It is sad, but true that most people are more afraid of public speaking than of dying. Public speaking is not dangerous; it is not life-threatening yet it can be very frightening for many people. I fully understand this nervousness and have felt it myself despite years of giving client presentations and talks at conferences as an industry analyst. To build my confidence and speaking abilities, I became a member of Toastmasters, and I have found that standing up in front of a room can be an exhilarating experience.

The most important part of making a corporate presentation is preparation. Write out your ideas in advance and practice delivering your talk. Many people fear forgetting what they were going to say and write out every word of the speech and read it verbatim. This is a poor strategy because when the speech is read, the speaker focuses on the words rather than the audience and is usually less animated, less enthusiastic and uses less vocal variety.

With practice, you will be able to speak without notes—this may have been the most important thing I learned in Toastmasters, as a person who formerly held onto her notes like a life preserver. If you forget what you were going to say—no worries—the audience did not know what you had planned to say even if the bullet points are larger-than-life on a PowerPoint presentation. Take a deep breath and keep going. Do not freeze and you’ll be fine. The words do not have to be exactly as you wrote or practiced.

A Few Tips

Tailor your talk to the audience. Are they stakeholders with a strong interest in your company such as employees, investors or members of the local community? Are they journalists, customers or competitors? What does the audience want and need to know. Is it a motivational speech to employees, a technical talk at a conference or a talk to a civic organization? Although you are representing your company, in general, speeches have a higher purpose such as talking about market trends or customer requirements. The audience does not want to hear an infomercial for your product, but you can use your company to illustrate a point.

If you are nervous about making a speech, see the audience as your friend, not your enemy. They came to hear you speak and want it to be a successful presentation. They are interested in the content and also want to like you. Never apologize for speaking skills; it sets the tone that the audience should expect a poor speech. Make them like you, start slowly with a story or comment about the occasion and then give them a roadmap to your talk and then summarize at the end.

Written by Lynda Starr

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Tags: public speaking, Speaking for PR, Speaking Opportunities

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