Learning Public Speaking

Jon Thomas of Presentation Advisors had a great post where he notes that good presenters need to know three things:

• Your Subject
• Yourself
• Your Audience

I tell people that you do not have to be an expert on your topic to be effective. That’s true. But show that you are familiar with the subject area. A speaker does not want to be put in a situation where the audience knows more about their topic than they do. Talk about speech anxiety. That is when anxiety will kick in.

Do you like to be challenged on what you believe? How will you react if someone is critical? What are you good at? I think good speakers need to know their own personality or habits. Both good and bad.

In a perfect world, you would have time to talk with or survey every member of the audience. But you can not do that all of the time. So talk to some people. Introduce yourself if you do not know anyone. Also, if you are speaking at an event or conference, be aware of the overall theme and adjust your presentation to match that theme.