PUBLIC SPEAKING | ILLUMINATION

Many people would rather die than perform public speaking in front of a crowd of people — large or small. I will teach you how for any crowd.

In this guide, I'll teach you how to do public speaking with three simple principles. If you follow these principles, you will see rapid growth in your ability as a public speaker.

Whether you need to learn public speaking for business presentations, politics, being an entrepreneur leading a team, or even just for school presentations, public speaking is an invaluable skill that not everyone ends up learning in their lives.

I took a difficult full-semester class in high school in public speaking, so I have learned all the right tips and tricks, and more importantly, the most solid principles you can use to be a good public speaker.

I'm not the greatest public speaker, but I practiced public speaking for many months because of this class, and the progress quickly grew as I kept this daily habit of practicing public speaking.

Let's get started with what you shouldn't do when doing public speaking.

Principle 1

Don't be too reserved or too open as a public speaker; like everything, a balance is always ideal.

I've seen public speakers who have been way too reserved when presenting and public speakers who have been way too open when presenting.

Let's start with what not to do if you're a reserved public speaker.

• Don't put your hands in your pockets because it makes you look less confident to your audience.

I've seen countless presentations where people would present with their hands in their pockets. Not a single person who did their presentation with their hands in their pockets looked confident while presenting. Confidence, whether you have it naturally or not, is crucial to performing your best as a public speaker. The only politicians that win elections are the confident ones, because the masses can stand behind someone who is confident enough to lead them.

• Don't avoid making eye contact with your audience because it might make them think that you don't care that they're paying attention to your presentation.

Most presentations that I've watched where the public speaker didn't make eye contact with their audience caused the audience to not want to make eye contact with the public speaker and instead look at their phones or daydream during the presentation.

I've been guilty of daydreaming during presentations too, unfortunately, because when a public speaker speaks quietly or has a monotone voice and doesn't make eye contact with their audience, it makes you want to think about what you're going to do for fun next week or what you'll have for dinner.

I don't know why, but I've never had a problem with making eye contact with my audience. The only trouble I've had with public speaking is the nervousness that has caused my heart rate to rise, but from the feedback that my audiences have given me, they always told me that I looked confident and didn't sound or seem nervous at all — even on the days where I was nervous and felt that it was showing to my audience through my voice or gestures.

• Try not to sway when talking or do any other nervous tic when presenting to your audience because they'll notice it and they'll be more focused on your tic than on what you're saying.

For example, I watched a presentation once where the public speaker had multiple tics that he would do while presenting, and I don't even remember to this day what he talked about; however, I do remember that he constantly said um, almost after every single word he said, and he constantly adjusted his pants and shirt when there was nothing wrong with his clothing.

I only mention these true stories as examples to better teach what is good public speaking and what is bad public speaking. The guy who did that presentation likely never practiced public speaking before and gave it a try on his presentation date, and he's doing more than most people are willing to do. He also made many mistakes while presenting, which shows that he has much to learn, which is a great thing. Mistakes aren't bad in public speaking; the more mistakes you make, the more you can improve as a public speaker.

• Don't use crazy gestures that are all over the place, but don't avoid using gestures at all. The balance of gestures that aren't too wide and are appropriate for the subject that you're speaking about will be perfect.

Principle 2

Consistently practice public speaking every day.

You can practice public speaking to yourself, to your friends, to your family, or to an audience if you have one. All that matters is that you practice often to grow 1% better every day and keep your public speaking skills sharp.

If you don't have an audience at home but you still want to become a good public speaker, I highly recommend that you record yourself giving a speech and play it back to see what bad habits are diverting your own attention from what you're saying in the video. Through this form of practice, you'll do public speaking and then act as the audience member and learn from your own mistakes in the video and the strengths that you have as a public speaker.

What I did at home after writing a speech in my public speaking class was read it out multiple times on notecards and time myself.

The speech had to be done with only a few words on each notecard, so I simplified my speech as much as possible while fitting the entire speech's contents on it because I was not ready to memorize a speech — especially not memorize what happened on a trip from multiple months in the past.

Ergo, I repeated my entire speech with the help of what to say from my notecards ten times for five minutes each. By the end of my practice session, I had memorized the entire beginning of my speech and knew the order of what to say. I probably could've recited the entire speech by memory, but I wanted to get a good grade on the assignment as well as do a good job doing public speaking, so I had the notecards as a backup in case I didn't know what subject was next in my narrative story.

Repetition of a habit is extremely powerful. The more you do public speaking, the better you become at it. It's like anything you do: you can't be a good cook if you don't cook often, and you can't be a good cyclist if you don't ride your bike often.

Principle 3

Realize that most people won't remember your speech five years from now.

Why worry about what they think and feel nervous before your speech or during it?

I had trouble when I started public speaking on the first day of my public speaking class because it was something new and I wanted to do a good job, so the anxiety I felt was getting to me internally.

After I had finished my first speech in that class, I asked the teacher what she thought and if she noticed that I was nervous. She told me that she didn't notice at all, and she doesn't think anyone else did either. In truth, my entire body inside was stressed, as my heart almost beats as fast as when I'm running.

As soon as my speech began, my heart was beating really fast as I spoke to my audience and made eye contact with each and every one of them for the first time. After the speech, my heart stopped beating abnormally quickly, and I had survived and was fine.

That was the hardest speech I had ever done because it was my first speech. After doing my first speech, public speaking only got easier from there, and after the first few speeches, I was not only confident while speaking, but I also lost my fear and nervousness that I had when I started public speaking.

I can't say that my experience with anxiety during public speaking will be the same for everyone. Even on that first day where I did public speaking for the first time, I was still confident while speaking; I just didn't show that I was nervous through my facial expressions or body language.

It might be easier for you to do public speaking than it was for me, or maybe it might be more difficult. What's important is that you take the first few steps and keep up the good habit of practicing public speaking over time so that you can see if your nervousness and fear of public speaking fade away.

I hope this guide was helpful, and I hope you become a great public speaker in the next few months that you practice public speaking.

If you want to read more about this topic, please leave this story some claps so I know to make a part two with even more helpful tips!

Short Summary

Don't be too reserved or too open as a public speaker; like everything, a balance is always ideal.

Consistently practice public speaking every day.

Realize that most people won't remember your speech five years from now.

Why worry about what they think and feel nervous before your speech or during it?

Thank you for reading. Please let me know what I can do to make this story better for you by writing me a comment. I'm happy to hear your suggestions so my stories can be more helpful to my readers.

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