Response to “How to drastically improve your public speaking skills”

Summary

In the story “How to drastically improve your public speaking skills” from the Better Humans blog, Jason Shen gives his audience tips on what they can do to improve their own public speaking. He draws on his own experience doing a TED talk to provide a context within which the audience can understand his advice. Towards the beginning of the story, Shen states that he was not a natural public speaker, and he was not particularly talented at it when he was young. He claims that if he can improve his public speaking skills with practice and hard-work, so can anyone else in his audience.

What resonated with me?

I chose to respond to this story because I am focusing particularly on developing my oral communication skills. Public speaking is something I have always struggled with, so I am open to any advice that could help me improve.

Jason Shen states that, “the number one reason TED speakers look and sound fantastic is because they invest an enormous amount of time preparing for their talk”, (2018). Here, Shen is referring to to the intensive rehearsing he did prior to his TED talk. He goes on to describe himself practicing his speech in all parts of his daily life, demonstrating just how much work goes into becoming an excellent public speaker.

My Response

This particular part of Shen’s story resonated with me because it made me look at strong oral communicators in a different light. I have always considered public speaking skills to be a natural ability that some people are simply better at than others. Shen’s perspective changed my opinion in that it made me see public speaking as a learned ability instead of an innate talent.

For me, this is very comforting because it gives me more hope that I can improve my oral communication and public speaking skills as I continue to practice them. Even though public speaking has never come easily to me, if I work hard enough at it I should see positive results.

I think that I will definitely try out Shen’s recommendation of practicing more before an important oral communication occurs. I think that if I prepare to the point where I do not have to think about what I’m saying, I can focus more on making sure the quality of my voice is strong and preventing myself from having nervous reactions.

Citation

Shen, J. (2018, January 8). How to drastically improve your public speaking skills. [Better Humans]. Retrieved from https://betterhumans.coach.me/how-to-dramatically-improve-your-public-speaking-skills-cd26b7d08a96