6 Tips To Improve Your Public Speaking

Voice
When you speak, your voice is your most important tool. It influences the
impact of your speech and can make or break its success. Fortunately,
you can learn to use your voice, just like playing a musical instrument, to
increase your power and persuasiveness in any conversation or speech
that you give. All you need is a little bit of guidance.

1) Slow Down
When you speak more slowly, your voice has more power and authority.
Your listeners have an opportunity to absorb and reflect on what you’re
saying.

You exude confidence  and you lend your words greater importance.

All powerful people speak slowly, enunciate clearly, and express

themselves with confidence. Loud, confident speaking is powerful and
moving.

When you speak too rapidly, your pitch increases, often to something
squeaky and child-like. This decreases the impact of your words and your
influence on the audience because listeners downgrade the importance or
value of what you are saying.

2) Use Voice Exercises

The human voice is like a muscle. It can be made stronger with exercise
and use. Many people with weak voices have become powerful, confident
speakers by building their voices over time with exercise.

Here’s an example. Memorize a piece of poetry and recite it regularly as

you drive or walk around. Imagine that you’re making a dramatic
presentation on a stage, in front of a large number of people. Put emotion
and strength and emphasis and energy into the words. Go slowly. Change
the emphasis on each word in the line of poetry, thereby changing the
meaning of the line.
3) Record And Listen To Your Voice
As you develop your ability to speak powerfully, record yourself reading
poetry or parts of plays. Replay these recordings over and over, looking
for ways to improve your pronunciation, your delivery, and your pacing.

4) Record Phone Conversations

You can increase your level of vocal mastery by recording your side of
conversations and listening to them afterwards. Every time you record and
play back your own voice, you will hear different ways that you could
improve your delivery and articulation next time.

5) Focus On Pauses
The drama and power of a speech is contained in the silences that you
create as you move from point to point. There are four kinds of pauses
you can use to put more power into your presentations. They are, “The
Sense Pause”, “The Dramatic Pause”, “The Emphatic Pause”, and “The
Sentence-Completion Pause”. 

6) Eat And Drink Well

Energy is essential for good speaking and voice projection. Before a short
talk, eat lightly. This ensures that you are bright and alert when you start
speaking, and that your brain is functioning at its best.

Before a long talk, it’s essential to eat well. A solid, high-protein breakfast
or lunch will give you energy to burn for four to five hours. Protein is brain
food, and you need it to think and speak effectively. Your voice will remain
strong and your mind will stay clear.

To ensure the best possible voice, only drink room temperature water
prior to and during your speech.

Cold water can chill your vocal chords and decrease the amount of
warmth in your voice. When you have a sore throat, it can be difficult to
speak clearly and project that voice. If this occurs, drink hot water with
lots of honey and lemon juice. This miraculous combination has saved me
on several occasions.

Conclusion
By following these 6 steps you will drastically improve your speaking
voice. The feeling of confidence and readiness that will accompany
practicing these skills will make you feel unstoppable. It’s a great way to
overcome any stage fright that you might deal with in front of large crowds