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Ask HN: What are the best resources to improve public speaking skill?
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Re: Ask HN: What are the best resources to improve public speaking skill?
#2The best resource for improving your public speaking is to find events that are looking for speakers and to volunteer. The only way to improve your public speaking is to do more of it.
Re: Ask HN: What are the best resources to improve public speaking skill?
#3Look into Toastmasters. It is a successful community that is specifically designed so you improve this skill.
Re: Ask HN: What are the best resources to improve public speaking skill?
#4I took a comedy class just for this exact reason a few years ago.
Re: Ask HN: What are the best resources to improve public speaking skill?
#5I like Andrew Ng's short article (https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20140320175655-176238488-lear...) about this topic. Recommends taking short videos of elements of your speech and then watching them, tweaking, and repeating.
Re: Ask HN: What are the best resources to improve public speaking skill?
#6The best resource for improving your public speaking is to find events that are looking for speakers and to volunteer. The only way to improve your public speaking is to do more of it.
Totally agree with this.
A couple of other things I’ve found help me in case they help you:
- public speaking is a skill, not a talent. You can learn to be good at it with practice.
- if you are the type of person that gets nervous, you may never completely cure that, but you will learn to get through it. Many good public speakers still feel a little anxiety before speaking.
- if you have a bad presentation, don’t stress too much. The key is to not let too much time go by after a bad performance, get back out there.
I personally dread public speaking, but I have to do it regularly enough that I continuously have to work at it. I like to memorize the first few lines of any talk. Once I get a few sentences in everything falls into place. I just need to get through the first 90 seconds before my nerves pass. And it only improved through live action.
Re: Ask HN: What are the best resources to improve public speaking skill?
#7You need audience feedback. So the Andrew Ng's solution to film yourself is half good. If you know great public speakers (friends, colleagues, your boss, etc.), ask for feedback when you train, pull them in, ask them to come and judge you.
Re: Ask HN: What are the best resources to improve public speaking skill?
#8a mirror :)
Re: Ask HN: What are the best resources to improve public speaking skill?
#9Look into Toastmasters. It is a successful community that is specifically designed so you improve this skill.
I'll give a good example about how toastmasters helped me, I hope it encourages those who are very afraid of public speaking.
I have always been a very strong public speaker (loud, booming voice, native English speaker) and decided to do toastmasters to get better at talking about very technical things - I have ADD so I tend to fall over myself a lot when explaining things. I have had a very stressful last few months (organised a marketing conference, moved house, organised two gigs that didn't work out so well) and I was asked to present at a meetup a few days before the conference.
I felt really dizzy in the afternoon of giving the talk and thought a drink or two would settle me (the meetup was at a pub.) Turns out it didn't and 3 slides in I became very disorientated. I decided to professionally stop the talk and ask the MC if the next speaker could go first as I needed to get some air. I came back half an hour later and performed the talk.
The reason I was able to handle this so professionally was 100% due to Toastmasters. So many people in my club were not native English speakers who had very stressful reactions to public speaking. Every single person given a task would always show the upmost respect for those who struggled and act in a supportive manner, so when I had a rough time I knew how to act appropriately.
Re: Ask HN: What are the best resources to improve public speaking skill?
#10Look into Toastmasters. It is a successful community that is specifically designed so you improve this skill.
Agreed. I am a member of a club for 2 years in Shanghai, and corporate club coach to help grow a Fortune 500 club stronger. I have seen extraordinary transformations in individuals; often within 1 year. I joke it is a club for all us introverts to get together, support each other, and find our voice. Regrettably I was always too busy or didn't prioritize this craft in my 20s (now 49). It is one of the best, cheapest, most efficient ways to upgrade your career skills bar none.