Your Goal for the New Year: Become a Stronger Speaker
Easy ways to improve your public speaking prowess
According to Forbes, most new year’s resolutions are about self-improvement, whether it’s personal (read more, get healthier, learn a new language…) or professional (learn TikTok, work with a coach, improve my speaking skills so I can get a promotion…).
Some of the reasons for coaching I hear from clients:
“I’ve been meaning to improve my public speaking skills for a long time…”
“I want to move up at work, but I need to be a better presenter before I get promoted…”
“I have to deliver a lot of presentations, but I don’t know how to add storytelling (or) I need to be more confident, and get my nerves under control…”
Half the battle is identifying what you want to improve. And I love helping people improve their public speaking and presenting skills. (And better meetings at work? Oh yeah, Randy and I offer workshops or Video-on-Demand courses.)
Here, I’ll share with you some steps to achieving a goal (I used to be a time management trainer!) followed by free public speaking tips, low-cost coaching options, and full-on, deep-dive coaching and workshop options. Enjoy!
Steps to Achieve Your New Year’s Resolution or New Year’s Goal
Write down your goal.
This one sounds like a no-brainer, but writing down a goal actually gives you an 80% likelihood of achieving it. It also makes the goal more “real.” Keep your written goals somewhere easy to get to and findable - i.e., no random post-it notes flying around your desk.
Want to boost this likelihood even more? Tell someone about your goal after you write it down. Both writing and talking about a goal make it more real.Break your goal into tiny steps.
Also sounds simple, but we often establish goals without thinking about what it will take to achieve them. If your goal is to improve your presentation skills, what will you do first? Get a book at the library, watch a video, purchase a course, hire a coach? Write down your steps in that same findable place you wrote your goal.Backwards-plan your goal.
Start with a deadline and work backwards. Even if your goal has no “due by” date, give it one. So, let’s say you’re angling for a promotion this year, and you need to polish up those speaking skills. Give yourself a realistic deadline. You probably won’t nail those skills in a week - but how about six or eight weeks from now? Or three months?
Pick your date - a specific date - and list specifically what you will have accomplished by then. List out the steps to get there, and then backwards-plan them. So, if you want to have more confidence in your speaking by, let’s say, March 15, you probably need to hire a coach by January 15 or 25.
Easy ways to improve your public speaking skills
I don’t recommend relying on Google or looking for all the public speaking freebies you can find online. Here’s why: The internet - for better or worse - has made so much stuff free. Which means there’s a TON of it. And when there’s a ton of something, especially free, that means much of it is garbage.
So don’t waste your precious time trying to find the best free tips on the interwebs. (You’re already here so you’ve got the best! No false modesty whatsoever.) Find some, but then dig further for the gold.
Observe speakers you admire and write down what draws you to them.
What aspect of their speech makes you stop and take notice? Then apply that quality to your own work.
Excellent speeches can be found on ted.com, the History Channel, and, of course, on You Tube. You can also observe speakers in your professional life, and draw from them. Guess what? You can even take inspiration from fictional presenters.Buy a how-to book.
Buy - not get it from the library. This is because I want you to underline, mark up, and make notes on what matters to you as you read. And be active when you read that book! Stand up and do some of the suggestions. Reading something and not practicing it is useless - and won’t give you the skill you need when you’re actually in front of the board room.
And make sure the book fairly current, printed within the last 4 years or so. A book with presenting tips from the year 2000 will not have current references nor be relevant for your current work world. (You think Zoom shows up in any of the old books? No, it doesn’t.)Read this blog.
You’re already here (thank you!), so dig in and check out all the free tips from me and my colleagues. Storytelling? Hear from Rebecca Anderson or Randy Ford. Communication Limitations? Listen to this interview with LeeAnn Petersen and Randy Ford. In college, and you need to improve your speaking skills? Go here first.Book a power hour.
A power hour is a quick, easy, and affordable jump-start to improve a single aspect of your presentations or interviews. I’ve helped clients ace job interviews, prepare speech intros and outros, and even polish up their presentation delivery.Hire a coach.
For issues that require a deeper dive, issues like anxiety, nerves, speaking with confidence or not losing focus, a comprehensive, multi-meeting option is best. This allows your coach to get to know you, what’s at the root of your challenges, and how to design coaching to set you up for success. Deep-seated issues can not be resolved in one session.
And there are plenty of speaking coaches out there - you don’t have to hire me. My goal is to give you skills that will ripple out with and stay with you your entire career. I want to give you tools to support your career growth so that you never need to call me again. (But I’d love it if you did!)
Whichever of these solutions works for you - do it!
And I wish you happy speaking!
About The Author
Hi! I’m Marianna. I make public speaking and presentation skills easier for my clients. I help with everything from preparation to managing anxiety and nerves to speaking with strength and confidence. In addition to Presentation Skills workshops, I offer executive coaching and Keynote speeches. To learn more, Get in touch.