When comes to speaking in public, relying only on an impromptu speech is a benefit of few people.

But speaking to people is no rocket science if you prepare yourself.

Yes is exactly this! Preparation. For sure you will still will have sweating hands and heartbeat pumping but getting yourself comfortable on content and overall setup will help making the magic, no matter if you are going to address your thoughts to few or many people, if they are colleagues, customers or simply a bunch of unknown professionals at a conference.

So where do we start?

Understand the audience

We all agree that speaking to graduates and to Nobel prizes is not the same thing. Both situations can be challenging but knowing exactly who will be in front of you will help intercepting their expectations and  interests. The more you go in depth, the better you can tailor your presentation, both in the speech to deliver and the materials used.

Remember that in this discovery you are not alone: depending on the event you can ask to colleagues, to your boss or to the host. Some of them may give you a valuable perspective. Be sure to to this well in advance so that you collect all the inputs before starting to prepare.

Make the space comfortable

Each of us has a different comfort zone and this makes a lot of difference in your approach. For example I normally try to avoid speaking while seated if it is not a board meeting because my way to dissipate stress involves moving around (which by the way is pretty useful to keep audience attention). This involves not having many barriers and obstacles around to avoid being more concentrated on walking rather than talking.

Check the room layout on both speaker and audience side and be sure it fits your needs. Don’t trade on this, remember that this shouldn’t represent a problem for you because is the place where you want to be “safe”: just ask for water, a microphone or whatever you need, most likely you will have it. And even if it is unavailable, at least you can get prepared on how to deal with the stage.

Good things come to those prepared

Speaking about something requires that you know, for strange it can sound, what you want to communicate. Define in advance the main purpose of your communication and build on it. Doing this is much easier if you try to select a single very important concept you would like to pass. And when I say “build on it” doesn’t mean you have to spend words just because, but means that you have to craft the flow with simple and clear statements because they are easier to remember. And be aware that simple doesn’t mean poor.

The simpler it is, the clearer will be and more the messages will flow as you expect them.

An interesting way to start speeches is to provide data and a problem that you will argument on. Then bring the listeners to a logical pattern towards your conclusion.

Once defined the flow and the messages, add interesting things: could be data to support it, could be personal stories, or facts. All those will help gathering and maintaining audience attention. Try doing this and alternating more “academical” topics with more engaging ones and supporting this also with the tone of your voice so that people are not only engaged but also truly interested and happy to hear you. Always add a personal touch that for sure will make the difference 

Practice makes perfect

Once you put everything together start practicing your content and if it doesn’t flow change it. Never be ashamed to fine tune it until you own it all the way down the end and then…practice more. Test your capability to be on time, the content and the exposure. 

I am sure you all have been in a meeting or conference where the only thing you wanted was to run away. There’s nothing more awful (and boring) of someone not prepared and not convincing. Also if you’re really confident with the topic, a fast “recap” of the speech helps keeping the logic and main points in mind.

And let me add one more thing: don’t rely too much on “powerpoint syndrome”, because, again, people understand really well when those talking are not confident with the contents. And the shorten (but confident) materials you produce, the better will be.