How Public Speaking Can Help Your Grow Your Business
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Public speaking can be a huge snag for so many business owners. Even experienced and successful business owners often freeze up in front of crowds. While public speaking may not seem incredibly important when it comes to growing your business, you may be surprised how it plays into your networking efforts.
There are numerous ways to help reduce your stress when it comes to public speaking, and likely help with your business growth.
- Always be prepared. The best way to make yourself nervous is to try to get in front of a crowd and wing it. Take notes on what you plan to say, and have them handy. Walk the fine line between prepared and over prepared, though. Sometimes too much preparation can stress you out even more.
- Be specific. Don’t try to teach people everything about your business in one pitch. Focus on just one or two parts of your business each time you speak on it. By being specific, you can dive into something that you know well and feel at ease just out of familiarity with your content.
- Use visual aids. They help more than you think. PowerPoint slides can help keep you on track, and handouts can help you make sure that your audience can take home important pieces of information.
- Remember that you are the expert. Nobody else knows your business as well as you do. Don’t let your audience rattle you with questions. They simply want to learn about what you do, so help them do so.
- Be creative. If talking to a large group makes you uncomfortable, try starting with a Q&A and working from there. There is no right or wrong way to present to an audience, so do what works best for you and for your business.
What are your tips and tricks for public speaking? Let me know in the comments below!
I have been a member of Toastmasters International now for more than 10 years. It is the single most influential group I’ve ever joined. I started out as one of those people who stutter and stammer: the kind of person everyone dreads hearing. After a lot of time and effort, and with several inspirational people leading the way, I speak professionally 80-100 times a year and have a 30+ educational speaking repertoire. There is NO WAY I’d be getting as much out of BNI as I am (in just two short months!) if I did not have the skills to confidently give my 30-second presentation and effectively network with my chapter members. I gave a BNI testimonial at Visitors Day this past month and did a solid job, and yesterday I thought I did quite well with my first 10-Minute Presentation.
Between Toastmasters (www.toastmasters.org) and BNI, I think that–personally and professionally–you become the complete package. Like BNI, Toastmasters is transformative. I would enthusiastically recommend both organizations.
Public speaking can be a really good way to engage with an audience on a personal level. A presentation that is done correctly can project ideas or view in such a convincing way that is beneficial to your company.
I have now been in my BNI chapter for 8 months. I gave my 10 minute presentation a couple weeks after I joined and then again just last week. What a huge improvement I have made on my public speaking skills in just that short amount of time.
If we find out the answer to the most searched and seeked questions, the speech will not only be specific but also an eye-opener, making the speech far more effective, interesting and worth listening to! So conclusively, if a lot of R&D is seriously done on the subject, the results are going to be outstanding, leaving a strong mark on your audiences’ mind & heart, and but obviously, leaving you far more confident than ever!
As for me, what I discovered best about public speaking is you have to be sincere in your speech. Just speak about something that you really believed and just let it out. Touch our audience’s heart. But it can only touches the heart if it comes from our heart. Then only people with believe us and trust will establish.
i’d suggest using PowerPoint sparingly, if needed, to supplement your verbal, rehearsed yet free-standing presentation. Remember as well, people’s attention is best at the beginning and end and tends to otherwise, drift, so interject elements that refocuses your audience on your message.
Sorry, I disagree Michael. My PowerPoint slides are actually a character in my talk. They add to what I’m saying in a way that supports my message. I use almost no verbiage and a lot of photos to carry my message along. I recommend the book Presentation Zen – it may change your perception of how to use a PowerPoint slide to ADD to your presentation.
Attended the Dale Carnegie Course at the beginning of my career in banking, and it made all the difference to increase my ability to deliver a message and engage my audience