Video Shorts: Four tips for public speaking
With the help of students from one of my public speaking courses for kids, here are four tips to help you become a more engaging and charismatic speaker. We talk about hand gestures, the voice and eye contact.
A big thank you to my students for your part in this video presentation 💕
Approximate Transcript
My name’s Sophie Zadeh, and here are four tips to help you become a more engaging and charismatic speaker, presented by students from my after-school public speaking course.
Tip one, hand gestures. Hand gestures help communicate the meaning of your message. When you use hand gestures alongside speech, your audience’s engagement is piqued, with something to see and to hear.
Because you’re communicating on two levels they see and hear your message. Multiple brain regions are activated, instilling a clearer understanding.
Some words can be described with hand gestures, for example, something growing, coming together, far away, tall, round or tiny.
Between these words, hands should flow naturally alongside speech; these movements are called beats and help communicate where you are in the conversation—for example, when you pause in speech, your hands also pause.
Hand gestures should be natural, but to use them naturally, you can start by deliberately practising them in a safe space.
Tip two, speak clearly and loud enough to be heard. But not too loud!
Because that may come across as aggressive, and scaring your audience is a definite no-no.
If your voice isn’t clear or loud enough, it becomes too hard for your audience to maintain attention; they lose interest and give up trying to listen—your message, no matter how important or brilliant, is lost.
Tip three, speak with confidence. Your voice changes when you’re feeling shy, uncertain or lacking confidence. Typically the volume reduces, and you’re more likely to mumble because you don’t want to be heard.
Speak confidently by being aware of your voice and practise to become more familiar with your talk. When you know your talk inside-out, you gain more confidence in your ability. If there’s still something in your talk you’re uncertain about, remove it or change it so you can confidently say it.
Even if you feel scared or uncertain, you can conceal it by modifying your voice; become aware of it and speak loud and clear. Why is this important? When you sound confident, people are more likely to buy into your words, so you’ll have a higher level of influence.
And finally, Tip number four, eye contact. Eye contact is essential because it helps you connect with your audience via a powerful hormone called oxytocin. Oxytocin is released when we make eye contact, making us feel good.
What's more, your audience will feel like you are talking directly to them, as though it's a conversation between you and them.
The problem is, if you are shy, self-conscious or haven't practised enough and are trying to recall your speech, you're likely to look away from the audience. This is okay and normal in small amounts; however, if you look away a lot, you'll lose the connection, and your audience will become less engaged.
I hope we inspired you to try these tips; if you need more help, please get in touch or leave a comment. Thank you.
