Welcome to Longueville Media's Business/Life. In each post we will provide extracts and tips from our expert authors about how to improve your business. I hope that from each post you will gain an insight into a topic that you will find useful for yourself, or to share with colleagues or friends.

In this edition, we look at what people name as one of their greatest fears: public speaking.

Masterful public speaking is an essential skill for stand-out business leadership. While the internet has opened up a plethora of at-your-desk platforms that allow you to easily and quickly share your views, breakthroughs, and hardships in writing, the spoken word remains immensely powerful.

Being passionate and authentic is the key to unleashing the power of your spoken words and harnessing your personal brand as a business leader. So, here are a few tips on how to improve your public speaking:

• Be forensic. Spend time watching, reading, and listening to other speakers from different industries, age groups, and parts of the globe to see what works for them, and what you can glean from their experience.
   

• Study styles and trends. TEDx talks or webinars are a great way to study speaking styles and to find out what’s trending. You won’t be able to carbon copy anyone else’s speaking style or content successfully, but it helps to be a student again when you are looking for ways to refine your messages.
   

• Record ideas. Keep detailed notes on even tiny seeds of an idea, no matter how random or seemingly off centre they may seem. The simplest ideas are usually the magic ones!
   

• Get out of the office. Your best ideas may come to you when you are driving alone in the car, doing exercise, or even chatting with friends. Desks are not the epicentre of creative thinking!
   

• Try it on for size. Start speaking to trusted colleagues and loved ones about your topics to see if they have any traction. Ideas need to ‘speak to’ the hearts and minds of an audience, if they don’t, scrap them and try another angle. If you can’t articulate your idea to the converted, it may be time to come up with some entirely new ideas. 

This post is drawn from Well Said: How to be heard in business and generate real influence by Amber Daines.

Amber, CEO of Bespoke Communications, has devoted the past 18 years to mastering communications, with a career as a print and TV journalist, PR executive, writer, marketer, fundraiser and media trainer. Amber is also a regular presenter and keynote speaker and may be contacted via her website: Bespoke Communications.

Copyright © Amber Daines 2015. 

Longueville Media is a Sydney-based publishing company that takes the time and hassle out of writing, editing and designing your book to ensure you get the correct result for your audience. Our expertise leaves you to work on the things you should be working on – such as growing your business.