The first time I participated in the International Speech Contest, (in 2004), I did not even make it past club level (i.e. the first level of the competition) And when I gave my first humorous speech in NUS Toastmasters club, all I could squeezed out from the audience was two chuckles. One of them was from me. Yes, it was very embarrassing. But my cow skin kept me going. I wasn’t bothered about losing. Instead I was more interested in why I lost and why they win. With every stage time I get, I figured out a technique or a tip that will increase my chances of winning. Keep repeating the process and you will bound to win someday.

My obsession served me well too. At that time, I was obsessed about beating the so-called veterans. I wanted to prove to people that even a young chap like myself can win with little experience. Over the three years, I eat, sleep, think public speaking. I was even clocking stage time in my dreams! It was this fervency that helped me win the contests eventually. And here’s the best part. I still eat, sleep, think and dream public speaking. Why? Because it is my passion! And I have yet to find a reason not to indulge in it.

You will be surprised to know that our youth and inexperience do give us an unfair advantage over the veterans as well. Our ignorance drives us to take risks and speak out of the box. Our rebelliousness ensures that we never conform to the old rules of speaking. Our youth allows us to look at things from a fresh perspective. As a young speaker, we should leverage on these characteristics to stand out from the rest of the contestants. That’s how you can win in every single speech and presentation you deliver.

While the veterans (speakers in their 40s or have like 10 years of speaking experiences) look cool and calm on stage, the younger speakers often seem to lack this coolness or calmness that the veterans have.
And sometimes, this is the edge that result in the veterans winning over the younger speakers.

Being 25, how do you overcome all that, fight the veterans and win all the way up to district level?

Thanks!

The amount of energy you use has to increase with the size of your audience. It’s not just the loudness of your voice but also the loudness of your being. This means that your level of confidence, enthusiasm and conviction has to be raised many times in order to command the attention of your audience.

When the audience size increases, stage utilization also becomes very important. Every position you take on stage has to be intentional. Every body gesture you made has to be exaggerated and slower in order to catch the eye of your audience. Go watch a play. Observe how the actors move and speak on stage, and you will see what I mean.

Apart from these two aspects, there is really not much difference. Approach to writing your speech remains the same. Your message has to be powerful. Value must still be delivered. However most people don’t think that way. In their minds, size matters (a lot!). When the size of audience increases, the amount of threat they perceived grows exponentially. As a result, the speaker often gets paralyzed by such unnecessary fear, which in turn reduces their effectiveness on stage. Though this is normal and very real, there are ways to overcome it.

The first way is through conditioning. The reason why a speaker gets cold feet speaking in front of a huge crowd is because he has no prior experience of him successfully surviving one. What he needs is to build the necessary experience. Take weight lifting for example. It is impossible for a novice to lift 1000 pounds of heavy metal without breaking some bones. In order to do so, he needs to first lift lighter weights to condition his muscles. Likewise, in order for you to succeed in front a larger crowd, you have to first condition your speaking muscle. Start by addressing to a crowd size that you are comfortable with, and then increase the number steadily.

The second way that I want to share with you is a shortcut! One that gave me the courage to speak to thousands of people even though I had absolutely no experience of doing so. The trick is to pick pockets of people to focus on as you address the group; preferably those that you already feel comfortable with. Not only will this technique help to reduce your fear, it will actually make you more natural on stage. Since you are only speaking to a small group of people at any point of time, you will tend to be more conversational and this makes you more likeable as well.

The truth is, the audience will not know the difference anyway, especially if it is a large group! Of course, as your confidence grows, I encourage you to expand your focus. Talk to more people. This is where the fun begins!

I will like to add that the amount of effort you put into your presentation should not be any different. Regardless of the audience size, you must still do your homework. Knowing your audience is crucial in order for you to deliver a message that impacts and inspires. It includes finding out their frustrations, their needs and their wants. You must be clear on your audience’s expectations as well, so that you deliver value. As a personal touch, interview some of your audience beforehand. Get them to share relevant stories that you can use in your presentation. Have them introduce to you someone whom everybody knows and loves. Chances are, when you bring Mr Popular up on stage to work with you, your presentation becomes more memorable and fun to watch. Here’s more – Is there a buzzword that your audience uses a lot? Is there a common joke that gets passed around lately? Hunt them down and incorporate them in your presentation. Not only will that help you build rapport with your audience, they will love you for it!

How should you speak differently when addressing a single person, small group, and large group?

Any practical tips?

Thanks.