3 Ways Public Speaking Boosts Your PR Skills

“How does public speaking make you any better at public relations?” Three years ago, I must’ve asked my mentor that question about 375 times. I just didn’t understand how talking in front of a group of people could make me any better at writing, increase my credibility, or even make my workload easier.

Public speaking is more than someone talking to an audience -  there’s a lot of work that goes on behind the scenes before you can stand in front of that lectern. I’m talking about the kind of work that can teach you about persuading others, improving your reputation, and getting your work done faster. Let’s look at public speaking more closely and target ways public speaking can boost your PR skills.

Here are 3 ways public speaking boosts your PR skills

1. Storytelling. A PR professional’s top priority is to communicate. Whether you’re communicating externally to the community or internally to employees, your job is to inform them about company/client news while sticking to a theme or a set of values.  

How public speaking helps: You learn how people process information. When I started going to Toastmasters, everyone told me I had a lot of potential because I could entertain a crowd and tell a story, but they said I couldn’t make a point to save my life. This was mostly because I was a victim of “linear storytelling.” I was moving from one point to the next because it seemed logical to me that I had to explain everything before I could tell them my conclusion. It was boring as bricks and more confusing than a theoretical physics class.

Public speaking tip: Start off your story backwards! When people regularly have conversations, they tell you what happened before they tell you how it happened. For example, “I got fired yesterday for being late. What happened was that last night I…” Treat your story like a movie trailer, tell them what happened and then slowly bring them back to what happened from the beginning. Ending where you began wraps your story into a tight package that makes it easier for your audience to receive your message.  

2. Subject Expert. A PR professional’s success at work has to do a lot with two things: your reputation with media outlets and the impression your client/employer has of you. This can be the difference between you getting that brand new promotion or having your efforts go unnoticed for years.

How public speaking helps: You tell the audience where you stand. In my quest to master public speaking, I thought listening to speakers like Steve Jobs, John Maxwell, and Barack Obama would teach me what the pros are doing. I quickly noticed that they all have something in common that makes them look like experts. Rather than informing you about a topic, they state their opinion about the topic and why. Doing this not only improves your angle in your writing, but it also sets you apart as the person that educates the audience. The more speeches you give about a topic, the more you become recognized as the go-to person for, let’s say, digital media.

Public speaking tip: Establish your opinion from the start. Let the audience know exactly what you want, what your story is about, and why it applies to them. Sounds easy enough, but how? The trick is to align what they want with what you want them to know/do. If your message can make the audience/client/company get closer to their own goals, your opinion will hold more weight. The more you make this connection with them, the more knowledgeable you will seem. With great knowledge, comes greater expertise.

3. Organization. A PR professional doesn’t just write, they also might have duties like managing social media presence, targeting possible publicity, creating press kits, identifying possible brand ambassadors, and a variety of other daily duties. Doing all these things doesn’t make you great at your job; it just means you’re getting the job done. The problem with having a long to-do list is finding where to fit all the extra work that makes you shine and get ahead.

How pubic speaking helps: You learn how to organize your thoughts ahead of time so when you start on your speech or work assignment, you get straight to work and finish faster. I was never big on planning because I was confident in my ability to get the job done. The problem was that when I would start any assignment, I’d always waste time in the beginning trying to figure out the best way to tackle the problem.

Public speaking tip: Always develop a template or outline ahead of time. Having a template to how you tell a story or design a public relations campaign drastically cuts the time it takes you to finish by letting you plug in the variables to your equation. For example, I like to provide my message and a sneak peak of the ending in my introduction. I usually lead up with a comical introduction of the topic or the character and slowly build up the topic or character before introducing the problem, solution, and finally the conclusion. I can literally make a story in less than a minute because I gave my brain an easy way to create the story in advance. Try using different templates for your workload and then tailor it to your client/company’s needs. Don’t waste time creating when you can spend time improving. Stay organized.

These are just 3 ways public speaking boosts your PR skills, but there are many ways you can continue to improve through speaking. If you keep implementing skills like storytelling and organization, over time you will surely see improvements in your writing, credibility, and productivity.

Congratulations on your next promotion, you must’ve talked your way into their good graces.

Eduardo Lopez is a Public Relations professional, writer, author, and public speaker with more than 5 years of digital communications experience. He is the digital communications manager at LS Media Group, LLC and founder of ViralTalk PR. Add him on LinkedIn or follow him on twitter.