Last week we had the pleasure of having Danielle Young and Melissa Wolfe from Full Moon Communications join us for a public speaking workshop. Participants were able to learn some great public speaking tips as well as practice speaking in front of a group of (friendly) strangers.
If you find this intimidating, you’re not alone. Photo by david laws on Unsplash
While I won’t give away all of Danielle & Melissa’s public speaking tips, here are some of the key takeaways that you can use next time you’re presenting:
- Prepare & Practice. Every time.
- Nerves Are Good and having that adrenaline spike is actually going to help you do better.
- Find Your Power Stance and return to it whenever you find your posture falling out of line.
- Don’t Turn Your Back on the Audience. Once you do, you lose their attention.
- Take Your Audience on a Journey; create a story that they’ll want to come along with you for.
- Visual > Audio. If someone is reading, they’re not listening. Use only limited words in your slides to keep people’s attention on what you’re saying.
- Breathe.
Some of the most valuable lessons of the evening came from the discussion that followed the event. Danielle Young and Melissa Wolfe stayed for a lengthy Q&A to cover topics such as: how to engage teenagers during a presentation, what’s holding business development professionals back, and lots of great information on how much content you should have in your slides during a PowerPoint presentation.
If you’d like to book a private one-on-one public speaking session with Full Moon Communications, you can email Danielle at danielleyoung @ fullmooncomms.com.
To get on the list for upcoming training sessions like this one, contact CIMPA or sign up for our newsletters for information about upcoming events!