4 Public Speaking Tips For Presenting Your Homebased Business
More times than not, a person presenting their homebased business may be their very first time speaking in front of a group. I consider myself someone pretty good at teaching others how to speak as I used to be totally terrified of speaking. I was about the worst speaker I have still ever met as I was so nervous. I have since gone on to speak comfortably in front of very large crowds all over the world and have 4 public speaking tips that may help you in this blog.
Public Speaking Tip #1 – Start With Confidence
Start with power. Start with a bold statement or a statistic. You want to grab the attention of the audience right away. You have about two minutes to grab them and do not spend the first two minutes apologizing for being nervous. I recently spoke in Tampa to a small group of around 200 and I started my presentation with “The Internet Doesn’t Work”. I went on to say that the Internet doesn’t work, but you can work it. Start with confidence in the beginning and there will be less people paying attention to you and will pay more attention to your content.
Public Speaking Tip #2 – Power of the Pause
Pausing is your most powerful way to make a point. This allows the audience to let the information really sink in. When we are nervous we tend to fill space with “um”‘s and “ah”‘s, I tend to say “ya know” a lot, it is a habit I am still working to break ya know? Haha, I said it again! If you take a speech and strip out the um’s and ah’s and instead pause...it is very, very powerful. Do not be afraid to have some silence in between your points.
Public Speaking Tip #3 – Statue of Power
Don’t mistake this tip, I am not saying to stand still for the duration of your homebased business presentation. You want to have movement, certainly. Most people I watch do move around when speaking, however, they miss the power of the statue stance. Move around when building up to a point you want to drive home but stand like a statue with your feet planted when you deliver the point you want the audience to really get.
Public Speaking Tip #4 – Tell Them They Are Getting What They Want
This is one of my favorite tips. This works especially well if you do not know your audience very well. You spend the first 10 minutes asking the audience what they had hoped to get out of attending the presentation. It is better if you can write what they reply with on a whiteboard but even if you cannot, you let them speak, note it, acknowledge it and as long as what they are saying is close to what you are covering, tell them that their expectations are on target and you will be covering exactly what they are looking to hear. This puts them at ease and instead of them wondering in their heads if you will cover what they want to hear, they simply listen.
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Ray Higdon
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Hey Ray,
These are definitely some great tips for public speaking. I just don’t think that I am ready to speak in front of large audiences just yet, i need a little bit more practice first.
Practicing in front of audiences is the best way, I would suggest starting with smaller ones =)
awesome ray, this helped me. Pause will work well for me i know it
Great tips Ray, alot of people myself included are to nervous about public speaking. But like my granddad always said they can’t eat you at least not in U.S. anyway. Glad to always be able to count on learning something from you.
Congrats bro!
Thank you so much Tony
Ron, you are good, slight tweeking will make you real good
Thanks bro, nice of you to say!
I liked your tips Ray, they are good ones. I joined a Toastmasters Group a while back to improve my presentation skills and they give some of the same tips. I still use filler words but I am getting better at not doing it by pausing like you say. Like they say practice makes perfect. Thanks again for your help.
Ray: Wonderful tips!
I am a 30-yr Toastmaster. Every Tuesday night I go to jail at the San Diego Mira Mar Brig and teach a Toastmaster Communication Class to the inmates. I am in my 13th year of doing this. May I add that during that important pause, it is a good time to take the deep breath; give a slight bend at the knees to help reduce the stress. That breath will improve the voice projection from the diaphram to reach even the last person in the audience. You may have butterflies, but tips like yours help those butterflies – fly in formation. Keep up good tips!
Thanks I need that one. Starting to do alot of presentations now.
I love it Ray, I just did my 1st this past weekend. great tips!!!
Hey Ray you are a great leader my friend, great advice, glad to be part of your Numis team.
Thank’s for all you do,
Lets connect soon,
Tony L
Awesome as always
Hi Ray,
thanks for sharing these great tips. Especially making brief pauses to let the information sink in, as you note, is very powerful.
Take care
Oliver
Very cool Ruben!
That is so awesome, I would love to do something like that. How did you get involved in doing that?
Get it Cedric!
Thanks!
Thanks Oliver!
You rock Doc!
As always, very sound advice. If I may , look at the audience ( all around the room )when speaking, and BE YOURSELF!
Higdon nails it again. I especially like the lead off tip with a bold statement or stat. No trouble with presentations or large medical groups, but still working on the Numis U. conventions (bizarre, I know). Overall, just decided to quit worrying about it.
Great tips Ray…I love when you are speaking and then you say “Aight” …cracks me up because my Daughter and I do it all the time !
BTW, thanks for the memory jog~I remember a few years back being on stage looking out at about 3000 people and thought to myself, this is really cool, I love being up here and speaking, very empowering!
Di~
Get back there Diane, you can do it!
There you go bro
Thanks Alice, I also got your message, glad I helped you with a signup!
Your wish is my command!
I was 36 years old when I first spoke in front of folks.
That was 1992 in my 1st MLM.
In high school and college in the 70’s
…I simply skipped those classes and took a zero.
WOULD NOT DO IT.
I was a guy as an athelete which I always go back to
that never thought about playing hockey,football and
college basketball in front of big crowds.
Never thought about it.
Even at 11 years old when we filled our home town
arena to the rafters I did not think anything about it.
Loved it as a matter of fact.
Interesting ehh?
I was a big shy guy.
Introverted as hell.
When I saw at 36 that
“It’s better to use 1% of 100
people’s efforts than 100% of your own.”
J.P.Getty
I suddenly had a reason to not be shy.
So when I saw as an average person I could
get free….I started by showing our cat “the plan”
She did not get in.
But I kept going.
Like Ray says start small which I did many
one on ones and a few couples to eventually
fuller rooms.
I am though starting again since being out
of NWMing for 7-8 years.
But now at 54 I don’t care at all what folks think.
When one has a dream nothing is tough.
Ray,
Thanks for sharing your wisdom. I was involved in another MLM before joining your team with Numis. That company had a good name and some great trainers, however, not one of them “cut to the chase” like you do. Kudos to you.
It works everytime! Very powerful to use
Knock it outta da park G!
Ray I really like these four tips. Yes,please do continue to publish short how to’s often. they are sooooo useful.
thanks,
Cristina Oliver
Wow, tip number 4 is genius! Thanks Ray 🙂
Rachael Macgregor
Hey Ray,
awesome content, and I´m glad that you shared this stuff with me today. Man, I´m so freaking afraid of public speaking, and would avoid it or search after excused not to do it.
Your tips are very useful dude, and it´s getting time for another change. Nervousness is pretty ugly, especially because you´re talking yourself into being nervous, it´s all a question of mindset. I´ll follow your tips, because I´m on a call on Saturday, where I´ve to talk to many people and will do my best to make it happen!
Keep going,
G
Ray,
Thanks so much for the great tips. I will remember these!
Karen
Great advice, Ray. I used to be extremely painfully shy. But I keep on fighting to push beyond myself and develop the social skills and communication skills that I feel are essential in life. I have come a long way. Public speaking will be a major step of growth.
I’m about to begin doing live presentations. I have a place booked beginning December 2nd for every thursday. I will practice with family and friends before then.
Tyson
Great, concise, useful info, Ray! I’m giving a talk in 2 weeks so this is VERY timely.
Awesome, good luck Dr Sandi!
Friends and family are tougher to practice with, strangers are actually better in my opinion
Good points, Ray!
I had also once felt the same feelings of being totally terrified of speaking.
Another point that I may share is, I make eye contact with people in the audience to create engagement, but for some, it can be distracting and suddenly get your train of thought lost.
So here is a tip given to me by a young Israeli Officer that he used in his classes:
Instead of looking directly into the persons eyes, focus on a spot in the center of their forehead. From where you are standing, they can’t tell the difference!
Oh I am so on my way 🙂
This is great info. Public speaking is one of my biggest fears if its a large group. Also I was on the Twitter Webinar last night. Your training was very much needed. I join Twitter two days before and to be honest it was overwelming. Now have a blueprint to follow thanks to your delivery. Simple yet informative. This is my first daily plan of action…..Read, comment and retweet :). Enjoy your Thanksgiving.
Hello Ray, I’m going to add these tips to help me out with my public speaking. thanks for sharing my friend.
Ray, I had to search your website with help on this area! lol thanks! you are “the man!”
Dalia
Fact: More PBR’s makes you good in front of the room, our tema loves it and we know this skill is lacking in our industry & company. GReat post Ray!