TJ Walker advises that speaking to very large audiences (hundreds to thousands) should feel no different than talking to one person: keep your natural, conversational tone and avoid adopting a stiff, formal persona. Practical tips include using a microphone so you can speak conversationally, holding eye contact with one person for a full thought (~5 seconds) before moving to another area, and seeking frequent practice to build comfort.
Chapters
So how do you speak in front of a big crowd? You're in front of 500, 1,000, 3,000 people. How do you do it without. Here's the secret. It's no different from speaking to one person. Now, I understand. It feels different, it feels scary. But here's the secret great speaking speakers have. Doesn't matter if you love Ronald Reagan as a speaker, Bill Clinton, Tony Blair, all different speakers, different styles, different politics. But here's one thing they have in common. When they're speaking, or we're speaking to 10,000 people, or they're speaking to two people, they sound exactly the same. So here's the big secret. When it comes to talking to large audiences, don't change yourself. Because most of us, when we're speaking to one friend or two buddies at lunch, we're animated, we're engaging, we're telling stories, we're giving examples. Our hands are moving, our face is moving. We get in front of a large audience, and all the things we do that worked for us, all the things that were interesting, that made us easy to listen to, we take that, we ball it up, we throw it in the trash can, and we put on this fake Persona. My fellow delegates, it's an honor to be here today. And we become stiff, we become wooden, our voice goes flat, we tense up, we grab a lectern. All these things we do because we're scared. The problem is, as much as I love crutches, these crutches don't prop us up. They bring us down, they make us worse. So you've got to simply tell yourself you're talking to one person. You've got to use that tone of voice. Because these days, if you're speaking to a large room full of people, chances are you're going to have a microphone. So you don't have to speak like this because that's really annoying. You speak in a conversational tone of voice. Here's the other trick. Your eye contact. Now, what a lot of people do is they're like this the whole time. And they may be moving, but they have this glazed look in their eye. You don't want to do that. Or they just zoom in here, zoom in here and here. It's too mechanical. What you want to do is just look at one spot. Ideally, if you can see people look at one person for a full thought, that's only five seconds or so. Go to another person in a different part of the audience. Pretend you're having a one on one conversation with that person for a full thought. And mix it up. That will make it more relaxing for you. You'll sound like you're talking to one person, and it'll keep your head from bouncing around and looking nervous and scared. The other final tip is it's one of those things. The more you do it, the easier it gets. Seek out opportunities to speak in front of large groups. Don't be one of these people who said, well, I can speak to one person, or I can speak to two people, or I can speak sitting in a boardroom, but I'm not a public speaker, so I can't do baloney. If you've ever had one interesting conversation with one person in your entire life, you already have all the skills you need to be a great public speaker in front of 10,000 people.
