Be A Better Public Speaker

Author’s Note: this is a response that I wrote for a question on Quora.com: How can I improve my public speaking skills?

Being a freelance web designer means having to develop a lot of secondary skills. One of them is public speaking. When I was securing my very first client, I had to meet up with the entire managing staff and give a presentation on my laptop to about 5 old guys. They were impressed with everything I had to say though and so I got the contract. Starting out, I think most clients you find will be small business owners, but as you move-on-up the food chain, you’ll find bigger and bigger clients and a higher level of competition. Use public speaking to help convince your prospective clients that you are a competent web designer and that you know what you’re doing, much like how Barack Obama convinced everyone that he would be a good president by having powerful speeches.

Here’s how to improve your public speaking ability:

1. Train and get feedback.

Before you can give a decent speech, you’ll have to work on basics, such as keeping calm, looking at your audience, and being able to tell a speech without looking at your paper the whole time.

A great place to do this is your local Toastmasters club (Toastmasters International – Home). Everyone there wants to improve their speaking ability and so everyone is in the same boat and will give you constructive feedback.

2. Always rehearse before you actually make a speech.

One problem that comes up in public speaking is that you get nervous. Well, rehearsing your speech allows you to not only practice the words and commit them to memory, but also to show yourself that you can make this speech. If you can’t do your speech when you’re alone, then you definitely won’t be able to do your speech in front of a crowd. After practicing with yourself, you can move onto practicing in front of a friend or group of friends.

3. Improve your skills by watching/modeling the pros.

The reason I voted for Obama is because his speeches were so compelling. He hasn’t been as revolutionary as I thought, but it doesn’t matter, because his speech made me feel that he would be revolutionary. That’s important: you want to connect with your audience and affect them. It doesn’t matter what you have to say if you can’t deliver it in a meaningful way.

How do you affect your audience? You use hand gestures, strong intonation, word emphasis, vocal inflection, eye contact, no fillers like “um” and “like.” I haven’t read a book on public speaking, but when I recognize a good speaker like Obama, I take a look at what he/she does and take a mental note.

Author Note: I was a pathetic public speaker in high school and I hated that our education system required so many public speaking exercises. I forced myself to do public speeches in college. I joined Toastmasters for a semester. My biggest audience in college was about 50 college students. After college, I was a teacher in South Korea and spoke in front of 40 students daily. I also do pretty good impromptu toasts when I drink alcohol.