Public Speaking - Top Tips For the Home Based Entrepreneur
Central to the success of any entrepreneur is the ability to be a good public speaker.
'Speak in public!? I couldn't possibly do that!' many people say and it has been said that it's the one thing people fear more than death.
But cropping up throughout the life of the successful business person, will be occasions where they have no choice but to address the public.
And so I would like to share some tips that have helped me to speak with confidence and authority in public.
Tip 1: Feel the fear and do it anyway I'm not going to say that there is a magic formula for overcoming fear and anxiety, but I will say that when you embrace the fact that you will have to speak in public it gets easier.
I was asked by my Pastor once if I would share a brief word from the platform in front of about 500 people.
At first I was really excited about the opportunity, but as the day drew near I became nervous and it was as if I was counting down the seconds to the moment I would be on stage.
But when I was called up to the stage to deliver my message all the fear and anxiety left me.
A great way to overcome your fear of speaking in public is to build up the number of people you speak in front of.
Start with a small group of people at your house, around the dinner table.
Then increase that to speaking to a larger group of people at your members club.
And then seek opportunities to address a crowd at a conference and so on until you overcome the nerves.
Another way to overcome the nerves is to remember that if you make a mistake, the crowd will never know.
They weren't with you when you prepared the speech.
So don't worry about making mistakes, and don't worry about memorizing everything verbatim.
Tip 2: Don't drink coffee before you go out to speak The entrepreneur may want to get that mental boost with a nice cup of black Arabica, but it's important to know that coffee dries the vocal chords.
This will see you forever reaching for the glass of water if you drink coffee before speaking.
If you need a boost of energy before speaking, the best thing you can do is eat an apple 15 minutes before.
The naturally occurring sugars in fruit (fructose) will give all the benefits of sugar stimulation without the draw backs.
Tip 3: No alcohol under any circumstances I once launched a live TV show, and everyone was nervous from the producer to the vision mixer, the sound guy to the lighting specialist.
There was a lot of money at stake and everyone wanted things to work, which was understandable.
Five minutes before going to air the producer brought me a beer, thinking that I might be as nervous as he was.
I took the beer but I didn't touch a drop.
I was slightly nervous, but I used that energy to focus on the job at hand and when I was counted in from 10 seconds down to "You're live" I hit the spot perfectly.
Meanwhile the vision mixer was struggling to get the write images up on screen - a consequence of drinking beer no doubt.
There are many more tips for delivering great public speeches which I will address in other articles, but for now, welcome the chance to practice public speaking because practice makes perfect and the profile you gain can boost your home based business.
'Speak in public!? I couldn't possibly do that!' many people say and it has been said that it's the one thing people fear more than death.
But cropping up throughout the life of the successful business person, will be occasions where they have no choice but to address the public.
And so I would like to share some tips that have helped me to speak with confidence and authority in public.
Tip 1: Feel the fear and do it anyway I'm not going to say that there is a magic formula for overcoming fear and anxiety, but I will say that when you embrace the fact that you will have to speak in public it gets easier.
I was asked by my Pastor once if I would share a brief word from the platform in front of about 500 people.
At first I was really excited about the opportunity, but as the day drew near I became nervous and it was as if I was counting down the seconds to the moment I would be on stage.
But when I was called up to the stage to deliver my message all the fear and anxiety left me.
A great way to overcome your fear of speaking in public is to build up the number of people you speak in front of.
Start with a small group of people at your house, around the dinner table.
Then increase that to speaking to a larger group of people at your members club.
And then seek opportunities to address a crowd at a conference and so on until you overcome the nerves.
Another way to overcome the nerves is to remember that if you make a mistake, the crowd will never know.
They weren't with you when you prepared the speech.
So don't worry about making mistakes, and don't worry about memorizing everything verbatim.
Tip 2: Don't drink coffee before you go out to speak The entrepreneur may want to get that mental boost with a nice cup of black Arabica, but it's important to know that coffee dries the vocal chords.
This will see you forever reaching for the glass of water if you drink coffee before speaking.
If you need a boost of energy before speaking, the best thing you can do is eat an apple 15 minutes before.
The naturally occurring sugars in fruit (fructose) will give all the benefits of sugar stimulation without the draw backs.
Tip 3: No alcohol under any circumstances I once launched a live TV show, and everyone was nervous from the producer to the vision mixer, the sound guy to the lighting specialist.
There was a lot of money at stake and everyone wanted things to work, which was understandable.
Five minutes before going to air the producer brought me a beer, thinking that I might be as nervous as he was.
I took the beer but I didn't touch a drop.
I was slightly nervous, but I used that energy to focus on the job at hand and when I was counted in from 10 seconds down to "You're live" I hit the spot perfectly.
Meanwhile the vision mixer was struggling to get the write images up on screen - a consequence of drinking beer no doubt.
There are many more tips for delivering great public speeches which I will address in other articles, but for now, welcome the chance to practice public speaking because practice makes perfect and the profile you gain can boost your home based business.
