POWERFUL PUBLIC SPEAKING HABITS FOR 2019 – Part 1

Building habits are an effective way of insuring that you are always ready, willing and able to take a speaking opportunity and present with grace and intention. Forming a habit requires that you repeat the action for 30 days to make it an automatic part of your life. Let’s explore some of the habits you should develop to have a successful speaking year and beyond.

Habit #1 – Learn and Grow
A) Watch a TED Talk a day – Learn to tell stories, give emotional context, support the message and keep it brief.
B) Read 15 minutes a day – Learn new ideas, get inspired, and build your confidence.
C) Speak – Look for opportunities to speak for practice when you are a new speaker and to fill your calendar when you are a seasoned speaker. Make it a habit to spend time looking for speaking gigs. Schedule it daily.

Habit #2 – Begin with the end in mind
A) What do you want your audience to feel? Sometimes before you take your audience to a place of feeling something good, occasionally you may want to take them to an uncomfortable place to feel the pain of their current situation. Determine what you want to feel at each point of your presentation.
B) What do you want your audience to do? If you don’t know exactly what you want your audience to do when you are finished speaking, then you can be sure that they won’t do anything. To increase the likelihood of their doing what it is that you want them to do, you have to make them feel something first.
Habit # 3 – First Things First
A) Know and understand your own message first.
B) Be sure that everything you say is relevant to and supports your message.
C) Know exactly why your message is relevant and important to your audience, why they should care about it and what tangible difference it will make to their personal and professional lives.
D) Leave your ego at the door. Craft a message and a presentation that is all about your audience. It means not trying to be perfect, but instead work toward making an impact and a difference.

Habit #4 – Make It a Win-Win. Embrace the idea of preparing your presentation in a way that is cooperative rather than competitive. It is a principle of harmony with your audience and connecting with them, which entails building a relationship. Everything you say must be of value to your audience.

In our next blog, we will talk about 3 more habits that you can cultivate to help your speaking make an impact. In the meantime, work on making these 4 habits a daily practice in your life.

If you need some guidance around how to build your business using public speaking, then reach out to us at https://engagingspeakers.com/

Gail Brown, Founder of Engaging Speakers, gail@engagingspeakers.com