Improving Your Speech: The Path to Confident Communication

University:
Central Piedmont Community College
Course:
COM 231 | Public Speaking
Academic year:

2021
Views:

112

Pages:

2
Author:

Rnaan

ROSHAAN AMEER DISCUSSION PUBLIC SPEAKING “Any topic will do, no matter how serious or frivolous it may be. You don’t even need an audience - you can speak to an empty room. Better yet, record the speech and play it back to hear how you sound. The purpose is to gain experience in pulling your ideas together quickly and stating them succinctly.” Chapter 13, Page 234 This reminds me of when I worked as a sales leader for Bath & Body Works. My job was to motivate & inspire the staff to speak more confidently with our customers. Familiarity with the product made conversation flow much more easily. Each day I’d have all team members select two products from the sales floor to sell me at the beginning of their shift. I asked that one product be a favorite and the other one with which they were less familiar. To set the example, I run through features and benefits of my own two products every day into a tape recorder that employees listened to at the beginning of their shift. I’d find myself recording again and again until the information was as clear and concise as possible. I hated doing it initially but ended up loving it as I got more adept at it because it made me very comfortable speaking with customers. “Conversational quality means that no matter how many times a speech has been rehearsed, it still sounds spontaneous. When you speak extemporaneously - and have prepared properly - you have full control over your ideas, yet you are not tied to a manuscript. You are free to establish strong eye contact, to gesture naturally, and to concentrate on talking with the audience rather than declaiming to them.” Chapter 13, Page 234 This is sort of how I wrote the book I worked on for the last three years. I came up with an outline and then recorded myself speaking into my computer as if I was talking to my best friend. I wanted it to read as if I was right there with the reader having coffee and hope it came across the way.