Think Before You Speak

Regardless of the category you fall into, preparation helps. After all, it can be easy to think of public speaking in the framework of only what happens in the moment: how your voice sounds, how people perceive what you’re saying. But often, the real key to sounding good in the moment means taking the appropriate steps before the event.

Think Before You Speak

Five preparation tips to help you master your next public speaking engagement.

Fran Carville, CRM

(Originally printed in the September/October 2023 issue of Insights.)

For some, public speaking is a joy ride—a rush of adrenaline to embrace and even look forward to. For many others, it’s nightmare fuel.

So whether your next bit of public speaking is as simple as chiming in at a chamber of commerce event or participating in an industry roundtable, here are five tips to make the most of the spotlight when that moment does arrive.

Who’s Who

The first step is knowing who your audience will be.

Who is the average audience member? What are their demographics? A presentation to a group of high school seniors may be very different than a speech to a group of community leaders.
What interests and concerns your audience? If you are speaking to members of a group or company, check out their website to understand what they might want to learn. If your presentation is geared toward what your audience finds interesting, you will have a winner. Researching and knowing your audience in advance will help you have a well-received speech.
What are the group rules? Most speeches will have guidelines that govern what can or cannot be said. For example, APA’s anti-trust policy restricts speakers from conducting pricing discussions in seminars.
What’s the expected audience size? A presentation for 1,000 people will probably not be the same as a presentation for 10 people.

On Topic

While it’s important that your topic is appropriate and interesting, it’s equally important that you be familiar with your topic and excited about it.

Sometimes the sponsoring group or event will dictate the topic. For example, if you are asked to speak at a retirement party, all topics other than the retiree can quickly be ruled out. If you do have the ability to choose a topic, start with what you know: how to be successful in business, lessons from your company’s history or why the awards and personalization industry is so important. You should also think about topics that you’re willing to research and learn about.

Message Center

Determine your central message or thesis. If you’re talking about the keys to customer service, for instance, it might seem like a topic that doesn’t require preparation. But you could also probably spend hours on that topic but only have 20 minutes to speak.

Instead, narrow your topic early. Can you describe your central idea in just a sentence or two? Once you have that message, you can concentrate your research and time on building everything around that central idea.

Prep Work

Put your speech into writing. In all likelihood, you’ll kick things off with an introduction that creates a good impression and sets the tone for the rest of the speech. You might start with a topic preview, joke, rhetorical question, anecdote, quotation or historical reference.

The body of your speech will fill most of your material. During the writing phase, jot down as many things as you can think of that you might want to include. From there, make an outline with each item representing a specific point you want to cover. Here are a few tips to help you go from an outline to a completed presentation:

Write in conversational tones.
Use words that are a regular part of your vocabulary.
Pay attention to punctuation.

When ending your speech, recognize that your audience may be restless by now, so end on a high note. What is the one thing you wish to leave your audience with? What is the last impression you want to leave?

Get Familiar

The last step is to familiarize yourself with the material. After all, you don’t want to stand in front of everyone and struggle to read what you
wrote. Ideally, you’ll want to have an outline of what you want to say so that you can speak naturally to your audience. Remember, the audience is on your side and wants you to be successful. It’s okay to be nervous—that’s only natural!

Fran Carville, CRM, is an Awards and Personalization Association past president, educational speaker, 2008 Speaker of the Year, a member of the Hall of Fame, and winner of an Award of Excellence from the APEX Awards for Publication Excellence. Fran and her husband, Tom Carville, CRM, own Carco Awards in Baton Rouge, LA.