3 Ways Public Speaking Can Improve Your Career

April 16, 2019 by Ron Bratt

Among the top 10 most common phobias, a fear of public speaking remains the most common social one. Conversely, however, public speaking may be one of the best things you can do to improve your career as well as improve your own social skills – which in the end will also be a huge boon to your career. Here are 3 ways building your public speaking skills can help you in your career.

Improves Professionalism and Confidence

Perhaps one of the biggest reasons people fear public speaking is because it literally focuses all eyes on you. Having an entire roomful of eyes on you can be an incredibly vulnerable and awkward position to be in, which is why most people avoid it. But public speaking isn’t just standing up on a stage, it’s also about speaking up in a meeting. If you can overcome your fear of speaking on a stage, it will make you far more likely to speak up and be vocal in meetings and other groups. That can’t help but help your career.

Helps You Stand Out

Most people want to be noticed for the work that they do, but the people most likely to be noticed are those that actively draw attention to their work. This may seem shallow, vain or narcissistic, but it is not. You don’t have to over-exaggerate the work that you do or be constantly drawing attention to yourself, but giving a presentation is a great way to showcase the quality of your work for your entire company or team.

Builds Leadership Skills
Would you follow a leader that was afraid to speak in public? Probably not. And neither would almost anyone else, either. King George IV was a British Monarch that suffered from a terrible stammer. He recognized that if he wanted his nation to follow him as a leader, he needed to be able to speak confidently in public. The film The King’s Speech is a dramatization of his work with a speech therapist to overcome his stammer in order to be able to speak confidently in public. While you may never need to lead an entire nation, the truth is, if you want to be a leader, you will need to learn to speak confidently in public.

History’s Most Influential Speeches

March 18, 2019 by Ron Bratt

Fourth quarter, two minutes left, down by 10 points. The team’s tired, feeling dejected, then the coach gives a rousing speech, that can be the difference between victory or defeat. A speech if done right has the power to inspire, incite change, get your blood boiling, make you feel invincible. Some of the most powerful and influential speeches to this day have the power to mobilize the masses and elicit feelings of pride and hope. These are the top 5 speeches that stood the test of time.

“I Have A Dream”

It is almost impossible to find anyone who doesn’t know this phrase and who made it famous. On August 28, 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King cemented his place in history. The “I have a dream” speech was given at the gathering for the Jobs and Freedom March in Washington D.C. A decree for equality and freedom for African-Americans, the speech was instrumental in the passing of the Civil Rights Act.

“Of the people, By the people, For the people”

The Civil War was one of the deadliest wars ever fought on American soil. In November 1863 at a memorial for the fallen soldiers, Abraham Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address. Three minutes long, this shows the power of a speech is not in its length but the strength of the message.

“I am the First Accused”

Nelson Mandela is one of the most respected leaders in history. He was the first African American president to rule South Africa and a key protagonist in the fight against apartheid. He was charged for crimes against the government and gave an impassioned speech that was part defense and part sermon.

“We Shall Fight”

Following the evacuation of the Allied soldiers from Dunkirk, Prime Minister Winston Churchill gave a searing speech before the House of Commons. His speech was a reality check to the British people that even though the Allied troops narrowly escaped Dunkirk, the war was far from over. He added that though it was an uphill task, he vowed to fight wherever was needed to safeguard his country.

“Freedom or Death”

This list would not be complete without the dynamic Emmeline Pankhurst. A staunch advocate for women’s rights, she literally fought for the cause using militant tactics. The year was 1913, in Hartford Connecticut where she delivered the Freedom or Death speech. Reaffirming her position as a suffragette and her steadfastness in achieving equality by any means necessary.

The Benefits of Public Speaking Courses in School

February 27, 2019 by Ron Bratt

Public speaking and presentations are a common fear for many individuals, regardless of age. A great way to combat this fear early is engaging in public speaking courses during school. Many schools use public speaking courses as an elective option to help students prepare for their future whether it’s in their career or elsewhere. There are many major benefits to teaching kids public speaking skills early on in their education; here are just a few:

Improving Communication Skills

One of the major benefits of having public speaking courses in schools is the inevitable improvement of communication skills. As a child, teen, or young adult, communication can sometimes be a challenge. Learning how to communicate with peers and teachers is the first step to shaping communication skills for the “real world”. A public speaking course will assist students with learning and building the necessary tools to improve their skills and learn how to utilize them properly.

A Boost in Self Esteem

Knowing that you’re able to speak in front of a group of people, no matter the size is always a great boost for your confidence level. For students, extra confidence is essential to overall social and academic development. According to an article was Rosie Hoyland, “A clear, confident speaking voice is an essential life skill that fosters self-esteem and personal confidence.”

Better Academic Performance

Another area that can see a substantial benefit from public speaking courses is a student’s overall academic performance. As many general education courses are likely to require one or multiple presentations, have the right public speaking skills and a high confidence level will likely help a student perform better in other classes as well. The preparation will help limit the stress level and prove for a better presentation overall.

Overcoming Fears

Public speaking courses help empower students to overcome the fear of presenting, making a speech, working in groups, and generally communicating with their peers. While it may prove to be a challenge, in the beginning, a public speaking course will require a student to face the challenge and the fears that come with it head on. Teaching adolescents how to face challenges with a full amount of effort will ultimately help shape them for their future and anything they may face down the road.

4 Qualities of a Successful Speech

January 31, 2019 by Ron Bratt

Giving a speech can be a nerve-wracking task for anyone, even someone with significant public speaking experience. A good speech is built on a confident speaker that knows how to keep things well organized, interesting, and engaging. All too often, a speaker can make common mistakes that will drastically turn a speech from good to bad. If you have the task of giving a speech for any task, be it a professional engagement, school, or a wedding or event, follow some of these steps to ensure the delivery of a successful speech:

Audience-Driven

The first thing to focus on as a speaker is your audience. You always want to make sure you’re speaking about something that will keep your audience engaged, and won’t quickly fade their interest. Once you lose your audience, it can be hard to get them back; it can also be quite noticeable for the speaker, which will ultimately increase nerves and anxiety. Always make sure your speech is audience driven and engaging, regardless of the topic. Keep in mind some topics may be harder to speak about than others; this is where you need to make the right decisions when constructing your piece, so you don’t lose your audience.

Well Organized

One unfortunate way to lose your audiences attention is presenting an unorganized speech. It’s easy to lose track, as you may have a lot to talk about, or many different points to cover. You want to make sure you keep things well organized to avoid scrambling during your presentation. A number of different points and topics can make your speech seem unorganized, and your audience will experience trouble following along. Once your audience loses track of where you are and what you’re talking about, they may not be able to catch on for the duration of your presentation.

Well Rehearsed

During your speech, you may be behind a podium, on a stage, or in the middle of a large room surrounded by your audience. With your preparation, you may have created cards, written your entire speech down, or, in a professional setting, you might be using a prompter. A good speech is always well rehearsed, and only uses resources such as cheat cards or the prompter for a quick reference. You’ll want to stay away from directly reading off of your resources, and maintaining eye contact and engagement with your audience. This will show that your speech is rehearsed well and that you put a great effort into your presentation.

Always to the Point

Short, sweet, and to the point: a saying you’re probably familiar with. Don’t force your audience to listen to long, drawn-out sentences, or throw in fancy jargon where it really doesn’t fit. Keep things simple. Remember, during any speech, you want to assume your audience isn’t full of experts in your subject or topic. Keep things at a level where anyone could easily understand what you’re talking about. Make it comfortable for yourself as the speaker and those that are listening to you.

Essential Qualities of a Successful Debate Coach

January 4, 2019 by Ron Bratt

Every team needs a coach or a leader to help guide them through different events and help them sharpen their skills. In the world of debate, the same rules apply. Debate teams have a lot of different skills they need to learn and work towards perfecting; their coach is an experienced leader that they look to for help and insights on how to perform to the best of their ability. A debate coach works behind the scenes to help prepare debaters for debate events and uses strategy to help them improve their argumentative skills. Coaching isn’t easy, however. It takes a significant amount of knowledge and prior experience. Coaches need to know how debates work, have the right qualifications, and hold excellent leadership skills. Here are a few essential qualities all debate coaches should have

Qualifications and Experience

As a successful debate coach, one of the qualities you definitely want to have is a substantial amount of experience, as well as any necessary qualifications or requirements. Generally, if you’re coaching a debate team at a school, whether high school or college, you’ll likely be required to have a degree at minimum. In many cases, school debate coaches are also teachers, so you may also need a teaching degree. Experience is also essential, as you need to have a good understanding of how debate works, what skills should be used when making an argument, general rules of thumb, and how things are typically judged at a debate event. The better prepared you are, the better you can prepare your team for success.

Leadership

Any type of coach, whether in active sports or debate, needs to possess exceptional leadership skills. A good leader helps motivate a team to do their best, and essentially helps lead them to success. Your leadership skills are going to play a significant role in your team performance. Lead by the best examples of following the rules of debate, and practicing strategic, but fair arguing skills.

Strategic Thinking

A debate isn’t just about being able to make a good argument; it’s about knowing how to state your arguments in a strategic way so you can manage a debate without stumbling. Use strategic thinking to plan out your arguments, as well as prepare your team with all of the necessary public speaking skills.

Debates can be fun and exciting, and coaching is a rewarding job to have. Use these qualities to help develop a fantastic debate team!

Common Presentation Mistakes to Avoid

December 6, 2018 by Ron Bratt

Presentations are something that you’ve likely been experiencing since your school days and could be using actively in your career. Either way, you’re probably familiar with how presentations work and know that their success has a lot to do with who the presenter is and how well they interact with the audience. Common presenting mistakes can often cause your audience to quickly lose interest in what you’re talking about. Here are some mistakes you’ll surely want to avoid during a presentation:

Failing to Engage With Audience

As a presenter, your number one job is to make sure you’re keeping your audience interested in what you’re talking about. Even the most interesting topics can feel quite boring if the person presenting isn’t engaging enough. Get your audience to interact with what you’re talking about. Ask questions, and foster participation to keep everyone interested. Standing in front of a crowd and reading off a bullet list slide by slide will quickly result in your audience losing interest in what you’re saying.

Overloading Presentation Slides

Aside from your presenting skills, you should always make sure your slideshow is well put together and organized. Tools like PowerPoint are extremely useful if you know how to use them correctly. A slideshow should be well organized with the information you’re trying to get across; however, you don’t want to pack each slide with paragraphs, pictures, and graphs. Your slides should be a guide for you and your audience to follow along with. The rest of the information should come from you as the presenter. You can even go as far as using the hidden “notes” field as a teleprompter to keep you on track; just be sure you aren’t relying too much on it.

Speaking in Jargon

A wide vocabulary is a great thing to have if you know how to use it. Have you ever heard a presenter who sounds extremely smart, but you really don’t have any idea what they’re talking about? Keep this in mind when you’re behind the podium. It’s essential to remember that when presenting to an audience, you should keep your speech and vocabulary to a level where your audience won’t have trouble understanding what you’re saying. According to the Harvard Business Review, “Consider whether your presentation passes the “grandmother test”: If your grandmother wouldn’t understand what on earth you’re talking about, rework your message.”

Lacking Clear Focus

Always keep a clear focus on the message you’re trying to convey. If your thoughts are scattered, it’s almost a definite that you’ll confuse your audience quickly; and that will ultimately result in losing their interest. Keep your thoughts organized, and your mind focused on specific topics.

Conducting a Classroom Debate

November 1, 2018 by Ron Bratt

Conducting a classroom debate can be a great way to get different ideas from the students and keep them engaged. However, you need to use the right approach. If you don’t, you could risk going into topics they aren’t interested in or worse. So use the following tips and make sure your debates are always fun, valuable, and engaging:

Poll the Class

You need to control the general range of topics of the debate. However, within that you can allow the students to choose what they want to discuss. This makes them feel like they have a choice and are participants in the process.

Avoid Touchy Subjects

In school today, the last thing you want to do is talk about something that could upset someone. Avoid touchy topics that might offend students. The last thing you want is a bad social media backlash against you or your school, regardless of how important you think the topic is.

Get Into it With Them

Get involved in the discussion as well. Don’t take it over, but make your opinion known. When you’re willing to openup with your students, they will trust you more and be willing to open up in front of the class and with you as well.

Have a Backup Plan

Sometimes, no matter what you do, you can’t get the debate started. Have some kind of gimmick or activity that gets them into the mood to talk about the topic, then try going back to the debate. Consider team games to start with, as this builds trust among the group.

Involve Technology

The younger generations love technology. While they may not respond to a whiteboard, they might light up if you mention their favorite Youtuber or social media star. Try bringing in a tablet or even using your smartphone to get more engagement. It is speaking to them in a language they understand so they will liven up.

When it comes to teaching, it has its share of challenges. However, one of the most difficult things is to get the whole classroom involved in a debate. So have the right strategy on your side and you can enjoy a better outcome each time. Use the advice above and your students will be asking you to have more debates in the future.

Reducing Public Speaking Anxiety

October 5, 2018 by Ron Bratt

Public speaking is a legitimate fear for individuals of all ages. Giving presentations, speeches, or other activities that require speaking in front of a large group of people, can present anxiety, and prove to be rather difficult for many people. However, there are many tools that one can use to overcome fears and strengthen public speaking skills. Here are a few tips to reduce that public speaking anxiety.

Break It Down

When you’re preparing your speech or presentation, break the whole thing down into manageable steps. Outline your intro, the points of your speech, and the conclusion. Write down each part separately, then put it all together. Cut or add what you need so you don’t run over your allotted time.

Practice, Practice, Practice!

The adage goes, “practice makes perfect” and it’s completely true. Rehearse your speech or presentation. Do it in front of your bathroom mirror or in your bedroom at first. Hearing the speech out loud will help you figure out what needs tweaking. Then practice your speech with a close friend or relative, someone you trust to give constructive feedback.

Don’t Expect Perfection

Perfectionism is a hard concept for a lot of people to break. We don’t want to show others that we’re not as put together as we should be. Here’s a hint: nobody else is expecting you to be perfect. Even if you flub a word here or there, keep going. Chances are, no one is going to notice.

Engage With Your Audience

Don’t read your speech off word for word and don’t memorize. You’ll end up with a presentation sounding wooden and false. Instead, engage with your audience like you would a friend over coffee. Step away from the podium. Ask questions, invite them to clap or raise hands. All of these things will help to connect with your audience and reduce any nervousness.

Breathe

Most of all, don’t forget to breathe. Deep breathing exercises have been found to slow the heart rate and reduce stress. Even taking a few deep, slow breaths before you start your speech will give you time to gather your thoughts.

Public speaking can cause a lot of stress and fears. However, you can side-step most of the stress with a bit of preparation and ways to keep yourself grounded and relaxed. Just breathe, step away from the podium, and give it all you got!

Essential Elements of Public Speaking

September 5, 2018 by Ron Bratt

Public speaking can often be intimidating as you attempt to communicate a specific message and make a connection with your audience. For most individuals, public speaking rarely comes naturally and is usually a learned skill that requires plenty of practice. It’s important to remember that mastering the art of public speaking takes time and practice. If you want to improve how well you give speeches or presentations in the classroom or workplace, there are a few essential elements to keep in mind.

Invite Participation From the Audience

You can engage with your audience and allow them to stay interested in your presentation by inviting them to participate. You can use a specific person as an example when you’re making a point or use a catchphrase or word that is repeated by the audience to ensure that they’re receptive to what you’re communicating. This helps keep your audience engaged in what you’re talking about while encouraging feedback.

Research

Although you may be passionate about what you’re discussing during your presentation, you’ll still need to present a few facts to prove your argument or ideas. Researching extensively is necessary to become an expert on the topic and to ensure you’re qualified to answer any questions at the end of your speech. If you’re well-researched, you’ll have more confidence talking to your audience and won’t have as much fear with the amount of attention that you receive.

Get Over Your Fear

Fear can limit your ability to speak in a public setting and can cause different reactions both physically and mentally. Your audience will take notice if you’re shaking or are stuttering, making it necessary to get over your fear. Controlling your breathing and practicing your presentation in advance can allow you to feel calmer and more prepared. Have a few notes in front of you to stay on topic with each point that you want to make, which can help you to feel more confident being in the spotlight.

Express Yourself

If you don’t incorporate a bit of personality into your public speaking skills, then you can likely expect your audience to generally lose interest in what you’re talking about. Insert a bit of humor, have fun, and express yourself to show that you’re passionate as you get others on board. You’ll be more entertaining if you make it a fun and enjoyable experience for everyone instead of only focusing on communicating your points.

Quick Tips to Improve Public Speaking Skills

August 8, 2018 by Ron Bratt

One of the most common fears that most people share is public speaking, which can allow you to feel judged and examined by your audience while giving a presentation speech. In many cases, it can be easy to make mistakes as you attempt to convey a particular message and process your thoughts while in the spotlight. If you want to appear composed during public speaking and improve your skills, there are a few tips to follow.

Make Your Message Simple

Simplifying your message is necessary to have clarity when you’re speaking and avoid feeling overwhelmed by all the points that you need to address. Make it concise to ensure that you communicate clearly and avoid losing the attention of your audience. You can break your message into questions to make it easier to understand and to find a connection with each person you’re speaking to during the presentation.

Practice on Video

Consider practicing your speech or presentation ahead of time to ensure that you can see how you appear. You can take a close look at your mannerisms or how well you articulate your words to make improvements before it’s time for the big day. Practicing in the days leading up to your presentation will allow you to get the general framework down without having to memorize everything, which can cause it to appear forced and unnatural. Although experiencing nervousness is normal, you can feel more confident with enough practice and by becoming more comfortable with speaking in front of other people, according to this article by Marjorie North.

Make a Connection with Your Audience

One of the most important aspects of public speaking is making a connection with your audience to ensure that your message is received. If you’re authentic about your message and are passionate about it, you can allow it to be translated to those who are listening to what you have to say.

Using humor is a way of connecting with your audience and by becoming more relatable. Making other people laugh can also allow you to relax and feel more comfortable. Telling stories and interacting with people in your audience will also make for a more entertaining presentation that is fun and doesn’t seem to drag on for those who are in attendance.