PUBLIC SPEAKING: Become an effective public speaker - a simple approach

1. Welcome: Hello and welcome. Why public speaking? It's important for your professional development and for your self-development. And it helps you to appear more confident. Public speaking helps you to appear more confident. It will bring you unique perspectives. Unique perspectives come together when you can speak confidently with others. And it helps you to bring your own company brand together or to build your own company brand. It also helps to build a better work and team environments. So join me, Carol, how grit and I'll help you to become a more effective public speaker. I've been teaching public speaking for over ten years. And I absolutely have a passion to help you to succeed, to become a more effective public speaker. So join me on this journey to become a more effective public speaker. See you in the course. 2. What will you learn in this course : So what will you learn from this course? What can you expect? You will learn how to become a better, stronger, more confident public speaker. And you'll do this by doing the following. You'll learn about how to control speech anxiety. You'll learn about the purpose of your speech. Next, you'll learn about how to organize your speech. And then you'll learn about how to analyze your audience, how to appeal to your audience. Next, you'll learn about how to outline your speech, how to create the great outline. And that will be done as teaching you in depth about how to do an informative outline and how to do a persuasive outline. Next, you will learn about how to present your speech well by using presentation aids. This is important and then you'll learn the methods of speech delivery. Next. In the course, you'll learn how to practice your speech well. And then we will delve into the project. This is where you'll put all of this to work. The project. You will decide on the purpose of your speech. You will learn about how to organize it, and then you'll think about your audience because you will be delivering a speech. Next, you will decide on if you're going to be doing an informative speech or a persuasive speech. And you'll decide on your presentation aid. Which one will you use? Finally, you will produce your informative or persuasive speech and you will post it. I look forward to seeing your projects. See you in the next video. Take care. 3. Speech anxiety: Where the teaching a college course or doing an online course, I'd like to start with speech anxiety. Speech anxiety is real and must be addressed. And so we know that 73% of men and 74% of women report fear of public speaking. And this is a real statistic. And so at least three-quarters of the world's population has fear of public speaking. It is real. It's also called gloss of phobia. Now some have physiological reactions. These reactions can be where your heart rate speeds up, you get sweaty, you start to shake. You have all these physiological reactions. You don't want to feel them. So you shy away from public speaking. And so physiological reactions are real. And I can tell you that they exist and they will continue to exist. But you can control them. These physiological reaction say stop, I don't want to do this. But you've got to, if you want to become a more effective public speaker, you've got to overcome the thought of not speaking because of those physiological reactions, then some psychological reactions. This is where you may have had a situation in your life where you're you were you tried to speak and maybe you were ridiculed or you felt out of place that you never want to do this again. But in order to become a public speaker, you must go beyond that experience that you had, maybe in that classroom, in kindergarten, where maybe the kids laughed at you. Where did it begin? You've got to decide that. But it is important that you move beyond that point. Move beyond the point where you felt like you were being ridiculed. Change your mindset. Instead of giving up. Tell yourself I'm going to do it again. Stead of thinking that public speaking you have to be a natural. Realize that it's important that you learn how to become a good public speaker by practice, practice, practice, practice. That's what it takes. And there's no mistaking that you may have physiological or psychological reactions, but you've got to move on. To become an effective public speaker, you must move on from the physiological and psychological mindset onto a growth mindset that will help you become a more effective public speaker. See you in the next video. 4. Speech anxiety strategies : Next, let's talk about speech anxiety strategies. How you can overcome some of your speech anxiety. Again, speech anxiety is real. And so sometimes you feel self-conscious. These are some of the reactions to being anxious when speaking. When you feel self-conscious, understand that it is a natural reaction. And so our strategy is to tell yourself, they're just like me, all the people watching or listening to me. I just and so because they're just like me and they here to here what I have to say, It's okay. Another reaction can be you feel nauseous, you feel dizzy, You've got cold sweat. Again. This happens to the best speakers. So you're in good company. Understand that these reactions are real. Strategy is to use deep breathing in through the nose, out through the mouth. In through the nose. Breathe in heart out through the mouth until you start to feel the fear will reduce the fear of appearance. How are they going to look at me? Do I look like them? Am I dressed appropriately? And these fears are real. Fear of judgment is real. People do look at you to see what you're wearing. But the strategy is fake it till you make it appear competent. Stand with your head, high, shoulders, back. When you walk into the room. If it's a live speech, if you're on a recorded speech and you're recording yourself, your image, make sure you look as nice as you can. Please remember this. It's all in mindsets. Whether you think you can, you will, and if you think you can't, won't, a fixed mindset is where you always think, I can't, I can't, I can't. This mindset has to change to a growth mindset where you say, I can, I'll never give up. I will improve with practice. I am good enough. So if you prepare a new practice and have a growth mindset and you exhibit confidence, you'll be an effective public speaker. See you in the next video. 5. Shyness & speech anxiety workbook: So as you heard in the previous videos, fear of public speaking is very real. And in the US, the National Institute of Mental Health reports that public speaking anxiety or gloss of phobia affects at about 73% of the population. We also know that much of public speaking comes from shyness, being shy. And if you're shy and you also have fear, then that can certainly lead you to never want to speak publicly. But maybe you have to. Maybe your job or your own business requires you to be a public speaker. If so, then you are going to need some strategies and tips to be able to overcome your shyness and fear of public speaking. This workbook provides you with some tools and tips on how to overcome or how to identify your shyness and then how to overcome it. Now, let me just say that shyness is something that honestly doesn't completely go away. It's there, it's a part of your personality for the most part. You learn to work around it for the good of your career or your business, or even personal development. Now, have you ever thought, how shy am I? The degrees of shyness? Well, there are. And this workbook provides you first with a little mini, some questions to determine how shy You are. So use this workbook first of all to determine how shy you are. Then follow the directions in the workbook to help you to understand about shyness and then how to tackle it in order to manage public speaking anxiety. So work through this book. I'm step-by-step and read it so that you can see what things are, what strategies you might use to be able to overcome your shyness and then to be able to become a better, more effective public speaker. See you in the next video. 6. What is the purpose of your speech : In this section, we're going to talk about the purpose of your speech. As you're thinking about the types of speeches that you'll have to give. You understand what the purpose of your speech is. What are you going to say? And who were you going to say it too? What does your audience comprise? What do they expect of you? These are some of the things that you're going to have to think about when you are deciding to do a speech. So we first have to discuss what type of speech do you need to get it? Did you know that there are types of speeches? Speech and to write your speech. And we will have a section on speech writing. And that will be a part of the project for this course. You'll need to understand what types of speeches there are. So let's begin by looking at the types of speeches. You can speak to inform. This means is that you are providing information to your audience. This means that your audience expects you to give them something useful that they can take with. When speaking to inform, let's say that you were employed by a cell phone company. Latest version of the cell phone has come out and you have been hired to inform the audience about the types of features. There are four that you are then speaking to when you're not trying to persuade your audience, you speaking to. And then they're speaking to persuade. This is quite different. Speaking to persuade means that you're telling your audience what you want them to do. Do you want them to buy something or do you want them to wear something? Do you want them to go somewhere? Do you want to persuade them? To see your point of view? This speech is a very powerful speech. A lot of times it is used for sales. And it is a speech that when you learn how to do it well, it can earn you a lot of money. 7. What is the purpose of your speech - continued: Another purpose of his speech might be to inspire. Have you been asked to maybe speak at a graduation or at some other ceremony where you are required to inspire your audience. This is a very special speech. And when done well, will be remembered by your audience for the rest of their lives and probably the rest of your life too. There are many inspirational speeches that we seek when we need to be inspired. And finally, we have the speech to entertain. And so the purpose of this speech is to entertain your audience. You want to make him laugh. You want to lift their spirits. You want to make them feel relaxed and like they're having fun. These speeches are not as easy to do as you might think. It is important that you understand your audience so that you don't have a major faux pas in this speech. So as we wrap things up, I hope you've been able to see from this section that is important that you understand the purpose of your speech. Are you there to inform our youth there to persuade? Are you there to inspire or are you there to entertain? 8. Simple ways to organize your speech : Now that you know the purpose of your speech, it's time for you to think about how should you organize your speech. So next you're going to ask yourself, how should I organize my speech? There are many ways to organize your speech. And in this video, we're going to talk about a few of those ways that you can organize your speech. So let's get started. First, you can organize your speech chronologically. And chronological order, as you know, means that you organize your speech in terms of numbers, dates, sequences, et cetera. This gives your audience a very good way of listening to your speech. Second, topically. And what topically means is if you have a very broad topic for your speech, you may decide to break these topics down into subtopics. And these subtopics help your audience to understand your speech better. Next, we will look at organizing your speech by using the cause and effect method. And this cause and effect organization tells your audience about a cause. And you want to talk to them about what the effect is or vice versa. You might talk about an effect and then what caused it. The next method that you might use to organize your speech is the problem solution method. And this is where you tell your audience about a problem. And then you tell about the solution that you think is best. Or based on your research, what is the best solution? This is an excellent way when you have to use, when you want to convince your audience of a very specific solution to a problem that's used with persuasive speech. And then the next method that you might use to organize your speech is the method of the spatial, or to discuss your speech spatially. And all this means is to break down your speech in a way where you are relating to space, position, area, and size. These are all great ways that you can use to organize your speech. See you in the next video. 9. How to organize and outline your speech: Welcome. In this presentation, we're going to talk about outlines. And we're also going to delve a little bit deeper into the organizational structure as you consider how to outline your speech. So let's begin. So we're going to talk about purpose and organization. And this is a review from the last video that we did. And we're going to talk about them in terms of how you start to develop your outline. Now remember that when you are doing a speech and you think about the purpose of your speech. And you'll decide if it's informative or persuasive, then you have to think about how you're going to organize your speech. Some of the organizational structures lend themselves better to informative, and some lend themselves better to persuasive speaking. So we'll run down those right now. So for informative speaking, the chronological method is one way that you might use. Another is topical. Remember we talked about that in our last video. Then, in terms of for persuasive speaking, you might want to use the problem solution organizational method or the cause and effect. Now, for spacial, you can use it in either case, for persuasive or informative. And that is true of chronological and topical. But in terms of informative, it's probably best to stick to the chronological, topical, and spatial organization. And so again, as we go back and think about the purpose of your speech, this is one of the things that you're going to be pondering as you start to think about how am I going to develop my speech? How am I going to structure it? Now that I know the perfect, my purpose is to inform my audience about something, or my purpose is to persuade my audience about something. I can now use the chronological order. If I'm going to be doing an informative speech, I can use the topical organizational structure. Or if I'm doing a persuasive, I can use problem-solution, cause and effect. And I can use spatial in either, either way, either informative or persuasive. I want to delve in a little bit further in terms of the organizational structure to give you some examples. So take a look at this example of the chronological organizational structure. You might consider in this is just an example. There are many ways that you can do this. You might consider doing a speech about our vacation to Disney World. And you might start off with Dave wanted, which is numbered numerical day two, day three. And that is a chronological structure that you can use. And this goes far beyond Disney. You can apply it to anything that you might be able to use, that you can go sequentially or in a number, a structured way. So that's the chronologically. Our next example is the topical example. So here's a topic about business majors. And again, this is just an example. You may have a topic that's completely different, but you might be able to use this example. So let's say you have a topic about business majors and it's a huge debts, so many majors, right? In business. So you want to break it down to a specific area of business, which takes it down to a sub topic. Then further you might take it down to that specific careers salary. And then further you might take it down to that specific careers, career advancement. And that is how you can use topical exam. So considered topical as breaking big topics down into smaller, bite-sized portions. So our next example is the spatial example. Here's the example that you might use. You might think about buying a house and then think about the surrounding location. Remember we talked about spatial in terms of space. So think about it as maybe it's the Northeast quadrant or the North. West quadrant. And then you'll take it down to maybe the street as specific street, Holly role in the northwest area. And then you might take it down to the property level, the fifth house to house number five, Holly road in the Northwest quad. And that is how might discuss things spatially. Here's an example of problem solution. Let's take a look at needing transportation. Let's say you needed to think about whether or not you wanted to buy a car. Did you want to buy a used car or a new car? So the problem is that you need transportation. One of the solutions might be that you need to buy a car. And if you want to buy a car, do you want to buy a new car, a used car? For solution number two might be, I don't want to buy a car at all. I want to use a car share, ride service or taxi service and saved my money on the transportation that way. An example of problems, some cause and effect. And so here is an example of cause and effect. So think about a speech on why the cost of insurance would increase for those who are driving under the influence. So your point number one might be, of course, the cause of it was driving under the influence. And then the point number two might be the fact that insurance will be higher. And then the point number three might be the effect of driving under the influence can be higher insurance card. And that's the cause and effect. Now that we've looked at all of that, and you're thinking about how you might develop your speech. Now it's time to talk about outlines. Now, for outlines, what we're going to do here is we are going to provide you with two outline examples. And we're going to have an informative outlines. Now there are other outlines because there are other types of speeches. But we're going to this presentation, give you information on it informative. And we're providing a workbook. And I'm going to go through that workbook in the next video. Then we're going to talk about a persuasive speech outline. And you gotta be provided. And so I hope you found the information in this video helpful. There was a lot provided here. But this is where we get into the meat of public speaking. And this is where you begin starting your speeches for yourself. I'll see you in the next video. 10. Informative speech outline workbook: Welcome to your free workbook. This is the free workbook for the informative speech. It is a writable book. And so you can actually work in it once you download it, and you can use it for your future speech writing. So welcome to public speaking tips and tricks how to outline it. Successful, informative speech. Organizing is what you do before you do something so that when you do it, It's not all mixed up. That's a quote. And so here it is. Many times when you go to give an informative speech or you think about giving an informative speech, you might say, where do I begin? What is it that I need to do to write a good informative speech so that it can be organized and structured. And so here, what I'm giving you is an informative speech outline. Very simple one. There are many types of informative speech outlines. This is just one of them. You'll notice that you begin with your introduction. This introduction is giving you the opportunity to grab your audience's attention. So you begin with an attention grabber or attention getter. Next, you will tell your audience about your topic. What is the topic of your speech? What is your speech about? So tell them clearly so they know. Today I'm going to be speaking to you about this topic. After you've told them the topic, you now preview your points. So if you have three points in his speech, and these three points are only examples, you could have 1. I mean, you could have two points, you could have three points, you could have five points. If it's a long speech, you might have ten points, doesn't matter. But for just for this example or for this outline, the rule of thumb, especially for our five to seven minute speech, or five to ten minute speech, is three points. So if you're going to be talking about, Let's say you're talking about fruit. And you decide that you want to talk about three fruit, apples, oranges, and pears. Then you'll start out by saying today I'm going to be talking to you about fruit. In particular. I want to talk to you about apples, oranges, and pears. And then you'll transition. Your transition statement is where you go now from your introduction to your body by telling your audience that and that might be a word or a phrase like to begin or let's get started. Or my first is, remember I'm giving you very simplistic points. I'm very simplistic transitions because I'm giving you a very easy and distinct way to do this. You can use much more sophisticated transitions and you will, as you get better at public speaking. Once you get to your body, then you're going to be discussing your first. So if your first, let's say you are, so you said you're going to talk about apples. Then this is where you elaborate on apples. Then you transition to your second. Then you might talk about oranges. Then you, you transition to your third, which is, let's say talking about pairs. Again, these are just examples. Your speech might be totally different, but I'm giving you the structure, the organizational structure, and this is how you're going to write it. You might write it out as a full essay. But I'm going to recommend that once you write it out as a full essay, you break it down to very small portions, so you're not tempted to read it verbatim. Then finally, you might transition to your conclusion. You might simply say, to wrap things up or to conclude, or finally, or to review. And again, those are simplistic transition statements. You may get more sophisticated, but don't hesitate to use a simplistic when you're first starting out your public speaking journey, then you go to Review and so you're wrapping up your main points. That might be a statements such as, now that I've talked about, apples, oranges, and pears. You throw it back to your attention getter, whatever that attention getter was in the beginning, you'll throw it back to that attention getter in the end. Just to make sure that people understand that you've come full circle with your speech. You throw it back to your attention getter. And then you wrap up by thanking your audience. And if you had any sources that were not your own, don't forget to quote them in your speech. This is just a reminder. If you don't quote them in your speech, you can be cited for plagiarizing a speech. So cite them in your speech. So that is the informative speech outline and that is the workbook that's provided for you. As you go through the workbook, you'll be able to now write your own attention getter, write your own topic statement or your topic, and so on and so forth. So hopefully this workbook helps you. I'll see you in the next video. 11. Persuasive speech outline workbook: Welcome to your persuasive speech outline workbook. This workbook will help you to write a persuasive speech. Organizing is what you do before you do something so that when you do it, It's not all mixed up. So let's take a look at the persuasive speech outline. And when you take a look at it, see how much it differs from your informative speech outline that was presented to you in the previous video. You'll notice similar to the informative speech, that you have an attention getter or an attention grabber. This is where you begin by grabbing your audience's attention so that they pay attention to you at the outset of your speech. Now, what you wanna do next is motivate your audience to listen. Tell them something that will grab them enough after you've given them the attention getter. That would motivate them to listen to your speech. Maybe because it's so important. Maybe because it's something that is pressing in society today. Maybe it is specific to your audience. And when you tell them something that motivates them to listen, they're going to be more, even more inclined to want to hear what you have to say. Next in an informative speech. And this is a simple persuasive speech outline. And so in this outline, what you should do is establish your credibility. What does it mean to establish your credibility? Tell your audience why you have the right to talk about the speech. This is where you tell them a little bit about yourself, a little bit about your credentials. And they don't have to be specific to a degree or certificate. But tell them why you are able to talk about this speech. Because of your experience, whatever it is, give your audience the opportunity to see that you're capable and credible to talk about the topic in question. Next is your thesis statement. And this is where you're going to tell your audience precisely what your, what your speech is about. Now in a persuasive speech, you do not have to give them this upfront. You can build up to this. Next, you preview your speech as was discussed in the previous video. You will, you might tell them what you're going to be talking about in the speech. You transition then by using a transition phrase, which might be, Let's get started or to begin. Or my first is, or you might delve right into the problem or your viewpoint about what you're trying to persuade your audience to do. If it's a problem, start out with the problem. If it's a cause, start out with the cause, whatever it is. Let them know what your viewpoint is about the specific thing that you're talking about. Then transition. And what you wanna do next is let your audience know that you know what the opposing viewpoints are. Your own viewpoint or your own problem, or your own cause, whatever it is that your opposition might say, stated. So that your audience knows that you know that there are opposing viewpoints, then you transition from there and you give them what's called a call to action. This is where you tell your audience why your viewpoint or your solution is better and what it is you want them to do about it. A call to action is that piece of persuasion that tells your audience what you want them to do about the problem, the solution to the problem, the fact. If it's a cause and effect, you tell your audience precisely what you want them to do. The call to action is one of the most important parts of a persuasive speech. Once you've done that, you transition to your conclusion. By using a transition phrase. It could be to wrap up to conclude. Or you might say, let me reiterate my main points and then you reiterate your main points. A good call, a good persuasive speech includes you repeating your call to action, telling your audience why they should do something by something where something, and why it's different from what someone else is trying to persuade them to do. Throw it back to your attention getter and wrap your speech up. Remember to cite your sources. I've put three sources here. It doesn't have to be three. It could be two, it could be five, it could be ten. But if you have sources or if you have anything that is not your own, cite the source. Either in a presentation, whether it's a slide presentation, or orally, always cite your source so that you're not plagiarizing a speech. Again, you can move further down into the workbook where you can put all of your information in there and write your first persuasive speech. I hope you learned something very, very necessary from this speech. And I'll see you in the next video. 12. Public Speaking Your Audience : So let's talk about your audience. Why is it so important for you to understand your audience? Let's begin. I loved this quote. Designing a presentation without an audience in mind is like writing a love letter and addressing it To whom it may concern. And as you can see, that would mean that you are addressing that particular letter to whom it may concern. That means that if you relate it to your audience, you would be a dressing your speech to whom it may concern. You want to do better than that, right? So think about how you want your audience to respond to your speech. Why do you think audiences respond in a positive way to your speech? Well, when you have really thought it through, when you think to yourself, I really need to understand my audience. Then you're on the right track. So let's begin talking about how to get to know your audience. First and foremost, you need to think about who is in your audience, what is the makeup of your audience? And so we have these three terms. The demographics of your audience. All that means is either male or female. Are they younger? I think a little bit more. See them. Do they belong to specific clubs or organizations? Is it an audience of college students or audience of senior citizens or an audience of women, audience of men. The makeup. You have to determine that before you even start to think about writing your speech. That's what's called demographics. And there's a lot more to that. But you need to ask those questions and we're going to talk about asking the right questions a little bit later. Next week. Let's talk about psychographics. Psychographics is the way your audience thinks. Now you might think, does an audience think? Generally speaking, when an audience has accepted that they want to come and hear you speak. It's for a specific reason. That means there is a collective thought process going on with that audience. So think about it like this. If you're going to speak to a group of students who are business majors, then psychologically or their psychographics are going to be specifically about business, are related to business. For the most part. That means that when you are asked to speak, you need to know what the psychographics of your audience are. And it's important that you ask these questions to find this out before you even start to write your speech. And so we all realize that we're living in a time because of the internet, because of social media, the availability of things on demand, that we live in a global world. If that's the case. When you're speaking, even if you may be speaking to a local audience, an audience that might be close to your home. You should still take a global view. And that means you want to think about your audience in a global way. That your audience might be made up of folks from all over the globe with different thought processes and the like. And so when you take a global view, it means that you probably are going to be able to appeal to more people in your audience. Next. And most important is ethics. We think about what your audience understands as honesty, fairness, integrity, and truth. And ensure that your ethics, or you're thinking about those things line up with your audience or they may be opposed. But you need to understand that going into your speech. And ensure that when you're doing your speech, that ethically speaking, that you have done the research, you are presenting the facts and you are presenting your information in a balanced way so that your audience sees you as an ethical, fair person. Next, we want to talk about preparing for your audience. And so you probably were thinking as I was talking, Well, how will I know these things about my audience beforehand, especially if it's an audience that you've never spoken to before. If someone has asked you to speak to their organization, you don't know much about it, but you think to yourself, I really want to do this. Ask the questions upfront. And if this is a very important speech, if you can survey the audience beforehand. If not, do your research about the organization or whatever you're going to speak about. Even if it's an interview. Do your research. This will ensure that you are prepared for your audience. 13. Your Credibility: So now let's talk about audience in terms of how you can engage your audience. This is a very, very important thing to think about. How are you going to engage your audience? Have you plan to engage your audience? Let's begin. Think about how you want your audience to see you. Do you want your audience to be enthusiastic? Do you want to engage them? Do you want to make them feel like they are a part of the presentation? Beach? Well, let's take a look at how you can do that. First impressions are very important. So the way that you look when you walk into the room, the way you carry yourself, your posture, the way you dress your attire speaks to the fact that you understand your audience. If your audience is a casual audience, if they're dressed casually, if they come from a casual perspective, then you want to appeal to them by dressing accordingly. This doesn't mean that you dress down entirely, but it means that you dress appropriate for the audience that you're addressing. First impressions also mean that you're establishing your credibility by either telling them directly about your credentials. This is your experience, your education, why you are qualified to talk about the topic so that your audience knows that you are accredited. Now this, you don't always have to tell them directly. For instance, if your audience already knows who you are, you don't have to continue to tell them about every single credential that you have. But if you're brand new, if you're, if you are brand new to that audience, then you either establish your credibility beforehand by maybe a handout provided to the audience that tells them about your credentials. Or you will, in a nutshell, quite quickly, tell them why you are qualified to speak about the topic that you're there to talk about. That is first impressions and they're very, very important. Another way to appeal to your audience is by letting them know that you are an expert or that you have researched enough that your audience realizes through the delivery of your speech as you're speaking to your audience, that you know what you're talking about. This means you've taken the time to research what the audience is expecting and providing facts or research or case studies or whatever it is that your audience's expecting that will help you seem like an expert in your field to your audience. This has to happen throughout your speech by giving your audience the facts, everything that they would want to hear pertaining to the topic that you're talking about. This is called Derived credibility, and it happens during your speech. So take the time to do that research. Now finally, once you have taken the time to show your audience that your first impression is good and that you've done the research. And they, they really are engaged because you've provided good information. Finally, you want to leave your audience feeling like they were there, they were engaged, they had a good time, and they would like to come and see you again. So this is how did you do? How did you do overall from start to finish? Did you, did your audience respond well, at the end of your speech, this is called terminal credibility. All throughout your speech, it is extremely important that you maintain good eye contact. How this can be tricky, because eye contact is something that can be creepy if you're staring too much at one audience member. And it can make you seem like you're impersonal. If you're not engaging with your audience in terms of eye contact at all. So a happy medium is to pan your room. What panning means is that you gradually look around the room. If it's a small room, then it becomes more difficult. Especially if you're a shy or introverted person. But if it's a bigger room, It's not that difficult to pan your audience. A pro tip here would be, if you're really intimidated by giving eye contact, then look slightly above the heads of your audience. Instead, the audience won't know that you're not giving them direct eye contact. But as long as you're panning the room, it will seem like you're giving good eye contact. 14. How to use your voice : So we probably have all had the displeasure of listening to an on engaging speaker, a speaker that was boring, a speaker that did not grab your attention. And even though the topic might have been interesting, the way that the speaker spoke, the voice of the tone, the rate might have been not to your liking. So you found the speech. So let's talk about how to use your voice. The way that you speak when you are conducting a presentation is very, very important. The way you project your voice, the way that you use it. 15. Speech Writing : So let's talk about writing. And in these series of videos, we're going to go for what it takes to write a speech. The things that you need to think about to write a good speech that your audience is going to want to hear. So let's say you've been asked to give a speech in front of a specific audience, and it's time for you to prepare. The very first thing you want to ask yourself is, what is the purpose of the speech? And then you want to think to yourself, am I going to do a manuscript type speech or a conversational speech? And these things are important to think about because it is the way that you're going to appeal to your audience. Then once you've decided on a manuscript or conversational, and another name for conversational is extemporaneous in the academic world. And communications we call what I'm calling conversational is called extemporaneous. Finally, if you're going to do a manuscript types of speech, then you are going to want to write a script. But if you're going to do a conversational speech, you're going to want to write an outline. And I'm going to talk about both. The manuscript scraped the conversational and outline. Which speech will you? Will you give an informative speech where you are just simply giving information or demonstrating or describing an idea to your audience. Informative speeches are speeches where you are not necessarily giving your point of view. You are giving and providing information. This might be if you're trying to sell something or if you're trying to describe something to your audience, then you're providing information. Conversely, you may want to write a persuasive speech. And when you write a persuasive speech, you are writing a speech that is providing information, but also providing a point of view. And you are now trying to persuade your audience to do things or see things your way. You are trying to convince your audience that whatever you are giving them or providing for them is better than what the opposition is. Say. Well, delve deeper into that in a later video. So if you chose manuscript, you are going to be reading your speech word by word verbatim. Now this doesn't mean that it has to necessarily be mechanical, but it does mean that this type of speech is something that is extremely important to you and to your audience and needs to be read or spoken to your audience pretty much word by word. And so this manuscript speech is a written out speech that you are going to practice and you are going to read word by word. Now, if you've chosen to do a conversational speech, then you are going to use an outline as your guide. You're going to speak conversationally, little less formally to your audience. And this beach you are met. You may write it out word by word initially, but you're going to break it down to more bullet by bullet and speak more conversationally. We'll talk about that in the next video. 16. Manuscript Style: Writing your speech is a very important component of your speech presentation process. It will help you to be prepared to present in front of the audience. It will help you to be engaging and it will help you to gain confidence as you write it and you practice it. Now, you do have to make a decision as to what type of speech you're giving. Obviously, if you're giving an informative speech, then you're going to inform your audience about something. You're giving a persuasive speech, you're going to persuade your audience about something. These are the two major speeches that we discussed in this video. However, once you've decided on whether it's going to be an informative or persuasive speech. You also have to decide if you want to do a manuscript speech, which is more formal, or a conversational speech, which is a little less formal and a lot more engaging in terms of the way that you appeal to your audience. You have to decide that based on whether or not your speech is going to be more or less form. So if you chose manuscript, you are going to be reading your speech word by word verbatim. Now this doesn't mean that it has to necessarily be mechanical, but it does mean that this type of speech is something that is extremely important to you and to your audience and needs to be read or spoken to your audience pretty much word by word. And so this manuscript speech is a written out speech that you are going to practice and you are going to read word by word. Now, if you've chosen to do a conversational speech, then you are going to use an outline as you're back. You're going to speak conversationally, little less formally to your audience. And this beach, you may, you may write it out word by word initially, but you're going to break it down to more bullet by bullet and speak more conversationally. We'll talk about that in the next video. If you've chosen to do a manuscript speech, then you are probably thinking that your speeches a lot more formal. This may require you to use a podium to stand that, so that you can rest your script on the podium. You may choose to have a script in front of you that you'll be pretty much reading verbatim. And if you are, remember that as you're reading, you take a look at the words and you take your head up and you look at the audience, and you go back down to take a look at the words and then up again to the audience. That's important. Because if you're not trying to engage your audience, that it just seems like you're reading. Take a look at some of your favorite speakers online and take a look to see how they do a manuscript speech, how they present a manuscript speech to their audience. Many who do manuscript speeches may choose to use a teleprompter. Manuscript speeches are used at more formal occasions. This may include occasions like if you're invited to be a guest speaker, let's say at an occasion such as a graduation, or if you ran for, let's say local office or you became the president of an organization, or you're accepting an award and you want to make sure that you've included everything that you need on the manuscript. Or you may be speaking at a funeral where you're asked to give a speech. Now, here is an example of a manuscript that was taken from President Barack Obama in the US. He's an all girl addressed. And it is sentence by sentence. And he would read it pretty much sentence by sentence. But if you go back and watch the speech, you'll see that even though he did it as a manuscript speech, he still was able to appeal to his audience. Many who choose to do a manuscript speech, who choose to present a manuscript speech? We'll use something called a teleprompter. And you can set your laptop or your computer up like a teleprompter. Or you can use a device called a teleprompter that is set in front of you. And it gives you the speech itself, word for word. So it will look like this. As you can see on your screen. If you choose to do a manuscript speech, realize that you are going to be reading it word for word. It's still requires a lot of practice to not seem robotic when presenting a manuscript speech. 17. Conversational Style Delivery: Writing your speech is a very important component of your speech presentation process. It will help you to be prepared to present in front of the audience. It will help you to be engaging and it will help you to gain confidence as you write it and you practice it. Now, you do have to make a decision as to what type of speech you're giving. Obviously, if you're giving an informative speech, then you're going to inform your audience about something. You're giving a persuasive speech, you're going to persuade your audience about something. These are the two major speeches that we discussed in this video. However, once you've decided on whether it's going to be an informative or persuasive speech. You also have to decide if you want to do a manuscript speech, which is more formal, or a conversational speech, which is a little less formal and a lot more engaging in terms of the way that you appeal to your audience. You have to decide that based on whether or not your speech is going to be more or less form. So if you chose manuscript, you are going to be reading your speech word by word verbatim. Now this doesn't mean that it has to necessarily be mechanical, but it does mean that this type of speech is something that is extremely important to you and to your audience and needs to be read or spoken to your audience pretty much word by word. And so this manuscript speech is a written out speech that you are going to practice and you are going to read word by word. Now, if you've chosen to do a conversational speech, then you are going to use an outline as your guide. You're going to speak conversationally, little less formally to your audience. And this speech, you may, you may write it out word by word initially, but you're going to break it down to more bullet by bullet and speak more conversationally. We'll talk about that in the next video. When you begin thinking about how to write a conversational speech, you may start out by writing it word for word. And this is just an example of a speech, of a script, of a speech of President Barack Obama's inaugural speech. And as you can see, if you had finished writing a conversational speech here, it would not be a conversational speech. This is the format that is presented on this slide, would be a manuscript format. And that means you would be reading it word for word. That is not what you want to do when you're speaking conversationally. Now, once you're satisfied with how you've written your speech, it is time now to reduce it down to bullets. Because if you leave it as it is, you are going to be tempted to read it word for word, and that is not a conversational speech. A conversational speech is reduced down to the major parts that you need to remember. The rest of it, you will practice it and practice it and practice it. And when I say practice it and practice it, I mean, at least ten times until you can say it almost verbatim without having to read it. Once you have decided on what words you need to remember, you can reduce those things down. You can reduce them down by removing a lot of the major language and keeping the language that you absolutely need. And that is the language that you will use to develop your speech outline. When conducting a conversation speech. Your speech outline will be your guide. A speech outline is a bulleted outline that helps guide you through your speech. As you speak to your audience conversationally. And you are able to engage your audience because you are not tied down to a specific script. Conversational speeches are written to be spoken a little less formally than manuscript speeches to an audience where you want to engage them. Next, we're going to talk about speech outlines. 18. Conversational Outline : Writing your speech is a very important component of your speech presentation process. It will help you to be prepared to present in front of the audience. It will help you to be engaging and it will help you to gain confidence as you write it and you practice it. Now, you do have to make a decision as to what type of speech you're giving. Obviously, if you're giving an informative speech, then you're going to inform your audience about something. If you're giving a persuasive speech, you're going to persuade your audience about something. These are the two major speeches that we discussed in this video. However, once you've decided on whether it's going to be an informative or persuasive speech. You also have to decide if you want to do a manuscript speech, which is more formal, or a conversational speech, which is a little less formal and a lot more engaging in terms of the way that you appeal to your audience. You have to decide that based on whether or not your speech is going to be more or less. Now, if you've chosen to do a conversational speech, then you are going to use an outline as your band. You're going to speak conversationally, little less formally to your audience. And this speech, you may, you may write it out word by word initially, but you're going to break it down to more bullet by bullet and speak more conversationally. We'll talk about that in the next video. When conducting a conversation speech, your speech outline will be your guide. A speech outline is a bulleted outline that helps guide you through your speech. As you speak to your audience conversationally. And you are able to engage your audience because you are not tied down to a specific script. Conversational speeches are written to be spoken a little less formally than manuscript speeches to an audience where you want to engage them. Next, we're going to talk about speech outlines. When writing an informative conversational speech or an informative informational speech, it's important to use an outline. Included in this course is a conversational informative speech outline and a conversational persuasive speech outline with a workbook and a video that will help you work through it so that you can write the speech. So go to that information, download the PDF workbook, and use it as your guide, as you're writing your own speech and use it over and over again. So using an outline as your guide is imperative for a conversational speech. And this will help you to become more involved with your audience because you've got an outline. Now, the trick is that when you are doing a conversational speech, you must practice many, many times using many, many different situations. And there'll be a whole video on how to practice a speech. But let's take a simple look at an outline here in this video. Now, realize that an outline has three components. An introduction, a body, and a conclusion. This slide covers the introduction. In the introduction, the major components are an attention getter, a topic, and a preview. So take a look at this previous script of the speech. And let's see how you might reduce that down to bullets in an hour. If you remember, if you go back to the previous slide, you'll see that you might use these things as an attention getter. Attention getter grabs your audience at the very beginning. And then if you want to describe your topic to your audience, depending on the type of speech you're giving. You might use a topic or whatever you've decided to call your speech or whatever your speeches about. That is what the topic of your speech is. Then to preview speech means that you are giving your audience a little view into what your speech is about. So you might have three major points in your speech. You will preview those points by just telling them something like today, we're going to discuss the responsibility of government. Then we'll talk about the responsibility of the various states. And then finally we'll talk about the responsibility of your community. And that's how you preview the speech. You don't go in depth with what you're describing. Just give them a little tip about what you're going to be talking about in your speech. Once you get to the body of your speech, you are now going to discuss in depth the points that you previewed. So if your first was the responsibility of government, Here's where you're going to put a lot of information and provide that information to your audience. Then you may talk about your second, which it might be the responsibility of the states. You are going to of course give them all the detailed information in the body. And you are going to then talk about your third. Now, you do not have to have three points. This is just an example. You could have five points depending on how long your speech is. My rule of thumb. If the speech is anywhere between three to ten minutes, use only three points or less. Don't use more because your audience might get lost in the process if you're trying to cram too much information into the body of your speech. Finally, in the outline, we have the conclusion of your speech. And this is where you're providing your audience with the wrap-up, the end of your speech. So you will review your main points by saying today with disgust and then you reiterate what you discussed in your speech. You wrap up your speech and then you throw it back to the attention getter. You might go back to the very, very beginning and tell them again what you told them in the beginning. That shows your audience that you've come full circle. Don't forget to thank your audience. See you in the next video. 19. Manuscript or Conversational Style Delivery?: Writing your speech is a very important component of your speech presentation process. It will help you to be prepared to present in front of the audience. It will help you to be engaging and it will help you to gain confidence as you write it and you practice it. Now, you do have to make a decision as to what type of speech you're given. Obviously, if you're giving an informative speech, then you're going to inform your audience about something. You're giving a persuasive speech, you're going to persuade your audience about something. These are the two major speeches that we discussed in this video. However, once you've decided on whether it's going to be an informative or persuasive speech. You also have to decide if you want to do a manuscript speech, which is more formal, or a conversational speech, which is a little less formal and a lot more engaging in terms of the way that you appeal to your audience. You have to decide that based on whether or not your speech is going to be more or less form. So if you chose manuscript, you are going to be reading your speech word by word verbatim. Now this doesn't mean that it has to necessarily be mechanical, but it does mean that this type of speech is something that is extremely important to you and to your audience and needs to be read or spoken to your audience pretty much word by word. And so this manuscript speech is a written out speech that you are going to practice and you are going to read word by word. Now, if you've chosen to do a conversational speech, then you are going to use an outline as your guide. You're going to speak conversationally, little less formally to your audience. And this speech, you may, you may write it out word by word initially, but you're going to break it down to more bullet by bullet and speak more conversationally. We'll talk about that in the next video. Well, now that you've watched the series of videos on the difference or the way to write a manuscript and conversational speech. Which style should you choose? The manuscript or the conversational style? Well, we recommend that you choose the conversational style of speaking. Why? Because it will help you to be more confident and comfortable. Because you're not trying to read the speech word for word. That can only happen if you have practiced it and practice it and practice it. Conversational speaking only works with a lot of practice. And when you practice it, practice it, record yourself practicing it, or tried to do it live in front of some friends. Ask for their feedback and take that feedback into consideration. If you choose to use the conversational speech style, you will find that you'll be more engaging. You'll feel more comfortable, and you'll become more confident when speaking in public. So let's just wrap up by saying, it's important to realize that how you start your speech is how it will continue. If it starts off poorly, it will continue poorly. If it starts off well. And you gain that confidence at the beginning, you will build that momentum. I feel more confident as the speech is going along. Remember the purpose of your speech. Are you going to inform or are you going to persuade? Remember the delivery style? Are you going to be choosing the manuscript style or the conversational style? It depends on whether or not the speech is more or less formal. But if it's, if it's, if it's not a graduation type speech or a political types of speech. Or maybe you are asked to speak at a funeral, speak conversationally. Then remember to use your outline as your guide. If you're choosing to speak conversationally, we recommend that you speak conversationally. In order to do an engaging speech that will make you feel more confident and comfortable. See you in the next video. 20. Public Speaking prepare : Now that you've prepared for your speech, it is time to practice your speech. And so next we provide some tips for practicing your speech. Well. First, get yourself ready mentally. And this is where you put yourself into a positive mindset, a growth mindset. All of the negative, fearful messages that are coming to you. You have to open your mouth and say, I can do this. I've got this because I'm going to practice and I'm going to prepare until I'm ready to give a confident speech. Preparing for your speech, you're going to determine what the purpose of your speech is. Going to inform your audience about something? Or are you going to persuade your audience about something? Then you're going to how you want to deliver your speech. You want it to be a formal speech, which is a manuscript speech? Or do you want it to be less formal speech, which is a conversational or extemporaneous speech. Once you've made those decisions, you are now ready to start practicing your speech. Now, you have God yourself into that positive mind space. Let's now think about how you want to prepare for your speech and how you got to practice yourself. Now, if you intend on using presentation aids, such as slides or prompts, or video, or audio or pictures. This is the time to determine what you're going to use. Now, if you're going to use slides, make sure that your slides are clean and crisp. They do not have a lot of writing on them. Your audience does not want to have to read off of your slides just bulleted points and a pictorial representation of what you're talking about. And that could be a chart or graph, a picture, something that represents graphically what you're talking about. Audiences do not want to see a lot of writing on your slides. If you have prompts. Now is the time for you to think about what you want to bring with you. If you are demonstrating how something works, it might be a good idea to bring that thing with you. Now, if you do bring it with you and you're going to be showing it to an audience. Determine when the best time to do that in your speech. When is the best time to show the prop or to show the phone or whatever it is. Because if you do it, let's say in the middle of your speech, if you pass out something for your audience to take a look at, it takes your audience away from you. So choose an opportune time to show your audience a prop. And if it is in the middle of your speech, make sure you have another attention getter to grab your audience. Again, my recommendation is to use a prop at the end of your speech as something to hand out to your audience. Videos, audio, and pictures can be shown throughout. But make sure that you bring your audience back to what you're talking about so that they're not distracted along the way. Now slides are really, really good to use, especially if you are a shy person, introverted person. If you use slides. What that does is it takes the onus or it takes the emphasis on the audience looking at you all the time. And so using slides, It's a wonderful way to get your audience's attention on the material that you're trying to provide. And it takes them the focus from you from time-to-time. Next. If you're using props as I described before, make sure that the prompts are used at opportune times. Now, videos and audio and pictures are wonderful way to show your audience something dynamic. And so use those, you don't have to use those sparingly. Use those as much as possible. Now, when you are deciding to use these things, make sure that you're thinking about how you want to deliver your speech, that you think about how to incorporate them. If you're delivering, if you are delivering your speech face to face, then you want to make sure that everything that you want to bring with you, such as your slides, work in the environment where you want to give it. So take your slides to the environment, test them out there to make sure they work. If it's a recorded speech that made sure that if you have your prompts, you're showing them on a camera, makes sure that works. Now. Whether you're preparing for a face-to-face speech, a life, or remote or recorded speech, you still have to make sure that you prepare beforehand. Don't wait until the last minute and don't wing it. Extroverted people, those of people who are very charismatic tend to wing things more. But it's important not to wait until the last minute to do things. If you're going to record your speech. I have used the Google recording and there are others, there are free ones, and there are ones that you have to pay for. But make sure you know how to use them. And make sure that it works. Make sure the quality is good so that the recording is crisp and clear. So if you're going to use equipment, let's say Edit in a face-to-face and firing. Let's say you're going to use a PowerPoint clicker. Make sure it works and make sure you know how to use it beforehand. And then check the lighting. If you're going to do a video, Let's say you're going to do a live remote video, makes sure the lighting in your room works, that you are lit up clearly and that you look good. Then your personal appearance makes sure your personal appearance matches the audience in which you're speaking to. 21. Public Speaking practice: As you prepare for your speech. And you've kept in mind the things that are important, like if it's an informative speech or a persuasive speech, are you doing a formal or less formal speech? Now it's time for you to start to delve into the practice part of your speech. If your purpose is to inform, then you want to make sure that you are providing valid and ethical information in an interesting way, that your audience will feel engaged and that you've prepared for your specific audience. If you're doing a persuasive speech is the same thing. Make sure that your call to action, what you're trying to persuade your audience to do is ethical and sound. You've provided good, solid information and good research. And if you're doing a formal speech, then you have written your manuscript. You've read it over and over, you've practiced it. Comfortable with the material. And if you're doing a conversational speech, then you have written your outline and is practiced, and you are prepared to give your conversational speech. Finally, and probably most importantly, practice your speech, especially if you're doing a conversational speech. Practice, practice, practice. Practice is the key. Practice, builds confidence. Practice will help you to get rid of the jitters. The more you practice, the more likely you are to deliver a more confident, engaging speech. How should you practice? The first time you practice? Read the speech through the first draft? Just read it through. Once you've written it, read it through out loud. Read it. Once you've done that. The second time you practice, reduce your manuscript script to an outline and read it again. Read it again as an outline. Meaning now you are reading the bullets and not the full speech that you wrote initially. So break it down to your outline and it bulleted format. Read it again as you've developed your outline. And a third time is to use your outline as your guide and add your slides and prompts in and practice it that way by using your slides and your prompts. This is reading out loud. I mean, practicing out loud. Each time. A fourth time is now practice by looking at yourself in a mirror while you are practicing the speech. Fifth time to practice is to record the speech itself. So do the speech out loud as if you're giving it to a live audience and record yourself and watch the recording. As you watch the recording, count your, your, your crutch words like, um, like your nose, count them. And if they're more than ten, in a three to five-minute speech, at least reduce them. There should be five or less. Next time. Practice in front of a live audience, close friends or family. Anyone who you can get to offer you constructive feedback. Another time to practice is to, once you've gotten the feedback from your friends, now, record the speech again with the changes or the recommendations that your friends have offered. The next time you practice your speech. Practice it to a live audience again, if possible, and ask again for feedback. Now, once you've gotten that feedback, record your speech again with the recommendations that were offered. Finally, if possible, go to the exact venue where you are supposed to give the speech and practice it there. Make sure your technology works. Make sure you know what the space looks like if it's a live speech. And so those are the recommendations in terms of practicing your speech. Now that you have prepared for your speech, and you have practice your speech by following the tips that were provided in this video, you should now become a more confident, effective public speaker. Take good care. 22. What did you learn?: So what have you learned? What will you take away from this online public speaking course? Hopefully, you've learned how to become a better, stronger, more confident public speaker. And you've done this by using the following, understanding that speech anxiety is real, but you can conquer it. Then you understand the purpose that your speech must have a purpose. Next, you understand how to organize your speech well, organizing is so important. Then you will have learned that understanding your audience is very, very important. Using that to your advantage. Next, you'll understand the importance of outlining your speech well. And you will have used the outlines provided, be informative outline or the persuasive outline. And you can use these over and over again. Every time you need to write a persuasive or an informative speech. Next, you will have learned that presentation aids enhance your speech. And you will understand that speech delivery. How to deliver a speech is very, very important. Next, you will learn that you must practice, practice, practice, practice. That's what gives you the confidence. And you will have done this by using the project as your guide. And so in this project, you will have thought about the purpose of your speech, how to organize your speech, how to think about your audience. And then you'll have determined that you would have done an informative speech or a persuasive speech. And I hope you did, I hope you did post it. And if you did, I will provide feedback if you would like me to. So I hope now that you have become a better, stronger, more confident public speaker. So take good care. I'm Carol Hagrid. Visit my website. 23. Now begin your speech - project: So now it's time. It's time for you to complete your project. It's time for you to do your speech and to become a better, stronger, more confident public speaker. And so you will begin by using your outline. The outline provided, remember you are provided with a workbook of an informative or persuasive speech outline. And so this informative or persuasive speech outline will guide you along the way for you to write your speech. Use it as a guide and write your speech in the workbook. Then decide on presentation aids. Will you use slides? And then decide on how you want to deliver it? Do you want to show yourself or do you want to do like I've done here? Then get your project started. Once you've made those decisions, you will first decide on the purpose of your speech. Then you'll decide on which organization to use. Daniel, think about your audience. And once you've done that, you will choose your informative or persuasive. Either one you can choose either one to do. Will you be using a presentation aid? Now? Complete your project. Your informative and persuasive speech. Upload it. And I look forward to seeing your speech. 24. Verbal and non-verbal communication: In this section of the course, we're going to talk about audience involvement. And this is not exactly what you might think. The next section we're going to talk about how to engage your audience in terms of answering and asking questions. But in this section, we're gonna talk more about feedback in terms of verbal and non verbals. And so you might be here speaking to an audience. And you really have to ensure that you know, if your audience is engaged or not. So technique number one, the first thing you need to remember is that you are the person that's giving the speech. Therefore, all eyes on, you know, I know that's intimidating, but that is the truth. So your credibility is important. And when I say your credibility, I mean, the way you look, the way you sound, even the way that you have dressed for the occasion. So if you're giving a speech to an audience that's very formal, you ought to be dressed formally to. And it doesn't mean getting out of character. It just means understanding what your audience expects of you. If you're going to be speaking to an informal audience, audience that's not wearing formal dress attire, then you should dress accordingly. But you should also dress so that your audience sees you as that credible person who can speak to them. So make sure you're dressed to suit the audience that you're talking to. Next, I want you to remember. If you didn't know, there are verbal and there is verbal and nonverbal communication. And so the rule of thumb states that when you're speaking to an audience, verbal communication is only thirty-five percent of what your audience is getting in terms of communication. The rest is nonverbal. Take a look at the chart. Non-verbals are things like your facial impression, your tone, your voice tone, the way that you move. Again, the way that you appear, your eye contact, your gestures and your posture. Make sure that your facial features suit what you're saying. If you're saying something dramatic, your face should not be blank. So practice in the mirror and practice to make sure that when you're giving that speech, that your facial features match what you're saying. Also make sure your tone matches what you're saying. Therefore, if you're saying something that needs to be pronounced than pronounce it, pronounce it, pronounce it. And if you're saying something but let's say demand empathy or sympathy. Make sure that your voice and the tone of your voice is stating what you're saying. So that your audience understands, not just from your features, but from the tone of your voice tone that you are communicating, something specific then your movements. Now I know this can be very difficult, especially for folks that are intimidating, intimidated by being on in front of an audience. But make sure that your movements suit what you're talking about. If it's dramatic, move the hands. And if you are trying to make a point, lean into it, let your audience see that you're engaged in it. This is going to take practice. But I suggest you practice until you get it right. Practiced in front of a mirror, practice, practice many times, and even do a video or audio recording and send it to a friend. In another course. We're going to discuss coaching you through and offering you an opportunity to get coaching through the company. Eye contact is important, and this can be intimidating when looking at an audience. If you're feeling a little fearful, just look over the top of their heads slightly. So you're not looking directly at the eyes, but make it seem as if you're making eye contact with your audience. Gestures are important. And so when speaking, as I said, use your hands, but don't use your hands so much that you're blocking your face. So be conscious of the way you're gesturing, your posture, your back should be straight sand, stand straight up. And if there's a podium in the room and you're nervous old onto the podium, that's fine. You'll notice that some of the great speakers do that. Take a look at, I'm going to put at, toward the end of this course, just some links to some speech it speakers that you can watch to take a look at the way that they speak. Barack Obama was a speaker that use the podium a lot, and there are others that did too. So you can use that podium if you have it. But if you don't, make sure that you're standing straight, do not slouch. Make sure you're standing straight. Not Tip number. I mean, technique number two is to read your audience. Make sure that you, again, tip or technique number two, is to read your audience. And what that means is take a look to see how your audience is responding to you. Are they looking directly at you? Or they nodding their heads? Do they seem like they're engaged? It's important that you read your audience's verbal and nonverbal to see if you are engaging them. Tip number three, I keep on saying tip I apologize. Technique number three is be prepared to pivot. What I mean is is that take a look at the picture here. If your audience is bored, you're not doing something right. You can change your tone. You might stop and ask a question. Change your body language. Walk if you can a little bit, so that the audience is, if they're distracted, they'll look at you. If you've moved from the place that you were. So make sure you're reading your audience to see if you're engaging them or not. If you're not engaging them, do something different so that they will see that they need to re-engage. Now, if you use these techniques, if you use these tips, you will appear more confident. And guess what? You've got this, your audience will applaud.