Μήνας: Ιανουάριος 2019

Free talking – Tips and Tricks

If you want to inspire your audience, you have to present it well. Expertise and Powerpoint slides are not enough to leave a lasting impression. Many people are afraid of public lectures, but there are numerous tricks with which everyone can become a stage pro.

1. Focus on a core statement
2. Build a connection to the audience
3. Use clear language
4. Recurring statements burn in.
5. Speak freely

• Focus on a core statement. Ask yourself: What is the audience talking about on the way home? What is the central message to be conveyed? To keep several aspects in a short lecture mostly creates confusion. The core thread of the lecture should therefore go to a core statement. It is advisable to use sufficient time to formulate the thesis. Bring the core messages early in the lecture, because this automatically triggers questions for the listener. Then you can calmly present all the arguments and convince the audience. If the message arrives at the end of the lecture, the listeners have to recall and check all previous statements.

• 2. Build a connection to the audience in order to transport the core thesis as impressively as possible, an anecdote or story from one’s life is suitable. You usually address the basic needs of the audience, such as love, success, hope, change. These emotions are at least as important as numbers, data, facts. You need it to create the professional credibility. Enthusiasm, however, can only be created by strong emotions. They are the hooks that anchor the lecture in the listeners’ minds.

• 3. Use clear language! Concrete is better than abstract. Abstract language leads the listeners only on wrong tracks. Come to the point, talk things directly. If you work with technical terms and a lot of details, you will lose your listeners, even if you have still many interesting things to say. Expressing yourself comprehensibly is, therefore, the supreme commandment of communication. Convoluted sentences and word games are making it unnecessarily difficult for the audience to follow.

• 4. Recurring statements burn in. It is not easy for lay people to follow a complex new topic. The flood of information can quickly slay the audience and let the mind wander. In order to facilitate the listener’s thinking, the so-called radio method helps. Advertising agencies also use this trick to reach consumers better. Predominant sentences and phrases are often repeated until they have burned themselves in the minds of the audience. If you repeat the core thesis and the most important thoughts of the presentation regularly, the listeners will thank you with attention.

• 5. Speak freely, that makes everything easier. Do not read any formulated speech, but talk as freely as possible. By doing so, many problems can be solved by themselves. Those who speak freely can keep more eye contact with the audience, speak slowlier and you will automatically make fewer convoluted sentences. All this makes it easier for the listeners to follow you. In addition, free speech is a sign of competence.

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