Being a better speaker is easier than you think.
It’s not going to take you thousands of hours and it’s not going to cost you thousands of pounds
It’s gonna take some effort
But not as much as the gurus or speech coaches tell you.
There is a long, hard and expensive route to being a better speaker and let’s be real you don’t want to take that route
So here’s what you are going to discover in the next few minutes:
· How to shorten your learning curve and grow quickly as a speaker
· How to be confident every time you take the stage
· How to identify what resonates with an audience so you can reproduce better speeches
· The one thing you need to truly get better (without this it’s near impossible)
THE ONE THING (to quickly improve your speaking)
Here’s the thing
For all the advice and tips you’ll pick up on most public courses
they can’t give you the one thing that you’ll need to take your speaking to the next level
When you think about it without this one thing (I’ll tell you what it is in a sec)
it will take you an extremely long time to get better in fact I doubt you’ll improve!
So you’re probably thinking what is this one thing?
Great!
here goes
The one thing you need to massively improve your speaking skills is an audience.
Der! Yep that’s it.An audience, I’ll say it one more time An audience
Most speakers spend hours practice and thousands of pounds
trying to work on their speaking skills but most of that time isn’t in front of a real life audience and ultimately that’s theory!
In theory:
- That joke works,
- That speech opener works
- That call to action works
Until you have a live audience you’ll never truly know what works and too many speakers
Make huge investments in their speaking only to discover half the stuff they are taught doesn’t work.
oouch!
I am going to save you all of that trouble.
Now I am not against coaching
I am a speaking coach.
Check out this testimonial
I have the exciting job of coaching entrepreneurs and speakers and I always say
“I need you to give this speech in front of a live audience”
my point is while coaching them I was their audience
I then tell them to get in front of a live audience
If you want to improve quickly you need a live audience there’s nothing like seeing how an audience responds to your content.
I am going to give you a place that you can test your content in front of a live audience……….
That’s where I started!
within 9 months I became the The UK & Ireland International speaking champion!
It still sounds crazy when I say that.
In reflection
There were three things that I did to take my speaking to the next level
These three things were all unconscious but now I’ve had time to think about it
I can see that everyone who does this can’t help but get better at speaking.
1. Repetition
If you want to give a killer the speech and be a better speaker the secret is to…….
Give the same message but give it several times
When I won the speech contest I had given the same speech about 100 times at home and about 5 times to different audiences
I noticed that each time it got better
I knew that speech like the back of my hand, it was in me!
Below is my exact process for building a speech
Test then tweek
In this video I am practising a speech at home (a few years back)
Step:1 Home audience
The next thing I’d do is watch the video and tweek it by keeping the things that I think would resonate
Step 2 : Live audience
At this stage I am looking for how the audience respond.
STEP 3 : The real audience (if it qualifies)
The next stage would be to keep the good stuff and take it to the “real presentation”
In the video above I didn’t use the content in front of a real audience but I have a speech in my pocket that I can use and I know what parts will work.
I also have gained experience on stage!
The quickest was to become a better speaker is to master one message while you are testing that message you are also internalising it and it’s being lodged in your subconscious mind.
You’ll even get to the place that you’ll never need notes and you will appear to be natural on stage.
2. Evaluation
The next thing you can do improve your speaking quickly is to receive evaluations
Above you can see an evaluation of my speech this is taken from an audience member (at a toastmasters group)
it’s not very clear but an audience member wrote “endeavour to use the stage more”.
Taking your speaking to the next level is easy when the audience have a chance to tell you what worked and what didn’t!
It’s great because you can make adjustments
If you want to improve you speaking then you need to create some sort of evaluation system
You need to know what audience members see and feel when you
Are they bored ?
are you entertaining?
NOTHING beats hearing feedback from an audience.
Along my journey I’ve learnt that feedback is my friend!!!
In my book 7 minutes to win it I discuss a few laws of feed back here is a tip
The third way to rapidly improve your speaking is
3. Distinction
When I’m speaking about distinction in speaking I am talking about finding what makes YOU distinct
what is your unique skill as a speaker?
what is it that makes you stand out?
Are you a storyteller?
Are you great with metaphors?
Analogies, humour audience interaction?
Are you good at creating acronyms ?
Whatever your sweet spot is master it it!
I often teach my clients that storytelling is something you must master (this generally) true
But I know a few speakers who rarely tell stories but they have mastered the art of using metaphors and analogies and they fuse this with humour
audiences (myself included) love their speeches.
Below is a list of “sweet spots” in speaking
Which one would you gravitate towards most?
Storytelling
humour/Comedy
Audience Interaction and Activities
Metaphors and analogies
Acronyms
You find your sweet spot by identifying what’s the first thing that comes to mind when you have to create a speech
in previous speeches what have you used?
I am an advocate for storytelling because that is my sweet spot it’s something that comes naturally to me
Do I use other devices in my speeches? Yes!
But storytelling is my sweet spot
When you focus on your sweet spot you’ll find it easier to create and deliver speeches and you’ll connect with your audience.
Some take-aways
1. Find a live audience to practice your speaking skills
2. Give the same message and evolve it each time
3. Ask for feedback every time you speak
4. Record yourself
5. Find your sweet spot
So there you have it.
The journey to better speaking doesn’t need to be difficult or expensive. ( you literally just need one speech!)
The result of this journey could be endless influence, passive income , fame , business success and much more
Being a better speaker can do sooo much for you
so go and get better but don’t get ripped off in the process!
P.S Did you find this useful?
if so there are 3 things I want you to do