How To Prepare for Public Speaking, Tips on Speaking in Public

[Dress:c/o Impeccable Pig] [Belt:Forever 21] [Boots:Old, Shoe Store on Harwin]

Last Thursday, I had the pleasure of being the guest speaker at the Seven Lakes Fashion Club. It was such a good experience. Being, that I just celebrated my one year anniversary as a Fashion/Lifestyle Blogger, I wanted to give back the knowledge I learned throughout my first year of blogging, to students who were interested in blogging as well. The kids loved it and had a ton of questions! Some of them even took notes! And since I used to be on the Newspaper Staff, in high school, I was super flattered to be interviewed for their Newspaper…I can’t wait to read the article!

Besides, class presentations, this was my first time to speak in front of people. And I didn’t know anyone! My little sister, Morgan, came with me and graded my presentation as a B+. Thats’s fine with me for now–but for someone who is constantly on dean’s list, I’m going to strive for an A+ on my next speaking engagement.

There are definitely some things I could have done to be better prepared so I’m going to share some public speaking tips today!

HOW TO PREPARE FOR PUBLIC SPEAKING

1. Make a written outline of what you’d like to say and points you’d like to cover. I didn’t do this! I thought I had it all in my head. This would have cut down on my “umms” and “and so”.

2.Practice. Practice. Practice. Being that I used to be a cheerleader, you’d think I’d know this. I didn’t really practice, I kinda just looked over the presentation and called it practicing. I think I needed to rehearse fully dresses in front of a full length mirror and go slide by slide.

3.Speaking of slides…check your presentation for errors. Now I didn’t have any misspellings or anything…but there was a slide that was missing information. I specifically remember, doing that slide, however, there was nothing there when I presented! I played it off, but I’d rather have had the info there. I figured out that I had saved the PowerPoint in the most recent format, it’s best to save documents as 97-2003, when using Office. Not everyone has the 2013 update.

4.Arrive early. I got to the speaking site 15 minutes prior to when I was scheduled to start. Granted, I had a meeting before and it was 45 minutes away, but that is not enough time. Arriving 30-45 minutes ahead of time is ideal, as you have time to scope out the room, work out technical difficulties, and interact with some of the people coming to see you.

5. Relax. Once I calmed down and actually realized that these people came to see me. I felt much better. Relax, Relate, Release, as Whitley from a Different World would say. Whatever you do, don’t picture the crowd in their underwear. That can get very awkward!