Public speaking is a terrifying experience for 99.9% of us. MBC’s leading host Marwa Karam, and head of video content for ITP Originals Rouhana El Hage share their top tips on delivering a speech that’s totally badass. They make public speaking and presenting look *easy*.
Gone are the days when your hands will suddenly start shaking, you get sweaty, and a trembling voice kicks in.
Building confidence
A great public speaker is known for their confidence and, in turn, their ability to make the audience or interviewee feel at ease. It is extremely important to get comfortable with yourself speaking out loud through practice – whether that’s talking to a mirror, vlogging, or recording yourself and listening back. Moreover, this helps you to feel comfortable with yourself, improve your body language, and understand how to better articulate yourself.
The art of storytelling
This brings us to our next most important factor in public speaking – storytelling. Talking about a story should feel like painting a canvas which makes the build-up to the end all the more intriguing to pay attention to. Work on understanding your audience and how you could captivate them.
D-day prep
The nerves will be unreal but staying focused on the preparation you’ve done is important to get you through. If you have to interview someone, you need to make the other person feel heard and comfortable during the session.
Here’s an important (and sneaky) trick to accomplish just that: If you’re intimidated during a conversation or interview and need to make eye contact, just look between their eyebrows but it will seem like you’re looking at their eyes. Voila, problem solved!
Another way, to make someone feel comfortable is through mirroring, where you sometimes replicate the other person to create a sense of relatability with them.
Don’t make the mistake of not forgiving your own mistakes
Even professional public speakers make mistakes in their work lives. Marwa stressed the importance of moving on from your mistakes:
“Whenever I would say something wrong or make a mistake, sometimes I would think about it too much and think ‘Why did I make a mistake? How can I make a mistake? ‘ and it stays in my head. With practice, It’s very important that you tell that voice inside your head to calm down and it’s okay to make mistakes.”
To get to know more cool tips on acing public speaking and presenting, make sure to check out the video below:
Watch this space for more Cosmo Careers content.