These simple tips will help you become a well-known public speaker in no time.
In this article, you’ll find 10 tips that will help guide you through the next steps on your journey to being a great speaker.
If you’ve decided to unleash the power of public speaking into your life, congratulations! You are embarking on a journey that has the potential to completely transform your life. But if you’re new to speaking, there’s one obstacle you need to overcome and that is, gaining momentum.
If you’re new to speaking, there’s one obstacle you need to overcome and that is, gaining momentum.
After having made the decision to become a public speaker, you might find yourself thinking “now what?” and this article will help you answer that question.
Here are 10 practical tips that will help you gain momentum as a new public speaker:
01
Speak Often
Too often we see speakers go through our programs and get hyped up about building their speaking careers, only to give a couple of talks a year, lose their momentum and eventually give up on their speaking dreams.
One of the simplest keys to success early in your speaking career is to speak A LOT. Repetition is the key to mastery, and when it comes to public speaking there is no substitute for actually speaking to the public.
Repetition is the key to mastery, and when it comes to public speaking there is no substitute for actually speaking to the public.
The mistake people frequently make is waiting for the ideal speaking engagement to come up before they put themselves out there. The reality is that early on in your career speaking opportunities won’t come to you, you have to go to them. Join speaking clubs and mastermind groups, volunteer to give presentations at work, or approach community organizations. Find opportunities that will give you some stage time, because the more practice you get, the better prepared you will be when the big opportunities show up.
02
Be Prolific
Similar to speaking often, it is important for you to be prolific. The more audiences you show up for, and the more time you spend speaking to those audiences, the better chance you have of getting yourself noticed.
It only takes one right person hearing you say one right thing to unlock incredible opportunities beyond your wildest dreams. You never know who is going to be in your audience, and you never know when you are going to say the right thing.
Being prolific and creating lots of content for many different audiences is a surefire way to grow your own audience and increase the number of opportunities that come your way.
03
Collect And Practice Stories
As a public speaker, one of the things you are going to need a lot of is content. The good news is, if you have been alive for any significant amount of time and if you have ever felt an emotion, you have stories, and those stories make great content!
The trick is to get into the habit of recognizing stories from your life as inventory, documenting them and practicing telling them well.
Get into the habit of recognizing stories from your life as inventory, document them and practice telling them well.
Make sure you use a system for documenting the stories you recognize from your own life, make note of them and the topics they could relate to, and whenever you have an opportunity to practice telling them, take it. This way you will end up with a well-rehearsed repertoire of content that you can use to create a talk at any time—you will ALWAYS know what to say.
04
Align Yourself With Other Speakers
Some public speakers look at other speakers as competition, people they have to work against. But if you really want to gain traction fast it is important to recognise other speakers as your greatest allies.
If you really want to gain traction fast, it is important to recognize other speakers as your greatest allies.
Other speakers can help you find speaking opportunities. They can introduce you to event organizers, recommend you for podcast interviews, encourage you when you encounter challenges, and so much more. The journey to becoming a great public speaker can at times be a lonely one that many people don’t understand. Having a supportive community of other speakers that you can engage with makes it a lot easier to get through the challenging parts.
05
Learn From Other Speakers
Experience is the best teacher (especially if combined with a coach who can give you external feedback on your performance), but it takes time to accumulate experience and it often comes at a high price. Learning from other people’s experience, on the other hand, comes at a much lower price while still giving you the benefit of learning quickly.
As a public speaker, it is crucial that you get in the habit of learning from other speakers. Watch videos of TED talks, comedians, and speakers, then make note of what you like and what you don’t like that could be applied to your own talks. Take workshops or training sessions offered by other speakers you admire. Seek knowledge from other speakers who are willing to share their experience with you; this will accelerate your progress and make you so much better than you could be on your own.
06
Create A Signature Talk
Eventually you might get to a point in your public speaking career where your reputation and the recommendations from your audience are all it takes for you to get booked as a speaker, but the reality is that before you get to that point you will probably have to do quite a bit of marketing.
The trouble is, it’s hard to market a person as a public speaker. The good news is, it’s pretty easy to market a signature speech. Develop a signature talk that you can deliver consistently and that delivers consistent results for your audience. This is a talk that you can get known for, and that you can market while you develop the reputation needed to get booked based on your name alone.
07
Tell People You Are A Speaker
This is one of the simplest things you can do to gain traction as a public speaker, yet for some reason it is one of the most commonly overlooked tactics.
Tell people you are a speaker. It happens all the time, when asked about what they do, new speakers will often list out all of their occupations and ways they work with people, but they will omit the fact that they are a speaker. What a wasted opportunity!
Professional speaking is a very uncommon career, so mentioning it is a great conversation starter. It immediately makes you intriguing and gets people’s attention. Plus, you would be amazed how many people are looking for public speakers and get excited when you mention that’s what you do.
You would be amazed how many people are looking for public speakers and get excited when you mention that’s what you do.
08
Don’t Be In A Rush
Becoming a great public speaker is a marathon, not a race. Too often people start on the journey and then give up when they haven’t made it big within the first few years. The thing is, becoming a great public speaker takes time, effort and growth. Even the overnight successes that seem to spring out of nowhere usually only come after years of dedication and work.
Becoming a great public speaker takes time, effort and growth.
Don’t rush the process of becoming a great public speaker. Put in the effort to grow as a person and develop your skills over time. Keep giving talks consistently and frequently so that you can grow your audience, develop your skills and build a reputation as a great speaker. With patience, you could become one of those overnight success stories.
09
Make It About Helping Others
Many people get into speaking because they are seeking money and fame. Those are the speakers who don’t make it.
The thing is, there are a lot of opportunities to get famous and make lots of money as a public speaker, but that comes as a result of providing value for people. If you really want to make it as a speaker, you need to recognize that it is not about you, it is about what you can do for other people. Think about how you can best serve your audience, think about how your message will improve their lives. Make it about helping other people so that you have the drive and motivation to do the work that will make it eventually pay off for you.
10
Record Your Talks
There are a number of reasons to record your talks. As a new public speaker in the early part of your career, there are few things that will benefit you as much as recording every talk you ever do.
First off, you need to be able to review your performance. Professional athletes review their game footage, world-class actors watch their own films… To be at the top of your game in any field, you need to be able to see what you did well and what you need to improve. You can’t do this if you don’t record and review your talks.
To be at the top of your game in any field, you need to be able to see what you did well and what you need to improve.
Secondly, you need social proof that you’re a good speaker who is worth listening to. Having videos you can post online that showcase your skills will make you way more marketable as a speaker.
Lastly, videos make for great content. Once you post a video of a talk, people can watch it online long after you ever gave the talk. Perhaps there was only a small audience who saw it live, but millions of people watched the video in the years following. Having videos of your talks can greatly increase your audience size, and improve the chances of the right person hearing your message and unlocking the next big breakthrough opportunity for you.
In Conclusion
The early years of any speaking career can be confusing and frustrating. However, by following these 10 tips and consistently improving yourself, you will greatly increase your chances of success. Being a public speaker is a wonderful and rewarding addition to anyone’s life. Great public speakers get to enjoy a powerful form of influence, which we call “The Stage Effect.”
The Stage Effect is the attraction people feel for you when you deliver a great presentation in front of a big audience. You create that effect every time you step on stage and learning how to leverage it will open up opportunities in both your personal and professional life.
