Do you think of yourself as a public speaker? Probably not. But is that accurate? A public speaker brings to mind someone hired to give speeches, talks, and other presentations to energize, motivate, or even pitch an audience.
But don’t you energize, motivate, and (yes) pitch clients all the time? You may think of these as “meetings,” but a subtle semantic change can have a big difference in how you prepare for and deliver your message. How would your meetings change if you thought of yourself as a public speaker?
While it’s true that the best meetings are conversations with plenty of time listening to clients, there’s plenty you can take away from a public speaking mindset that will inform how clearly you communicate, inform, and inspire.
Here are four tips we’ve adapted from Ken Davis, a public speaker with over 35 years of experience:
1. Effective communicators know how to prepare a message with singular focus. If you know where you are going, you can take anyone with you. If you aim at nothing, you will hit it every time.
2. Effective communicators know how to read an audience. Customize presentations to make that audience want to listen. Until the audience is engaged, communication has not taken place. An engaging presentation puts people on the edge of their seats.
3. Effective communicators are passionate about their subject. They pour every part of their being into the presentation. If the subject is not worthy of your passion, it should be distributed in a memo or email message.
4. Effective communicators leave the audience no doubt about how to benefit from the objective of the talk. They call people to action. They make it easy to respond.
Photo credit: julianrod
