Whether you had the best year of your life in 2017 or you couldn’t wait to see it go, the fact remains that we all have a fresh new year ahead of us. We love this time of year at Ethos3 because it signifies growth and renewal, which means it’s a brand new opportunity to start forging new paths and crushing new goals.
But it’s mighty tough to crush your goals if you don’t know what they are. A lot of presenters make the mistake of telling themselves that they want to be a better presenter yet they don’t have a solid idea of what that means or even looks like.
If you want to improve your public speaking skills and deliver an amazing presentation every single time, then you need to set firm goals to guide you there. And there’s no better time to do that than during the season of renewal.
Set and stick to the following three public speaking goals for 2018 and we guarantee you’ll be a better speaker when it’s over.
Assess Yourself
In order to leverage your strengths and minimize your weaknesses, you have to know what they are. Self-assessment is critical to figuring out how to leverage what works best for you and how to eliminate those things that are holding you back.
Of course, no one said assessing your strengths and weaknesses is easy; it involves being brutally honest and honing in on areas of your personality that might make you uncomfortable. But believe us when we tell you that if you commit to getting to know who, exactly, you are as a presenter, you’ll never give a bad presentation again. If you’re not quite sure how to get started, then check out our Badge Assessment, designed to give you insight into your unique presentation persona.
Join Toastmasters
If you’re not already taking advantage of the insane benefits of being part of a Toastmasters group, then you’re doing yourself a major disservice. Toastmasters is a free resource that over 350,000 presenters take advantage of because, simply put, it works.
Toastmasters ensures you stay sharp and confident on the public speaking front by giving you the opportunity to regularly practice presenting in a safe, supportive environment. And don’t think that just because you have years of public speaking under your belt that this shouldn’t be a goal. The best presenters in the world know that they’ll lose their mojo if they don’t make regular presentation practice part of their lifestyle, which is exactly what Toastmasters allows you to do.
Cultivate Connection
A lot of speakers focus all of their prep time and energy on refining their content and designing their slides, but not enough on cultivating a connection with their audience. But doing so is absolutely vital to success because even with the best content in the world, if you fail to connect with your audience, your presentation will fall flat every time.
Make 2018 the year that you put more focus on cultivating that connection. Rather than think solely about all that you want to say about your topic, spend time considering how to make it resonate effectively with your audience through your delivery, word choice, and design. A great place to start is to work on tapping into your vulnerability and paying closer attention to any emotional aspects of your topics because these are universal qualities of the human experience that we all relate to, even if we’re not familiar with the topic discussed.
Want to ensure you meet then exceed your presentation goals this year? Then check out Ethos3’s Catapult Training.
