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Your verbal message is the first to polish. Supporting this verbal message is the message you send with using the tone of voice. The tone of voice has the ability to liven up your topic. Emphasize highlighted points with excitement and enthusiasm. A quiet, somber tone of voice can bring seriousness to identifying problems you present when you present your solution. A loud, booming voice can emphasize definitive statements.
One visual presentation you make is the one with your personal appearance and attire. Your audience doesn’t know you. If you say that you are a professional, do you look like it? You don’t have to have the Armani suits or the Dolce and amp; Gabbana dress, but you should at least look like the professional you claim to be. Men speakers should avoid loud colored shirts. Leave those shirts at home for the night out. Women should dress conservatively. You don’t have to be wearing a burlap sack, but low-cut blouses and high skirts don’t belong here. Your goal is to create credibility as a professional.
The movements you make in your speech should be planned or at least controlled by you. Any movement that is not planned could potentially be distracting. Many of the above-mentioned mannerisms stem from being nervous about being on stage. Additionally, they could also come just because you don’t know you are doing them. Either way, you’ll need to minimize and eliminate as many of these movements as possible.
Work on feeling comfortable with delivering your speech. You should feel natural as you speak about your topic. You should feel like you are sharing information with a long-time friend. This will come when you’ve spent many hours practicing, reworking, and revising your speech. This will also come because you speak from your heart and let others know the way you feel about your subject.
Work on eliminating nervousness when delivering your speech. This will come as you get more familiar with your material. This will also come as you take the time to focus on delivering your message instead of focusing on the feelings of fear and anxiety.
The real success of every presentation is leaving your audience with something of value. What do they get out of spending time in your presentation? Many people believe that they need natural brilliance in speaking well and presenting well. The belief is that they need to be polished, smart, witty, and charming all before they actually start to build a speech. Those attributes can come naturally, but most often, they come as a result of passion, knowledge, and practice of the speaker’s material.
Give your audience something of value by becoming their friend. Sometimes you may need to stop thinking of yourself as a professional speaker and start thinking of yourself as a close personal friend of the audience member. You’ll teach them something and give them advice. You’ll sound more natural in our speech and you’ll be more relatable to your audience. People often associate those on stage as automatically having knowledge and wisdom on the topic covered. While this thought is great to establish you as a leader, the points you make in your presentation may be better received if you came across from a more personal standpoint.
