In our continued series on the business of interior design business consultant Paul Davis offers his top ten tips for public speaking, a necessary task more and more these days for designers.

Prepare your conclusion first.

Decide what you want your audience to remember. Memories are short and listeners find it difficult to remember more than four or five main points

Have all the parts.

Make sure your presentation has an opening, a body, and a conclusion. Tell them what you are going to tell them (opening), tell them (body), and tell them what you told them (conclusion).

Select a grabber

for your opening, that will quickly focus attention on your message. Use a story, rhetorical question, or a headline from the morning paper – anything that grabs attention and stays on theme. Quickly tell your audience What’s In It For Them (WIIFM) if they will listen to your message. Grabbers and WIIFMs can often be combined with great effect.

Establish an anchor.

An anchor is a repeating theme that can be replaced at various points in your speech to give emphasis, enhance memory, and make your speech hang together.

Appeal to both sides of the brain.

Ensure your message appeals to both types of listeners – right brain (emotional) and left brain (analytical). Back-up your ideas with some mix of both.

Tell stories and anecdotes

throughout, which incorporate the themes of your message. Stories are small dramas that are entertaining, easy to remember, and full of imagery.

Make it fun.

Always plan to get a smile or two and remember that enjoyment does not necessarily require rib-splitting laughter.

Establish eye contact

with all sectors of your audience by looking at target individuals in each sector. Occasionally dwell on one individual for two or three seconds. Greet some of the audience as they arrive. It’s easier to speak to a group of friends than to a group of strangers.

Use normal gestures and body language.

Avoid distracting habits such as rocking back and forth, rubbing your face, or leaning on the lectern.

Control your anxiety.

Control up to 70% of your public-speaking anxiety through good preparation. Building a speech on the fly is anxiety producing. Decide to simply have a conversation with the audience. Don’t give a speech or be an orator, just have a conversation!