By Steve Siebold
Are you looking for a way to catapult your practice in the public eye? Start speaking up—to groups, that is. At a time when budgets are tight and the future is uncertain, people seek real leaders who can embrace the process of change. Becoming a powerful public speaker can be your ticket to the top in your profession.
Studies show public speaking is a common fear, making it a skill that very few people ever develop. This is what makes speaking so important. Whether you are speaking in your clinic to prospective patients in an educational lecture or to a community or business group, you have an assumed level of leadership and authority from any audience that you address.
The bottom line: A powerful, entertaining, relevant and informative speaker will gain attention everywhere he/she goes. Period. The speaker will advance, while the non-speaker is often relegated to non-leadership duties. Developing your public speaking skills and proving yourself, as a leader, may be the single most important strategy you can follow.
Greater influence and leadership are not the only benefits of learning how to speak in public. The biggest benefit may be an almost astronomical increase in self-assurance. Professional speakers refer to this phenomenon as “the magic of the platform.” Becoming comfortable in front of groups of people seems to produce an almost magical effect on your belief system. Subconsciously, the speaker has a new self-talk: It’s as if the mind says to itself: “If I’m not afraid to communicate to a large group of people, why would I ever be afraid of talking or persuading someone one-on-one, or on the phone?”
New speakers often report a feeling of heightened awareness and enhanced personal power that they’ve never experienced before. Many even say speaking has improved their personal relationships as a result of learning how to communicate more effectively and listen more attentively.
Public speaking may not be a panacea, but it may be the platform that launches your practice. The ability to express your ideas clearly, concisely and with confidence is the business collateral of the future. Solutions to problems are inside the minds of people, yet many ideas stay hidden due to an overwhelming fear of rejection. Fear is the disease and public speaking is the cure.
Seven Tips For Improving Your Next Speech
If you want to improve your speeches, consider these seven tips direct from the Bill Gove Speech Workshop, which is considered to be the world’s most prestigious public speaking school:
1. Make a point … and tell a story. Most groups will remember your story long after they have forgotten your point.
2. The stories you tell should reinforce the point you’re trying to make.
3. Tell personal, self-deprecating stories. They should entertain and inform the audience, while letting them know that you’re still just a fallible human being.
4. Each story should include people, places and dialogue. These things add a level of excitement to the speech that most people never achieve.
5. Each story should be composed of a premise, a problem and a payoff. Here are examples: “Here’s what I was,” “Here’s what happened to me” or “Here’s how I see myself now.”
6. Humorous stories that make a point are very effective. Look at each of your stories and ask yourself, “What’s funny about this?”
7. Family stories are heartwarming and tend to endear the audience to you. This helps facilitate the speaker/audience connection that is critical to your success.
About the author: Steve Siebold is a professional speaker who trains Fortune 500 sales organizations on how to become mentally tough to increase sales, reduce turnover and enhance customer service. For more information, call (877) 789-2915; or visit govesiebold.com.