Improve Your Public Speaking

Put the best version of yourself on display every day - at home, at school, and in the community. Excellence starts with wanting to be your best, showing up consistently. 

At school, you share presentations with teachers and your peers. Welcome them as opportunities to demonstrate your preparation, practice, and competence. 

Your audience judges you by substance, content presentation, and your style, how well and how confidently you speak. 

Preparation

Audiences crave not only content, but remember The Big Three:

• Novelty 
• Emotion
• Memorable information

Imagine you shared visiting an ICU with extremely ill patients. In one bed you saw an elderly doctor wearing a hospital gown, attached to a variety of life support devices. On the bedside table, you see a picture of the same man, a little younger, wearing a flannel shirt and jeans, surrounded by his spouse, children, and smiling grandchildren at a family barbecue. It defined contradiction, the joy and vibrance of life and its fragility. You would never forget that experience, seared into your consciousness. Real life and "Just a Photograph" indelibly linked. 

Style

Know your audience. You wouldn't address first graders as you would University representatives during a college interview. 

Show good posture. Keep your hands out of any pockets. Some hand movement may reinforce points. Avoid speaking too slowly or too fast.

Avoid punctuating your speech with "er," "um," "like" or "you know." Better to ask, "am I being clear" if you're uncertain. 

Humor can be helpful as can "emphasis points." In 1986, at a tuberculosis lecture at National Jewish Hospital in Denver, John Sbarbaro began by walking up to the first row (there were maybe 40 of us attendees), and coughing violently over them. "If I had symptomatic active tuberculosis, now you'd all have it." 

Substance 

Statistics can mean a lot in context. Imagine that a defense attorney says, "DNA testing is not infallible" and the prosecution expert says, "The odds that the DNA on the victim are not the defendant's are one in a million." Or that the Director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says, "Here's our annual budget. In 1,600 years, that equals that of NASA." 

Be a Storyteller

Tell a compelling story that will move your audience. Remember the SUCCESS acronym, better yet, write it down. 

• S = simple
• U = unexpected
• C = concrete (specific)
• C = credible (believable)
• E = emotional 
• S = stories 

Ralph Labella and I coached an athletic girl who was a fierce competitor with excellent size and strength. We encouraged her to play volleyball in a winning program, where she would play in the playoffs every year. She made the volleyball team as a freshman and was superb in the sectional final. The "V-Rex" is now Dr. Victoria Crovo, a veterinarian. 

Lagniappe. Video tells great stories, too.