According to Warren Buffett, public speaking skills can Improve Your Business & Net Worth by 100%. In this article, I will share how to improve public speaking skills.
Many years ago, legendary investor Warren Buffett realized that he’d never make a lasting impact if he didn’t learn and apply this one skill effectively.
Today I am going to share how you can build public speaking skills that changed my and Warren Buffet’s life.
Learning and practicing this skill can make you an authority in your field, help improve your career, and even help build your business!
When practiced enough & done right, It will even make you rich and earn the respect of the world.
At the end of this blog, I am going to share with you a downloadable template with scripts and real-life examples of people who did it successfully. This will make it very easy for you to learn and practice this awesome skill.
How Warren Buffet Learned the art of Public speaking
As a young man, Warren Buffet was not the successful investor that we know him to be today. In fact, he was an introvert who was not keen on reaching out to other people.
However, he soon realized that to make a lasting impact in life, public speaking is one trait that he will have to master.
To hone his skills and make an impact, he then decided to sign-up for a Dale Carnegie public speaking course.
But when the day came, he did not show up.
Just like the rest of us.
However, some months later he again came across an advertisement for the very same course. So, he enrolled again.
But this time he paid in advance.
And he showed up.
What is public speaking?
Public speaking is an act of speaking face to face to a live audience with the objective to educate, entertain or influence. Public speaking is live to an audience. Both the speaker and audience are present during the interaction in person.
Benefits of public speaking
Public Speaking is the one skill that can change your life. I can confidently say it has changed mine!
Learning to hold attention and communicating effectively will make you a better leader. Your public speaking skills will not only improve your confidence but will also help you build authority in your business or career.
What is public speaking skills?
Public speaking skills refer to the ability of an individual to effectively address an audience in person. Public speaking skills come in handy when you are speaking in front of a group of people.
An individual’s ability to educate, entertain or influence an audience to meet certain objectives successfully is called public speaking skills.
How to develop self-confidence and improve public speaking skills
So without wasting any time I am now going to tell you the 6 action steps you can take to improve your public speaking skills.
Step #1 Write something EVERY DAY!
Tim Ferris is a New York Times bestselling author who interviews successful people who have made a mark in their respective fields. When asked which was the most common habit of successful people, Tim replied that 80% of his guests practiced journaling their thoughts and ideas in some form or the other.
Writing down your thoughts, ideas, and even fears every day is a very helpful practice.
When the time comes to express your thoughts verbally and publicly you will be surprised by the clarity and confidence this exercise will give you.
To inculcate the habit of journaling, you can start by writing your everyday thoughts and ideas in a diary or notebook.
And once you feel confident at expressing your thoughts, try engaging on conversational social media platforms such as Twitter, Linked In, and even Facebook groups.
Step #2: Learn from the LEADERS & the LOSERS.
First and foremost you need to know what good communication looks like. Watching speeches online is a great way to learn public speaking with effective communication. Ted Talks are a great place to start.
Remember when you do your research that there are excellent and mediocre people in every field.
Seek out both.
Learn from the excellent speakers what to include in your own scripts. And learn from the worst what blunders to avoid. This is called inverted thinking. Looking at the worst possible outcome can actually help you avoid it.
Now If you are too busy to research or want to avoid wasting your time looking at every tom, dick, and harry’s video in the sea of youtube videos out there then I have a gift for you.
I have done the research for you and have made a list of the excellent and the horrible speakers and put in the names and the links in a sheet. And I am going to give you this sheet which is going to save loads of your time. So watch this video to the end. Ok?
Now when you see these speakers deliver, listen to them and make notes.
Components of a Speach
Try to analyze the impactful speeches. You can learn what works and what does not work.
Every speech has an introduction, a body, and a conclusion.
Introduction
And here is what you should look out for IN THE INTRODUCTION:
1. How did the speaker grab the attention of the room?
2. Did they start with a relevant question that the audience identified with?
3. Or did they lead with a personal story?
4. Or maybe they kicked off the speech with a factual shocking statement?
Body of the Speech
And now, here is what you should look out for IN THE BODY OF THE SPEECH
1. How did they present their opinion?
2. Did they simplify his arguments?
3. Did they use personal stories to make a connection with the audience?
4. How often did they pause midway? Why did they do that?
5. Did they use any visual aid to convince the listeners?
6. How often did they use metaphors, analogies, and symbolism to add clarity and simplify complex thoughts and ideas?
The conclusion of the speech
And finally here is what you should look out for IN THE CONCLUSION OF THE SPEECH
1. Was their conclusion clear, concise, & memorable?
2. Did they connect it back to something in the introduction or simply drive home the main point of their presentation?
3. Did they include any call-to-action and did it inspire you to take action?
Body language in public speaking
Observe the speaker’s non-verbal or body language as well. Here are some things you should pay attention to:
- Eye Contact
- Posture
- What do they do with their hands during the speech?
- If they made a mistake, how did they recover from it?
- What kind of clothes did they wear?
Some speakers seem naturally talented. However, no matter how easy it looks, they have no doubt put in hours of practice into their talks.
And you, my friend, will need to do the same.
Step #3: Observe successful communicators around you
Watching established leaders & speakers is good. But at the end of the day, we will need to apply what we learn in our daily life with our peers and colleagues.
We are not looking to give speeches to them but we want to learn and practice being more effective communicators.
Is there a person who is friendly with everyone?
Someone who is an absolute favorite of the bosses and colleagues alike? Someone, you want to be like? If yes, then observe them.
See how they approach people and how they approach a topic.
- Observe if their body language is open and welcoming. Do they smile often?
- How do they grab attention and converse in a group?
- Notice their confidence and way of standing. A confident posture can impact how people see you and perceive you.
- How do they excuse themselves from conversations?
- How do they communicate when they are annoyed or upset? Do they raise their voice to dominate the conversation? Or do they remain calm?
Study the confident communicators around you. Pay attention to how they navigate complex situations and the words they use to explain complicated ideas.
Step #4: Record Yourself Speak
Enough learning! We have now reached the action-taking stage.
It’s time to make your first speech to the camera and record it.
You can try answering questions. Refer to the topics or questions you wrote in your journal in the very first step.
But let me warn you, the first time you might need to take even 50 retakes.
However, don’t give up just yet. Once you complete the first recording, it just gets easier and easier from there.
I promise.
Doing this regularly on a daily basis will soon skyrocket your confidence and put you on the path to being a spellbinding speaker.
Step #5: Start Outreach
Reach out to 1 new person every week.
Suresh Venkateshwaran, my boss in my former marketing manager life, once told me that the fastest way to get what you want is by getting to know the people who are doing what you want to do.
Recently I reached out to David Aaker the God Of branding for MBA students and was really ecstatic to get a reply from him especially among so many others I am now in touch with.
Putting yourself in front of other people will help you become good at the following things.
- It will force you to do your homework and prepare an interesting introduction.
- You will become a better listener.
- You will be ready and comfortable to talk about your own values, experiences, and future plans.
- Your written communication will improve.
- You will successfully learn outreach communication & networking
Now the chances are that the people you get in touch with are very cautious of who they reply to. So this exercise will force you to get your outreach message right.
Linkedin is a great platform to start your outreach efforts. The platform will limit your message to 300 words for any new connections you make. This will force you to become precise and make every word count.
Step #6: Teach To A Group
Volunteer to teach whenever you can.
Teaching other people anything will make you an authority in that subject and give you the confidence to speak publicly about it.
I have taught everything from digital marketing, SEO to online advertising to new joiners, and experienced the learning journey of team members of my now 6-year-old digital firm.
Even today, I take out 3-4 hours every week to mentor team members.
I even teach my clients the basics of advanced strategies in branding, advertising, sales and distribution, and more.
Here’s what you get if you teach others:
- You become an authority in your subject
- You develop the confidence to speak anywhere to any number of people about it.
- Learn to create engaging lesson plans
- Become an excellent communicator and speaker.
Look for ways to teach around yourself. Maybe in your community or even at your workplace, where you can offer to mentor new joiners.
Conclusion
If you look around, most successful people you know will be excellent communicators. Unless of course, you are a tech genius!
But for the rest of us, we need to build authority and effective communication skills for life.
So implement these 6 action steps and become an effective communicator and a spellbinding public speaker.
Now let me come back to the promise I made at the beginning of this video.
Here is the downloadable template to research and learn public speaking in an easy and quick way.
I hope that you found this video a useful addition to your endeavor to improve your personal and professional potential.
Please write in the comments how you plan to use this video and the template.
Write in the comments if you liked this video and write even if you have any negative feedback. I try to read and reply to every single comment in my blogs.
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