It can be tough to train yourself to do this, especially if you get nervous talking in front of others. Try to keep it at the forefront of your mind, and practice it over and over until it becomes second nature.
For instance, maybe you’re giving a speech on the project that you and your team completed at work. To organize things logically, you could start with the planning phase, go into the working phase, and wrap up with the publishing phase. You could also tell a story of sorts. Write out a beginning, middle, and end for a logical organization tactic.
“Now, let’s move on to…” “Now I want to talk about…” “Let’s transition into talking about…”
Plus, short and snappy sentences keep your audience more engaged, which is a great public speaking technique.
If you’re giving a presentation online, try making eye contact with someone via your webcam. Making eye contact with someone in the audience can also help you feel more comfortable.
You can use the same trick to stop saying “like,” too.
After you record and listen to yourself once, try your speech again on a second recording. Listen to yourself and spot the differences between your first and second try. Chances are, you’ll notice improvement right away!
Try keeping an outline of your speech with you whenever it’s time for you to talk. That way, you can glance at it for a quick reminder whenever you need to.
While you talk, try to focus on one person in the room. Speak directly to them to avoid thinking about the crowd. Make sure that you’re breathing when you speak, too—that way, you can slow down your speech and be more deliberate.
This is especially important when giving a presentation online. Getting a Slack or Teams message can be very distracting, so set yourself as “away” before you start.
Using a few filler words as you talk actually makes your speech seem more natural and less stiff. Experts recommend removing 90% of the filler words from your vocabulary, but leaving in the 10% to make you more relatable.
