Art Of Great Speaking

An audience will seldom stay attentive to your speech of its own accord. It needs help to stay attentive. When the audience’s interest does wander attention arrestors are required to bring it back.
To keep the audience’s attention takes effort but the rewards are great. Adding “seasoning” to your speech makes it more interesting for your audience and increases its effectiveness.
1. Use Humor
Using humor in public speaking is a very powerful way to get your listener’s attention. It let’s light into your speech.  For best effect weave the humor around your speech’s theme. Practice and rehearse humorous anecdotes etc, so that the delivery is natural and effortless.  If your listeners don’t laugh, don’t worry; move swiftly along as if you didn’t expect a laugh.
2. Tell Stories
People love to hear stories, especially human interest stories. As with humor, tell stories that are relevant to your speech. A good story involves conflict, dramatic action and suspense.   
3. Ask Rhetorical Questions
A rhetorical question will arrest your audience’s attention. However, be prepared for someone in the audience to answer the question. If it is right, give thanks and move on. If the answer is wrong you have an excuse to run through the highlights of your talk.
4. Get the audience to help out
Ask a member of the audience to come out to the front to help you demonstrate a point. The rest of the audience is now interested to see what will happen to one of their own and they are wondering if they will be asked up next.   
5. Objects
Listener’s like to see things, because of the variety they bring from just listening. The objects that are displayed should be able to be seen by all the audience to be truly effective. Use objects that relate and illuminate your speech.
6. Get Moving
A speaker that stays still behind the lectern can bore their audience. Use your natural gestures and movement to emphasize points as you would in everyday conversation. Rehearsed gestures can look forced and false.
7. Stop Speaking
When you pause, the audience takes stock and wonders why you stopped. The pause will emphasize what you have just said. It is the public speaking equivalent of saying “do you see what I mean?” in conversation. 
8. Facts – Don’t be boring
Facts will add weight to presentation but they are cold and are often boring. Present your facts in an interesting way. For example you could describe the fact that there are billions of insects as follows – If all the insects below, on and above the earth and in water were piled on one another they would cover the earth 3 feet deep.
9. Be Enthusiastic
Enthusiasm is infectious. When you are genuinely enthusiastic about something it shows in your manner and voice. An audience will reflect the same feeling.  You can get the feeling of enthusiasm for something by acting enthusiastically.

10. Don’t overdo it
As with all good things, you can over use these techniques. If you use too many of these techniques the audience will become distracted and your message may lose its’ clarity and effectiveness.

By adding one or more of these techniques you will see a change in your audience’s enjoyment and the effectiveness of your speech.

In public speaking, enthusiasm is a very powerful characteristic. It is contagious and will make your speeches more effective.

Genuine enthusiam for your subject will lift a speaker from ordinary to extra-ordianary. The speaker does become highly persuasive and convincing.

When you find a cause or subject that you are passionate about and that inspires you, then you will have something to speak enthusiastically about.

Nobody will be enthusiatic about a speech or anything else if it means little to them or they are ashamed of it. But by finding a topic that is really beneficial to people or a cause you believe in you can become enthusiastic.

Some people are naturally enthusiastic. They are that way because of the habits they have acquired. These habits can be be developed. Some ways to develop them are:

1. Closely observe observe human behaviour and determining what make people the way they are. 

2. Choose a positve, optimistic atttude

3. Put your whole self – body, mind, heart and spirit into everything you do.

4. Choose not to let criticism to discourage or dampen your resolve

5. Choose an I-can attitide. Enthusiasm is killed by self-pity and thinking about giving up. 

6. Show an active interest in others at all time.

Frank Bettger who advised – Act enthusiastically and you’ll be enthusiastic. He used his own advice and went from failure to leading his field. He wrote the book How I Raised Myself from Failure to Success in Selling.  

Developing enthusiasm is a choice and takes some effort to acquire. It is worth it. Your speaking will be more effective. It will make it easier to  achieve your purpose.

For more information on effective pulic speaking and conversation visit http://www.SelfConfidentSpeaking.com to claim a free preview of The Art of Great Conversation

More information on the characteristics of effective speaking

Effective Speaking – Confidence

By knowing your subject thorughly you can be an in demand even if you are not a first rate speaker. However, the opposite is also true, you can be a first rate speaker, but if you do not know your stuff and only speak fine words your audience will find you out and will not want you back.

Public speaking today is about the ideas and information you convey to the audience. People are interested in what you have to say. Delivery has its part but more importantly it is “do you know what you are talking about?” that interests them.

The primary source of expertise will be your personal experience.  By being a keen observer of your life and events around you will have a large storehouse of experiences to draw on.  You will have spoken about these experiences before and you are merely expanding the conversation to a larger audience.  When examining your life ask the following questions:-

1. What in my life can be used as material in my speech?

2. How can your expereinces be used to benefit your audience?

3. What subject will you develop to demonstrate your experiences?

If you do not have all the necessary material in your life to be considered an expert, you can extend your knowledge by spending the time to study the subject and developing a deeper understanding.

By developing your expertise you increase your credibility with your audience. An audience is less sceptical when you know your subject thoroughly and can be considered an expert. Taking the time to prepare thoroughly will pay dividends for you.

For more tips on public speaking and great conversation please visit http://www.SelfConfidentSpeaking.com to claim a free preview of The Art of Great Conversation.