One of the most nerve-racking things on most people’s minds is public speaking. Public speaking is one of the few skills that will bring more opportunity into your life and it is important to be able to speak well with confidence. Here are 21 tips to help you get started and start speaking with confidence!
There are so many ideas and techniques out there that I could add to this post but I found ones that I think would be most helpful. Some are for those who have been speaking for a bit and others are for beginners. I try to explain all the things that I talk about for those that are new. Stay warm and good luck!

1. Speak to Move People into Action

It is important to understand why you are speaking. Is it to convey an idea or to get your audience to take action? If the goal is to convey an idea or to get your audience to take action, intrigue them, influence them and speak to them to get the idea through and inspire them to take action. When speaking, intent to move people to action. Know what you want your audience to do immediately after hearing your speech. If nobody does anything different than they would have done before you spoke – the value of your speech is zero.

2. Start with a Schedule.

Many things we do require planning and execution. Things that are not written down and allocated time will not get done. So why do we need a schedule? By creating a schedule for your next talk, it will help with time management and will leave you plenty of time for your talk. Firstly, highlight your goals and plans. The schedule will plan out your time carefully and will help you keep doing it. By writing down your intention, what you are going to do and you will have enough time to prepare for your speech. This will help you be more confident and reduce unnecessary pressure.

3. Start your speech with a Bang!

When you start your speech, catch their attention with a grabber. Whether its a personal story, a quote from an expert or something that grabs their attention – get them hooked and open their minds to your message. Give the audience a chance to see your personal connection to the topic.

4. Structure your material in three sections

Start with a bang, have a solid middle, and a close that sticks. Know your material inside out. Get really interested in the topic so your passion flow through to your audience. Find good stories to resonate with your audience.

5. Know the Setup Before the Big Day

It is important to know the environment before the speech, especially technology. Arrive in early to check out the speaking area and get practice using the microphone and any visual aids. Getting to the venue early will have you relax and reduce anxiety. You do not want to be in a situation where you are stuck in traffic and running late to a speaking engagement.

6. Relax and Be Yourself

Begin with a well-prepared grabber to catch everyone’s interest. A relevant personal story is a great start.  It establishes your credibility. It is important to be relaxed, be yourself and relate to your audience. By being relaxed it connects you to the audience and creates the right emotional atmosphere.

7. Visualize yourself successfully

Visualizing your success after the speech. See yourself at the end of the speech surrounded by people asking questions, visualize the applause. It is a good way to help you mentally prepare the speech. Walkthrough in your mind the entire process from start to finish. This will help prepare you for success.

8. Know Your topic Well and Be Passionate About it

It best not to remember your speech word for word. It’s best if you know the material well enough to tell your audience like you are having a conversation. By preparing in advance, have a good understanding of the topic, and have good examples ready; you’ll be able to speak with confidence. Imagine your hobby is archery and you are extremely passionated about it. Your neighbor just started archery and chats to you. Do you think your neighbor can feel your passion when you chat with him or her about archery?

9. Refine your Writing and Developing process

Depending on the time available on your speech, you may only be able to talk about one major topic. Remember to be clear and specific about your topic. The audience has a limited attention span so you have to be concise and not vague. Narrow down the topic so it’s easy to digest and limit the supporting points to a few key points. This will make it easier to get the idea through to your audience. Keep it important and interesting.

10. Know Your Audience Well Before Your Speech

Before you begin to prepare for a speech, know who your audience is. If your audience is a group of students you can give examples that related to them and use words they can understand. If your audience is a group of senior citizens you can choose examples that resonates with them . By understanding your audience, you can determine your choice of words, level of information and design your motivation statement targeted at them.

11. Eliminate your negative talk before your speech

When you are on stage, don’t try to think the audience will judge you or criticize you. There are there because they want to learn something and listen to you. The outcome can be either: your audience are interested in your idea or they are bored. They are not there to critically judge you. Eliminate the negative thought and think positively and speak with passion. You are there to share an interesting idea for your audience to benefit them.

12. Organize Your Material in Advance

This sounds pretty obvious, but it’s an important point to emphasize. Once you’ve conducted your research, create a framework for your speech, including the main purpose, main ideas, and key points. For each of your points summarise them so it is easily articulated and be able to provide simple examples. If your topics are too broad and you are not able to use a few summary points to explain it, then you may need to go to a more specific topic. For each key point break it down so you can have a simple and clear message.

13. Speak Slowly So Your Audience Can Follow You.

Most inexperienced speakers want to get the talk over and one with and quickly finish it. Even though you may be nervous and want to finish quickly, remember why you are speaking. You want to make sure your message is delivered and your audience gets your message. Think about all the hours you prepared for this and it all comes down to the last few minutes of your speech. You want to do it well. Make sure you remember to slow down. Think about speaking slower than your thinking speed. Pause every time you finish a point so your audience has time to catch up. By taking the time to pause during your speech, you will be able to eliminate the um, er, like, you know, kind of, etc.

14. Pay Attention to Your Body Language When You are Speaking.

When you’re up on stage, your body language plays a very important part of your overall performance. Your body language can be helped and harm you.
Your posture, the way you hold yourself, your hand position can all have an effect on your speech. Here are some tips for postures that can help you.

• If you’re speaking while sitting down, look energized and confident. Sit straight up in your chair, spine straight, feet flat on the floor.
• When standing, stand up straight and face the audience. It is important to keep your hands on the side.
• Look at all sides of your room and have eye contact with listeners.
• Use your hands to support your talk and to emphasize your point.
• Your movements should be broad and flowing
• Smile while greeting the audience and at other moments during the speech.

Things to avoid

Do not keep your hands in your pockets.

• Do not pace back and forth or “wandering the stage”
• Avoid tapping your feet
• Avoid touching your face or playing with your hair
• Avoid Fidgeting with your fingers, playing with your pockets or other parts of your clothes or jewelry
• Avoid any sudden movements as it can distract your audience.

15. Power Poses impact your speech

There is a saying …our bodies change our minds …and our minds change our behavior …our behavior changes our outcome research have shown people who are in a power pose for 2 minutes a group study who signs of higher testosterone and lower cortisol levels. What does this mean? Higher testosterone and lower cortisol levels are commonly found in people who are highly confident and have low-stress levels. Being in a power pose prior to your speech can boost confidence and lower stress. Give it a try!

16. Make sure you Make and Maintain Eye Contact

Try to have eye contact with your audience. Do not just look over the top of your audience on the back row but maintain eye contact with the audience across the room. The best way is to look at one person per thought. So when you are delivering one point. Having eye contact with your audience projects confidence to your listeners and makes your point believable. When the audience looks are your face and you are scanning across the room, they feel more invited and feel engaged.

17.Practice, Practice, Practice

Once you’ve written your speech, keep practicing. You can practice with a friend, practice looking in the mirror or another good idea is to film yourself. Ask your friend for some constructive feedback. If you are filming yourself, find out what needs improving and not. Make sure you leave plenty of time to practice ahead of time. By mastering the material, it will reduce your anxiety levels.

18. Don’t aim for perfection. Just do it

Beware of trying to make your speech perfect. This will increase anxiety and pressure. It’s ok to not be perfect. Just know your material, plan, and practice. If you are aiming for perfection and when you are on stage you forget a point here or there, there is a higher chance of getting in trouble. It’s a good idea to tell a story at the beginning of the speech. A story helps to stimulate curiosity and engages the audience. Having humor will put the audience at ease and also yourself.

19. Dress to impress your audience

Dress appropriately. Make a good impression. Make an effort to dress and groom yourself well. The key point is people form first impressions within the first few seconds and those impressions influence their judgment. This is called the Halo Effect – humans make split seconds of first impressions. Appearance is important. Being dress up will form a better impression on your audience. They will be more forgiving if your speech hits a few speed humps.

20. Don’t read from the script if you don’t have to.

To engage the audience, try not to read from a script. Talk if you were having a conversation rather than memorizing a written speech. Use a brief outline written in cards to jolt your memory. Try not to read word for word or you will lose the personal connection with your audience

21. End Your Speech on a High Note

Plan Your Closing Remarks Word For Word. The best strategy for ending with a BANG is to plan your close before you plan the rest of your speech.
Always End A Speech With A Call To Action. A call to action is the best way to wrap up your talk with strength and power. Speak with strength and emphasis. Drive the final point home. End A Speech With A Summary. When you get to the end of the speech, it’s important to summarise the topic and give your audience a refresher. It helps crystallize your idea to your audience one last time. Close With A Story. At the beginning of your speech, you may have already told your audience a story. Don’t leave them hanging and tell them the morale of the story and don’t leave them hanging. Close with a story that illustrates your key points and then clearly links to the key message that you are making with your speech.

Final Thoughts…

So what is the aim of our talk?

Remember, your goal is to transfer one very important thing from you to your listener. It is to transfer an idea. Limit your talk to one major idea. Ideas are complex. You need to scale back your idea. Give yourself a chance to explain the idea, give context, give examples, and make it lively. Give your listeners a reason to care.
The main tool is curiosity and builds your speech piece by piece to get your idea through. Make sure your idea is worth sharing and benefits your audience. Think you are there for their benefit and your audience is there because they want to listen to you. Control what you can do. Plan ahead, prepare, be knowledgable about your topic, be passionate, know your Why. Make sure you are well groom and dress to impress. Speak with confidence and speak slowly. Avoid unnecessary body postures and use the power pose technique prior to the speech. Using an interesting story, solid middle and a solid end and the learned techniques in this post to keep the audience curious and engaged.

Bonus Tip!

Go online and study people who are good on youtube and pinpoint what you can improve. Watch some Ted Talks and study how they do it.