• About
  • Advertise
  • Careers
  • Contact
  • Write for us
No Result
View All Result
Friday, January 22, 2021
THE MILLENNIAL SOURCE
  • World
  • US
  • Asia
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Profiles
  • Lifestyle
    • Food & Travel
    • Tech & Money
    • Health
    • Entertainment
  • Newsletter
TMS
No Result
View All Result
Home Lifestyle

Public speaking tips – how to overcome stage fright

byPatricia Raimann
November 26, 2020
in Lifestyle
Reading Time: 4 minute read
Public speaking tips

Source: Pexels, Mentatdgt

Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on Linkedin



Standing in front of a crowd – or even a small group – can be nerve-wracking. Your palms start sweating and you open your mouth, ready to speak, and realize nothing’s coming out. Don’t worry, you’re not alone. Many people feel anxious standing in front of an audience, whether they’ve done hundreds of speeches or it’s their first time. 

There are plenty of ways to reduce the stress of public speaking so you can perform to the best of your ability. Whether you are looking to overcome your anxiety or simply brush up on your public speaking skills, we have a handful of public speaking tips to help you overcome your fears. 

Know your audience

Before writing your speech, you need to know who you are talking to. Your speech is targeting the audience – so you want to make sure your speech is relevant and something they are interested in. For example, you wouldn’t speak to kids the same as you would to adults. Other things to consider are education level, profession, gender and cultural background. These factors can affect how your speech is received. 

If your speech requires knowledge of complex theories on medical exploration, you likely would not be speaking to an audience of art or math students, but rather those in the medical field. Your audience should be able to understand the message you are getting across. Without connecting with your audience, your message will not be effective. 

Research your topic

One of the most important public speaking tips is to be prepared and well-researched. When selecting a suitable topic, it’s much easier to talk about something you are passionate about or interested in. The topic must be something relevant to you and the audience, and you should be comfortable talking about in detail. If you are not passionate about your topic, then it can be difficult to persuade your listeners. The audience can tell if you’re not interested in what you are talking about, and if you aren’t interested – why should they be?

Know your message 

One of the main goals of public speaking is to deliver a specific message to your audience. You’ll want to ensure that you are precise and don’t go off on a tangent of irrelevant details. It’s easy to confuse or lose the attention of your audience by giving them information that’s unnecessary to your point. 

Practice, practice, practice

Practice is essential, not only for public speaking but for anything in life. With practice, you’ll not only know your speech better but you’ll understand where to place your pauses and pacing. Filler words are another big no-no, but thankfully, practice will help you avoid these. If you can, convince one of your friends or family members to sit in for practice so you’ll become familiar speaking in front of an audience. 

Hold notes

If you can, avoid having the entire script in front of you because flipping page after page will distract you and your audience, too. Reading from a script can also make you sound robotic and will cause you to look down rather than connecting with your audience. Instead, have some notes with bullet points that will keep you on track with a quick glance.

Make eye contact 

Now that you have your script, it’s time to focus on the delivery. Some people forget the power of the performance because no matter how important your message is, if you don’t make a compelling delivery, it’s not going to stick with the audience. Part of this is eye contact, as making that connection with your audience is exceedingly valuable.

Fake it ‘til you make it 

Confidence! Even if you’re so nervous that you feel like you’re going to break, your audience doesn’t need to know that. Hopefully, you won’t only be fooling the viewers, but you’ll also fool yourself into being confident.  

Embrace mistakes 

Each mistake you make is a learning experience. We’re sure you’ve heard this before, but that’s because it’s relevant in all aspects of life, including public speaking. Every time you do a speech, try to record it so you can watch it afterward. You’re probably already cringing at the thought, but it pays off. You’ll be able to see yourself from the audience’s perspective and observe your strengths as well as note areas you can improve on. This is one of the best public speaking tips because instead of repeating the same mistakes over and over again, you’ll progress each time.

Have a tip or story? Get in touch with our reporters at [email protected]

Like TMS? Subscribe to our free daily newsletter

Related

Tags: LifestyletechTechnology
ShareTweetShare

Latest Posts

Habits to improve your life

Habits to improve your life in the new year

January 22, 2021
Winter activities

Winter activities for your pandemic-friendly bucket list

January 22, 2021
Netflix new movies

All the Netflix new movies upcoming in 2021

January 21, 2021

How to prevent getting sick during the winter

January 21, 2021

How COVID-19 has changed the workplace

January 20, 2021

Stella Moon founder Monique Welsh is getting real about body-image in Hong Kong

January 20, 2021

How to stay productive after the holidays

January 18, 2021

“Brooklyn Nine-Nine” star Andy Samberg bags new role in upcoming Apple sci-fi film

January 18, 2021

Ways to honor Martin Luther King Jr. Day in Atlanta

January 15, 2021
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Careers
  • Contact
  • Write for us

© 2020 The Millennial Source Ltd.

No Result
View All Result
  • World
  • US
  • Asia
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Profiles
  • Lifestyle
    • Food & Travel
    • Tech & Money
    • Health
    • Entertainment
  • Newsletter

© 2020 The Millennial Source Ltd.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Create New Account!

Fill the forms bellow to register

All fields are required. Log In

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In

Add New Playlist

We are using cookies to give you the best experience on our website.

You can find out more about which cookies we are using or switch them off in settings.

The Millennial Source
Powered by  GDPR Cookie Compliance
Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.

Strictly Necessary Cookies

Strictly Necessary Cookie should be enabled at all times so that we can save your preferences for cookie settings.

If you disable this cookie, we will not be able to save your preferences. This means that every time you visit this website you will need to enable or disable cookies again.