3 practical public speaking tips for introverts
Does the thought of speaking in front of an audience terrify you? Are you worried about how you’ll be perceived, that you might go wrong, or you’re not sure what to say?
I’ve been to several networking events recently, with mostly women in attendance, whereby these questions have come up time and time again.
I was painfully shy as a child and even up to four years ago, if you had asked me to speak in front of an audience, I just would not have been able to do it. This morning however, I challenged myself to give a talk for a local networking group, and I was actually excited at the prospect. Don’t get me wrong, I wasn’t able to do this overnight. It’s taken a lot of work, including lots of coaching, to get to this point. Here’s my 3 tips that might just make you saying ‘yes’ to that next speaking gig, a little bit easier.
Focus on the audience, not yourself.
Take the focus away from you - away from what you look like, away from how you’ll be perceived by others, away from how you’re presenting yourself and put the focus on the people in front of you. What do they need to hear from you? What expertise and knowledge can you share that they’ll find valuable? This takes work and practice, but when you make that small shift, you’ll start to see speaking opportunities for what they really are - a way to be visible and share what you do on a larger scale. You never know who might be listening, who needs to hear what you have to say and what opportunities that could lead to.
Use your stories to emphasise key points
Sharing stories is the best way to communicate a key message within your talk. We all have stories to share and everyone's stories are different, which makes us unique. We are so bombarded with information these days, that a powerful story - one that evokes emotion - has the ability to stand out and be memorable.
When preparing for your talk, put pen to paper and make a note of any stories that come up for you that not only support what you are saying, but that will help the audience to resonate too.
From a business perspective, your stories will help attract your ideal client and make you stand out from your competition. As Oscar Wilde said ‘Be Yourself, everyone else is taken.’
Prepare and practice
Being asked to talk off the cuff is an introvert’s nightmare, so to avoid being put on the spot, prepare what you will say well in advance and then practice it. Making bullet points will help the flow of the talk and you’ll appear more confident, than if just reading from a script. If knowing what to say worries you, then take a look at your story, any business challenges you have overcome, look at your social media feed for content ideas - it’s all in there. But it’s not just preparing what you’ll say, it’s about preparing physically too. What do you need to do to feel at your best? Perhaps it’s making sure you exercise, or having some quiet time beforehand. Whatever it may be, make it a priority.
Try pushing yourself out of your comfort zone, and offer to give a talk. It will feel really uncomfortable, but practicing really is the only way to get better. Each talk at a time.
Image by Florian Pircher from Pixabay, Photo by dlxmedia.hu on Unsplash and Image by Bayley Nargang from Pixabay, Image by This_is_Engineering from Pixabay
