Public Speaking The Practice Process

As with anything you want to improve upon, whether that be breaking a habit, building your savings account, being a better sales person or giving better presentations, but you must first master the basics – walk before you run, tread water before you swim and of course practice before you present.  A perfect example of this is in my martial arts class – Master Jeoung would remind us constantly that we had to learn, practice and master the basics.  In Tai-Kwan-Do you would practice forms, which are a series of moves put together in a specific order to help imbed them into your muscle memory.  The seven fundamental moves in the first two forms he said will make or break everything else.  You can be a black belt easily once you master the fundamentals.  The same principle is true in public speaking.

One fundamental you must master to become a competent and proficient speaker and give great presentation is – Practice.  Now while everyone attempts to pound that into your head, I’m going to take it one step farther and give you a Practice Process that will greatly enhance your material retention as well as help you hone your public speaking presentation.

This is not a process you can skip steps in because each step of this public speaking practice process builds on the previous step allowing you to build your speaking style and presentation technique into your speech as you practice the content.

Your Success At Last Public Speaking Presentation Practice Process:

 

 

1. Read the material to yourself 5-10 times quietly.
   While doing this begin to make mental notes as to where you want to speak faster or slower.  Where to change the pitch and volume of your voice in your presentation.


2. Read the material 5-10 times aloud.
   While doing this step practice the mental notes you made on rate, pitch and volume in your speech.  Test it out, change it, and hone it to fit both your material and your public speaking style.


3. Make a voice recording of your practice.
   Now that you’ve practice the speech 10-20 times (5-10 in step 1 and 5-10 in step 2), make a voice recording of your performance.  I say performance because if you sit down and read it into the tape recorder then you’ll get a different speech.  Are you going to sit and read your message to your audience?  If you said no, then you need to stand and present your speech to your recorder in the same active manner your audience will receive it.  Listening to this recording will give you more insights.  You’ll notice things that you’ve missed during your previous readings.  Make changes, practice them a couple times and record yourself again.  Do this until you are comfortable with how you sound.


4. Practice your presentation in its entirety in front of a mirror.
   Here you’ll begin to focus on your facial expressions, your posture, gestures etc.  Public speaking isn’t just speaking, they are looking at you too!  Put in effective gestures and expressions at those key and impactful moments of your speech – you want get to your audience both visually as well as audibly during your presentation.  Again, make changes, and practice them until you are comfortable with the results and the body language is fluid with your speech.


5. Video tape yourself. 
   This one will sometimes take you all the way back to step 3 or sometimes even 2.  Watching yourself in the mirror is one thing.  You are involved in your speech and can miss little things.  But when you use videotape, you are performing and that’s it.  So now you can go back and review that performance and hone it to the public speaking razors edge you are striving for.


6. Give a practice performance to a safe audience.
   This safe audience could be a family member, close friend, or trusted associate.  I found a great place for my practice presentations – Toastmasters.  Here a group of people, who want to improve their speaking skills, gather to present to, and constructively critique one another.  When you present to a willing party, be sure to be open minded when receiving the response to your performance.  Don’t put up your defenses when they make suggestions – because that’s what you want.

 

This process may seem long the first couple times you go through it.  But if you make it a habit to follow all these steps, then each and every one of your public speaking performances will be the best it can be.  And your audience will thank you for that!

Think Successfully & Take Action
Tracy Brinkmann
One of Today’s TOP Motivated Coaches & Author of Success Atlas Programs.

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