Public Speaking – Why practise OUT LOUD

This is an AI generated transcript so please forgive any errors and spelling mistakes. 

When you write a speech, presentation or a talk, do you practice it silently in your head? Or do you practice it out loud? Because it can make all the difference!

Hi, I’m Shola Kaye. I’m a public speaking coach and also a professional speaker based in London with clients all over the world. I work with corporates, in particular tech companies, women in industry and I also work with women in business, who want to grow their business with public speaking.

Public Speaking – from the page to the stage

I wanna talk about how you practice your speeches. A client of mine came to me a few weeks ago and she said “I’ve written this speech and I think it’s great, I don’t need any help with the speech I just need a bit of help with the delivery”. I said “fine, that’s great, well let’s have a look at it” and it was clear when we looked at the speech that it was something that she’d written but she hadn’t spoken it aloud.

How was it clear to me that she’d not spoken it aloud? Well, because there are very long sentences, there were words with many syllables and it read like an essay. Now, when we are speaking out loud to an audience – as opposed to speaking your head for the audience, because I guess they don’t have ESP you can hear you haha – but when we are speaking to an audience we want to make sure that the words that we use are punchy that we have short pithy punchy sentences that don’t go on for too long. That’s not because your audience has a low IQ, or because they they’re not intelligent enough to understand and stay with you for a longer sentence, but because it’s your job as the speaker to make it as easy as possible for the audience to digest what you have to say.

Public Speaking – make your sentences short and punchy

If you’ve got long sentences that have got 30 40 words in or clauses and it’s hard for people to cling on to and understand. Then you’re quickly going to lose your audience and that would be a real shame, especially when all it takes to write a good speech is for you to come review what you’ve written, break it down into shorter punchier sentences where it’s very clear what the point is of each sentence what the meaning is. And then you can practice it out loud.

Don’t feel that I’m trying to dumb you down because when you look at some of the speeches, some of the big speeches from politicians, people like Michelle Obama (no, she’s not a politician) but people in the public eye, if you look at their speeches you’ll see that the language used isn’t particularly highfalutin or highbrow. When you’re using fairly simple language then you can take that and you can work on the expression so instead of tripping over your words because they’re so complicated or because you’ll try to keep the grip of where the sentence goes yourself. By having those short punchy pithy phrases and sentences then you can work on the delivery and work on adding the emotion, the emotional punch, that’s needed to really get to your audience.

Public Speaking – keep the audience with you by using the right language

You want both the right words and also you want the right delivery, and they will combine together to give your audience a powerful experience. But if it’s like you’re reading from Charles Dickens or from some sort of highbrow novel, it’s very hard for your audience to be in the moment with you. Because by the time you finish one sentence and have moved on they’re still analysing what you just said and making sure they fully understand it. If you can imagine a 30 minute speech that’s full of that and people can’t keep up with you, then you will soon lose them. That’s where the daydreaming begins or the mobile phones come out and you’ve lost them which, as I say, is a huge shame because of the time and effort and the energy you’ve put in not only to securing this opportunity to speak but also in the to the preparation of your presentation.

To summarise, I hope this gives you a few tips as to the difference between writing for somebody to read your words and writing for somebody to hear and to understand what you’re saying there and then in the moment. Of course, another thing is when somebody’s reading if there’s a word they don’t understand or if there’s a phrase that’s particularly long or hard to digest, they can pause they can reread it. When you’re speaking they don’t have that luxury. By the time they’re still analysing what you’ve said you’ve moved on and you want them to be with you every step of the way.

Hope that was useful to you. If it was then please check out some more of my video blogs or podcast episodes. If you’re interested in joining me for a live online event then why not check out sholakaye.com and you’ll see on the home page there how you can check out my next event. You’ll see masterclass and if you click on that it will take you either to my master class, which is pre-recorded, or to the next live event. So go ahead and do that and I hope to see you there.

And remember to keep your sentences short and punchy.

Take care and see you soon, bye.

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P.S. Whenever you’re ready… here are 4 ways I can help you improve your speaking or grow your business:

1 – Get my free guide – 27 places to find speaking opportunities.

Find out where your next speaking opportunity might come from – whether you’re a beginner, intermediate or experienced speaker.

2 – Join my Facebook Group – Public Speaking for Female Coaches and Entrepreneurs.

Join us for tips, discussions and community!

3 – Are you an ambitious coach, consultant or small business owner? If you’d like to wow your audiences and find more speaking opportunities, then watch the FREE on-demand training video here: https://sholakaye.com/masterclass

4 – Find out about my VIP Days and private coaching. Book me for a VIP half or full-day session if you want to make some serious progress!