You're considering a public speaking career change. What essential skills do you need to stand out?

When considering a public speaking career change, essential skills to stand out include voice control. For example, mastering voice modulation can keep your audience engaged by varying your pitch and tone to emphasize key points. Practice this by recording yourself delivering a speech and listening for monotone sections. Additionally, work on your pacing to avoid speaking too quickly due to nerves. Clear articulation and proper breathing techniques are also key. These skills ensure your message is compelling and easily understood, helping you to captivate and maintain your audience's attention.

Our body language can support your message or it may contradict what your words are saying. Since nearly 93% of our communication is non verbal, what helps my students and myself is to practice our speeches and presentations while standing up and moving around to observe and plan movement in a purposeful way. We record ourselves while presenting so we can watch later and provide feedback to each other. What I've experience is that most people focus too much on learning and practicing what they want to say (the content) but not as much HOW to say it. Our bodies are the vehicle to deliver the message and it can enhance it when we have dedicated the time to plan, practice, and we are intentional about it.

What has definitely helped me craft memorable content over the years has been to focus on topics I'm passionate about. I typically speak about the work I do in my business with clients in the areas of career and business coaching, public speaking and Linkedin Strategy. It's easier to craft speeches about these topics because I'm always looking forward to stay updated and learn new things everyday plus I already know the audience needs ans wants around these. Also, being an observer of my daily life & professional experiences; reflecting upon the most challenging and important moments in my life/career to identify the lessons that can be used as teachable moments, has helped me craft speeches with really valuable insights.

I'm a true believer in the power of engaging your audience to provide them with the opportunity to process the information, play an active role to make the session more interesting and also, put into practice what they're learning. I was hired to teach a couple of 3-hour professional development sessions. I offered the groups different opportunities to practice a couple of the strategies and techniques, and receive feedback not only from myself but also from their peers. They were very creative and had great ideas to share with the group. It was amazing. The session was enriched by their own ideas and perspectives. Teaching interactive sessions creates synergy and results in creating a space where creativity and innovation can fluorish.

For me, a great public speaker has a deep understanding of what they talk about, the audiences they speak to, and they dedicate time to continuously improving their message and delivery. While speaking about Linkedin & Personal Branding (among other topics) for over a decade, I often had to adapt the subject to audiences from highly regulated professions which allowed me to acquire more depth to serve them better. Completing a Master's in Communications & the Toastmaster's International educational program, as well as courses in NLP, and obtaining a certification as Trainer and Professional Coach, provided me with great tools to get started. However, I keep on learning and practicing to become a better speaker, every single day.