Bill Liao: Public Speaking for the timid

I do a lot of public speaking and it used to terrify me. (I still get a few butterflies in my tummy, but I used to be totally paralysed with fear) I think we get our fear of speaking in public in school when we are younger and know very little about anything, so its easy to make a mistake and be ridiculed for it. (Even seeing someone else get ridiculed is enough to put most people off of doing some things)

So here are my top tips for how to speak in public for the non professional speaker / entertainer who doesn't have to speak in public for a living:

- Talk about what you really know so if you are asked to speak on a subject make sure that you only agree if you really do know the subject well and can tell some real life (hopefully interesting) stories about that topic from your own first hand experience.

- Keep facts and figures to a minimum and instead talk about what you felt and how others felt

- Try and make everything you are about to say into a short series of vignettes or short stories that each make a point

- Make sure you only make 3-5 key points in you talk any more than that and people probably will not remember anything you said (unless you don't want them to remember in which case go large)

- Try to engage your audience by asking them questions and make sure you listen as you speak, to see if they are reacting positively to you. To engage you should also speak slowly and make sure you look around and use your hands and eyes to convey your message.

- Finally get as comfortable as you can, so while its a bad idea to read out a prepared speech, you can have bullet points to remind you of each point you want to make. Also before you go on, start by chatting to someone quietly and just continue into your talk as if its just another conversation. the more calm you are, the better you will come across. Finally you should try to limit your talk to 18 minutes - like TED - as this makes for a very memorable delivery.

I hope you can use these tips to enjoy public speaking as much as I do and if you have any other good tips please tweet them to me @liaonet in English, German or French.

(Bill Liao/news.ch)