Do you have what it takes to be a great international speaker? Public speaking is a soft skill that entails speaking to an audience to pass along important information. More often than not, it is geared towards pushing the audience to take a specific action following the event. While a lot of people can be good speakers, public speaking entails more than just talking into a microphone.

Public Speaking is More than Delivering Information

Every international public speaker understands that there is more to speaking in public than reading from a piece of paper. For starters, what you say to an audience is essential, but it is not as important as how you say it. For an effective presentation, studies have suggested that 38% of it is your voice, 55% relies on non-verbal communication, and the remaining 7% goes to your content.

Technology has leaped forward, but the components of public speaking that make it effective have hardly changed. For instance, every paid international speaker should capitalize on the first seven seconds of a speech because it is during this short time that listeners decide if they will trust the speaker or not. Here are some of the most common mistakes public speakers make and how to avoid them.

• Not creating an initial rapport with the listener: A lot of presenters spend most of their time putting together the content of their speech which sometimes keeps them in the information bubble. Instead of establishing opening lines that will help them create rapport with the audience, these speakers simply deliver information in a boring way. Rapport with your listeners is a make-or-break quality to your presentation.The best way to avoid this mistake is to research your audience beforehand. This will enable you to familiarize yourself their goals and their causes, allowing you to find the best way to approach them. Preparing for a speech is like starting a business. A business person avoids entrepreneur mistakes by knowing their customer’s demographics, culture, and expectations. You need to know this information when preparing for your speech if you are to connect with the audience.
• Not having clear points: Listeners need clear and simple takeaways from your speech, otherwise they won’t perform the necessary action following the event. Modern society has come with a lot of distraction that has shortened our attention span. An effective way to deter a loss of interest is to have short, clear points that your audience can apply straight away in their lives. Also, don’t bombard them with tons of information that can make them feel overwhelmed. Keep your main points between three and five punchy points and pad these bits of information with more detail. Make it easy for your audience to follow you from one point to another, which creates flow and keeps them engaged.
• Don’t be dependent on visual aids: Every public speaker needs to use visual aids at some point in their presentation, but you should not overload the audience with power points. Avoid reading from your presentation and filling it with tons of text, otherwise, you will distract your audience. It’s vital that you keep their attention on you as much as possible. To be an effective speaker, you need to keep eye contact and draw energy from them through crowd interactions. Look for signs of interest, so you know when audience attention is waning. You will elicit a hunger in the people watching you, and hit emotional triggers better when you pay attention to your audience.
• Not getting the right timing: An international speaker is like a comedian. Both must get the timing right to present information that people will assimilate. As an international speaker, you should not go beyond the allotted time, and you should form the habit of timing your statements to keep them exciting and long enough. Break up your presentation with stories, jokes, and crowd interaction to make your presentation dynamic.

Entrepreneur tips for public speakers say that you should have a plan B for every presentation you make. If things start going south, you will be prepared. When you want to become a better international speaker, rely on the help of Rafferty Pendery to become a professional.