How to make great Speeches (Even on Zoom)?
We have all heard that body language constitutes a huge part of public speaking. Unfortunately, the present times are not conducive for us to conduct in-person meetings or presentations. Thus we are back to feeling more pressure on delivering great content. But what defines a ‘great’ content and how can you up your zoom-speaking game?
1. Develop the Venn of Communion: It is true that the secret to a good speech is to know the needs of your audience. But to elevate it to a great speech, you must match the audience’s needs to you skills. In other words, you must develop the Venn of Communion. The Venn is the intersection of the audience needs and the skills that you have. For instance, one of my college courses required me to teach a lesson in class. Here the need of my classmates was to understand the concepts in a simpler way, while my expertise was my ability to tell stories and ofcourse the chapter knowledge that I had. I explained the visual system with hypothetical scenarios of myself. The key is to make your audience needs yours and finding out how you can solve them.
2. Analogy: If you have something technical to explain as a part of your speech, always make sure to supplement it with an easier example. In a podcast episode, I was recently listening to, the host mentioned that she explained the role of mitochondria powering the cells with the help of factories powering a city. So, follow-up the technical bits of your content with relatable example.
3. Get in the Zone: To avoid the butterflies, take a few moments to prepare yourself for the speech. An important advantage that Zoom calls provide anxious speakers is that ability to hide themselves from the view. But the anxiety can seep through in your voice. So, take a few moments before the moment and calm yourself down. You can take deep breaths and visualise yourself giving a successful presentation in some time.
4. Interactive and Live Speech: People are already feeling left out over zoom calls. So, to make them feel more included, make sure that you have some activities planned for the people. This could be a game or a task that they could do. This would make them feel more inclusive and connected.
Produce a top-notch content and earn the place you deserve. All the Best!
