Public Speaking Basics

Any worthwhile speech should address the fundamental question of  "who cares?" Your audience could be doing any number of things instead of listening to you speak (and isn’t that what we're all thinking when we're listening?). You must convince them that what you have to say is worth listening to before a crowd of people will give you their full and undivided attention. I don’t mean to make light of any person or any topic. Actually, I think anytime someone is speaking to a crowd, they’ve put a lot of thought into it and it’s admirable that they’re putting themselves 'out there' by presenting their work to other people. I only take issue when speakers don’t clearly convey why the audience should pay any attention to their speech. As someone who has literally sat through thousands of speeches, I can tell you that it’s extremely difficult to listen to someone discuss something that you aren’t particularly interested in or can't relate to at all. Sometime...

Chances are that if you are reading this, you are also breathing... It's so basic that we tend not to think about it too much. This may be why people tend to forget to breathe in speech. It's frustrating to have sat through countless speeches and to still see one recurring issue - people rush through their speech while hardly taking a proper breath. It's difficult to watch somebody push through their entire presentation while short of breath. I sometimes want to stop a speaker dead in their tracks and tell them to take a breath! It's hard to focus on what someone is saying if it looks like they're struggling to speak with such short breathing. Don't forget to breathe during your speech. Take a deep breath before you begin. Wait a moment before moving on to each of your next points. Avoid rushing through your entire speech. Breathe deeply throughout your presentation. Give your audience a chance to catch up to your message. Take one deep breath to calm ...