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Ryan Healy graduated Penn State University in the Spring of 2006. He recently left his consulting position to start 
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Its been said that the number one fear in most people’s minds is the fear of public speaking. Does this mean that people would rather die or become critically injured than speak to a group? I doubt it. But standing in front of a group of people alone and vulnerable is a scary thought for most of us.
I gave my first keynote speech a few months ago to a non-profit group in New Jersey. Truthfully, I was terrified. But there’s nothing more exhilarating then facing your fears head on.
So I sucked it up and gave the speech. Now I absolutely love the rush of speaking to an audience. The dynamics of speaking to an older audience as a young professional are definitely different then speaking to a group of your peers, but the same rules hold true for almost any speech. Here are six things to consider before giving your next big speech.
Practice, Practice, Practice
In the infamous words of Allen Iverson, We’re talking about practice, man! Public speaking, especially at the beginning is all about practice. The better you know your speech, the easier it is to deliver.
I literally practiced my first speech every day for a month before the conference. Just ask Ryan Paugh, he was so sick of hearing my speech that he wanted to ring my neck. I gave my speech to the window, I talked to the TV, and I spilled my guts to an empty law classroom.
Practicing a speech does not mean you need to memorize each word. Every day you practice, the speech will be a little different. Some days will be better than others, but by the end you will know what works and what doesn’t.
Meet your audience
The single best thing you can do before a big speech is talk to the people who will be in your audience. If this means showing up early, do it! For one, you will probably make some great contacts. But more importantly, meeting your audience assures that there will be some familiar faces in the crowd when your mind begins to go blank.
Also, after talking with a few people, you will realize that they are genuinely interested in hearing you speak, and they are actually routing for you to do well. Everyone will want to talk to you after the speech, but it’s up to you to initiate the conversation with them beforehand.
Ditch the killer opening line
Now that you practiced way too much and showed up early to meet your audience, its time take a few deep breaths and walk on stage. Everyone will tell you to hook your audience with a great one-liner. Don’t do it.
I called up a well respected public speaker for some advice the week before my first speech. I asked him about the opening line. He said, “Listen, if you’re not very funny, don’t tell a joke. And if you don’t have a great line that just comes to mind, forget about it. You will only look inauthentic if you try too hard.”
So I walked up there with a big smile on my face and I said, “Hi. My name is Ryan Healy. Thanks for having me here today.”
That’s it. Short, sweet and to the point. If it’s not in you, forget hooking the audience with a one-liner, hook them with the rest of your speech!
Use Visuals
Great public speakers don’t use visuals. Great public speakers don’t need visuals. Their content and delivery are amazing and visuals only take the audiences attention away from the speaker.
But odds are, you’re not a great public speaker, so don’t try to be a hero. Create a simple PowerPoint with key words and a lot of bullet points. Using a PowerPoint until you get completely comfortable speaking is more than acceptable. A visual will keep you in line and on topic and will allow your audience to follow along with you.
Tell Stories
Nothing connects you with an audience better than a good story. A personal story will humanize you and let your audience relate to you on a deeper level and an entertaining story will immediately hook your audience. My father has been giving speeches for over 30 years, and he still attends courses on the art of storytelling.
I’ve found that my best stories are about my childhood or about what my friends and peers are doing with their lives. But as long as it’s interesting, you can literally tell a story about anything. Make it up if you have to!
Make fun of yourself
The best way to lighten up the mood is to make fun of yourself. If you stumble over your words or stutter, don’t pretend it didn’t happen. Go ahead and poke fun at yourself for trying to move your mouth faster than your brain is working.
If you’re young and you’re speaking to an older crowd, poke fun at your age. Chances are, the audience is a little skeptical about why a “kid” is lecturing them. Showing that you recognize the irony in the situation goes a long way in gaining the audiences respect and attention.
These are just six of many public speaking tips for young professionals. If anyone else has any tips or advice from their public speaking trials and tribulations feel free to share.
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Wow, great timing! I’ve got a presentation infront of management on Monday, these tips are sure to help out!
It’s funny, I love speaking in front of big groups, but I’m incredibly uncomfortable in small groups of 5-10, especially when other people in the group already know each other. I think that’s why I hate networking so much, because I have to initiate conversation with people who don’t know me and probably don’t really have much interest in me. At least if I’m giving a presentation to a big group, I know everyone is (supposed to be) focused on what I’m saying.
I think the best advice I can provide is to be yourself. I know it’s cliche, but it’s true. If you’re into self-effacing humor, then go with that. If you’re a numbers whiz or a technical genius, play up your knowledge of the subject. I think the worst speeches are ones where people try to force jokes or fudge their expertise just because that’s what they think they’re “supposed” to do. All the best speakers I’ve ever seen just sound like they’re having a conversation with the audience, even though the conversation may be a little one-sided.
I never turn the opportunity to speak in front of a large group. It doesn’t matter what I’m asked to talk about, it only matters that I’m utilizing those skills. As silly as it sounds, all of the weddings everyone is asked to speak out in their midtwenties are a great chance to speak in front a group where there are only a few friendly faces. If you mess up there, your boss or a potential mentor isn’t watching. And if you do great, you walk away with more confidence to bring back to the office.
I’ve always found the fear of speaking interesting, since I’ve never had the issue. I grew up watching my father (a minister) speak to groups all the time without hesitation, and just assumed that it was an easy thing. Come to find out he used to throw up every time for years! I was on the debate team in high school (state champs!), and at that time found out people had this fear. I guess it’s just one of those self-perpetuating fears.
Great points! Here are my thoughts:
- I agree about the practice. In addtion, time your presentation. This will insure that a 30 minute presentation doesn’t turn into 45. It will also let get an feel for where the milestones are in your presentation, and what time they should be reached.
- If you have any handouts (copies of your slides, supporting material, etc) consider handing them out AFTER your presentation. This way, you can be sure people will be paying attention to you, not leafing through your materials.
- When using Powerpoint, I try to use no more than 3 bullet points per slide. This keeps the slides uncluttered, and in a large enough font to be readable. Remember, you are presenting, not reading. TELL the people about the detail; don’t try to put it all on the slides. You can include it in your notes to be passed out later.
- For a unique presentation method, Google “Lessig” and “Presentation” or go here: www.presentationzen.com/presentationzen/2005/10/the_lessig_meth.html . This style of presentation uses lots of slides, but each only has a short phrase or photo. The style doesn’t apply to every presentation, but is very cool and entertaining if you can make it work.
I agree with what you said Ryan, and I am glad to be back when i have time posting. However there was one point by Scott M. I disagree with…
- If you have any handouts (copies of your slides, supporting material, etc) consider handing them out AFTER your presentation. This way, you can be sure people will be paying attention to you, not leafing through your materials.
I think that handouts should only be used if you will be actually USING them. Let me clarify, if you are handing something out, hand it out before you present. Then when you are presenting make sure to reference specific points in your handout and walk your audience through the handout. This does 2 things; 1- you can get your point across with the help and evidence shown in the handout. 2- people will not be flipping through the handout because you would have already gone through every page with them and explained why it is relevant to the topic of discussion.
This is just what i have learned from my previous presentations to management. however i do think that if you can avoid a handout that you should because in the end you want all eyes and ears on you.
Great tips!
A few more I’ve established over the years:
- Know your audience. If you’re doing a technical presentation, this is very important. If the audience generally has a good grasp on the basics of your presentation, you don’t want to waste time explaining simple concepts. If the audience’s understanding is at a broader level, you don’t want to lose everyone in technical jargon.
- Establish a good cadence and timing to your presentation. This is especially important if you only have a limited time and don’t want to run over. You also want to have a good, consistent flow, without some parts being rushed and others dragging along. This is another great reason to emphasize practice - you can time your presentation, figure out how long it will take, and get the opinions of a neutral party to see what you need to improve, add, remove, etc.
- If there’s audience participation involved (aka questions) make sure you plan out what possible questions could be asked.
Whatever you do, DON’T picture the audience naked. Especially if you’re presenting to a bunch of older people. Ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww.
Some solid suggestions, Ryan. I’m presenting four times to our staff starting this afternoon - I’d better go practice again!
Eye contact is key. So is pace. I agree that keeping slides minimal is best, but not everyone can carry an entire presentation themselves, in which case more slide content isn’t a bad idea.
Hey all, I love the additional tips.
Anticipating questions is another excellent piece of advice. Q&A’s are a lot more interesting then one person talking, so I always try to leave a good amount of time for it. If you know your audience, you should be able to anticipate the types of questions you’ll get. I recommend spending some time practicing these responses as well.
Another great observation is timing. Timing comes from tons of practice. There really is no other way to nail it.
Thanks for the comments.
-Ryan
All great points Ryan, and others. I want to add more to the visuals aspect - don’t talk towards your visual! It is soooo easy to talk at the projector screen while you’re referring to something on it but it muffles your voice and just looks plain ridiculous. You should know you’re slides well enough to not look at the screen.
Also, if you are using a PowerPoint here I a couple tips from a speech coach I took a course from:
1) Hit “B” on the keyboard during the slide presentation to black it out for a minute, when you want the focus on what you’re saying not the slide. Hit “B” again to go back to where you were.
2) If you’re watching the time and you need to jump to another slide just type in the number of the slide and press Enter, rather than skipping through extra slides.
Lastly, make sure you are not talking too fast and that you are pausing enough for people to let the information sink in. Just watch the political debates or speeches for good examples of pausing, i.e. Mitt Romney.
These are great points, save one: use bullet points in the presentation. No, no, no. Especially since you are being asked to present to a group and not as part of some manager presentation.
Use visuals that aid in your presentation — and save the bullet points for the “presenter” notes at the bottom of the slide. People read at about 250 words per minute and you can only talk at about 150 words per minute. So having the bullet points about what you are talking about means the audience will read the bullet points — and not listen to you.
Check out the Steve Jobs presentations at Mac World or via Presentation Zen (dot com). You will notice the utter lack of bullet points in the slides. There’s a good reason for that.
In high school, I took 13th in the nation in Original Oratory as part of the National Forensics League and did lots of debate. All the points here are great and match up well with what needs to be done. And, trust me, speaking in front of 800 people is a lot easier than speaking in front of one. Especially a nun when you have a line in your speech that says “wombs for rent”…
Heres a link from Lifehacker about presentation tips from Steve Jobs:
lifehacker.com/350096/give-a-presentation-like-steve-jobs
One of his tips: People will be thinking “What’s in it for me?” So don’t make them guess. Tell them!
Fantastic post. It’s all so true!
After sitting through more presentations than days in a year, I realized a really good presenter is impressive & well-respected. So I joined a public-speaking organization that allows me to practice standing up in front of groups of people giving speeches and presenting. Your tips are well-in-line with what I’ve learned as a two-year Toastmaster.
Personally, I save the hand-outs for the end of the presentation because I am the type to read the hand-out and ignore the presenter. But, even professional speakers argue over this point.
The mark of a professional speaker is that the speaker delivers the entire message and the audience is so engaged that they are excited to approach the speaker after the speech to talk about the subject further. A well written and delivered speech will create that affect.
These tips will put people well on their way to becoming a good speaker. Pacing, articulation, eye-contact, knowing your audience, and presenting in a way that is most appealing to that audience are the extra tips I would recommend.
Here is an interesting article on using cognitive science to improve your presentations.
Basically, it talks about how to present your information in a manner that makes it easy for the human brain to absorb it.
You may have heard many of these before, but the article provides the science behind the presentations tips you have always relied upon.
io9.com/357063/how-cognitive-science-can-improve-your-powerpoint-presentations
Just one more point… Practice (I know, this was already mentioned) in a formal setting. For me, this means Toastmasters. I know, this sounds like a dorky club where people make toasts to each other. Well, it’s actually an international organization with chapters all over. I’ve been doing it for 5 years and my speaking has improved dramatically. I get paid to speak now, and I still get better feedback after a 5 minute speech at Toastmasters than I would in front of 1,000 people doing a keynote speech.