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Public Speaking, when you are running a company there are thousands of things that you have to think about; although Public Speaking could seem to be the latest, at some point you should figure out that you must be able to present the product/company that you are developing.
Public Speaking can’t be taught, it is just a matter of experience. However there are several advice that you must always keep in mind.
Stay Calm
This is the easiest and most intuitive advice that anyone can receive. When your audience is there, staring at you, waiting for your words, you could get a little bit stressed. Further you could start sweating without any reason, making a bad speech or an awful one. The key is to think positive, people are there to listen to you, not to make fun of you. You are playing the game and you must establish the rules before the game starts.
Keep Focus
No matter they are laughing at you or they are not listening to you, you need to keep focus on what you want to say. A good way to do it is to prepare a list of the things you want to talk about. Repeat them before the speech. When Mark Zuckerberg did the D8, he probably thought it was a simple and easy interview; at the end it turned to be a disaster.
If they are asking things you are not comfortable with, do not comment them; another possibility is to comment them by being the coldest person on earth and not showing how insecure you are, but that is tough.
You Love Your Product
Show how much you love the product and how great it is. When you speak about your product you are the direct communicator between the product and the costumer, so show the philosophy behind the project, how much you worked and the reasons why you love it so much.
When Steve Jobs presented for the first time world wide the iPhone, he repeated a dozens of times a single phrase ” Isn’t that great?”. He seemed to me a baby who saw for the first time the most exclusive game on earth. Jobs was amazed by what he built and he was showing his feelings to the crowd.
Use Your Style
In this article we took as example three great Entrepreneurs, Steve Jobs, Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg; if we watch their keynotes we will realize that the key to perform an outstanding keynote is in the style. The way you speak, the way you smile and the way you talk about that product can’t be taught. Steve Jobs used a friendly and happy tone, making the speech more enjoyable. Morevore he usually used to launch the best product of the keynote with a fake ending. He started just with the sentence “One more thing” and then he showed the product.
On the other hand Bezos has a cold and strong personality when he talks in public. The kindle fire presentation is just standard, he is not involving the public and he doesn’t show “interest” for the product that he is releasing. This could be dangerous when you are at the beginning of your career, but when your name is “Jeff Bezos”, you can do whatever you want.
Instead Zuckerberg is in the middle. He talks in a good and simple way, making the entire keynote comprehensible for the public. Further he shows a good interest in what he is talking about. What I really didn’t like is the way he chose his clothes, but that is just my humble opinion, which doesn’t ruin a perfect keynote.
There aren’t books that can teach you public speaking. What you can easily find by talking with a friend or by just surfing the web are advice. In order to improve your public speaking you need to keep practicing, just with the experience and tons of keynotes you are able to understand how to behave.
