Bizkids: Public Speaking Advice from an Expert

With Wendy Xu 

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Becoming a confident and adept public speaker is something that many people strive for, but often do not know the first step towards reaching their goal. With that in mind, beijingkids interviewed experts in the field of public speaking, to explore their ideas and opinions about the importance of confident speaking for young people, and some practical steps to take towards acquiring these skills.

Mark Regan 

This week, we invited Mark Regan to share his ideas. Mark Regan is a dynamic and high-performing business leader with a unique background in advice, business development, sales consulting, training, and broadcasting. With a background in Linguistics and having worked in fields that extensively rely on the need for strong communication abilities, he has developed valuable experience in the skill sets needed for public speaking, negotiation, media presentation, and promotion. Less well known is that Mark is a prominent voice actor; having applied his skills over the last 10 years in a wide range of international commercials, television programs, cartoons, movies, documentaries, and video games.

Beijingkids: What would you say are the most critical elements (or first steps) that someone should learn to become more skilled in this area?

Mark Regan (MR): One critical element to public speaking is confidence. Take in a deep breath, relax, and be yourself when you’re presenting any type of material, in a calm and confident manner; this allows a person to stop focusing on the ‘fear’ of standing in front of an audience, but instead to focus on what they want to say, how they want to say it, and really start to engage an audience.

Confidence takes time to develop, especially when starting out. For people who feel they may lack the confidence to stand up on the stage and present, the advice I offer is simply “pretend you have confidence!”  It sounds a bit silly, but the idea is that you imagine what a confident person would look and sound like, and attempt to emulate that image. Surprisingly, it works very well – and over time, that person can develop their own speaking personality for their public speaking needs.

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Many schools are beginning to shift their classroom learning environment from being teacher-led to more student-led, with teachers acting as facilitators. Is this shift helping students to become more confident speakers?

MR: From my perspective and understanding; absolutely!  A teacher-led classroom certainly does have its merits, but more often than not, it’s about following a curriculum designed to prepare students for test-taking.  Some students may engage with the material more than others, while others can simply ‘memorize’ what they need to know and leave it at that.

Transitioning into a more student-led classroom gives both students and the teachers room to expand beyond the curriculum, which in my opinion, is more of a guideline of what important aspects of the class the students should learn about. However, in the student-led model, my view is that the teachers are actively getting the students to engage, expand upon the material, bring new interesting perspectives to the table, and have the opportunity to spin off new classroom and life lessons that, while difficult to strictly measure, build an environment that cultivates personal growth on top of the learning material.

To answer the question: if students are in an environment where they are expected to engage, lead, and perform critical thinking tasks – they naturally will need to speak up more! This helps build confidence in speakers, which is a life skill necessary to tackle most aspects of our daily life and builds a solid foundation for a strong future. We remember confident speakers, and we tend to forget those who say nothing…

What are some simple things parents can be doing to help their kids build foundational skills in public speaking outside of school?

MR: Encouragement is the single most important thing a parent can do to help their kids build their foundational skills. When we encourage our children, we are telling them it’s OK to explore, it’s OK to try new things, it’s OK to speak up, and it’s OK to be yourself!

The environment we put ourselves within also tends to dictate our responses to the situations we come across. If someone’s daughter has an amazing talent for singing, it’s likely best that we’ll want to put her in an environment that allows that talent to thrive. If someone’s son is interested in drawing, we should encourage that behavior, because it’s a talent that has drawn (no pun intended) their interest.

Obviously, school and study are important – however, there is much more that makes up a person beyond their technical knowledge and talents. One overlooked aspect is the importance of “soft skills” which are about applying knowledge of various kinds into situations that are more open-ended, such as confidence, inspiration, trustworthiness, effective body language, persuasion, and more. These are character-driven building blocks; which all start with encouragement.

Listen to your kids – they have ideas, thoughts, dreams, and aspirations; and find ways to encourage them to pursue them! Challenge them to think critically about the thoughts they share and above all, help them to believe in themselves – that level of support is of the utmost importance as they are growing up, and will carry them further in school, skill, and life than any amount of homework ever could.

Finally, what do you feel are the most essential elements towards crafting a good speech and communicating clearly to an audience?

MR: Great speeches actively engage their audience; which can be accomplished through a couple of ways and does depend on the ‘mode’ or context of the speech that is being presented. Having a couple of witty jokes or interesting ‘attention-grabbers’ is one way to start off strongly in any presentation, as it will captivate your audience to ‘zero-in’ on what you are saying. Rhetorical questions are another tool often used to put the audience in a position of reflection – to consider what you are saying and why it is important.

When we are communicating to any audience, the first questions we ask ourselves are “what do I want to say” and “why is this important”. Once we can break down those thoughts into answers, our job is to craft the delivery of the information in a manner that any audience would like to listen to. We can do this in several different ways – no single style of public speaking is “correct”, but rather it’s about the “HOW” we say something, and usually that’s what an audience will remember most.

A comedy show must have laughs; a diplomatic discussion needs to be civil; a debate between two opponents should have critical thinking, persuasion, and reflection; a leader should be inspirational…each format will be different, but the same foundational abilities apply throughout every type of speech.

Find your personality, your strength, your style, and character. Be confident, speak clearly, show some emotion, and engage the audience. Remember that what you want to say is important, should be shared, and can make a difference – and to not let all the fear, doubts, and worries hold you back.

Is there anything else you would like to add?

MR: Public speaking is easy to do, difficult to master. It’s one of those life skills that we’ll continually use and practice using throughout our entire lives, whether it’s on a big stage or just speaking up in an office meeting.

For those who are worried about what other people may think, my advice is simply “don’t”. Most people are so concerned with their own lives that they’ll seldom think about your actions. Once you realize this, it’s easier to just focus on being the best version of yourself you can be – and in the environment of public speaking, showcase that confidence and personality to your audience.

In fact, you may just end up inspiring others to follow in your footsteps!  When we share our ideas, thoughts, and self with an audience, remember they are all there to see and hear you speak… so give them something to remember!

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Photos: Unsplash, Courtesy of Mark Regan 

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