How to speak confidently in public

Know your subject well. Part of making yourself a comfortable and active speaker is making sure you know and understand what you’re saying. Lack of understanding will make you nervous and uncertain when you present your problem and the audience will notice this. ^[1]

• Preparation is key. You should take the time to plan your speech to make sure it’s completely natural and logical. You also need to pay attention to how the message is conveyed during the reading of the speech and enhance the good qualities and minimize the bad ones.
• Even if public speaking is through having to answer questions in class, you still need to have a clear understanding of the topic. This will help form a feeling and express yourself more confidently, and from there, you will make a good impression on your listeners.

Body training. Although public speaking doesn’t feel like a race, there are steps you can take to keep your body working with you. Not only does this process include not moving your body weight from one foot to the other during the speech (keep your toes still and you’ll avoid this), but it also involves to breathing, pronouncing, and speaking appropriately. ^[2]

• Speak with the diaphragm. This will help you sound louder and clearer so your audience can hear what you’re saying without making you look like you’re straining your neck to speak or scream. To practice, you can stand up straight and put your hands on your stomach. Inhale, and exhale. Count to 5 as you inhale and count to 10 as you exhale. You will notice your abdomen begin to relax. You should breathe and speak in the relaxation camp.
• Adjust your tone. Determine the range of your voice. Too tall? Too low? So small that only cats and dogs can hear? Relaxing, standing in a comfortable (but straight-backed) position and breathing will help you have a more relaxed and happy tone of voice.
• Avoid breathing through your throat and upper chest, as both will increase anxiety and make your throat tight. As a result, your voice will sound tense and uncomfortable.

Practice pauses. People often talk faster in a casual conversation, but this won’t help you when you have to speak in front of a crowd. Your audience needs to hear what you’re talking about, and they need time to process your speech.

• Try to speak slower and more carefully than your usual conversational tone. You should try to pause between different ideas, or between fairly important topics to give your audience time to understand and reconsider what you have to say.
• Practice expressions and pronunciation. Expression is the ability to pronounce syllables. You need to increase your focus on the following syllables: s, x, ch, tr, kh, h, g, r. As for pronunciation, you need to know how to pronounce every word and remember to practice pronouncing more difficult words.
• Remove ‘um’ and other padding such as ‘then’. When speaking in public, filler words will make you look like you don’t understand what you’re saying. If you need to think, you can pause for a moment – this will help you become more relaxed.

Know your speech well. Knowing your own speech is just as important as understanding the topic you’re giving. There are many different methods of giving speeches, so you need to choose the one that works best for you.

• To give your speech, you’ll need to have some flashcards or an outline ready. Or you can memorize them if you have a pretty good memory (don’t use this method if you’re not confident with it).
• You don’t have to write everything down on the flashcards (leave some room for improvisation), although make notes on elements such as “pause after this information” or “don’t forget to take a breather”. ” will be quite helpful in helping you to remember what to do.

Memorize your speech. Although you don’t have to memorize the speech or the topic of the discussion, it’s a great way to help build your confidence and feel more comfortable with what you want to talk about. However, you should remember to make sure you have enough time to do this. ^[3]

• Write the speech over and over again. This will help you memorize it. The more you write, the easier it will be to remember. Once you’ve written the speech a few times, test yourself for memorization. If you forget certain parts, you should keep writing them over and over again.
• Break down your speech and memorize each part. It will be difficult for you to memorize the entire speech at once. The best way is to memorize it in small chunks (start with each point, then progress to memorizing 3 different main points, etc.).
• Use the loci method. Break down your speech into several paragraphs or focal points. Visualize a certain image for each focal point (for example, imagine Harry Potter when you are giving a presentation about the influence of author JK Rowling on children’s literature). Locate each focal point (eg Hogwarts for Rowling, a meadow for Stephenie Meyer, etc.). You will now progress through locations (for example, you use a broom to fly from Hogwarts to the grasslands). If your focal point contains a lot of elements that you want to present, you should place them in many specific places around the place you left out (such as the popularity of Harry Potter in the Great Hall, or author’s intent in correcting the genre in Quidditch).

Get to know your audience. You need to know who you’re giving your speech to, because what’s right for one type of audience can make another audience angry or bored. For example, you wouldn’t want to get too informal during a business presentation, but you would want to do this with a group of students.

• Humor is a great way to put your body and audience at ease. Usually, every public speaking situation will be accompanied by the right kind of humor (but not always!). You should start with light humor to improve the atmosphere and give the impression of your confidence. Telling a funny (and true) story is a good place to start.
• Determine what you want to convey to your audience. Are you trying to give them a fresh source of information? Repeating old information? Or are you trying to convince them to do something? This process will help you focus on presenting the main focus you want to convey.

Practice. This is extremely important if you want the public speaking process to go smoothly. It is not enough to simply understand the source material and the idea you want to present. You need to keep doing it to make it easier. Similar to when you wear new shoes. Your feet will blister the first few times you put them on, but over time, your shoes will become more comfortable and fit. ^[4]

• Try to go to the location where you will conduct the speech and practice there. This action will give you more confidence because you are already familiar with your surroundings.
• Film your workouts and identify your strengths and weaknesses. Although it can be difficult to see yourself on video, it is a great way to recognize weaknesses and strengths. You’ll notice your own anxiety-inducing behaviors (leg-to-foot movement, hands through hair) and you can find ways to eliminate or minimize them as much as possible.