***One of the Little Known Secrets of Dynamic Public Speaking

Have you ever sat in an auditorium, hall, church, or theater and listened to the coughing, sniffling, shuffling of papers and overall restlessness of those in the audience during a rather dull presentation or speech? It happens and it happens when the speaker is not very dynamic. Too often, the person delivering a speech or presentation is frozen in one spot with an ashen complexion and a death grip on the lectern. If this scenario is typical of you, then rest assured your audience will do the moving for you!

The secret to great public speaking is that you, the speaker, should move in addressing your audience: your audience should not. You will discover that your ability to move, just as if you were in conversation in your living room, will create immediate intimacy with your listeners. Making eye contact with them, smiling, and speaking with emotion will further that intimacy. They, in turn, will be so caught up in listening to you that they will not move. The coughing, the sneezing, and the restlessness will not occur because you will have them riveted to their seats.

That is the goal of great public speaking. And, you don’t need to be famous or at the top of the public speaking circuit for this to happen.

1. You must believe in yourself and your message.
2. You must know your material backwards and forwards, inside and out.
3. You must take control of your nervousness and allow it work for you, not against you.
4. You must treat your audience as if you were in conversation, being aware of their response and their reaction to you.
5. You must speak with emotion from your heart, displaying vocal variety in your voice, as well as facial expression and body language that complements your message.
6. You must honestly want to better their lives in some fashion.

Audiences can see and hear nervousness: they judge you the moment you open your mouth to speak. Do not for one moment believe that they are going to give you 5 minutes to warm up. They won’t. If you do not begin with a strong opening, you will lose them immediately.
Dynamic public speaking does not happen by being immobile on the stage. Your immobility builds a wall between you and them. And, an immobile speaker means a mobile audience – an audience that will be more interested in their laptops or their iPods than in you.