Strategies to Succeed in Public Speaking

Value and the Public Speaker

by Lanie Smith

In your role as a public speaker, it is important that your speaking skill and your speeches are considered valuable or important to your audience. In return, you will receive applause, praise and other rewards. Making sure you present speeches that are interesting and contribute to audience knowledge is a way to make yourself more valuable.

Questions you may have include:

What is valuable?
What benefits do you get as a valuable public speaker?
How do you improve your value?

This lesson will answer those questions. There is a mini-quiz at the end of the lesson.

Valuable service

Both the speech and the speaker can be considered valuable.

Speech

A speech that is valuable to an audience is one that provides information they can use to better their lives or their businesses. An important speech is one that is critical to their well-being. An entertaining speech can be considered valuable if it allows people to relax and relieve tensions.

The criteria for value relates to what the audience wants or needs. It has to be something that interests them. It is considered valuable if they would pay good money to hear you or the topic.

Speaker

A speaker can be considered a valuable resource if he or she can provide a needed contribution to a meeting or event. A good speaker is valuable to the success of a banquet. Speakers can inspire and inform personnel at a business meeting or convention.

Being valuable is a natural progression from being healthy, knowledgeable, excellent and honorable.

Benefits from being valuable

Providing an interesting and enjoyable speech will result in the audience giving you applause and praise. By being a valuable and important public speaker, you can establish a lucrative speaking career or progress in your profession. Companies will provide good compensation to a valuable speaker, who can present company information in an effective manner to an audience.

There is also the personal satisfaction of being important to the audience or your company.

Become valuable

As a speaker, you want to present a speech on a topic that is valuable and even important to the audience and is what they want to hear about. Certainly, the material in the speech must be presented in a manner that will effectively communicate its message. Also, the value of a speech is often based on the reputation of the speaker,

Content

The way to assure your speech is valuable or important to the audience is to find out what their interests, concerns, needs or desires are. Usually, a speaker will talk on his or her experiences, background or special interests. In such a case, it is important that the speech is presented to a specific audience, having the same interests.

For example, and expert on child behavior could provide a valuable speech to teachers and parents. On the other hand, a speaker who has had some amusing personal experiences may provide valuable comic relief to people seeking entertainment.

Reputation

The audience often will judge whether it is worthwhile to listen to a speech by the reputation of the speaker. Knowing a person is an expert in child behavior will mean that person is a valuable speaker. Likewise, hearing that the speaker is real funny, will prepare the audience to be entertained.

Sometimes a public speaker must do things outside the job description to increase his or her value or reputation. Self-promotion is common among popular speakers. Even if a speaker is not famous, awareness of his or her background will help to determine whether the speaker can provide some valuable or interesting information or entertainment.

In conclusion

Giving speeches that contribute to the audience's knowledge or enjoyment can make you valuable and important. The money you make and your career can benefit from being considered a valuable public speaker. To increase your value, you must publicize the perception that you are valuable.

Seek to provide what the audience needs

Mini-quiz to check your understanding

1. How can a comedy speech be valuable to an audience?

2. What personal satisfaction can you get from being valuable?

3. What is a way to make yourself more valuable?

If you got all three correct, you are on your way to becoming a champion in public speaking. If you had problems, you had better look over the material again.