Public Speaking Tips

best public speaking advice that has made me a 10x better presenter: "a presentation is about the audience, not about you."

As someone who did exactly this, and taken others through this, let me assure you the answer is "practice, practice, practice".Several people below recommend toastmasters. Do it. https://www.toastmasters.org/find-a-clubThey have been around for a hundred years, because they are good at it. There's nothing wrong with other approaches, but toastmasters is good at making nervous

Not a talk specific tip, but just for presentations in general, the more you want the talk to come off as casual and not rehearsed the more you need to rehearse. Don't just read it over and over, but give the talk to the mirror, a chair, your dog, etc.Best of luck. I've found that the lead up is actual worse than actually presenting. 10 to 20 seconds in, you'll feel fine.

There is probably no shortcut to that skill. Try to find speaking opportunities on topics you know about, e.g. at meetups. It is better to start in front of a smaller group (10 people), from my experience nervosity is lower when in front of a smaller group. Record your talk and listen to it afterwards in detail and find things you want to improve. Don't hesitate to ask for feedback from others, and don't take it too personel. Try to be objective like you would train for a sports challe

Can't underestimate the power of practice. Perhaps find low stake venues where messing up does not have much consequences and present your thoughts. Maybe attend townhalls, local seminars, university talks and present your thoughts on the topic. See what worked and what did not. Improve iteratively.

In one sense you're practicing the wrong thing. You need to practice going off from the top of your head, not practice any particular routine or speech. How long can you talk to yourself without going blank on what to say next, or getting stuck in a repetition loop? If you have this down, then you can practice speeches, but when you inevitably forget something because memory isn't perfect, your skills at improvising and filling in the blanks and shifting topics will save you. Watch one

If your slide has writting on it, people will read your slide instead of listening to you. Keep the writing to a bare minimum and fill in the missing parts. Even better, use a picture that helps tell your story for that slide.For each slide, think about what the audience take-away is. They should learn something from what you say for each slide.Mingle and introduce yourself to a few people before your talk but don't tell them you are a speaker. Before you get on stage see if you can f

Patrick Henry Winston's "How to Speak" has been so helpful, I often briefly skim it right before I give a talk: (http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=9F536001A3C605FC)I come into talks letting go of part of my ego, and come to see it just as my job to offer them something (intellectually) interesting. So upon sensing something's not working out, I might ask the audience a question to calibrate myself, qui

Some kids grow up on football. I grew up on public speaking (as behavioral therapy for a speech impediment, actually). If you want to get radically better in a hurry:1) If you ever find yourself buffering on output, rather than making hesitation noises, just pause. People will read that as considered deliberation and intelligence. It's outrageously more effective than the equivalent amount of emm, aww, like, etc. Practice saying nothing. Nothing is often the best possible t

This is a tricky question to answer, because the answer is probably very personal and what works for me might not work for you, and vice versa. But I can share some thoughts based on my experiences:1. Practice. It sounds trite to say, but it's true... like most things, you get better with repeated effort. Luckily it's relatively easy to find / create opportunities to speak in group settings. Well... at least it was pre-pandemic. And will be again once more meatspace meetups and