5 Ways to Confidently Speak with Authority

Posted On September 18, 2021

When I say, “Speak with Authority” I don’t mean simply talking to others. I’m referring to addressing groups. Whether it be in a speech, presentation, sales event, and/or briefing, these steps will help you to be more confident. My goal is to help you to speak with greater authority, in whatever situation you find yourself.

Before you begin to prepare your speech, figure out what it is that you want your audience to do. Ask yourself, what do you want them to come away with? What action plans do you want to leave them with? Summarize the answer to these questions in one sentence.

What you want the audience to take away from your talk then becomes your goal. When you begin your preparations, make sure to incorporate that goal accordingly.

Now that you have your speech/talk written, below are five things that could help you to feel more confident and speak with authority. These rules apply whether you’re speaking with one person or thousands of people.

1. Know the subject you’re speaking on, inside and out. Practice, practice, practice!

After you’ve written your speech, learn the material front and back. You don’t need to memorize it verbatim. As a matter of fact, it’s better if you don’t do that. Rather, know the material that you’ll be speaking on. Develop points and have a process to address all of them. It’s suggested to have five points or less.

The points to convey could be put into an outline. Format it in whatever way works best for you. Whether that’s bullet points, numbers, and/or line items. Just make sure that you know your guide, so you can give the entire speech without stopping. By having only five points, the audience is able to recall your message easier. There’s nothing worse than giving a talk, and afterwards your audience has little to no idea of what you spoke on.

Once you’ve created your outline, speak it out loud as if you were giving your talk/presentation. Do this in front of a camera (or cell phone, tablet, laptop, etc.) while recording it. And treat it as if you were actually giving it to an audience.

Do this as many times as you feel necessary. Practice, practice, and practice some more until you have presented it to your liking. Remember, this is not about memorizing it. If you do so in the process, then so-be-it. You’re goal, however, is to know the material with very little reliance on your notes. So, no matter what happens (i.e., issues with the projector, computer, screen, lights, etc.), you won’t get tripped up.

2. Become familiar with at least one person in each section of the room.

Speaking in front of people can be extremely nerve wracking. For many, they fear it worse than death itself. Therefore, you need to help yourself in every way that you can. One such way is to identify who you will be speaking to. If it’s a small room of people, this can be trickier. You have no choice but to look at everyone.

In a larger venue, identify one individual in each section that you will speak to. It’s not important that you know the person. This is who, when you face that section of the room, you’re going to be looking at. If it’s a large enough area, you’ll have many people think you’re looking right at them. This will make them feel more engaged. As if you’re speaking right to them. Your audience will be more receptive if they’re engaged. And making eye contact with them will help do just that.

3. Limit the number of objectives in your talk.

Have you ever listened to a speech that seemed to go on forever? After a while, you became disinterested. Perhaps you even started thinking of things that you’d rather be doing with your time. Or worse, you fell asleep.

One way to lull your audience to sleep is to make it too complex. To have too many points or objectives. Plus, they probably won’t remember most of them. Therefore, your speech, regardless of how much you prepared and how well it was delivered, will be completely forgettable.

Just like this posting, it’s recommended to have no more than five points in your presentation/talk and one objective. That doesn’t mean you need five points. You could have one really good one even. The point is that it’s presented in a way that your audience will come away with at least knowing the objectives of your message.

4. Draw in your audience to keep them engaged.

Most great presenters are also great storytellers. They have the gift of taking their audiences on a little journey with them. Remember, you’re not just trying to deliver a message. You want your audience to come away remembering what you said.

When we tell stories, we encourage the audience members to use their imaginations. We are engaging and pulling them into our story. Once they’re engaged, their minds will be activated. It will help them to listen closely to what you have to say. And they’ll remember you, and your message, for it.

If you’re memorable, you’re giving your audience members a reason to hire you again in the future. After all, you aren’t doing this to be a one-and-done. You want to do more of these. Of course, your goal will also be to get paid for them too.

5. Speak more often.

As with rule number one, practice, the more you speak the less nervous you’ll be. That doesn’t mean that you won’t be nervous at all. Most everyone is nervous before they get up to speak in front of others. However, the more you do it, the easier it will become to get over those fears quickly.

You’ll learn little tricks that help you to overcome your stage fright. Little tricks to help calm your nerves allowing you to control the room. If you look nervous, the audience will know. The trick is to not look nervous, even if you are.

I remember one speech I gave in college. Though I don’t remember what the topic of it was. Nonetheless, I do remember how nervous I was. To keep myself on track, I used flash cards.

For the majority of the time, I held the stack of cards at my waist. At one point, I held up a single card for effect of what I was saying. In that moment, my hand began to shake.

After class, one of my classmates came up to me and told me they had no idea that I was nervous. That was until I help up that card with my hand shaking. At that point, I had only spoken in front of others once or twice. I wasn’t aware of many of the things I’m telling you here.

An Example from My Past.

While some people get fidgety, others get very expressive with your hands. For me, my hands shake when I get nervous. When I was younger, I volunteered to be a co-host at a youth convention. It was just a girl and me. We had to speak in front of roughly five hundred kids and adults. For effect, they had dimmed the lights. To help us see, the stand they had setup for us had a single light. Understand, prior to that, I had never spoken in front of others.

As co-hosts, we had to keep the convention on task. We were also tasked with keeping everyone updated along the way. They gave each of us a three-ring binder. Inside was a schedule of the happenings, as well as what to say and when. Approaching the microphone, my hands began to shake. Remember, I’m holding a white three-ring binder in a dimly lit room with a spotlight pointed at me.

I don’t think I was even thirteen years old at the time. My hands were sweaty and shaking quite a bit by that point. Unfortunately, when I didn’t get it under control, my whole body began to shake. It wasn’t like a convulsion. Rather, I was shaking to the point that you could hear it in my voice.

As the day went on, I became less and less nervous. By the end of the weekend, I was no longer shaking or even nervous to speak. Actually, I was excited and looked for to when I had to get up next.

To this day, I still get nervous when I start out. But no one else knows it. And, because it’s not long before those jitters go away, there’s no need to let anyone know either.