Courtesy of Dananjaya Hettiarachchi
The Toastmasters world champions of public speaking - like Dananjaya Hettiarachchi, pictured - have mastered the fundamentals that can make anyone a great presenter.
- There are fundamentals all great public speakers master.
- We spoke with the last four Toastmasters International world champions of public speaking.
- Their advice applies to everything from a TED Talk to a presentation to a few colleagues.
Being a great public speaker requires much more than confidence.
It's about connecting to audience members on a personal level and leaving them with a satisfying message they can act on.
We spoke with some of the most talented speakers around the globe -the last four Toastmasters International world champions of public speaking: Dananjaya Hettiarachchi (2014), Mohammed Qahtani (2015), Darren Tay (2016), and Manoj Vasudevan(2017).
Each winner beat out around 30,000 competitors over a six-month-long competition, the largest of its kind.
They explained how anyone can become a better speaker by practicing several basic skills. These same tactics work whether you're giving a TED Talk to 2,000 people or a presentation to 10 of your colleagues.
Here are seven techniques they all agreed help them win their competitions.