How to Practice Public Speaking Alone
We're covering how to practice public speaking alone. Follow me on Linkedin: Brenden Kumarasamy
1. Record yourself through video or audio and send it to your friends for feedback (0:39).
This is probably the easiest exercise you can do alone because all you have to do is take a speech you’re working on and present it in different ways, you can just pull up a phone for this or a camera if you have one and just record yourself speak alone, that’s all. You can then send these videos to your friends and family and ask for specific feedback.
One way I use this technique is I message 20-25 different people and I ask for time stamped feedback, this means that I ask my network to give me times with their feedback where they would say something like well Brenden, why are you smiling when you’re talking about a tragedy at 5 minutes 14 seconds? That way I can forward the video to that time and see the specific feedback they’re giving me. This is how to practice public speaking alone.
The more people you send your video too, the better you’ll become and you can just keep making recordings until you’re absolutely perfect at your speech.
2. Practice the random word exercise 5 minutes a day, everyday (1:56).
This is one of my favorite exercises to do alone, all you have to do is pick a random word in your house or a couple and start presenting topics around them with no preparation, so obviously, I could be cheating here since I’m on a recorded video, but let’s take lights as an example. Lights brighten our day…. do the rest of the exercise. This is how to practice public speaking alone.
You could also record videos of you doing the exercise and sending them to your friends if you decide to record them for feedback, but you don’t necessarily need to do that if you don’t want to.
Another great way of doing this drill especially if you’re in a public setting where you’re walking to work or at a beach is start brainstorming and reflecting on well if I was doing the exercise right now, how would I present this word and why? This is how to practice public speaking alone.
3. Make a list of questions someone can ask you in a presentation and figure out how to answer them (2:53).
One common part of presentations is Q&A where your audience will ask you questions about what you talked about, concepts they’re not sure of and additional points they want to know more about. There’s 2 ways of approaching this exercise on your own. This is how to practice public speaking alone.
1. Make the list of questions yourself after watching yourself present a recorded version of the entire thing or by reading the slides and figuring out how you would tackle each question.
2. Send a recorded presentation to friends and family and ask them to make a list of questions they would ask you about your topic so that you can brainstorm ways of answering them.
As always, if you enjoyed this week’s episode of MasterTalk, be sure to SMASH that LIKE button and SUBSCRIBE to the YouTube channel as well and if you know anyone who’s looking to practice public speaking, be sure to send them this video so that they’ll be one step closer to making every second count.
For business or public speaking coaching inquiries, you can reach me at [email protected].
Special thanks to Maison Laporem for letting me use the space.
https://maisonleporem.com/