For starters, I would like to highlight that most politicians have got it all wrong; they are, quite literally, all talk!

In last week’s blog, I told the story of a young student of mine who desperately wanted other people to listen to him. You may remember my main tip:

The people around you act as your mirror; they show you how you are behaving. If you want people to listen to you; listen to them. If you missed last week’s blog, please do have a read now: Last week's Post

When I teach public speaking skills, I always emphasise the need to show interest in your audience and to make your speech as much like a conversation as possible. When you do this, your audience will automatically feel much more valued because they will have the impression that you really care about their opinions. A great knock on effect here, is that they will then become much more interested in your story.

This technique does not need to be reserved for public speaking engagements. It should be incorporated into your everyday life. After all, when someone asks us how we are, whether we had a good weekend, how our holiday was (you fill in the blank), we feel more interesting. You see, if someone is interested in us, we must be interesting and we immediately like these people and value them more.

The main difference between a conversation and a speech is that during a conversation there is an open exchange of ideas, whereas during a speech or presentation, there is a speaker and an audience. So, how do we stop a speech from becoming like a conversation when we add this concept of exchange?

It is quite simple; we ask rhetorical questions or use ‘raise your hand if’ style enquiries.

I like to begin my rhetorical questions in the following manner:

• I wonder whether….
• Perhaps…
• If you’re anything like me…

The above tips should help you to avoid making speeches that are more like conversations or worse still having that are like speeches!