5 Cool Ideas for Becoming a Better Speaker

When acquiring a skill, it’s best to immerse yourself in the discipline and allow yourself to grow into the new skill set.
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We live in an age of instant gratification, don’t we?

When acquiring a skill, it’s best to immerse yourself in the discipline and allow yourself to grow into the new skill set through dedicated study, trial-and-error, and by monitoring feedback loops.

But when your boss asks you to assemble an awesome presentation for a major client in just a few hours, you may want to skip that whole growing and discipline part.

Want to be a great speaker, like, tomorrow?

Here are 5 cool ideas that will help you become a better speaker quite quickly.

1.  Search YouTube.com for speakers in your line of work. Focus on people who are  better presenters than you so you can learn from them. If you happen across some crappy speakers, pay attention so you can be reminded of what not to do.

2. Eliminate 10 percent of your weakest PowerPoint slides right now. Trust me, no one will miss them, including you. Start by taking out the slides that have you saying something like, “You probably can’t see this from the back of the room.”

3. Record yourself.  An audio recording will have you want to quit your industry. A video recording will make you want to rethink the whole idea, but hang in there. Recording yourself is painful, but it is without a doubt the fastest way for you to discover what needs to be fixed.

4.  Study a helpful information product, preferably a DVD. Reading about speaking is like watching the radio to learn how to dance.

5.  All good presentations end with a call to action.  Make sure you conclude every presentation by asking the audience to do something.

Now go talk it up.