Leadership is the art of giving people a platform for spreading ideas that work.- Seth Godin
One of the techniques that great public speakers have is knowing their material.
You cannot be an expert mechanic and give a speech on “How to Grill the Perfect Steak.”
A speaker needs to be patient in the topic he will present so that his audience will be informed appropriately.
You want to be known as a dependable speaker, so you need to have an ability in your topic.
Below are three effortless steps on how you can master your material when you need to address the public or make an oral presentation:
1. Outline.
Do not go to a battle unprepared.
When you need to give a speech, ensure you have all the necessary equipment to deliver an informative presentation.
First, gather all the materials that you can about the topic.
Second, sift through all the written material and pick out valuable bits and pieces of information.
Read the articles which you have picked out from the lot. Do not memorize, though, because this might cause you to be confused if you forget a particular part of your speech.
Be as spontaneous as possible yet knowledgeable enough about the topic. This is so that you can answer any question that comes up through the discussion with enough confidence.
The lesser you know about the topic, the more your anxiety will increase.
2. Review the outcome of the actual speech.
You need to review your presentation before you have prepared your speech.
Scrutinize the outline and ensure you have all the crucial essentials covered.
For example, suppose you are giving a speech on “Hybrid Technology.” In that case, you might have discussed the definition of the term but missed saying examples of hybrid technology products.
Give diligence because there might be someone in your audience who knows about your topic and point out the things you did not discuss.
3. Rehearse and master your final material.
Before you are given a topic to present, you are first informed of the time that the presentation should run.
It is vital to rehearse your speech and decide how long it will run.
If you only have twenty minutes to present, but you have material enough for a thirty-minute speech, you can still trim it down.
Finally, by “hearing yourself” rehearse the speech, you would have a preview of how your actual presentation would run and make the necessary improvements, thus producing the perfect oral presentation.