Some people are born with the ability to stand up in front of others and speak their mind or give out advice, others are not. I recently watched a video online of pastor and prophet TB Joshua giving one of his famous sermons, honestly speaking, as a man not of faith, I was blown away and captivated by the pastor’s oration that I watched his video for over an hour. This is the kind of engagement which you need to acquire when you are giving a public speech.

30182106142_436647a79c_b

Some people will go through their lives without ever needing to speak in public, others may need to do it with more frequency, if you fall into the latter and if you want to know how to captivate your audience then here are some tips.

The Content

Aside from the way in which you deliver the speech, your content must first be absolutely on point and be strong enough for people to want to listen to what you have to say. You should be writing and re-writing your speech until you have it right and you should also look at how the piece flows. When writing a speech you will need an explosive beginning and an ending which either rounds off your point with a bang or leave the audience asking themselves questions. Throughout the body of the speech you need to ensure that it doesn’t become dull or repetitive and don’t worry about the piece being too short, this is far more favorable than it being too long.

Use Your Body

Body language is a key tool when delivering a speech and you need to work on how and when to use it in order to captivate the audience. Even if you are nervous giving your speech, you cannot appear this way and you need to show a commanding presence on stage. To help you to appear commanding you should be pacing the stage, standing with a good posture and an open body frame. When it comes to driving home key points or trying include the audience, you should be using your hands and your arms to there full use. Practice your speech and record it on a video, this way you can see how you used your body and whether you felt as though it was a captivating use of body language.

Intonation and Clarity

You could have the greatest speech in the World, use your body language in the perfect way and walk that stage like you own it, but if you don’t deliver the speech with clarity then you will not capture the hearts and minds of those who you are speaking to. You need to practice your speech relentlessly until you have nailed down the tonality and the clarity of your speech. Rehearse at what point you should be raising an lowering your voice, or adding strong pronunciation to drive home points. Public speaking is about using everything that you have and along with body language, intonation is key.