Gigi’s 3 Top Public Speaking Tips as told to Adi Klevit:
Adi: What are some of the tips that you give your clients in terms of how to deliver their speech or their presentation?
Gigi: One thing most people don't do enough is to know how to use pauses because pauses help us have a moment to take in what you just said.
When someone is nervous, they can be like a runaway train.
That wall of words when all the content is coming nonstop, can make it very hard—from the audience's point of view—to take anything in.
So, tip number one is to use pauses.
But what's so interesting about pauses is that we human beings also like surprises. So if the pauses become too regular, then they get a little boring. So you don't do boring pauses, use pauses that help your audience stay with you.
You can create drama with pauses, you can help people take things in with pauses, but you need to know where to put them.
Adi: Is there anything else that you would add that helped your clients improve?
Gigi: Often visuals or slides are part of most people's presentations. And I see the same problems over and over again with presenters relying too heavily on the slides.
Nobody is coming to the presentation to see your slides.
You want the slides support your message rather than the other way around. You don't work the slides. The slides work for you.
Adi: Did we did I miss anything in what we covered there in terms of the tips?
Gigi:
Speaking is a physical activity.
So it's not something that's only done in writing because if it's only done in writing, you might as well send out an email and then your goal would be accomplished. That’s where people forget or don't realize that speaking is something you do with your body and with your voice. And that's the translation they need to make from the idea and the concept to then embodying it, and then getting it out in the world.
Your body is the vehicle for your message.
And once you accept that, then you realize,”Oh, okay, then I gotta get ready with both what I’m going to say and then how I deliver the message.”