By Ashley Newton, Video Content Specialist

It’s no secret that public speaking causes people anxiety. As the owner of your travel agency, public speaking can’t be avoided. Don’t worry! Just like any skill, speaking in public can be learned and perfected.

These tips and guidelines will help ease your nerves, focus your message, and hopefully captivate your audience.

7 Steps to Successful Public Speaking

1. Know Yourself and Your Product

You know who you are and what you do, but the best public speakers dig deeper and bring something more to their audience. You need to give them a reason to like you, trust you, and inevitability, use your service. Are you all about humor and keeping the subject matter light? Throw in a few jokes. Are you about creating and fostering relationships? Tell an anecdote that illustrates that. Show your personality!

Tip: If it doesn’t feel genuine to you, don’t do it. You need to be comfortable, confident, and above all, be yourself.

2. Know Your Audience

Different speaking engagements allow for different approaches. You need to know who your audience is, and why they are there. If you have the chance to speak at a Little League end-of-season party, you wouldn’t give the same speech you would at a tradeshow. Different venues also influence public speaking. A small, more intimate space is often more conducive to open conversations, whereas a large auditorium might limit engagement.

3. Know the Emotions (and Results) You Want to Invoke

If you want people to feel happy after your presentation, keep it fun and upbeat. If you want people to see that you’re emotionally invested, you can get more personal and sentimental. Keep your message and tone consistent, and you’ll be remembered the way you want to be.

4. Practice

This is more than just making the presentation or talking through it (like this presentation on 12 Reasons to Use a Travel Agent). You need to practice your delivery. Try practicing in front of a mirror or recording yourself. If you can, gather a few people you trust for honest feedback and do a test run. Are you best with complete memorization? Do you need all your talking points written out? Do you work best with note cards? You won’t know until you practice.

5. Practice

No, it’s not a typo. It’s the step so nice that we listed it twice.

6. Have a Ritual

I played volleyball in high school, and my coach encouraged us to have a “ritual” when we served. The idea was that as you step up to line, your nerves are at an all-time high. Having a ritual forces you to slow down and takes you to a comfortable place. It can be something as simple a phrase you repeat to yourself or counting to ten in your head.

7. Reflect and Adapt

You’re done talking, and now you can relax, right? Not quite. You need to look back on your performance and ask yourself, what I am proud of? What would I do differently? Think of how your audience was reacting to you. Was it what you wanted? If not, adapt your approach and try again next time.

Now you have the steps to be an unforgettable public speaker, it’s up to you to put them into action!

Starting a travel business is a big step! With KHM Travel Group, you will have the support, resources, and tools that you need to create and run a successful business. If you are considering becoming a travel agent, we would be happy to answer your questions. Give us a call at 1-888-611-1220 or fill out the form on the right!