How I Improved my Public Speaking

This week I had to give a brief update on my team’s quarterly process in front of the CEO of our company. In the middle of my speaking, I could feel how monotonous and boring my voice and tone were. It was like I was channeling Ben Stein in an eye drop commercial, but without the humor. After that performance, I resolved to learn how to improve my public speeches.

I came across an excellent public speaking course called Ultraspeaking. After diving into the intro course, I learned 5 helpful tips for dramatically improving my public speaking:

1. Learn how to appear more confident – you can do this by ignoring the voice of insecurity that pops into your head when you are speaking and “stay in character”. Do not apologize or waver if you make a mistake, just keep moving forward.
2. Learn how to boost your charisma – The opposite of charisma, or energy, is monotony. The key to expelling monotony is expressing and varying the emotional energy of your speaking (also called musicality).
3. Learn how to make a lasting impression – This just means finishing strong. It’s a combination of saving your best content for last and delivering that content with the right energy for emphasis.
4. Learn how to create a great ending – This is part two of the previous point. You need to end with a succinct summary. In fact, they share a few magic phrases that your brain will use to autocomplete the ending for you: “I guess what I’m trying to say is…” or “My point is…”.
5. Learn how to gain clarity – When we start speaking, our brain gets shaken up like a snow globe. Another magical insight they shared is that pausing settles the snow of words. Pausing often also makes you appear more thoughtful and confident. So pause often.