23 Public Speaking Secrets from the Greats

Today’s post comes from Carol Brown at OnlineCollege.org. Carol has gleaned 23 public speaking secrets from well-known people. As she says, while everyone has their favourite tip, nobody says it better than the great speakers. Each secret is accompanied by a quotation and a link where you can read more about that particular point. It is an excellent reference source.

23 public speaking secrets

Of the 23 secrets that are listed, here are 11 that I particularly liked:

  1. Be persistent and practice: “All the great speakers were bad speakers at first.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
  1. Know your purpose: “You shouldn’t give a public speech unless you want to make something happen.” – Tom Peters
  1. Be a real person: “If you have enthusiasm and excitement, if you show your humanity up there, that’s when the audience starts to warm up.” – Richard LaGravenese
  1. Believe in your message: “If you believe in something, you can talk about it. All my life I have been very, very shy. To get in front of a crowd drives me nuts, but I have a message to deliver.” – Jack LaLanne
  1. Offer a moving speech that sticks with your audience: “Have a unifying theme tethered to a powerful, inspirational story.” – Ken Starr
  1. Don’t bore your audience with unnecessary data — deliver a simple message: “I speak at nursery schools; benefactors ask me to speak for Earth Day. It is invariably the most challenging presentation I ever give, but I force myself to do that because it really forces me to get down and think [about] the basic message and how can I communicate it as simply as possible.” – Allen Hershkowitz
  1. Speak for your audience, not yourself: “The single most important thing you can do is put yourself in other people’s heads and hearts. I think about what they truly need, not what I want to talk about. Whatever size the group, whether five or 5,000 people, you have to at least try to imagine what each of those individuals are there for.” – Tony Robbins
  1. Resist the urge to speed through, and get attention by speaking slowly: “Slow down, especially at the beginning of a speech. You’ll get the audience’s attention by pausing.” – Bob Kerrey
  1. Never underestimate the power of eye contact: “When I’m preaching, I’m not speaking to 800 people – I’m trying to speak to each person individually. I move from west to east, making contact with people for a second or two. If there’s someone who seems disengaged, I’ll keep coming back in hopes of reaching them. But you have to be very careful: If you’re talking about, say, adultery, you don’t want the person you are looking at thinking that you’ve found them out!” – Rev. Kieran Harrington
  1. Dream about your speech at night: “The night before a speech, I go over my notes right before I go to sleep. There’s almost something magical about it. You remember the words in a dreamlike state and it helps your brain absorb the material.” – Sally Koslow
  1. Consider the unknown first: “A man does not know what he is saying until he knows what he is not saying.” – G. K. Chesterton

You can read read all 23 public speaking secrets here.

Photo courtesy of Kanan Khasmammadov

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mannerofspeaking

mannerofspeaking

  1. Great collection of great speakers’ attitudes. Based on my own experience with people who are keen on getting there, I’d say that especially #3 – “Be a real person” – is challenging. Where enthusiasm and excitement are concerned, they just don’t dare to act as if they were in a bar chatting with friends or at a party shouting in terror when they are facing an empty fridge. This step of leaving behind the “OMG, what will they think of me…” is so extremely difficult for them. A great way, probably the only way, to break this vicious circle is constructive feedback by others.

    1. Florian,
      Thanks for the comment. I agree with you about how difficult it can be for some people. When a speaker is focused too much on himself (for whatever reason) the audience will pick up on it. Ironically, it is when a speaker focuses on the audience and “forgets” himself that he shows his true self. And that is what you want the audience to see – the real thing.

  2. Hi there John … I am also passionate about public speaking and regularly write about it. Thanks for the helpful tips!

  3. Thanks very much. It’s really very helpful. It’s my passion to become great public speaker. Hoping for more such tips in future. Thanks

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John delivered a keynote address about the importance of public speaking to 80 senior members of Gore’s Medical Device Europe team at an important sales event. He was informative, engaging and inspirational. Everyone was motivated to improve their public speaking skills. Following his keynote, John has led public speaking workshops for Gore in Barcelona and Munich. He is an outstanding speaker who thinks carefully about the needs of his audience well before he steps on stage.

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TA Leader, Gore and Associates

I first got in touch with John while preparing to speak at TED Global about my work on ProtonMail. John helped me to sharpen the presentation and get on point faster, making the talk more focused and impactful. My speech was very well received, has since reached almost 1.8 million people and was successful in explaining a complex subject (email encryption) to a general audience.

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John gave the opening keynote on the second day of our unit’s recent offsite in Geneva, addressing an audience of 100+ attendees with a wealth of tips and techniques to deliver powerful, memorable presentations. I applied some of these techniques the very next week in an internal presentation, and I’ve been asked to give that presentation again to senior management, which has NEVER happened before. John is one of the greatest speakers I know and I can recommend his services without reservation.

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Secretary General, World Road Transport Organization

I was expecting a few speaking tips and tricks and a few fun exercises, but you went above and beyond – and sideways. You taught me to stand tall. You taught me to anchor myself. You taught me to breathe. You taught me to open up. You taught me to look people in the eye. You taught me to tell the truth. You taught me to walk a mile in someone else’s shoes. I got more than I bargained for in the best possible way.

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John gave a brilliant presentation on public speaking during the UN EMERGE programme in Geneva (a two days workshop on leadership development for a group of female staff members working in the UN organizations in Geneva). His talk was inspirational and practical, thanks to the many techniques and tips he shared with the audience. His teaching can dramatically change our public speaking performance and enable us as presenters to have a real and powerful impact. Thank you, John, for your great contribution!

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HR Specialist, World Health Organization

John is a genuine communication innovator. His seminars on gamification of public speaking learning and his interactive Rhetoric game at our conference set the tone for change and improvement in our organisation. The quality of his input, the impact he made with his audience and his effortlessly engaging style made it easy to get on board with his core messages and won over some delegates who were extremely skeptical as to the efficacy of games for learning. I simply cannot recommend him highly enough.

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John joined our Global Sales Meeting in Segovia, Spain and we all participated in his "Improv(e) your Work!" session. I say “all” because it really was all interactive, participatory, learning and enjoyable. The session surprised everybody and was a fresh-air activity that brought a lot of self-reflection and insights to improve trust and confidence in each other inside our team. It´s all about communication and a good manner of speaking!"

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CFO European Dairy Supply Chain & Operations, Danone

Thanks to John’s excellent workshop, I have learned many important tips and techniques to become an effective public speaker. John is a fantastic speaker and teacher, with extensive knowledge of the field. His workshop was a great experience and has proven extremely useful for me in my professional and personal life.

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Senior Sales Manager, Sunrise Communications

John’s presentation skills training was a terrific investment of my time. I increased my skills in this important area and feel more comfortable when speaking to an audience. John provided the right mix between theory and practice.

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Director of the Jura Region, BKW Energie AG

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