8 Tips to Improve Your Public Speaking Skills

Public speaking can be stressful for many people, but there are ways to improve your public speaking skills. Always prepare for the speech in advance so you know the material well enough to present it with confidence. A full speaking voice can make your audience sit up and take notice. It can also get them to like you, respect you, trust you, believe you, and buy from you.

But it takes more than strong vocal cords to get that kind of response; you need to speak with confidence. You need to know what you 're talking about. You need to maintain an even keel and project a positive, professional image to your listeners.

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Here are some tips to help you overcome fear of public speaking:

1. Get there early

If there's anything that can ruin your self-confidence, it's rushing late to an important meeting or event. It will probably happen at least once in your life - you show up with barely enough time to catch your breath before you're expected to speak. So instead of letting that stress get the best of you, do what smart people do: get there early. It gives you a chance to relax and get mentally prepared for your talk.

2. Get in sync with the room

Just because you 're speaking doesn't mean everyone else is going to shut up and listen to you . So make like a fighter pilot and establish "situational awareness." That means scanning the room, looking for people who are paying attention (and thus worth talking to later), checking out who's talking (and might need to be interrupted later) and generally getting a feel for where you fit in this particular social ecosystem.

3. Start off with an icebreaker

Dr. John F. Kennedy once said, "There are three things which are real; God, human folly, and laughter. The first two are beyond our comprehension, so we must do what we can with the third."

You may not agree with his theological assessment (and if you don't know what he's talking about - see tip #2), but you 've got to admit that Dr. Kennedy got people's attention with that opening line. You can do the same with a personal or business-related anecdote, a question, or an amusing comment.

4. Build rapport

The key to getting your audience on your side is building rapport . That means finding common ground and identifying shared interests, whether they're professional in nature (like a mutual concern for the success of your business) or more personal (the fact that you both got stuck in the rain).

5. Keep it brief

There's no such thing as a "cure" for public speaking anxiety. In fact, about half of all people have some level of fear when they get up to speak.

The best thing you can do to combat that fear is to bring your talk to a close as soon as possible. That way, there's no time for the negative energy (i.e. anxiety) to build up and take hold of you.

6. Know what makes people tick

It's not about you; it's about them. You can't make your audience like you; you can only give them a reason to do so . Besides, the more your talk is about them and what they care about (regardless of whether it's their problem with your product), the more engaged they'll be and the less nervous you'll seem.

7. Know your subject

If you're going to speak in front of any group, no matter the size or the occasion, make sure you know enough about your topic to get by without a script. You can't depend on it for support when you 're nervous and thinking on your feet is next to impossible if you don't have a handle on what you're talking about.

8. Have a "safety list"

It's hard enough to be nervous in front of an audience when you've got nothing to say. Now try doing it when you have to recite from memory a speech that someone else wrote for you or fill in for a speaker who canceled at the last minute. The good news is that you don't have to wing it from start to finish. You can keep a list of notes or talking points in front of you so that if you hear the audience's attention waning, all you have to do is look down at your page and remember what comes next... instead of panicking and giving up.

Eventually, you won't need notes at all.

A good speech is the result of a great idea and well-chosen words strung together in a coherent, memorable way . In other words, it's more about what you say than how you say it.