Wednesday, June 12, 2013

Five Keys to Great Speaking

So, you want to become a great speaker, but that huge speech textbook is daunting! As a college speech teacher I can tell you that book is probably worthless. I’ve seen so many different ones and they’re all the same—a huge collection of facts and concepts that give you an overview of the field of public speaking. Truth be told, these eggheads don’t understand speaking. All they’ve done is give you a boring museum of facts and ideas from people far more intelligent than they. What you’ll find is an amateur teaches by looking at everything in a field. A true expert can boil down a field to those few points that make an impact. If you want to become an expert work on these five things:

1) Find your purpose. Who are you? What is it that you truly understand? What lessons has life taught you? Why are you on this earth? Once you know the answers to those questions you know what to talk about. And, you’ll talk about those topics with wisdom and passion. This is often called your voice—your unique perspective, insight and wisdom about life. No one else has your voice. It’s what sets you apart from every other speaker.

2) Overcome stage fright. Now, by that I don’t mean you won’t have some jitters. Some of the best speakers have jitters before taking the stage. But, you can’t be scared of getting up front and letting it fly. When you’re afraid your heart and spirit doesn’t come through. When you’re scared, your voice is muffled. Fear hinders everything—from your preparation all the way through the delivery of your speech.

3) Learn to use stories. I’ve seen it over and over—vibrant storytellers captivate audiences. This is true for preachers, teachers, motivational speaker, trainers and even standup comedians. Many of the stories will simply be stories of your life. The power of story cannot be underestimated!

4) Learn to use analogies. Study great speakers and you will see analogies over and over. Dr. King was a master at using analogies and the analogy’s little brother—the metaphor. Jesus taught through parables—analogies in the form of stories. Start paying attention anytime you have that aha-moment, “Oh, now I understand!” You’ll be amazed at how many times these aha-moments are connected to either a story or analogy.

5) Get in tune with your inner rhythm. One thing that separates exceptional language (both written and spoken) is it has a beat to it. We’re wired to connect to a beat. There’s a rhythm center in our brain. In music we call it beat. In poetry we call it meter. In comedy it’s called timing. Great language has a beat to it. You need to develop your ear and find your own inner rhythm if you want to become a great speaker.

Certainly there is a great deal more to learn about public speaking. But, if you watch great speakers you’ll see these five things over and over. Master these five and you’re well on your way to captivating your audience!