These tips from an international speaker might help you with your own public speaking.

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Public speaking is something that most of us need to do at different points in our professional and personal lives, and the good news is that all of us can grow in this vital skill. I have been on a long journey with public speaking and I continue to try and hone it and get better at it, and so we asked Dr Erin Clifford to lead a session at Stronger 2022 on public speaking itself.

Erin hails from Washington, DC. A CofE priest and passionate activist for the poor she has lived for many years in East Africa and London. Erin works for International Justice Mission. She often travels internationally and speaks on preaching, biblical justice, risking for faith, and loving your neighbour.

We will release a recording of Erin’s talk in due course, but in the meantime, I thought sharing a couple of the brilliant points she makes could be really useful. Firstly as an acknowledgment that public speaking is so important. Secondly, that Erin delivered such a fabulous session and thirdly, we just couldn’t wait to release the whole talk before we shared a couple of nuggets with you.

Are you ready to hear two things that will help you grow as a public speaker?

1.BE YOURSELF

What a simple, but also profound point to make. Erin says this:

‘Before I was a public speaker, before I was a priest, I had seen very few women, speakers, very few effective women, female communicators. And I felt like the ones I had seen, change their voices, when they got up to speak on stage. And I see this in all communicators, no matter their gender, I see often people get up and they will take on a different voice or a different persona. And it's almost because they feel they've got to mimic someone that maybe they learned from and they become this other thing, that's not really who they are…’

This is relevant for all of us, whether you’re engaged in public speaking rarely, or more regularly.

1.Those who engage in public speaking - Regularly: for this category, you will have an idea already of what looks like success and what doesn’t. That’s fabulous. To a point. It’s good because there are some examples that you probably follow that capture something of what you want to embody in your style of speaking. The issue is that you can quite easily adopt some of the style and mannerisms of those speakers, rather than allowing their example to propel you forward into your own style. Learn from those examples and make it your own and be yourself.

2.Those who engage in public speaking - Rarely: for this category, like anything that we’re not familiar with, we can become consciously incompetent. Which means we can feel like we’re not very good at something and as a result feel a bit tense or on high alert, and this can mean we don’t convey who we are or what we’re trying to communicate very convincingly. For this group, just relax and be yourself. As you do, it’s the most compelling thing. We want to hear what you have to say, and I’m sure as you do that, you will catch the bug for public speaking and start look to develop your technique.

2.PRACTISE, practise, practise

One of the key things that has helped me over the years is practise. Whether that’s rehearsing stories or running through my sermon or talk. Familiarising myself with my notes. The times when I felt that my talks haven’t landed so well are often the times that I haven’t practised my talk. Now of course, God is bigger, and he uses our words and communication … but he also uses our practise!

This is what Erin opened with in this part of her talk at Stronger 2022: 

‘…People tell you to practice but they tell you to practice because of credibility. When people have practised their communication, you trust them, right? They see more authentic, when you can tell that someone hasn't practised when they get up, and they're shuffling their notes around, and they've sort of lost where they are. And they're reading from their paper the whole time, is hard to listen to…’

And Erin explored a range of ways you can practise. I’ve added a few of my own below too:

1.On your own

2.On your way to work (if you’re not using public transport I suppose!)

3.With a friends who could provide helpful and encouraging feedback

4.With someone who is further down the line than you when it comes to public speaking, a mentor figure.

5.In different settings (e.g. in front of a mirror, or in your church? Why not ask your pastor/vicar to see if they would let you practise your talk in your church building?)

I find that the more I practise: 

a) The more familiar I am with my notes

b) The more at ease when it comes to delivery

c) The less tied to my notes which means I’m able to give my audience more eye contact (which you might read, ‘attention’).

d) The more I am able to bring more of my personality and soft edges to the talk because I don’t need to concentrate so hard on my place in my notes.

So I agree wholeheartedly behind the principle that Erin shared with us at Stronger 2022: practice, practice, practice

Did you enjoy those two tips and ideas? It was so good to listen to the whole of Erin’s session. Don’t miss it when it comes out…