What is to be a Public Speaker?

  

Speech holds a lot of power. Words have strength to move the mountains, everyone says but how does that affect you or how does that affect me? Thoughts can make you the creator or the destroyer, opinions can bestow impacts that wealth can never and views can bring changes that weapons will never imagine. Is public speaking made for everyone? Why are some better than the others? Why do your palm sweats when you hear “public speaking”? why is this even important? And more importantly what is even public speaking? Your mind must have started swirling with all these questions when you first read the blog’s title today. And today we shall try to discover the answers to all these questions together (together, in sense, by you reading and me writing, understood? Oh, you already did, never mind😂).

Public speaking or simply speechmaking is nothing but the art to influence others with your style of words and expression. It doesn’t matter what opinion you are trying to represent or how complex is your vocabulary or how accurate is your phonetics; what matters is your chic of presentation. Today people debate about issues as important as mental health awareness to issues as silly as why it is necessary to have an Instagram account. Likewise, the arguments evolve, outlooks are formed and ultimately are executed when given a platform; what remains common is however trivial is your issue, your thoughts will always hold a value.  Now let’s not use anymore fancy words and give you a clear-cut view, it’s not about how your voice sounds on the microphone, it is about how influencing your beliefs are.

Personally, public speaking has always been the cherry on top of cake in my co-curriculum section since I attained some sense of life.  Difficult comprehension? Never mind, let’s try again. I began handling mikes, stages and audiences from grade 1. Initially, they were poetry and short stories then they transformed into bigger topic-oriented speeches which gradually have now become on-spot debates, MUN’s and almost everything. I am not exaggerating the situation it is the reality that I am trying to sketch in front of you all. Now you may say, how is it even possible to start when my journey began around a decade back? the fact is, its never late to start something new, you just need little determination and a purpose. So here are a few tips for beginners, firstly make sure you know which area suits you the best, public speaking has lot of arenas so initially try to stick to one thing. Secondly, make your content vibrant, add good points that are relevant and this demands research, so use your detective skills and scoop the best points. Thirdly, use words that slip easily out of your tongue using complicated words will not only confuse you but they also give a negative impression to the listener. Fourth, make sure you look confident even if you aren’t feeling like, there is always a difference in being and in pretending, so start from pretending, you will ultimately reach to ‘being’ too.  Finally, be sure of what you are saying, it doesn’t matter whether you follow your written script or not because no one has read it except you.

Lot of laurels have come to my way because of public speaking and it will wrong if I say “oh! It was no sweat of my back” because it was lot of sweat, lot of toil, lot of hard work and lot of failures.  It’s okay if it’s just participating for the first time because it takes a lot to just stand there with wobbly legs and speak out your mind. One thing that I always do the before I step on stage is I stand in front of the mirror and speak everything opposite to what I am to propose the next day let’s say, like if I am saying that AI is harming the environment, I will speak about all benefits of AI. Now as insane as this may sound, this is very helpful when preparing for a debate because you instantly know what your opponent will oppose in your speech or what you can oppose in your opponent’s speech so eventually this method prepares you both for attack as well as to defend yourself.  It is not a google technique it has been experimented several times and has turned out fruitful with every single practice. Focusing on the key important points is also very necessary, usually speaking time is constraint in most competitive public speaking so learn to prioritize your points don’t wander here and there just remain crisp and adamant, judges will automatically hear you out keenly. Keep one goal in mind even if you are saying that earth is red the audience should agree with you, such powerful should be your speech (now, I know never will you say earth is red but it’s just to explain the sentiments behind my point😂).

Lastly, keep one thing in mind, it’s okay if people don’t agree with you. Most of the time people won’t agree with anything, but that’s okay, your job is to make sure people feel that there is no option left with them except agreeing with you. That is the true spirit of a successful speaker. This takes time, but it is not impossible. It’s absolutely fine if you can’t look into the eyes of the audience the first, maybe even the second time or the tenth time even but just remember Einstein and alexander aren’t made in a day. Keep trying, keep failing because the taste of success after failures is lot sweeter than anything in the world. Nobody can become Orpah Winfrey, she’s one of her own kind and you too, dear reader, can be of your own kind.

Asta la Proxima,

Priyal💝

PS. I can’t stop my fingers once I start typing, why lord, why? Well next, blog comes on my obsession with harry potter. Stay safe!