10 Steps for Becoming a Dynamic Presenter

As a career mentor, I’m often asked for my advice on communication skills. Last week I did a post on listening.  Today, I’d like to focus on public speaking.

All successful people are dynamic communicators. All dynamic communicators are highly skilled public speakers. But fear of public speaking is an affliction that holds back many people. Toastmasters International is a service organization dedicated to helping people learn to speak well in public.

I have done workshops for Toastmasters groups all over the country. I always enjoy these workshops because I get to work with highly motivated people. All of the Toastmasters I have met are interested in developing their public speaking skills in order to build their life and career success.

Here are the Toastmasters 10 tips for successful public speaking. Read closely, this is great career advice…

1. Know the room. Be familiar with the place in which you will speak. Arrive early, walk around the speaking area and practice using the microphone and any visual aids.
2. Know the audience. Greet some of the audience as they arrive. It’s easier to speak to a group of friends than to a group of strangers.
3. Know your material. If you’re not familiar with your material or are uncomfortable with it, your nervousness will increase. Practice your speech and revise it if necessary.
4. Relax. Ease tension by doing exercises.
5. Visualize yourself giving your speech. Imagine yourself speaking, your voice loud, clear, and assured. When you visualize yourself as successful, you will be successful.
6. Realize that people want you to succeed. Audiences want you to be interesting, stimulating, informative, and entertaining. They don’t want you to fail.
7. Don’t apologize. If you mention your nervousness or apologize for any problems you think you have with your speech, you may be calling the audience’s attention to something they hadn’t noticed. Keep silent.
8. Concentrate on the message — not the medium. Focus your attention away from your own anxieties, and outwardly toward your message and your audience. Your nervousness will dissipate.
9. Turn nervousness into positive energy. Harness your nervous energy and transform it into vitality and enthusiasm.
10. Gain experience. Experience builds confidence, which is the key to effective speaking. A Toastmasters club can provide the experience you need.

The career mentor point here is simple common sense. If you want to create the career success you want and deserve, you need to become a dynamic communicator – in conversation, writing and presenting. The Toastmasters International 10 tips for successful public speaking are a great place to begin your journey to becoming a dynamic presenter. Joining and participating in a local Toastmasters chapter is the next logical step. You can conquer your fear of public speaking. You can even become a great public speaker – but like anything else when it comes to career success, you have to work at it.

That’s my career advice on becoming a dynamic presenter. What do you think? Please take a minute to share your thoughts with us in a comment. As always, thanks for reading my musings on life and career success. I value you and I appreciate you.

Your career mentor,
Bud