There is something that you can do today to improve your presentation or public speaking event with instant effect. It isn't complicated. It doesn't require training, or education. It isn't costly, but it is highly valuable.
If you want to remove something from your presentation that will instantly make it considerably better - start by eliminating the worst part of ANY public speaking situation:
Err.
Um.
Em.
Ah.
And noises of such character.
These sounds, which are really just represent moments of mental/verbal filler, and they really mess with the flow of your speech. Eventually, if you do this a lot, the punctuation of your speech will be made on these verbal fillers. The audience will stop listening to your presentation and start anticipating each Err or Um.
I recently watched a presentation where the speaker struggled to control her Ems... her intelligent, well structured reflection was significantly weakened by this verbal tick.
So that's the real issue, it weakens the overall impact of your speech.
I apologise if this seems means, but let's take a quick look at an example of this issue in action. Just watch the first thirty seconds of this clip.
You see the problem? With all those ERMS, it's impossible to get his message across confidently. Poor guy.
There are TWO ways that I can suggest you do this.
ONE: Record yourself doing part of your speech. Count the number of EMs, UMs, ERRs etc. If the number is greater than ZERO, you need to attempt to remove them.
TWO: This is much more annoying and frustrating, but will absolutely work. Have someone repeat the EM etc back at you whenever you do it. As I say, you will be hellishly frustrated, BUT, you will stop doing it quite quickly.
With a bit of work, you can
Your presentation/speech will flow better, it will go quicker and you'll hold your audience's attention longer. Now who doesn't want that?
The Very Best
Mark Westbrook
Public Speaking Coach