How to get better communication and public speaking skills

[lovelymari]

Hello,
I work at a marketing firm where presentation skills are required.
Meetings occur frequently and I need to speak freely and confident infront of people. There is no place for anxiety and nervousness which I totally get, but of course cannot fake. This is something I want to work on, and wondering if you guys can recommend any online resources or real life training you have done and like? Thanks!

Otherwise it's all good! Thanks for the help.

Anton

[Reza]

Hello anton,

I have also this problem. If you find something , please let me know.

Reza

[awdye]

Toast Masters. They're pretty widespread. Probably some goups in your area.

[AMyles]

I agree with awdye.

Toastmasters is a great way to increase your speaking and leadership skills. Most Toastmasters locations will let you go to as many meetings as you want as a guest without joining also, so you can get an idea what they are about.

They are also international!

[Clint Cora]

I'll put a word in for Toastmasters as well. I was in that organization for several years and went through their entire program to make it to DTM (Distinguished Toastmaster). It was a good starting point to get in some basics and experience before launching my professional speaking career. I've seen many wonderful success stories of people who were extremely shy and nervous . They turned out to be half decent speakers with much more confidence within a few months.

Not all Toastmasters clubs are the same as they all have their own vibes. So it's best to go check out several in your area to see their differences. One will fit better than others for you.

Of course there are online resources but for something like speaking in public, you really need actual real life experience in front of people which is what Toastmasters helps you with.

People who are familiar with Toastmasters and see my various videos online will notice right away that there are some core skills I use straight from the Toastmasters educational program.

[Nick Connor]

I'm going to have to disagree with these guys on the Toastmasters recommendation. To be honest, Toastmasters is the last place I would go to learn how to be an effective speaker.

Here is why, toastmasters is a very controlled atmosphere and promotes a lot of old school "scholarly" speaking traditions (think of a stiff college professor). You know, the routine: state how happy you are to be there, look up, stand up straight behind the podium and scan the room, etc.

In the real world there are many uncontrollable factors during a presentation (slides fail, hecklers, texting, a loud caugh, etc). I speak to high school and college students, easily the hardest demographic to capture. Here are three things that have really helped me and can be applied to a corporate setting.

1. Be self deprecating: make fun of yourself in a lighthearted way ("I stayed up all night last night, I was so excited to give this presentation).
2. Ditch the Podium, Dude. No one wants to be preached to and simply changing that "norm" will pleasantly surprise your audience.
3. Speak about what you know. This is by far the best way to deliver a great speech. Let it be know that you aren't an expert on, oh let's say sales leadership. BUT, for example, your girlfriend loves to shop so you sat down with her to figure out who she buys from and why....

I hope you get the point. Be yourself, my man and take reasonable risk.

Let me know how it goes.

NC

[Asten]

I've heard good and bad things about Toastmasters, although I have not tried it myself. My Public Speaking teacher really doesn't like it--I think for the reasons Nick just said--but a lot of people rave about it's effectiveness, so I have no opinion.

My guess is that Toastmasters is what you make of it. I don't imagine there's a requirement to do speeches exactly the way they recommend, is there? (Correct me if I'm wrong!) So if you're just looking for an audience and support for practice, it could be good for that, and you could find out what techniques you prefer.

Alternatively, I bet there are groups around. You might check meetup.com.

Anyway, I tend toward being shy, but over the last two years, I've gotten better at it (although I'm far from perfect), and here are the things that have helped me.

• Practice. The more often you're in front of an audience, the better you'll get. I didn't really start to improve until I was helping teach a class twice a week, where I had to speak in front of 30 people, regardless of how I was feeling.
• Realize you'll always be nervous. It doesn't go away. However, the best communicators learn to channel this energy and turn it positive. It can be expressed as enthusiasm, spontaneity, emotional expression, creative thinking, etc. Realize also that some days will be better than others. I was talking to a friend who speaks for a living, and I asked him about his nervousness. He said sometimes he's perfectly fine, and other times he gets extremely nervous--there is no rhyme or reason to it, because he's speaking about the same topic. So don't beat yourself up for nerves--roll with them.
• Record yourself and watch it to discover your bad habits: What are you doing with your hands? How is your voice projection? How many times did you use filler words, like "um"? What's your posture express about you? If you can see yourself, you can identify different problems to work on.
• Sing. Seriously! I'm extremely soft-spoken, so projection has been one of the hardest things for me to overcome in all types of communication. Now I have a specific song I sing to in the car, because it helps me "open" my throat and project sound better. If I know I have to speak or I feel like I'm having a hard time projecting (usually nerves/tiredness makes this worse), I'll sing it on the way to where I'm going, and it inevitably helps. I chose this song, because it works with my vocal range and specifically gives me that "open" sense that allows me to project. I can't sing for real at all, by the way.
• Study great speakers. Maybe these are people you know or people in your field, or maybe these are just great speakers in general. Watch how they do things and analyze why those things are effective, then try to integrate it into your own habits.

I don't have a specific course or anything to recommend, but I hope these things are helpful. Good luck!