How To Enhance Your Business Speaking Skills

If you consider yourself a business leader and want to see your business thrive for many years to come, then you will need to get out to major conferences and network with your peers. But if you want to be seen as a trusted expert who is perceived as being a leading expert, then you are going to need to get on stage and speak in public. The fact is that public speaking is one of the most powerful ways to get your name out there and build trust in your industry. This is the type of communication that truly resonates with people who are interested in doing business with you. So what exactly can you do to improve your speaking skills?

Are speakers born?

Sometimes it seems like some people have all the public speaking skills and you don’t seem to have any. It may just sound like an inferiority complex, but many great speakers in the business industry have felt that way before. But what have  learned along the ways is that public speaking skills aren’t something you’re born with. Everybody, even those that seem to be natural born speakers, had to attain and learn those skills. And if they can learn them, then so can you so long as you have the patience and determination.

Finding good information

Nowadays, there are many professional speakers that are marketing their public speaking skills to the public. However, not all of the methods mentioned in these books and videos are effective. There are some people who haven’t been very successful but write a book and put it out anyway. Why do they do this? Why else? It’s to make money. As long as you steer clear of these products and stick with proven materials from proven speakers, you should be on your way to grasping those public speaking skills that you were so envious of.

Choosing a topic

What do all great public speaking topics have in common? They are all relevant and meaningful to the audience. Great public speaking topics should interest the audience and provide information that can answer a need they have. The topic should also be one that you are interested in so that you will be able to give a great speech filled with honesty and zeal. For example, you may want to share your latest insights on new media or how technology can help businesses grow.

When considering topics, it’s also important to consider the type of event you are speaking at. You might consider much different public speaking topics for an informal event than you would for a formal event. It helps to know your audience as well. You will certainly slant your public speaking topics differently if you are addressing a group of stay at home mothers than you would if you are speaking to a group of lawyers.

Research your topic

Once you have several public speaking topics in mind, do some research to choose which is the best one for your speaking engagement. Talk to some people who are in your potential audience, or who have similar backgrounds, and find out what interests them, what problems they have, or what potential public speaking topics they need to learn more about. Spending time researching your public speaking topics will help you find one that is finely tuned to the needs of your audience, and will help make it a much more successful speech.

In order to know if your topic is a great one, you should ask yourself a few questions. If you answer “no” to any of these questions, you should look into a different topic.

• Am I sincerely interested in my topic?
• Am I willing to research the topic to become more knowledgeable?
• Will a discussion of this topic be beneficial to the audience?
• Have I developed a clear and concise point?

Just keep in mind that your topic should be something you know very well and do not need to try and memorize as this can make you look stuff on stage. You want to appear as natural as possible so that they audience does not feel uncomfortable as they watch you.

Preparing yourself

Before you get on stage it’s important that you take some time to mentally prepare yourself. You can do this by practicing some breathing exercises or reading quotes and affirmations from this website. Just make sure that you have established a good balance of being excited while remaining calm so that you don’t rush through your speech.