A speaker need not be just someone who talks about a given topic on-stage; He can be someone who speaks his mind in front of a group of friends, makes his opinion significant; or someone who speaks confidently among a group of strangers who’re part of a project team that he just met. Let’s face it, a lot of people avoid responsibility for reasons that’re for another post. That gives you the opportunity to stand out, speak and make people listen to you; not forcibly, but by their own choice.
So, the 10 things you should do to become a better speaker in any place and at any time-
1. Knowledge.
The one thing that matters most when it comes to making your voice heard is credibility. There’s no better way to portray your credibility than with your insight about what the crowd is talking about which is based on facts. So go visit quora or reddit and learn about stuff.
2. Confidence.
Whatever knowledge you’ve gained, it all goes down the drain when you’re with a crowd and you don’t deliver it with enough impact. People listen to words when they come out of your mouth like missiles. It also adds credibility to your facts.
3. Body Language.
The way you hold your body while saying something can project a lot of unnecessary details. Or you can make your body project a lot of added details to support your opinion / suggestion. Opening your chest and arms, keeping your back straight, smiling, looking your audience in the eye, all these are effective when it comes to speaking.
4. Pace of speech.
You can go on and finish your talk in 2 minutes, giving your audience very less time to think, as you’ve said so much in such less time, OR you can expand your 2 minute speech to 5 minutes. This way, the audience will engage in every detail you speak about; you’ll make them think about what you said. More importantly, you will be understood easily.
5. Humor.
No speaker is great if he doesn’t incorporate a little fun in his speech. Nobody gets attached to a guy who takes things so seriously all the time. And you will portray yourself as an all-time serious guy if you don’t incorporate a little humor in your speech. This way, your friends, family and other people who you’ve spoken to will come back to you for suggestions or opinions, or both because they know you’re chilled out.
6. Adaptation.
Your audience is not the same all the time. you might be among old people, you might be among conservative people, you might be among drunkards. Nobody is irrelevant, whatever their lifestyle may be. Adjust your talk depending on who your crowd is. Don’t talk politics when you’re with old people and don’t talk sex with conservative people. Respect everyone’s boundary and adjust to that. Your network will only grow that way because you’re likeable among all the different groups.
7. Being a visionary.
People admire a person who is not only confident and knowledgeable; They love to hear about the optimistic future from a confident, knowledgeable person. Maybe the people are clueless about how opportunistic the world is, which is where you step in and dream for them and yourself, suggesting future prospects which might help all of you in any way.
8. The opposite of dominance.
Unless you’re on a stage speaking about a topic, you have no reason to talk continuously and be dominant over anyone if you want your voice to be effective. Let others talk too. People know bullshit when it’s spoken. When your words sound authentic, they will discard the other person’s bullshit and pick you. When this becomes a routine, it’s only natural that your voice is now significant.
9. Alter your voice regularly.
Otherwise you’ll sound so monotonous that all the previous points will go to waste if you’ve incorporated them. Nobody likes the voice of a robot. They like human voice because it varies and sets the mood. When you set the mood, you control the emotion. When you control the emotion, you control everything because people remember mostly how you make them feel.
10. Eye-contact.
Yes, I’ve already mentioned this under body-language, but it deserves to have it’s own point. Make eye-contact with everyone; even if it’s somebody who is insignificant in the group. It’ll be like you’re addressing everybody and not just the ones that are popular and important. Then, you’ll be the person who doesn’t look down on people.