Tips that will totally change your presentation skills

This article contains:

4 basic elements of a speech

3 keys for an ultimate

1 golden advice

bonus on how to handle stress

my favorite talks of great speakers

useful sources on presenting and body language

Please, let me share some of the crucial elements of a speech with you.

Quite off topic… but do you remember when you were a small kid and your parents would have visits from time to time?

Let’s call this ‘visit’ a GUEST and imagine the following situation, try to visualize it.

In some cases, you would shake hands with the guest but not look in their eyes because you were shy.

They would look at you pho sho and tell how cute you are.

Each of these visits, people, had different taste in fashion, different style of talking.

If you were smart enough, you could read the text on their T-shirt or whatever they had.

Why this story and why using a word GUEST?

Acronyms and scene; easy to remember, that’s why.

Gu — GestUres (shaking hand) E — Eye contact (being shy, not looking into the eyes) S — Style, the way you talk (style of clothing, behavior) T — Text, the content of the speech (letters on visitor’s T-shirt)

Now, I will talk about each element more in depth.

1. Gestures

It is very important what you do with hands while talking.

Not moving your hands at all is the worst thing that you can do.

In addition, bumping your fists into each other or making annoying movements with fingers should be reduced to a minimum.

On the other hand, symbolic pointing, opening palms, or drawing words with your hands in the air is beneficial.

In my opinion, gesticulation is one of the most important keys to an ultimate speech.

Hint:

If you are nervous hold a pen in your hand. A little bit (I’m stressing a little bit) of playing while talking will relieve the stress.

2. Eye contact

Again, ultra important!

Look at the whole audience, each part of the audience needs the same attention.

A huge (YuuUUGe) no no is turning back to your listeners.

You may wonder “Sometimes I really need to turn back”.

That’s true but what you can do is to face people and then turn just 90 degrees to left or right.

What if you have to talk to somebody for the audience but people are behind you?

Solution: Well, in this case it’s okay to turn your back, but also turn to the other part of the audience few times. Show them, that you care about them!

Myth

To look at the end of the room or to look at people’s foreheads when you are nervous is a pure myth. You should be able to make eye contact with most of the people.

To tackle nervousness, check the bonus at the end of this article.

3. Style

Style of your speech, the way how the words come out of the mouth. Quite self-explanatory.

YOU CAN SHOUT!!!! You can give STRESS some SPECIFIC words. You can build ………………. a moment ………….by being silent for few seconds. You can S-P-E-L-L it out.

Just play with the tone of your voice, be creative.

Advice

Never be monotonous. It is so boring. You lose people’s attention and they fall asleep.

4. Text

The content of your speech, your message.

Consider your audience in advance: young/old, one nationality/ internationals, beginners/ professionals, etc.

Prepare your speech, let it sink in your head for few days and work on in again.

Rewrite even 3 times.

It might occur that you will prepare something and then write something completely different.

Ask your friends, family, mentor or teacher for a feedback.

Furthermore, writing a speech is individual.

Some people like to write down the speech word by word, some people like to make notes/bullet points, some people work on their speech in the head.

On top of that, there are people who can talk without any preparation and I admire that skill #respect.

A must

An ultimate speech should be prepared in advance.