How to Improve Your Public Speaking Skills (From Home!)
Ed Darling
8 min read
What you’ll learn:
- How to improve by studying the best.
- Joining online speaking communities
- Choosing phone-calls over email or text.
- Gaining virtual speaking practise.
How to improve your public speaking skills.
As with any skill, improving your public speaking skills requires practise.
The more time you spend sharing stories and relaying infomation – the better you become at doing so.
This is why teachers, presenters, actors and even sales-people often make such great communicators – because they’re spending hours each day doing so.
But how to improve your public speaking skills, when you dont have an audience?
Well, the truth is – there’s no replacement for real-life practise.
If you can get yourself to a workshop, access coaching, or attend a speaking club, you should.
But in this article, we’ll explore ways to improve public speaking skills from the comfort of your own home.
So dust off your bathroom mirror, find a make-shift microphone… and let’s get started!
Improve public speaking skills by studying the best.
At one point in time you had to visit the local church or town hall to watch someone speak in public.
Now, the best public speakers are available at our fingertips.
One of the easiest ways to learn how to improve your public speaking skills is by analysing the best.
But here’s the trick.
Don’t get carried away listening to WHAT the speaker is saying. Instead, remain slightly detached. Watching with a critical eye. You’re trying to focus on HOW they’re speaking.
Observe their techniques, body language, and speaking style. Pay attention to how they engage the audience, where they choose to pause, and the overall flow and structure.
Watching experienced speakers makes you more informed, inspired and perceptive when it comes to the nuts-and-bolts of communication.
You can learn by watching politicians, celebrities, podcast guests – almost every speaker has something to teach you.
To get started, I recommend watching the World Champion Speakers from Toastmasters (Danajaya is always our favourite).
Join online public speaking communities.
The internet has many virtual communities dedicated to public speaking.
There are support groups, practise clubs and social media communities where you can learn from others and share tips.
I can’t personally vouch for any particular community, but a good place to start is searching meetup.com or eventbrite.
Communities are great because you often learn just as much from watching others, as you do from practising yourself.
Share your experiences, ask for advice, and engage in discussions with like-minded individuals. This interaction will allow you to gain confidence, refine your skills, and expand your network.
Plenty of people out there want to know how to improve their public speaking skills from home, so go out and find them!
PS. We also have our own public speaking group – The Charisma Club, open to all current and past clients!
Ready to speak with confidence?
Explore our training options...
Choose phone-calls over email or text.
Having a meaningful conversation over the phone is a great way to improve your communciation skills. It allows you to practise vocal variety, story-telling, active listening and clear, concise speaking.
But despite the benefits, many people find themselves anxious at the thought of making a call out of the blue.
“Will they want to speak to me? Will they even remember who I am?!”
The reality of course, is that most people will be perfectly happy to hear from you. Here’s a quick way to get started.
My phone-call three step process:
Step 1. Write down 5-10 people you’d like to (re)connect with. This can include friends and family, as well as people you like to connect with, such as a possible mentor or business partner.
Step 2. Re-order the names, beginning with the person you’d be most comfortable getting in touch with, and ending with the person you’d find most challenging to call.
Step 3. With your list in place, your challenge is to call one person each day and have a conversation with them.
With friends or family, it’s okay to ring “for a catch up”. So don’t overthink it, make the call and ask them how they’re doing.
If you’re calling someone you’re less familiar with, think about why it is that you want to communicate with them — then be honest about your intentions: “I really enjoy following your story and would love to hear how you got into that line of work”
People generally enjoy talking about themselves and giving out advice. So ask questions, show genuine interest, and you’ll find most people will be happy to give you their time.
With each phone-call, you’ll be improving your public speaking skills – and building your network.
Seize opportunities to speak virtually.
Virtual events and webinars give you the opportunity to practice your public speaking skills from home.
Look for virtual speaking engagements or webinars related to your field of interest. These could be within your own company such as town-halls or group meetings, or external events beings ran by industry groups or networking communities.
Either way, many times people will be happy to recieve an offer to speak. I suggest starting small – offer to deliver a 10 minute presentation on a specific niche, or a general overview on a broad topic.
If you’re not sure how to put your ideas together, we have you covered with our post on speech structure.
Engaging in virtual speaking opportunities will allow you to refine your skills, connect with a broader audience, and gain exposure. Embrace these opportunities
Start your own vlog or podcast.
Starting a vlog or podcast can be an great way to improve your public speaking skills while building your personal brand – or like I’ve been doing recently, guesting on other podcasts.
I know what you’re thinking, “who on earth would want to listen to me?”
But that’s not the point.
Even if the world never sees your work, the process of recording yourself will still work it’s magic on your public speaking skills.
Choose a topic that you are passionate about – something you’d enjoy speaking on. Then list down 5-10 ideas of shortform content you could cover. It might be answering specific questions, sharing your knowledge, discussing opinions, or telling stories.
Next, choose your format.
Audio is good, video is even better – as that way you can improve your bodylanguage as well your voice.
Now it’s time to get started.
People have created million-subscriber YouTube channels using nothing but their phone, so don’t delay by researching camera gear or “the best microphones”. Start with what you have – flip that phone and record yourself for two minutes.
Commiting yourself to recording a series of videos or audios can be transformative. At the very least, you’ll learn how to improve your public speaking skills. At the best, you may even end up with a dedicated online audience!
How to improve public speaking skills.
Now that you know how to improve public speaking skills, it’s up to you to get started.
Any of the ideas above can serve to make you into a better speaker, but they’ll only work when you put them into practise.
They say that “luck is when opportunity meets preperation.”
The next time you’re asked to deliver a presentation, speak at a wedding, or interview for a new leadership role – don’t leave your speaking skills down to luck, start practising now.
Watch and learn from expert speakers, find communities who are engaged in the subject, schedule more phone-calls, get active in online speaking opportunities – and if you really want to up your game, start your own vlog or podcast.
Public speaking is a skill, the more you practise, the better you get.
I hope you enjoyed this article, and if you’d like expert help with your communication skills, check out our training options and consider investing in yourself as a speaker.