Three Practice Tips for Public Speakers

1.       Articulation:

Practice tongue twisters. And learn them by heart to hit the memory at the same time. Once you master one, give yourself an impediment. Put your thumb into your mouth, sideways, or a pen that you balance with your lips. You will notice that you need to breath more deeply, and that your articulation improves.

2.      Feedback:

Record yourself on your phone. Each of us has unique antics. Lip smacking, filler words shoulder twitching, or that one gesture that you always do when you are nervous. But you don’t notice, until you see it.

3.      Movement.

Each thought, phrase, or sentence that you wish to say should have a corresponding movement that initiates the phrase, no matter how subtle. It can be the extension of an arm, or the raising of an eye-brow. The movement will initiate breathing, and it will separate your thought intuitively for the listener.

Example from the first lines of Hamlet’s famous soliloquy:

(slighty extend your right arm, palm open)                                    

“To be..”

(now join the other hand, also palm open, to the other side)                   

“... or not to be.”

(rest your left hand, let it hang, and raise your right index finger to your temple)

“… that is the question.”

Remember. You need practice and feedback.

Yours,

Tom