Possibly the most frequently ignored aspect of speaking in public is the correct care of your voice.
The majority of people imagine that all they need to do to become a successful public speaker is to take a deep breath, open their mouths and let the words tumble forth. How wrong they are! But even competent speakers are often guilty of ignoring the most crucial tool in their speech-making arsenal. Few speakers spend any time at all working on good speaking techniques and even less time in looking after their most important asset - their voice.
After all, no voice, no speech!
So what should you be doing to make sure that your voice is in tip top condition for speech-making? Here are the three most important things you can do to ensure gold medal standard presentations:
1. Don't strain your voice in any way. That means no shouting encouragement at your favourite sports team! No matter how much you feel that they need your vocal input to score the winning point, restrain yourself - let others do the yelling and shouting.
2. Drink lots of water. Train yourself to become used to sipping plain water throughout the day and you will soon find that your whole body will feel the benefit - not just your voice. When speaking at an event, make sure that you have a jug of water to hand during your speech so that if you feel your throat is becoming dry, you will be able to re-hydrate easily.
Avoid excessive alcohol intake in the days preceding a speaking engagement and leave the stuff alone completely in the 48 hours immediately prior to making your speech.
And no matter what the state of your nerves, absolutely no alcohol on the day of your speech. Your voice will benefit and so will your audience!
3. Run through some gentle warm-up exercises for your vocal chords half and hour or so before making your speech. If you only speak occasionally, you may feel a little self-conscious humming and singing to yourself but just remember that all professional actors, speakers and singers run through warm-up exercises in just the same way as professional sportsmen. If you really are serious about delivering the best speech possible, these exercises can make a big difference to your performance.
And the better you perform, the better you will feel. And the better you feel, the more relaxed you will become. And as if by magic, your audience will become attuned to your confident manner and leave the event knowing that they have thoroughly enjoyed every word that you have spoken.
Your voice will have been your greatest asset - and you won't have suffered the embarrassment of delivering your speech sounding like a frog with a sore throat!
About the Author:
Be sure to get your complimentary copy of Jane Thomas's 7-part video eCourse that will show you exactly how to become a Superstar Speaker . You'll also discover many more public speaking tips simply by following the highlighted links.
No comments:
Post a Comment