How To Improve Your Public Speaking Skills? 5 Tips On How To Become A Captivating Speaker

Public speaking is an amazing skill, and there are a lot of reasons for you to learn it rigorously. It is a skill that will help you grow as a leader, build networks and opens doors to new career opportunities.

When you are speaking with authority, you are in charge of your audience. In fact, the billionaire investor Warren Buffett once said that your value can go up by as much as 50% just by learning public speaking and communication skills. No matter how much you know in your area of expertise, being able to communicate it to others is what sets you apart.

Benefits of learning public speaking

Public speaking has many benefits for your personal development. Like any other skill, it takes time to master but the rewards are worth it. Overcoming the nervousness and excitement that comes with learning public speaking is no easy feat! And being able to do so will only translate to a massive boost in your self-confidence. Public speaking also helps you find your voice. As you learn from other speakers and improve, you eventually carve a niche for yourself in this field. It helps you add value to other people too, by teaching them new things or leading them to make positive changes in their lives.

Now that you understand the benefits of public speaking, here are some ways you can learn and improve in this fine art.

1. Get lessons

There are many public speaking classes available online. Taking classes ensures that you will work with an instructor who has already prepared a course based on the requisite skills for you to improve your public speaking. Instructors are also aware of the most common pitfalls speakers face at various levels and will help you overcome them.

Simpliv has one of the best online public speaking courses led by instructor Salvatore Princi. The course can help you prepare and deliver presentations, and help you achieve clarity in your communication. Your ideas will find a platform and you will learn a precise, adaptable, audience-focused preparation process.

The course is divided into five modules that are focused on speech-writing and presentation.

2. Speak about topics you care about

Start with subjects you are passionate about or advocacy that you truly believe in. This passion is what will help improve your skills as a public speaker and see it carry over with other matters you wish to talk about in the future.

3. Find avenues where you can speak your mind

Figure out what you really care about and find ways you can speak about it in public. This could be by attending forums related to your advocacy or looking for online platforms such as YouTube to broadcast your message to your audience.

You can even record videos of yourself speaking and post them on social media. Volunteer to lead community meetings or make announcements to the public to demonstrate your speaking and leadership skills. You can also join your local Toastmasters club to get regular opportunities to speak.

4. Learn from the experts

Find public speakers who you admire and watch what they do. You don’t have to imitate them, but you can find patterns to the way great public speakers deliver their message that you can incorporate into your own skillset. Speakers from events such as Ted Talks can be great resources for you to find nuances that will help improve your own style of public speaking.

5. Be aware of current events and always have your own (educated) opinion

It helps if you are aware of current affairs. A relevant and timely speech has a better chance of resonating with your audience. You can do this by reading the newspaper or keeping tabs of news pages in your social media accounts so you'll be knowledgeable about key events locally and globally. It would be great if you can form your own opinion, but make sure it's coming from an educated and unbiased standpoint.

Groundnews can help you here. They only provide the news about the topics you are interested in and nothing else. You will have access to over 50,000 news sources when you become a member. This will help you prepare your speeches according to your niche with ease.