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  • Public Speaking is a skill useful in school at work. and if we want to convince a group of people.

  • Investor Warren Buffett called it the most important skill we can learn to advance in a career.

  • Here a short sprouts guide to master the most powerful weapon if we want to bring change to the world.

  • THE ISSUE

  • Take an issue you really care about.

  • When you study it, you are intrinsically motivated to learn it deeper and put in the extra effort.

  • Later it gives you the passion you need to inspire your audience.

  • When we speak in public, passion is probably our most powerful force.

  • It shines through our eyes and straight into the hearts of the audience.

  • ONE SIMPLE MESSAGE

  • Every issue has many angles to which we can highlight.

  • But the audience has a limited attention span and many others issues in life,

  • so if we say too much, they will lose interest.

  • To make a message stick, Chris Anderson recommends to boil it down to one idea that is worth spreading.

  • A speech is good if it plants one creative seed in the heads of the audience.

  • A seed can then grow into a sprout, which can change lives and be shared with others.

  • STRUCTURE

  • Over 2000 years ago, the Greek philosopher Aristotle established 3 simple rules to any good speech:

  • Establish credibility: Ethos

  • Give good arguments: Logos

  • Conveying emotions: Pathos

  • But you can also tell a personal story or present a problem and then offer a solution.

  • GET HELP

  • A good method is using note cards.

  • You can use one card per argument and keep the deck in your hands, alternating them as you speak.

  • Politicians often read their speech from a teleprompter.

  • Professionals often sell their ideas with the help of slides .

  • When you have a product to show, demonstrate it.

  • If you try to memorize your speech and you have one hour,

  • spend 20 minutes studying and 40 minutes practicing to recite it.

  • That's usually the best ratio.

  • SPEAK THEIR LANGUAGE

  • It doesn't matter what we say, it matters what they hear.

  • According to Nerdwriter, Donald Trump speaks in a way that any fourth-grader can understand him.

  • Guy Kawasaki recommends to use what he calls salient points.

  • People don't want to know how large a battery is. They want to know how long they can use it.

  • When you prepare, ask yourself, how does my issue matter to this particular audience?

  • PRACTISE

  • Before you present, practice your delivery.

  • It's important that we stand upright, arms open, palms out.

  • We should speak loud and clear, and make eye contact with our audience.

  • One way to practice. Try to speak in front of friends who don't know the topic.

  • Then you will see if they get your point.

  • Alternatively you can also record and watch yourself on video.

  • CHECK YOUR STAGE

  • How big is the room, how many people will listen, will you need a microphone?

  • Professionals will want to walk onto the stage diagonal from the left back,

  • apparently it's the most dynamic way make an entrance.

  • Also, always have a glass of water next to you, so you can take a sip whenever you're losing it.

  • DON'T BE AFRAID

  • Everybody can experience speech anxiety, also known as Glossophobia.

  • It's natural and sometimes actually helps us to reach excellence.

  • Mahatma Gandhi called itthe awful strain of public speaking”.

  • For years it prevented him from speaking up even at friendly dinner parties.

  • But in 1942, Gandhi convinced 60,000 people with his Quit India Speech to join a peaceful revolt against British colonialism.

  • He spoke up, the people followed his words and the British left .

  • OPEN FOR SYMPATHY

  • When you enter the limelight, wait until you have everyone's full attention.

  • Then open to win sympathy, also called captatio benevolentiae.

  • One way to do that is to excuse yourself.

  • You can say: “you are a smart audience, so I don't really know what I can still tell you...”

  • Obama, opened his 2008 speech in Berlin with the words:

  • “I have to admit that I have developed a special place in my heart for the German people

  • And they loved it.

  • BUILD CURIOSITY

  • Once they like you, grab their attention by building curiosity.

  • Present a fact, statistics or a study. Or start in the middle of a story:

  • On my 5 birthday, my father started crying. It was the day he lost his job.”

  • Dananjaya Hettiarachchi, a champion of public speaking, asked

  • raise your hand if you have an emotional mother?” and everyone did.

  • But you can also do something funny or open with a crazy stunt.

  • DELIVER YOUR MESSAGE

  • Now make your arguments,

  • share those personal stories and deliver metaphors which create images in the minds of your audience.

  • If you forget what you wanted to say, don't worry. Nobody knows what you meant to say.

  • In 1963 Martin Luther King gave a speech in Washington.

  • In the middle of it he stopped reading from script and started to improvise.

  • He delivered one of the greatest speech of the twentieth-century

  • “I have a dream

  • CLOSE

  • After you are done, summarise your arguments or repeat the core message.

  • But you can also leave them with a quote, share your dream of a new future,

  • or close your speech like we close our videos, with a specific call for action.

  • Here it comes!

  • Write a speech about an important issue, such as education.

  • Open with sympathy, build curiosity, and then bring in your convincing argument .

  • In the end, close it cleverly. Limit your speech to 200 words and post it in the comments below.

  • If you want to learn public speaking, you should also practice your speech.

  • For example, the next 5 days, 15 minutes each.

  • Ideally, record yourself on your phone, so you can track your progress and learn from your mistakes.

  • Upload the last try of each day onto Youtube and share the link in the comments.

  • Then we can see how you progressed and applaud you for trying, failing and doing.

Public Speaking is a skill useful in school at work. and if we want to convince a group of people.

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