow boxing. You are going through your moves. You are looking for areas where you can make minor adjustments. Most importantly you are practicing. With each word notice how your mouth moves, where your tongue placement is, how your lips form to say each word. Practice moving your voice up and down as you read. Raise your voice to almost a shout and then bring it down close to a whisper. Experiment with different speeds and tempos in combination with your volume. Read fast. Read slow. Read at a moderate pace. This is will help you better understand your vocal dynamics and how you can utilize your voice as a tool to captivate your audience. Additionally, reading out loud over a prolong period of time (start with 5-10 minutes and then gradually increase) helps with strengthening your concentration and attention span. In order to elevate your public speaking skills, you must have a powerful concentration that will come in handy when you’re on stage. This is how you overcome your nervousness, any potential distraction, or retrieving your place after a momentary slip of the mind. Pick whatever book you’d like. I’d recommend reading a subject that you’re passionate about. This will give you an added boost of enthusiasm which is crucial for speaking to an audience. Lastly, by getting yourself accustomed to speaking these ideas out loud, you’ll be subconsciously preparing your mind for when you begin the writing the process.
2. Take time to understand your why. Why are you speaking on this subject? What is it about this subject that moves you to get in front of an audience and speak about it? What is your overall aim with public speaking? When you know you’re why, it helps tremendously with giving yourself a sense of direction when you’re crafting your speech. You know that ultimately this is why I’m doing it. This serves as a compass to keep you on track. I’d recommend that you go beyond the standard, “to get an A on this assignment” or “because I want to make money.” That’s not big enough. Take your why into the intangible realm. Somewhere beyond material or personal gain. Have it connect to your family, your community, your world. By doing so, you’ll find a reservoir of courage that initially you may have overlooked within yourself. This is crucial especially moments before your name gets announced and you’re completely terrified out of your mind. Whenever I begin to experience stage fright a few minutes prior to going on stage, I remind myself that I’m speaking for my family and for everyone back in Lakewood. I then visualize my relatives. I think about my nephews and how they look up to me. I think about my ancestors and how they have sacrificed so much for me to be here right now. This gives me the courage to speak because now my personal talk is in context to this larger message. It’s no longer about me at that point but rather all of the people that I’m representing. Get intimately familiar with your why. Know it inside and out.
3. Practice in the mirror communicating just with your body. Don’t say a word. Just speak with your hands, your arms, your facial expression, and the rest of your body. Just move around. Body language is the most important form of communication when you’re giving your speech (check out Mehrabian’s 7%-38%-55% Rule). By only speaking with your body, you’ll have to creatively come up with new ways in conveying your message without any words. Practice different emotions. What gestures would you use to express anger? What about sadness? What about determination? What about happiness? Pay close attention to your facial expressions. Use your eye brows, eyes, and mouth. Use your hands. Use your fingers. Move your arms. Move your hips. Walk around. Express with your entire body. If you have your speech down already say it in your mind while simultaneously expressing it out loud with your body language.
These are just a few tips to help you in developing your oratory. I feel this goes without saying but I’ll mention it anyways– as with anything, the more you practice the more you’ll improve. So be consistent. Remain diligent. And be patient with yourself. It’s one step at a time.
Within the next month or so I plan to facilitate a public speaking workshop free to the community. I’ll keep you posted.