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December 16, 2019

Cantor Benny Rogosnitzky Highlights Important Public Speaking Habits to Develop to Become a Better Speaker



Public speaking is one of the most common fears in existence. Even just the thought of having to get up in front of dozens or hundreds of people and deliver a speech is enough to make your palms start sweating. Although public speaking is nerve-wracking for many, there are ways to work through it. In fact, there are a multitude of exercises and techniques that can significantly improve your public speaking abilities. Cantor Benny Rogosnitzky is a Cantor of the prestigious Park East Synagogue on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City. Throughout his career, he has lectured widely on Cantorial music and its application to prayer, as well as taught and guided many of today's well-known cantors to all the individuals who attend his services. Below are Cantor Rogosnitzky’s three tips to improve your public speaking.



1. Be Prepared

Almost everyone gets nervous when public speaking. Although nerves are natural, there are ways to make you feel more at ease before giving a big speech. Preparing is the best way to overcome anxiety over public speaking, and the best way to prepare is to practice. Practice as much as possible prior to the event. Practice at home, as well as in front of your friends or family. In addition, while reading over the speech can be helpful, it’s more beneficial to actually say the speech aloud as you will on the big day. Reading a sentence is very different than speaking it out loud, and by practicing the latter, you will make sure that there are no awkward or clumsy sentences.

Further, practice the speech in the exact position you will be in on the day. If you will be standing at a podium, then rehearse the speech standing up with something in front of you. If you will be seated, then practice sitting. It might sound silly, but this is the only way to be fully prepared and will help you identify if you have any nervous habits that only occur in certain situations. Physiological responses to stress are normal, but ones such as shaky hands, endless fidgeting, or excessive sweating can affect the impact of your speech. If you are able to make these responses known in advance, you can find ways to curb them. Lastly, Cantor Benny Rogosnitzky of New York recommends recording yourself when you practice your speech and listening to it back. This is a terrific method of checking the speed that you speak, whether you’re speaking too fast or too slow. Continue recording yourself until you reach an optimal speed.

2. Organize Your Material Effectively

According to Cantor Benny Rogosnitzky, a great speech must be both captivating and coherent. That is why in most cases, it is vital to plan out your speech in advance and go through numerous revisions in order to pare it down to the most important information. Develop a framework for your speech that includes the general purpose of the speech, its specific idea, and the main points you wish to convey. Having a clear introduction, body, and conclusion, similar to how you would prepare an essay, is important to ensure your speech is succinct and coherent. You will inevitably lose your audience if you go off topic or on a long tangent about something unrelated. Stick to the interesting and relevant information. In addition, you should aim to start your speech with a punchy, attention grabbing introduction. You will gain or lose the audience in the first 30 seconds of your speech so make sure that your intro is memorable.

3. Stay Flexible

It’s easy to stick to the script, but if you want to truly master the art of public speaking, then you have to learn to adapt. Each audience is different and will respond to your speech in different ways. Learning how to read your audience and adapt accordingly is the mark of an amazing public speaker. Having this flexibility will allow you to make minor adjustments to your speech on the fly to create biggest impression possible on your audience. Cantor Benny Rogosnitzky emphasizes that you should not abandon your prepared speech in favor of a completely different topic. Rather, have the skills to identify which parts of what you’ve talked about have piqued the audience’s interest, and perhaps spend more time elaborating on those concepts, rather than continuing with information that bores them. Conversely, it’s always effective when you can relate to your specific audience. Whether it be the audience’s age, industry they work in, or city they live in, try to work in either stories or personal anecdotes that feels tailored to them.



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