Finding your voice – could be the easiest way to accelerate your business or careers success.
Whether you are a business owner or executive trying to get ahead, your success will be severally limited unless you can master the art of public speaking.
Standing out from the crowd is an essential element of success for people and businesses alike. Public speaking is one of the easiest and cheapest ways to stand out in the crowded market place. Whether it is how you speak at meetings or getting a speaking engagement at trade conferences.
Some people love public speaking, others dread it… but whether it’s speaking to conferences, sales calls or just plain networking and major meetings; it is clear that even to day in the digital age you need to master the art of speaking to get ahead.
Only 7% of message impact comes from the words we use. The rest from the way we deliver it. The way that you deliver “your words”, comes from how we process things internally and can be reprogrammed.
To develop confidence and passion into your speaking here are a few tips:
Personal brand – Consciously own a style
Too often the inexperienced speaker will put on their “speaking voice”, inadvertently becoming someone other than themselves on stage. Generally that “speaker voice” is a poor version of you and they are selling you short. Save the being someone else to the professional actors. The easiest person to be is you.
Get clear about who you are and what your personal brand stands for. Develop a written list of key characteristics of your person brand, values and style in your normal non-speaking business life. Then use this list to encourage and challenge yourself to be that on stage. Remember being “consciously competent” is the step in learning before “unconscious competence”.
If you work for a corporate do not loose your individualism and personal brand completely to the company brand. For “owner managers”
Use a topic you are passionate about to start
Ask yourself “What part of my topic am I most passionate about?” Use this in your opening, if you are truly passionate about it, your body will change its physiology and you will become alive on stage.
Stand for something: Have a few “soap box” topics
Have a few pet topics that you can speak on, so that given short notice you always have something to talk about. Make a bold claim; debate is one of the most powerful ways to engage audiences.
Just Do it
Yes nothing will get you better at speaking than practice. Take every opportunity to practice. Start by always asking questions at conferences and large meetings. Hunt down speaking opportunities; industry associations are a good place to start.
If you lack speaking opportunities join a toastmasters club. Toastmasters provide a friendly and inspirational environment to learn and improve every week. I personally got a lot out of attending a club for a while and was blown away by the relaxed format and inspiration speeches I heard.
Get Help
The quickest way to improve you learning is to get some one on one coaching and critique.
Basic steps to finding your voice:
- Personal commitment to fix it
- Process of creating a conscious personal brand – and using it as a strength in presentation style
- Learning some mechanics / tools of delivery that are compatible to you
- Creating the message to deliver for the voice medium.
- Personal coaching on all above – including follow up coaching
At GMC we help business owners and executives who want to “find their voice” in the business environment, helping you discover what to say and how to say it. Unlike traditional speaking coaches we get business and business people – and come from a business perspective rather than entertainer or actor mind-set.
Mark Robotham's Blog 