Public Speaking Tip: What's Your Story?

Every speech you will give is a story.  You may not think so but that's the reality.  Everybody who excels in the art of public speaking knows how to tell a good story.

It doesn't matter if your speech is telling a story about something you encountered, presenting a research or even if you're trying to teach people something.  The formats may be different but you are still telling a story.

You may think that it is easy to tell a story.  Here's what happened, here's what you did, this is who were there, here's where it happened...

That is just your outline, a shell of your entire speech.  You still need to flesh it out, draw your audience into your world, paint a picture for them.  Otherwise you'll end up with a very dry speech.

You have to know how to use descriptive words to bring your story to life.

For example, compare:

"Today is a nice day."

And

"It's a beautiful morning.  The sunrise cast its golden hews upon the rooftops of the neighborhood.  Yet it's not the usual scorching hot day where one just wants to get indoors and turn on the air conditioning as soon as possible.  It's just a nice warmth that feels cozy,  like a hug, that makes one wants to go out and sit for a while with a cup of coffee to admire the peace and quiet before starting the day."

Let's look at this from another angle.

If your speech is a research about how public speaking can enhance your confidence level, you need to tell people how that happened.  What did you go through when you are on stage?

Rather than say,

"Statistics have shown that public speaking significantly enhances a person's confidence level," 

you can tell your story about how it happened for you.

"I used to be a very shy person.  I don't know how to talk to people and dare not even make eye contact with people I don't know.  Even at social gatherings, I stick to my small group of friends and don't talk to other people.  It was when I started to attend Toastmasters meetings and speak in front of strangers that I started to build my confidence.  The evaluations I get showed me that I am not alone and a lot of people also are very nervous speaking in front of other people.  However they dared to do it and it gave me the boost I needed to follow suit.  I realized that it was the fear of being judged that made me shy away from talking to people.  Now I see that it doesn't matter if people don't like me and a bad evaluation won't kill me.  I won't say that today I am the most confident person in the world but I'm definitely far off from when I first got started."

Do you see how making your speech personal and by adding these personal stories make it more alive than just shoving a bunch of facts down people's throats?

If you would like the opportunity to hone your public speaking skills as well as learn leadership skills, join us for our bi-monthly meetings on every 1st and 3rd Wednesdays of the month.  Our meetings start at 8pm.  For further information please contact us at gurneyhydrotoastmastersclub@gmail.com or refer to our Next Meeting page for information on our next meeting.