You can improve your public speaking skills very quickly. In fact, if you follow this simple guide, I can promise you, in less than a week, you will be a much, much better presenter. Now keep in mind, I’m not saying you’ll be a $50,000 per hour keynote speaker in a week. And, no, if you are just starting, you won’t be an expert speaker in a week.
World-class marathon runners don’t just occur after a week of practice. They start just like the rest of us. As toddlers falling down and getting back up. Then, after years of muscle building and speed work, they get better and better. So no, you will not be a world-class marathon runner by this time next week.
But, if you’re already in descent shape, you’ll likely be able to run a 5K by this time next week with just a little training.
The steps below are designed to work in a similar way. They will help you develop better habits that lead to better presentation skills. But, you don’t have to take a whole week to implement them! (We help people go through this whole process and much more in two days in our presentation classes.)
There is a method here, though, that is very important. So, if you just spend a few minutes each day applying these steps a week before your next presentation, you should feel more comfortable presenting. In fact, this style of presentation is often easier to organize and deliver. So, even if your public speaking skills don’t improve, you’ll still likely deliver a better presentation than before.
Day #1) Improve Your Public Speaking Skills by Memorizing Key Points, Not Scripts.
Have you noticed that when you read something aloud, it will almost always make you nervous? Even if you are a great reader, reading a script word-for-word usually sounds very boring. But most people will fall into this trap when they create their presentations. They will start by pulling out a PowerPoint template and begin typing a long series of bullet points.
And, to make sure they don’t forget anything, they will make an extra bullet point for every single detail they will cover. (Even describing that process sounds boring.)
When that technique fails, the presenter will likely delete a few bullet points and try to memorize more of the content. Now, the presenter is trying to deliver the same boring presentation, but has just increased the complexity of it. This solution to the first problem caused an even bigger problem.
So, on day number one of How to Improve Your Public Speaking Skills in One Week, memorize the key points or concepts, not a script. To do this, first, think about the specific audience to whom you will be presenting. Ask yourself, “If I were in the audience, what would be the top items I would need to know about this topic?”
Next, brainstorm as many ideas as you can think of. I usually do this in a room with a whiteboard. I’ll try to come up with ten or more items if possible. Then, once I have a comprehensive list, I try to rank them based on their importance to the audience. The absolute most important item will be number one. The second most important item will be number two. And so on.
Once you rank the items, type the top five most important on a single slide.
For additional details, see Outline for a Persuasive Speech.
Day #2) Create a Short and Simple Persuasive Speech for a Single Key Point.
On day two, pick one of the points from the slide you created. Rewrite it as a complete sentence.
For example, your initial concept might be, “Budget.” That’s very vague. However, if I turn it into a complete sentence, it will make more sense. “Set a Budget for Your Project with Just a Little Contingency Funding.” That is now a clear statement.
Next, add a benefit to the audience. For this statement, you might add, “…to Avoid Scope Creep.”
The new bullet point becomes, “Set a Budget for Your Project with Just a Little Contingency Funding and It Will Help You Avoid Scope Creep.”
Now that you have a compelling bullet point, you just have to prove it to the audience.
They say that a picture is worth a thousand words. Well, a good story is worth a thousand pictures.
Here, let’s test it. Describe to me your house or apartment. If I gave you a couple of minutes, you might be able to describe your place in enough detail that I could create a somewhat accurate image in my head. But that technique takes a long time. And it is very difficult.
This is the technique most people use when they deliver bullet points to their audiences. They offer wordy explanations that are hard to deliver and off-putting to the audience.
But if you showed me a photo of your place, I’d get a better understanding. And if you showed me a video of you walking through your place, I’d have an even better understanding.
So, for this point in your outline, I want you to create a story, a mental movie, to describe it. The person delivering the budget bullet would just need to remember a story about one time the budget helped avoid scope creep.
Your Public Speaking Assignment for Day #2.
Tell your story to a coworker or friend, and end the story with the bullet point. Get some practice telling stories, reliving memories, from your experience.
Here is what the budget story might sound like…
“Hey Bob, did I ever tell you about how we were able to keep the Sanderson project on track?
“A couple of years ago, the Sanderson Group hired us to build a series of office warehouses. We built the first three on spec without any changes to the original designs. But as Sanderson began to lease the space, they noticed that there was a big demand for warehouse space with more offices in the office area.
“They asked if we could partition more office space in a few of the warehouses and add in an extra bathroom in each. The single office spaces only had one restroom. But the larger spaces need both a male and female restroom.
“Well, since we hadn’t used any of the contingency budget for the first few buildings, we had plenty left in the budget for the changes. We just told Sanderson that in order to stay on budget, we could only do one of these alterations for every three of the standard versions.
“They were so happy that they had us do the same thing in a different area two years later. So Bob, ‘Set a Budget for Your Project with Just a Little Contingency Funding and It Will Help You Avoid Scope Creep.’”
This practice will help you get better at storytelling and help you improve your public speaking skills.
Day #3) Rewrite Your Other Bullet Points and Create Compelling Stories for Them as Well.
On day three, do the same thing that you did on day two, but for the other bullet points. Rewrite each of the other four bullet points and make them into complete sentences.
Then, add a benefit statement to the end of each one. Just ask yourself, “Why is this statement important to the audience? Why would they care?” The answer should be a compelling benefit statement.
As you create these provable statements, come up with examples should be much easier. So, if you are having trouble coming up with a good story to reinforce each point, make sure you statement isn’t too vague or fluffy.
For example, if my bullet point is, “We Offer Great Customer Service,” that can be hard to prove. It’s too vague. However, “Our Customer Service Team Has a 24-Hour Hotline Which Means You Can Get Help Even at 1 AM on a Saturday.”
See how that bullet point almost identifies the good story right away? All you’d need to do is go to the customer service team and ask them about a client that had a weekend emergency.
Let’s do another. If you are delivering a technical talk and your point is, “560,000 New Cases of Malware Are Discovered Each Day.” that would be hard to come up with a story for. Also, if I’m in the audience, my reaction to the statement is, “So what? What does that have to do with me?”
So, instead, make your bullet point more compelling. You might try, “Our Software'[s Daily Updates Protect Your System from Malware that Didn’t Even Exist Yesterday.” This statement makes me want to listen to your content. All you’d need to do is tell a story about how the daily update stopped a huge loss for a single client.
Here Is Your Day #3 Assignment.
Find a friend or coworker to deliver your updated points and compelling stories to. Rewrite your slide to include just the updated bullet points. (Don’t add anything related to the stories.) Then, use the slide show as your guide. All you have to remember is which story you want to tell for each of the points.
Start with your topic. Then, give each bullet point ending with, “Let me give you an example…” or “For instance…” then, just tell the story.
You’ll be shocked at how compelling this abbreviated presentation will be.
Day #4) Improve Your Public Speaking Skills by Adding in a Few More Pieces of Evidence.
Day four is much easier, because a big chunk of your presentation is already created. We just want to put a little more meat on the bones, so to speak.
At this point, if you absolutely have to add in some data, feel free. But, you’ll get better results if you dramatize the data or tell a story about where the data came from.
Since we replaced the 560,000 New Cases of Malware data in the earlier bullet point, it might be a good idea to reinsert it as evidence. The presenter could just say, “I was reading in Forbes recently that they estimate that 560,000 new malware cases are discovered every day.” The presenter could bring the magazine as a prop.
That 15 second story is now way more compelling than just putting the data on a bullet point. Because once you hit next, the bullet point goes away. But the prop is still sitting on the table in front of you.
Another good addition to your earlier content is an analogy or metaphor. You’ll notice that I’ve used a few in this post.
- World-class marathon runners didn’t get that way in a week…
- “Most people will fall into this trap…”
- “Describe to me your house or apartment…”
Adding a fun analogy can reinforce the points you are making.
You might even add another story. I use this technique a lot. I’ll tell a negative story about a time I didn’t set a budget or I didn’t get that daily update, and it turned into a fiasco. Then, I’ll tell the positive story as well as a contrast.
My point is, the story you created yesterday is good. But if you add a little more evidence, you’ll make your presentation even better.
Day #5) Practice Delivering Your Presentation to a Friend or Coworker.
Yea! It’s day five, and your presentation is well written and ready to deliver. But before you jump up in front of a client or the board of directors, practice it once or twice. If I were you, I’d practice just using the original one slide outline as your visual aid. That way, you get practice delivering the presentation spontaneously — without having to rely on notes.
What happens if you forget that great analogy that you prepared or forget the data point? Well… If the analogy or data point isn’t set in stone in your PowerPoint slideshow… Who cares? You still have the compelling stories and well designed bullet points.
However, with a little practice, you’ll be surprised at how much of the prepared content you remember.
And, because you are speaking spontaneously and not trying to memorize a bunch of stuff, you’ll likely add new and even better content as you deliver the presentation.
Give it a try. I think you’ll be happy with how much easier this strategy is and how much more your audience will love you!
How to Improve Your Public Speaking Skills in Just Two Days.
Just as an FYI, if you want to really improve your public speaking skills even faster, we offer two-day Fearless Presentations ® classes in cities all over the US. If you’d like information about any of them, just complete the form below.