I’ve been getting quite a few questions on tips to be a better public speaker. I will caveat that though my public speaking has improved, there is still much more to learn here. We can all become better public speakers.
And as we all know public speaking is important for not only graduate school, but also for many career paths or personal ventures. I’ll break down some ways that I improved and continue to improve my public speaking.
Public speaking is a skill that you are going to be using at some capacity in your work. It’s better you are able to feel decently comfortable whether you are presenting in a small group of peers or at a large conference.
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(Related: 5 Transferable Skills For Public Health Students)
Background on My Public Speaking
In my undergraduate, I was admittedly a bad public speaker. I was the sort of person that read off the slide when doing class presentations.
This was bad for three reasons:
- If it wasn’t on the slide, I wasn’t saying it
- It meant that my slides were filled with so many UNNECESSARY words
- It leaves you very disconnected from your audience (too much like a robot)
I knew I was not a great public speaker going into my MPH program. But I wanted to change that. I wanted to be able to communicate more effectively and connect with the audience when I did have a presentation.
Now as you all know, I have a podcast, I have presented at conferences with over 100 people in the room, and I’ve been able to do IGTV or talk on my podcast alone for over 45 minutes decently easily.
The improvement in my presentations from 2016 (when I graduated undergraduate) to now one-year post grad from my MPH program has been tremendous.
Next, I’ll share some tips on how to become a better public speaker.
How To Start Off Presenting Better
When presenting, it’s so much better to start by organizing your thoughts in bullet points. Writing out every single word of what you plan to say is time consuming and may seem easier, but in the end it just causes anxiety and you trying to regurgitate something. You want to be able to bring yourself to be an authentic speaker.
The practice is what is going to flesh out what your bullet points are best going to sound like. This way you don’t limit yourself in self expression plus it’ll allow you to be more relaxed when actually presenting.
Less is better when it comes to presentation slides. Generally, you don’t want people reading of your slides like its a book. Try to use big points and you are able to speak off of them – hint hint, like how you should organize your thoughts. Use font sizes 24 and up! One graph per slide unless you are comparing something.
Ask yourself, who do I want the audience to see me as and what information do I want to leave with them?
Be Committed To Being a Better Public Speaker
The first step to becoming a better public speaker is to tell yourself you want to become a better public speaker. You could go one further and tell others you trust that you want to improve your public speaking.
Having this commitment and knowing that it is something that you are going to actively work to improve is so important as a first step. Once you’ve become committed to being a better public speaker, then you can take all the steps towards doing this.
A commitment to yourself is so necessary. Because you’ll want to short change yourself when you have 5 assignments and a presentation to get done, however if you are committed then you will make time to ensure that you are working hard on your presentations.
You’ll Be Nervous; Practice
Being nervous is the norm when public speaking – public speaking is usually people’s greatest fears in life.
Some ways this nervousness can manifest are:
- Heart pounding
- Sweaty hands/face/underarms
- Shaking/swaying while you are speaking
These anxieties can make it hard for you to stay confident while public speaking. But you can overcome this by practice, practice and more practice. You should just be aware that these feeling will come about, just acknowledge them as part of the learning process.
I use to get the most stuck in presentations in transitions between slides or major points which can lead you to saying “not so prepared stuff.” You should aim to go through your entire presentation multiple times before you even get in front of the class/audience.
The more you practice, even when you do have those awkward pauses, you’ll feel comfortable in your skin to get through that tough moment. Additionally, you can record yourself or have a friend listen to you practice for you to feel more comfortable with your presentations.
Take All Presentations Seriously
Throughout school, we have many chances to present. It could be in formal presentations, in conferences, but it can also be in talking through a class assignment in your group, it can be those 3-5 minute summaries of an article for class, etc..
We too often get bugged down that only big presentations are moments for practice and learning. However, we should use all types of presentations for practice. If you are able to “perfect” that shorter presentation, it should give you confidence for the longer ones.
Be sure to take all opportunities to improve public speaking as essential ones.
In today’s world where we are all being vocal on social media platforms and sharing our 2 cents. You should look at these as learning opportunities to improve your public speaking. When you are trying to explain something you learnt in your class to your family or friends – use this as a practicing opportunity. Before long, you’ll be a lot more comfortable in informal and formal presentation spaces.
Know Your Audience
This is a tangential tip and deals more in the creation phase of the presentation or in how you are going to deliver it – but still important.
Before you start creating your slide deck, you should ask yourself “Who is this message intended for?” This can help you get clarity in what is important and what is not when you are crafting your message. Learn about the listener and what they would find useful.
This is extremely important if you are going to be doing community health education/promotion presentations to various community groups. Ensure you use the write types of works and level of information to best resonate with your audience.
(Related: Career Chat with The Public Health Millennial)
Present Personably
One you start to present more and you are able to get over the nervous feelings that arise, you’ll slowly start to see your personality be able to shine through when presenting.
It’s so important to form your own personal way of communicating information with an audience. You are your personal brand. And therefore you should strive to do all you do with an eye to what makes you, you!
So just be yourself, you don’t want to be a talking robot head. People can tell when you are being your authentic self and they will be trusting in what you say.
Use Your Body & Voice
Remember that nonverbal communication accounts for most of communication – even when you are presenting.
Make sure you are sending the same sorts of body cues when talking about specific points. Are you sounding exciting well why does your body look the opposite? In concert with your body, you should be using your voice to convey emotions that compliment your body language (and point you are talking about).
You can also use your hands to gesture what sorts of things you are talking about. This will help channel the nervous energy away from your body while also giving your audience better visuals from your presenting. But don’t overdo the hand moving.
When you start getting more comfortable in front of groups then you may be able to get more humor across – everyone loves a little joke in a presentation. This will help to get your personality across and get the audience more relaxed.
If the presentation has places where you can engage with the audience and ask questions – by all means go ahead and do so! At the end of the day, make sure you are conveying your ideas clearly with the least amount of distraction from your overall points.
Use Infographics or Other Visual Aids
Remember that some people are more visual learners than others. Therefore, using infographics or even videos in your presentations (once permitted and not overly long) can be a great way to break up from the traditional presentation and get certain audience members more engaged.
One thing I love about using Infographics is that there are usually so many things that can be explained from one image. You can also ask the audience what they think is the most important or what resonates with them. This allows for conversation instead of monologuing – when you get to the conversation part of a presentation that’s when you know people are truly absorbing what you are saying.
Infographics can be used to break up to monotony of you speaking to the audience and gives the audience chance to visually dig deeper into the true purpose of your presentation.
I’d suggest using videos a lot less than an infographic just because it can usually be too long and take away from you practicing and being an effective presenter.
Practice Doesn’t Make Perfect
I believe that no presentation is perfect. You are always going to forget an example you wanted to touch on or a joke you had planned to say.
The point of practicing is not to become perfect, but to rather reduce the amount of nerves that you have while presenting. The point of the presentation is to get across your most pressing points, not having a flawless presentation. Before perfection, ensure that you have grounded all your points.
Of course, you should be striving to be as close to perfect as possible (aka TED Talk level). If you want to see presentations that are of the highest level, I’d suggest you go check out some TED Talks to see what that can look like.
Read Aloud
I know this may sound like something you did when you learnt how to read, but when was the last time you read aloud? Pretty long time, I’d imagine.
Reading aloud is a great way for us to get comfortable speaking in front of people. So maybe read a chapter of the next book you read aloud – textbooks may be a little more boring to do.
So take time to practice your presentations but also if you have time try to read out loud more often. This is something that I am going to be trying to do going into the future.
Bonus
Start A Podcast or YouTube
By starting a podcast, YouTube, or even talking more on your Instagram profile, you’ll not only get practice in public speaking but also be able to document your path. This is also a great way to listen and improve on what you say.
I would admit it may get a bit cringey to listen to yourself at first. But as you get more use to it, you’ll realize words you say too often and ways you could get your point across more succinctly.
ToastMasters International
Toastmaster International is also a great way to get public speaking experience around persons trying to do the exact same thing. Check out their webpage to see if there is one in a location near you. I’m not sure if they are doing virtual meetups.
Listen to LaTonya Bynum speak about how she became a more proficient public speaker through ToastMasters International. Check out the full episode below.
Summary
Being a better public speaker takes practice and intentional thought. The more you put into it, the more you will get out of it.
Be patient with yourself and enjoy the process. You’ll be an amazing public speaker in no time.
- How To Start Off Presenting Better
- Be Committed To Being a Better Public Speaker
- You’ll Be Nervous; Practice
- Take All Presentations Seriously
- Know Your Audience
- Present Personably
- Use Your Body & Voice
- Use Infographics or Other Visual Aids
- Practice Doesn’t Make Perfect
- Read Aloud
So get out there and start practicing your public speaking so that you have the confidence to shine through as your true self.
What tip are you going to focus on for your public speaking improvement?
