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Alyson Connolly
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Published:
August 7, 2018

Public Speaking Skills For Dummies

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Overview

Project self-assurance when speaking—even if you don't feel confident!

When you speak in public, your reputation is at stake. Whether you're speaking at a conference, pitching for new business, or presenting to your Executive Board, the ability to connect with, influence, and inspire your audience is a critically important skill. Public Speaking Skills For Dummies introduces you to simple, practical, and real-world techniques and insights that will transform your ability to achieve impact through the spoken word.

In this book, champion of public speaking Alyson Connolly

takes you step by step through the process of conceiving, crafting, and delivering a high-impact presentation. You’ll discover how to overcome your nerves, engage your audience, and convey gravitas—all while getting your message across clearly and concisely.

• Bring ideas to life through business storytelling
• Use space and achieve an even greater sense of poise
• Get your message across with greater clarity, concision, and impact
• Deal more effectively with awkward questions

Get ready to win over hearts and minds —and deliver the talk of your life!

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About The Author

Alyson Connolly, BFA, MFA is a voice and public speaking coach who specializes in painless public speaking and overcoming perfor- mance anxiety. She is also a keynote speaker, having been a performer her whole life, starting out as a child actor, and has been a teacher of drama and theater for the past 30 years. www.alysonconnolly.com

Sample Chapters

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public speaking skills for dummies

CHEAT SHEET

Even though some make it look easy, public speaking requires effort. But you don’t want the audience to see that effort. You want your voice to be the same one you use when talking to family, friends, and colleagues. You can develop your own style and sound like yourself. However, many issues can arise while preparing for and during your speech.
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Articles from
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Stage fright or the fear of public speaking can afflict nearly anyone. This list pulls together some tips and advice aimed at helping you overcome your fear of public speaking. Accept Your Fear The first step to solving any problem is to be aware of it. Be it smoking, eating cheesy-poofs before bed, interrupting your kids and not listening to them because you know the answer — your acceptance that it’s actually a problem is important.
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So, you have a speech coming up? This list is designed to help you prepare your body, your voice, and your mind for delivering that speech. Warm Up Your Body and Your Voice You know who warms up? Pretty much everyone. Your favorite athletes, your yoga instructor — anyone who uses his or her body for some sort of performance warms up.
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Collected and summarized in one handy place, here are ten ways to improve your delivery in your speech or presentation and overall improve your public speaking. Analyze Your Script So you feel like you need to work on your delivery. But maybe it’s not all in how you’re saying it. It may be what you’re saying.Many of my clients seem to believe that their speeches are set in stone once they feel they’re done writing them.
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Some people just seem to knock it out of the park when they speak. Sure, being a natural is a terrific place to start, but even the best speakers still have to work at it to get better. A four-year-old boy may be a natural pitcher, but it’s going to take a lot of work and dedication to get to the major leagues.
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Maybe you’ve kept your head down when your boss has asked for volunteers to present. Maybe you’ve even bypassed promotions because you’re afraid to speak in front of a crowd. But now you’re the head of your team and have to take that leap. You may be thinking: I don’t know as much about this as my colleagues. What if the audience hates me?
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You’ve written your speech, practiced it, and you’re ready to get up there and present. Surprise, surprise — you have a few things to do, or at least check, first. Make a checklist and be organized Even though you’ve practiced, you need to have the written speech with you. It could be the entire speech on a piece of paper or just the main points on a cue card.
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He’s no slouch is a compliment. You shouldn’t be slouching, but often the slouch isn’t a physical problem, it’s a mental one. The anxiety of the fight, flight, or freeze response is at it again. Many slouchers are trying to protect themselves, so they start to curl into a ball.When your spine collapses, your lungs can’t fill properly with air.
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The fight, flight, or freeze response can do some wild things to your mind when you're facing a fear of public speaking. What are some things your body can do to fight back? This article includes exercises that will help you regain control when you step in front of those bright lights. Exercise: Assume the position Stand upright in a neutral position.
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Relaxing your mind helps to relax your body. The opposite is also true: Relaxing your body helps to relax the mind. It’s a circle of relaxation. Where you start is up to you.Runners use every bit of energy available to them to propel themselves forward through the air and — they hope — to the podium. Then there are target shooters, whose outfits are a little less revealing (no need for aerodynamics).
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Breathing is the first thing we do in life and the last thing we do in life. It’s with us wherever we go. Ever try to regulate your breath? You can, but not for long. When your problem is breathiness, you’re going to have to get in there and do a little tweaking. How breathing works When you take a breath in, or inhale, the lungs fill up with air, the ribs expand up and out, and the diaphragm, which is dome-shaped, flattens as the abdominal muscles move down and release.
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Warming up is vital if you want to give a great speech. You’re a speech athlete, and all athletes warm up before they compete. Remember, you are using your body. Speakers, just like athletic competitors, need to warm up physically and vocally. Articulate What’s that you say? You might be passionate about your speech, but if you don’t open your mouth and pronounce your words clearly, know one will care.
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One evolutionary trait that truly doesn’t help us when we’re getting started in public speaking is the fight, flight, or freeze response. If you remember from science class, this response is the central nervous system responding to protect you from some external terrible thing: a tiger coming through some bushes, a branch cracking above your head, or — nowadays — your name being called to give a speech at your daughter’s wedding.
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There are two main types of nasal problems in speaking. The first is hyponasality, which sounds like you have a cold or nasal obstruction caused by allergies. The other is hypernasality, which sounds almost like you’re talking through your nose. Think Janice from Friends. “Oh. My. God. Chandlah.” You’ve actually got two palates.
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The term impostor syndrome was coined by psychologists Pauline Clance and Suzanne Imes in 1978. They used it to describe people who were high achievers and well regarded in their field but who nevertheless felt that they didn’t deserve the accolades bestowed upon them. At first it was thought that only women were afflicted by this condition, but they soon found that men too suffered.
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Body language can be even more important than your voice in delivering your message to the audience. Body language is crucial in exuding confidence in yourself and showing trust in your audience. Believe it or not, changing your posture can actually change your mood and, ultimately, how you perform. First things first.
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Whether or not you have a good idea of what your specific problem with public speaking may be, many issues can arise while preparing for and during your speech. It’s important to have a good sense of them. You may be afraid, your body language may be making you feel less than confident, you could have a vocal problem, you could be running out of breath and not getting to the ends of your sentences.
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Even though some make it look easy, public speaking requires effort. But you don’t want the audience to see that effort. You want your voice to be the same one you use when talking to family, friends, and colleagues. You can develop your own style and sound like yourself. However, many issues can arise while preparing for and during your speech.
Read More
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Stuttering is a disorder where the rhythm of speech is interrupted by repetitions or prolonged sounds. It can start in children as they are exploring how to speak. Often, once a child gets older and more of a seasoned vet when it comes to speech, stuttering can go away. But not always. It can linger into adulthood.
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Don’t push or ram your speech down people’s throats. Sometimes speakers do this so they can be heard — they feel they must do it. It happens in the boardroom as well as onstage. In renowned vocal pedagogue Barbara Houseman’s book Finding Your Voice (Nick Hern Books, 2007), she states, “the brain associates effort with a need to close or constrict the throat.
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This may not come as surprise, but it’s much easier to hold on to negative thoughts and give them emotional weight than it is to hold on to positive ones. After all, we evolved in a scary, deadly, wild environment. One thing your brain is very good at is alerting you to danger. Pessimism and negative thinking tended to keep you alive a hundred thousand years ago.
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Devoicing is when your voice sounds like a whisper and is almost inaudible. But it doesn’t just happen out of shame or embarrassment. You often devoice when you soothe someone. Doctors and caregivers use devoicing to sound reassuring and trustworthy. And it’s good for these things. But in public speaking, devoicing is problematic.
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Business Communication

What Is Upspeak?
What Is Upspeak?
Upspeak is a high rise in intonation at the end of a sentence that makes it end up sounding like a question. Upspeak perhaps reached its height in the “Valley girl” talk of the 1980s, partly due to Frank Zappa’s hit song, “Valley Girl.”Upspeak tends to creep into people’s speech now and then due to habit and mimicking others, or when they’re not feeling confident.
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Vocal fry, or creaky voice, seems to be everywhere nowadays, from podcast announcers to reality show hosts. What is it? To create sound, air moves past our larynx to the vocal folds, which vibrate smoothly. Vocal fry occurs when you speak in your lowest possible register, as low as you can go. You don’t have enough energy or breath to produce the sound.
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There may come a time when you have the opportunity to give a speech, but the right answer is no, thank you. This article talks about some situations in which signing up to give a presentation may not be the best idea. It’s not me you’re looking for. Some people appear to be confident but are in fact rife with low self-esteem.
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