Public Speaking is just Talking to One Person at a Time in front of Other People

For today’s #thankfulthursdays I would like to give gratitude to Deborah Torres-Patel for this piece of advice.

In a previous article I’ve talked about How to Instantly Overcome your Fear of Public Speaking. But Deborah’s advice sums this up entirely.

What she says is that this piece of advice is worth millions of dollars as it has been utilized by professional public speakers across the globe.

And that is:

“Public Speaking is just talking to one person at a time in front of other people.”

Let me give you a specific example based on my own personal experience.

In the past, my weakness was really about public speaking. I was afraid to go onstage and talk in front of other people.

Public speaking gave me a lot of anxiety. I used to stutter a lot, plus I had a very monotonous voice. All while I had butterflies in my stomach.

That’s one of the reasons why I did networking.

The money was one factor, but I was also amazed at how the speaker had so much confidence. His stage presence was on point. I wanted to be that good at public speaking.

Fast forward to 2018, I have since long left the world of networking, but I still carried with me the lessons I have learned at public speaking.

I have gained a lot of confidence, I no longer stuttered, my tonality has become very lively, and I have learned to harness the energy of having butterflies in my stomach, and turn it from nervousness into excitement.

But there was still a missing factor – establishing a connection, making you, as a member of the audience, feel as if I am speaking directly to you, and no one else.

And that is what Deborah has summed up nicely.

Simply put, all you have to do to establish a great connection with every audience member, is to take it as if you are talking to one person at a time, but only that you’re in front of other people.

So the way you talk should be as if you are talking to one person alone.

That means, you are not supposed to say things such as:

• “Ladies and Gentlemen”
• “How is everybody doing today”
• “How many of you”

Because those are words that you do not use in a one-on-one conversation.

Instead, talk as if you were addressing one person alone:

• “Hi”
• “How are you doing today”
• “Raise your hand if”

See the difference?

And that is the x-factor that some of the best public speakers in the world have, that others don’t.

How about you, what are the common words that some people wrongly use to address the audience as a crowd, and how do you think you can rephrase them to talk to one person alone?

Respond with a comment.