Public speaking is a perfect way to market your business and become known as an expert in your industry. But it hardly ever comes naturally and takes some practice. To help speakers on their way to public speaking success, Ahmad Ashkar offers tips and tools to help deliver great content and motivate audience.

• Public speaking is simpler if the speaker knows the material. When the speaker gives presentations select topics that he/she knows– this will make it much easier to speak fluidly, converse its intricacies, answer questions and reach the audience.
• When planning a public speaking event, it is a good idea to begin small. Search for prospects to be a guest speaker on a webcast or connect with a panel discussion at an industry event. This will assist take the pressure off a little and offer a chance to practice.
• People take part in conferences, events, and webinars as they want to learn, but they also want to be energized and inspired about a topic. Thus, it is the responsibility of the speaker to practice presentation or talk in front of a camera in private, do it at least three times and study playbacks each time observing and adjusting body language, tone, and overall delivery.
• Aim to keep your presentation or talk short and simple. Stick to five to ten slides at most and use anecdotes and instances to elaborate points. The information the speaker offers should be easy your audience to take notes on and keep in mind.
• Conversational speech is quick, add in a dose of public speaking nerves, and it gets even quicker. Try and slow down to half normal talking speed and add lots of pauses. The speaker should keep him/her reminding all through the presentation to slow down.
• Telling stories is a perfect way to engage and make talk unforgettable. This can be the speaker’s personal story or an anecdote about business or customers.
• Take Q&As, use surveys in the middle of speech, whatever it takes to add interactivity to talk. People want to be occupied. Use trivia about topic, the industry or even audience to break the ice and get people warmed up before going into talk and give out token rewards for interaction.
• The slides the speaker presents matter. Use images, discuss about image, limit bullets, add color and so on. Several new techniques are there that can help make presentations more memorable, engaging and polished.
• Limit content overload by anchoring talk around the feeling and emotion that the speaker wants audience to take away with them. For instance, in case of a real estate business and the speaker is delivering a talk on how prospective home sellers can get their property ready for sale, the speaker wants audience to walk away excited and empowered to implement your tips. That is the vital takeaway of presentation.

Mr. Ahmad Ashkar is a Palestinian American entrepreneur. He is the creator of several award winning and internationally recognized brands in food and beverage, education, hospitality, technology and real estate.