Breathing correctly is the easiest way to dramatically improve your speaking ability and your enjoyment of speaking.  Getting this right will help you appear more confident, communicate more effectively, and feel calm and controlled as you do it.  The key here is to breathe deeply in your belly. Here are two great exercises.

Exercise 1

• Put one hand on your chest and the other on your stomach.
• Think of something or somewhere that makes you feel relaxed and happy (I imagine a glass of wine on holiday).
• Notice how you naturally breathe easily from your stomach?
• Now, think of something stressful or upsetting that happened recently.
• Where are you breathing from?  Probably, high up in your chest, and possibly faster too.  This is why nervous speakers typically breathe high in their chests.

What’s key to notice here is that your thoughts changed your breathing easily and effortlessly.  The reverse is also true; change your breathing and you will change your thoughts:

Belly breathing = calm happy thoughts

Chest breathing = stressed thoughts

During your presentation

• When you are getting ready to speak, concentrate on keeping your breathing nice and easy in your belly.
• If you are sitting down prior to presenting, then you may find it helpful to put your arm across your lap so that you can use your forearm to check if your belly is moving with your breath.
• If you are able to talk and think at the same time (!) when presenting, then keep part of your mind on your breathing while you are speaking, continuing to keep it low in your belly.
• A great success measure for your development as a speaker is to aim to increase the percentage of time you spend breathing from your belly each time you present.

Getting your breathing right will also affect your voice tone in a positive way.  Try this for yourself.

Exercise 2

• Breathe high in your chest and then speak for a bit.
• Now move your breathing into your belly and speak again.
• When breathing from your belly, your voice tone will be more resonant and fully supported by your breath.
• Your breathing and voice tone is also substantially affected by your posture, so be sure to sit/stand up straight, getting plenty of air into your lungs.

Usually, when I write these tips, I’m in favour of advising what to do, rather than what not to do. However, on occasion, I spot a spectacular example of what not to do that perfectly illustrates why it’s not a good idea to do it. And so – ta da – today’s tip is…don’t write your speech notes on your hand. Please. Just don’t. It doesn’t make you look smart.

Most people facing an important presentation worry about remembering the key points of their presentation. It’s important to have a strategy for remembering your content.

I’ve worked with many clients in the past who push themselves to memorise entire speeches word for word. This is not a realistic strategy, and, even when successful at remembering, the effort of recall tends to suck the life out of the speech.

Some people like to read a script word for word. Unless you are a gifted orator, or a practiced lecturer, this is not a good idea. Many people’s ‘reading out loud’ voice is not very interesting, plus there is a strong tendency to look at the script rather than the audience.

So what’s the solution? Well, here are 3 strategies that have worked well for many of my clients.

• Own your own content. Content is a lot harder to remember when you get someone else to write it for you. Write it yourself – getting help if you need it – and be 100% behind everything you say.
• Imagine your talk like a shape, seeing the beginning, middle, and end. Imagine your talk is a journey, and get to know its geography. Where will you be taking people? Note the content ‘landmarks’ along the way. These signposts will help you link the key points of your talk together.
• Make a crib card. Reduce your talk to its key points. If you’ve written all of it out, reduce each paragraph to a single phrase that stands for the point of the paragraph. Then reduce each group of phrases to a phrase. When you have 5 phrases or less, write them in order on a small card. Study the card regularly, rehearsing the talk in your mind, seeing yourself remembering the material effortlessly. Put the card in your pocket when you speak just in case you need it (you won’t). Now who, I hear you asking yourselves, would be dumb enough to write their prompts on their hand? Well, here’s your answer: Yes, it’s Sarah Palin, courtesy of Sky News.

Have you ever been to a presentation that was disappointing?  In what way did it disappoint you?

Most of us, when we think about presentations, put performance pressure on ourselves.  Actually, giving the right talk for the audience is more important.

I remember, years ago, booking a day out of the office to travel to attend a trade show relevant to my work.  My entire decision to attend was based on an enticing presentation.  The blurb suggested that the speaker would be sharing critical information that would fill a major knowledge gap that I had at the time.  Well, you can guess what happened.  The presentation was a waste of time.  The speaker seemed to be talking about something completely different from what I’d been expecting.  More than that, the information he was sharing, although interesting, wasn’t meeting my needs.  Most of us have attended at least one presentation like this.  So what’s the solution?

It’s helpful to think about any documents and presentations you create from your audience’s perspective. Take time to think about what they will want to know about. If you don’t know what they want, find out.  What is the information they are interested in? What are they expecting to hear about from you?  Imagine two overlapping circles. One circle is you; everything that you want to communicate in your document or presentation. The other circle is your audience, whether an individual or a group; everything they want to know about after listening to you or reading your writing. Concentrate your presentation or document in the area where the two circles overlap. This allows you to constructively meet the needs of your audience without introducing unnecessary and distracting information.