You have to stand on that stage feeling a sense of
completion and a connection to your audience.
You can not be nervous, tight, worried, cold or afraid.
If you do that, you alienate your audience and make the
speech that much harder.
So how do you walk onto that stage feeling as if you are
surrounded by friendly people, dying to hear what you have
to say?
Have something to say.
Your speech should be so carefully worked and reworked that
it not only contains all pertinent information, but you
can present it in a comfortable manner.
When you start to reel off facts and figures they blur into
the excitement of a phone book. Hence you have to place them
into your talk so that they roll by smoothly and are absorbed
by the listener.
Know your topic.
You must know your topic to the extent you can be woken out
of a dead sleep, and like a prisoner of war, reciting name,
rank and serial number, begin to discourse.
Learn your speech as an actor learns his lines.
Have your written version in your hand, but the information
in your head. Speak to the people before you, not to the
paper.
This means that when you are advised you are to give a speech
five days from now, you spend those days gathering data,
putting it into interesting prose, practicing your voice,
your posture, your gestures and your mood.
Control your voice.
Bring your voice way down to your diaphragm. Get it down,
because nothing is more unpleasant than an amplified high
pitched voice.
Get it down, under control, and make sure every single word
in that speech is properly pronounced. Get rid of tongue
twisters, and overly complex compound sentences which might
confuse.
Too many of the same sounds in one sentence. Too many
homonyms, too many six or seven syllable words.
When you read your speech outloud, change everything
that causes you to stumble or sound incoherent.
Your voice should be pleasant to the ear, the pitch and
tone change; not abruptly, unless you're mimicking other
voices, but gently.
No one should have to guess where an inflection is. Practice.
Your personal presentation.
Once you get your voice in control, stand in front of a
mirror when you practice, make eye contact, try to avoid
looking at your speech.
Each time you go through your speech you'll be imprinting
it on your mind, you'll be feeling in control of your
information, and by smiling at yourself in the mirror you'll
make yourself feel happier.
By the time it is zero hour, you will know the speech by
heart, where your voice will drop and rise, where you
pause, and where you continue.
Six
Don't be afraid to deviate.
While speaking you must be alert to your audience. You
may have to alter a statement based on the feedback
you're getting.
You may add a few sentences which explain a point you
thought was evident, leave out a paragraph as being
unnecessary.
You are talking to these people so you are so attuned to
them that you can see if they "get it" or if they don't.
Never tie yourself to a piece of paper, never think if
you speak fast you'll get it over with, never betray
nervousness or fear.
Whether the audience is nine, nine hundred or nine
thousand, it doesn't matter.
Eye contact
You don't have to look at anyone in particular, not at first.
Look just beyond the last row you can see. Eventually as
you calm down you can glance at a few people.
Know when to stop
Sometimes you get so into what you're saying, you almost
can't stop. Remember to stop. Don't keep explaining unless
questions are asked. Don't give dozens of examples. One is
usually sufficient. Don't repeat yourself.
When you come to the end, stop. Look at the audience, say
'Thank You', to symbolize you are completed, nod, and walk
off.
Time
A rule of thumb; forty minutes is usually the length of
a successful speech. Once you go over that limit, people
begin to lose interest.
Short speeches should be under ten minutes.
If you have prepared a forty minute speech and are told
you are to speak for one hour, allow questions. Don't pad.
If you have prepared a ten minute speech and are told you
only have five minutes, cut out examples and opening
paragraphs.
Once you know what you are going to say, you can expand or
contract it to fit the time.
Above all, remember you were asked, so everyone in the room
has come to hear what you are going to say?
