9 Public Speaking Mistakes You Need To Stop Making Now!!!

Quit. Just quit making those stupid public speaking mistakes now. We often forget working on the teeny tiny details of the public speaking and end up ruining the entire meeting for ourselves and for the audience.

There could be many areas which you think you might need to work on. However, we have handpicked 10 most silly points which can prove to be a do or die situation for you.

Let’s talk about them.

1) Reading from the slides: No we are not reading a chapter from the textbook. This is one major problem that we often see. Presenters usually start reading from the slides and then go on explaining them later. Worse is when they go on reciting word to word from the slides. Don’t act like a 2^nd grade teacher and don’t treat your audience like kids.

2) Chewing gums: This could be one of your pet things to do. However, this one particular habit can turn into your audience’s biggest pet peeves which can drive them nuts. It is really annoying seeing a person chewing gum on the stage whilst speaking. It looks unprofessional and unethical. You have got to stop doing this immediately.

3) Using Jargon: Yes, you are brainy. That’s why you are up on the stage. However, you don’t have to show your intelligence by using technical language. You are there to share information, some valuable insights. You are not responsible for improving your audience’s vocabulary. Your audience wants to listen to something meaningful and inspiring. Jargon won’t help. Try not to confuse people by using big fancy words.

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4) Going unprepared: This is when filler words come in such as “umm, er, uh, so.” You must go fully prepared to get rid of such words. Practice your speech, work on the pauses so that you don’t utter umm or uh too much. Don’t let these distractions come in the way in your speech. Work on it so that the audience can focus on the message than get distracted.

5) Going too fast or too slow: You must check your speed rate at which you are speaking. Generally, speakers don’t pay attention to if they are speaking too fast or too slow. However, audience does. They won’t get a thing if you are fast talking. Or you will probably put them to sleep if you speak too slowly. So work on the speed. Try to say each word clearly and loudly. Practice in front of your friends and family. They will tell you about the pauses and speed. Do dry rehearsals. Record yourself and improve yourself.

6) Message is missing: That’s when you lose your audience when there is no message. Sometimes either speaker flaunts himself or talks about meaningless stuff. Just does not hit the target. Audience does not want to know about you, your achievements, skills or talents. They have come to get a message from you. They want to get inspired by you. Talking too much about yourself could put a negative impact on the audience. They have thoroughly researched about you before coming or you already know them otherwise. So try not to talk about stuff which do not matter and get to the message. Talk around the message. You should work to get your message across.

7) Exceeding the time limit: It is important to finish your presentation on time. Audience is always busy. They have to be somewhere else after you finish your speech. So to make sure you don’t leave your audience uneasy, always start on time. Divide your speech and presentation into sections. Allocate time for each section. This way you will know how much time is left for you to finish the other sections. Plan and edit your content. Rehearse as much as you can. This will help you keep track of the time limit.

8) Uncomfortable clothes: First impression is the last impression. Your body language is immediately judged as soon as you enter the stage. It is advised to wear comfortable clothes so that you don’t juggle between the clothes and your speech. Last thing audience wants to see is you struggling with your clothes. Choose your clothes wisely.

9) Forget to put phone on silent: You don’t want unnecessary noises in between. So it is asked in the beginning to keep the phones on silent. Make sure you also follow this. Keep your phone on silent during the speech.