You have a warm, friendly tone. You’re super excited about your speech topic. When you explain your passion to others you’re excited and engaged and energetic. Then you get on stage and you talk the way you think a speaker ‘should’; ultra professional, monotone, smart. In order to get your point across you need to be respected right? I mean you can’t get up there and just be yourself, talking the way you always talk.
Actually…
That’s exactly what you need to do. What you should REALLY be telling your audience is your story.
Have a Conversation
Don’t give a speech. Talk to your audience the way you’d talk to one or two other people you care about. You will need to raise your volume and energy level, and you’ll want to plan out what you say.
- Speak the way you naturally do. Use ‘you’ ‘I’ ‘we’.
- Don’t try to impress people by sounding smart. Make THEM feel smart by explaining yourself simply and clearly. If you must use technical terms, explain them immediately.
- Your audience members are constantly giving you feedback – by their posture, body language, and eye contact. So pay attention to the signals they’re giving and respond. Use Servant Speaking.
Be Authentic
Your authenticity connects to your audience’s humanity and allows them to also be authentic. This is the quality that transforms public speaking from “technically very good” to “WOW”. It’s all about sharing YOU… on stage. Your insight into your topic, your beliefs/opinions/ideals based on facts that YOU have investigated. It might seem very mundane to you because you’ve experienced it already, but when you tell it to other people they might find it incredibly interesting and valuable.
When you’re telling your story, try not to speak from OUTSIDE the experience using memorized words. Speak from within the experience, using personal perspective to help the audience feel, see, and hear what YOU feel about your topic.There’s a very big difference (and the audience can always tell) from reliving your experience and reading from a script. Sharing your story from a multi-dimensional angle means that as you tell it… you can go into any little side detail at any given moment. The audience can see think and feel what you’re feeling because it’s YOUR story, your perception, your senses that are being shared.
Once you’ve discovered what you really believe and what you really care enough to speak about, the challenge is to become your message. An inspiring speaker doesn’t say a few strong words against about animal cruelty and then step of stage and kick a cat. No, the authentic speaker’s words and actions are the same thing. Like Gandhi, our challenge is to integrate everything we do, say, think and learn and align it with our message.
How to be Authentic:
- Don’t change your personality: find the power that already exists within you (Anything else will make you seem fake)
- Don’t manipulate your audience: serve them.
- Don’t play ‘hard ball’: connect with your audience and let your authenticity shine out (People connect with people, not Sales robots)
- Don’t be pushy, but don’t flake out on persuading either – confidently show them what you have and let them come get it.
- Don’t use jedi-like mind tricks or the latest 7-step formula: find what you believe in enough to persuade people about and stick to it (copy-cats never influence as much as unique leaders).
Let the force of your personality and the full power of your story come through as you’re speaking. In this way the audience will live and feel the experience with you. People will actually learn better when they are open to hearing and sharing in the speaker’s experience. The reason your audience will remember is because you share from the heart, your feelings and emotions from your experiences are what makes it memorable.
What you should REALLY be telling your audience… is all about how YOU feel about your topic. Because you’re the expert after all. They’ve come to see YOU. And remember…
More information on how to connect with your audience?
You betcha! If you’re eager to become a more inspiring speaker, Ginger has a multitude of courses just right for you. From freebies to e-courses, books to workshops, jump in to Ginger. Click here for a full list of Ginger courses and resources.
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