5 Public Speaking Tips to Improve Your Presentation Skills and Engage Your Audience
Discover 5 practical public speaking tips to improve your presentation skills, boost your confidence, and keep your audience engaged from start to finish.
Start Strong: Don’t start with “Hello” or “Thank you for this opportunity.” Instead, capture attention with a powerful opening—try a question, a bold statement, or a short story.
Tell them what you’re going to tell them: After you start your speech with a strong hook, go ahead and tell the audience what you’re going to tell them. Preview your main points. This creates buy in and anticipation for your audience.
Don’t write your presentation out: The most effective speaking is what we call “extemporaneous.” It’s highly prepared and rehearsed but not memorized or read. I know, I know–you think you’ll write it out “just in case” you blank. If you do that, you will read it. And reading to someone is not giving a speech.
Slow down: For more people nerves make you talk faster than normal. Got a presentation or speech coming up? Talk more slowly than feels comfortable for you. Your audience will appreciate it.
Are your visual aids actually visual? A bad slide deck can ruin great content. Make sure if you’re using slides don’t use them as notes you read to the audience. In fact, cut the words and use pictures, charts, graphs that tell stories your words can’t.
