Ask HN: What are the best resources to improve public speaking skill? - bryk
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harperlee
Look into Toastmasters. It is a successful community that is specifically
designed so you improve this skill.

~~~
jackgolding
I'll give a good example about how toastmasters helped me, I hope it
encourages those who are very afraid of public speaking.

I have always been a very strong public speaker (loud, booming voice, native
English speaker) and decided to do toastmasters to get better at talking about
very technical things - I have ADD so I tend to fall over myself a lot when
explaining things. I have had a very stressful last few months (organised a
marketing conference, moved house, organised two gigs that didn't work out so
well) and I was asked to present at a meetup a few days before the conference.

I felt really dizzy in the afternoon of giving the talk and thought a drink or
two would settle me (the meetup was at a pub.) Turns out it didn't and 3
slides in I became very disorientated. I decided to professionally stop the
talk and ask the MC if the next speaker could go first as I needed to get some
air. I came back half an hour later and performed the talk.

The reason I was able to handle this so professionally was 100% due to
Toastmasters. So many people in my club were not native English speakers who
had very stressful reactions to public speaking. Every single person given a
task would always show the upmost respect for those who struggled and act in a
supportive manner, so when I had a rough time I knew how to act appropriately.

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kotrunga
A lot of people have good input here already, so I'll offer a more "organic"
response.

Keep it simple- to improve your public speaking skill, there are 2 main ways.
#1, do more public speaking! #2: listen more.

Obviously, the more you do something with a mindset of growth, you usually get
better at it. However, if you want to get really good, study other
talks/events/conferences etc. Pick ones that are extraordinary, and study
their talk- listen and watch.

What's the flow? How do they link ideas? How do they keep the audience
engaged? How does the audience react to what they say and do?

I recently had the opportunity to speak to a friend who is an amazing speaker.
He told me about how he would prepare his talks, how he would time himself and
practice over and over. He would link ideas in his mind, and lay it out
strategically.

One thing he said stood out- he watched the response of the audience. When he
would study other talks, and people would say "hmm", he would write down what
the speaker said. He trained himself to become an amazing listener- to hear
what was said, as well as what wasn't said, but still communicated.

If you wanna get better at public speaking, do it more. If you want to be an
amazing public speaker, listen more.

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daryllxd
I just spoke at a dev conference for the first time last weekend. Here's what
I found, in addition to randomly checking out Youtube videos:

\- [https://speaking.io/](https://speaking.io/) \-
[https://www.pluralsight.com/courses/hanselman-
speaking](https://www.pluralsight.com/courses/hanselman-speaking) -> Mr. Scott
is really good, I like his talk:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FS1mnISoG7U](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FS1mnISoG7U).

I think you have to just keep on practicing actually speaking, like even in
front of a mirror, I didn't do this enough (I practiced, but in front of my
machine). Also just look at a few people in the audience, think of it like
you're chatting with 1 person 100 times/5 people 20 times as opposed to
chatting 100 people.

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onion2k
The best resource for improving your public speaking is to find events that
are looking for speakers and to volunteer. The _only_ way to improve your
public speaking is to do more of it.

~~~
imcqueen
Totally agree with this.

A couple of other things I’ve found help me in case they help you:

\- public speaking is a skill, not a talent. You can learn to be good at it
with practice.

\- if you are the type of person that gets nervous, you may never completely
cure that, but you will learn to get through it. Many good public speakers
still feel a little anxiety before speaking.

\- if you have a bad presentation, don’t stress too much. The key is to not
let too much time go by after a bad performance, get back out there.

I personally dread public speaking, but I have to do it regularly enough that
I continuously have to work at it. I like to memorize the first few lines of
any talk. Once I get a few sentences in everything falls into place. I just
need to get through the first 90 seconds before my nerves pass. And it only
improved through live action.

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leejoramo
The other suggestions provide great starting places for public speaking.
Toastmasters and the like are very good. (Personally I took several college
speaking classes, but I have a number of friends who attended toastmasters)

I will add a different idea: Improv Acting classes.

Toastmasters and speech classes gets you comfortable in front of an audience
and how to prepare for various forms of presentational public speaking.

Improv gets you comfortable with FAILING in front of people AND recovering
from that failure. You learn to think on your feet and keep going. I believe I
went from a competent public speaker to a much more engaging speaker due to
Improv.

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stenecdote
I like Andrew Ng's short article
([https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20140320175655-176238488-lear...](https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20140320175655-176238488-learn-
to-speak-or-teach-better-in-30-minutes/)) about this topic. Recommends taking
short videos of elements of your speech and then watching them, tweaking, and
repeating.

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rsgrafx
I took a comedy class just for this exact reason a few years ago.

~~~
daryllxd
This sounds cool. Was it really helpful? What do they teach in comedy class?

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bsvalley
You need audience feedback. So the Andrew Ng's solution to film yourself is
half good. If you know great public speakers (friends, colleagues, your boss,
etc.), ask for feedback when you train, pull them in, ask them to come and
judge you.

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imhoguy
a mirror :)

