Fort Myers Speaker Ray Higdon here and today I want to give you 3 Tips for public speaking to help you succeed in any business. First of all know that public speaking is the number one fear in the world and although I am a Fort Myers Speaker, I have spoken all over the country. When I was on the circuit I had the fortune of speaking on the Vegas strip, in Phoenix, Chicago, Miami, Charlotte, and several other cities. The traveling speaking life can get old when you are on the road 22 days a month but I loved the experience of it all. I have spoken as both a platform (sales) speaker and a fee based speaker but the 3 tips for public speaking that I am covering today can apply to any type of speaker. I am happy to be a Fort Myers speaker and NOT travel as much as I used to as I just miss my kids way too much to be gone that many days out of the month. Anyway, here are your 3 tips for public speaking:
1) You have to give your audience a nice package. ALL presentations should give this element: Tell them what you are going to tell them, tell them, tell them what you told them. Now, this is a very standard recommendation but the reason for it is you want that repetition in there so your audience knows what to take away and what to share with others. Have you even seen a great speaker and went to tell someone about them just to have that person asked you what they said and you cannot remember the points the speaker was trying to make? That speaker probably did not follow this rule.
2) Use the right body language. The Hippocratic oath for a doctor is “Do no harm”, you also do not want to do harm with your body language and movements. Do not stand like your feet are planted in concrete and also don’t run around like crazy and make people dizzy. Movement is great but know when to stand and deliver your “point” like a tower of power. As you are telling a story, you can move around and you should but when you are delivering a point, stop, face the audience, feet shoulder-width apart and deliver.
3) Know your subject. The biggest mistake I see people make is when they speak on a topic they really don’t know that well or they try to fake it. Before you get in front of any audience, know your subject. You have to be the smartest person in the room on your topic or you probably shouldn’t be speaking there. One funny story with me is I recently spoke at a Naples Rotary club on Internet Marketing. Before I began I was introduced to one of the Rotary members who happens to have written a lot of the algorithms for Google! Instead of freak out and run out of the room crying, I acknowledged him as I began and said I was honored to have such an esteemed technical person in the room but that we were not going to get that technical tonight and then I made a joke about it. When you do get the unexpected smarter person on your topic in the room, remember that you are still smarter than almost everyone else in the room and when you step up to the plate (the stage) you have to hit a home run!
Hope these 3 Tips for public speaking help you out, I may now be a Fort Myers Speaker but it was only a few years ago that I was totally terrified of public speaking. If I can overcome my fears and be a speaker, so can you!
Ray Higdon
Fort Myers Speaker