Who are you when you speak in public? Your audience really needs to know—and so do you. (To speak with both influence and authenticity, download my free cheat sheet, "Leadership Skills: The 5 Essential Speaking Techniques.")

Finding Your True Voice

Let's assume you have something valuable to share with your audience. You may even have information of extraordinary worth. The problem, then, usually isn't the value of the gift—it's the package the gift is wrapped in.

If you're like many people, you may be uncomfortable in the public speaking dynamic, and it shows. Chances are you have everything going for you that you need: intelligence, knowledge, experience, passion, empathy for your listeners, and a fierce desire to get your message across. When you're among friends or colleagues, all of these attributes usually come through effortlessly.

Not so, however, in the realm of public speaking. Before an audience, especially a large audience, self-consciousness and nervousness rear their head, and suddenly your performance may change radically. Occasionally, your speaking nerves may develop into true anxiety. In each of these situations, not only do you lose the sense of control—but your authentic voice is lost. (To become a dynamic and charismatic rather than a nervous speaker, download my cheat sheet, "How to Calm Your Nerves before Speaking.")

This situation is destructive to effective public speaking because the very person your audience came to hear has disappeared. The "true voice" your listeners want to hear, the one you're uniquely qualified to offer, is no longer available. Your authentic personality and your performance persona—which must be the same—are no longer in synch.

You know speakers from professional settings that are like that, don't you? But are you aware when it's happening to you?

Sharing Your Voice

You, like all of us who speak in public, must "rediscover" your own performance persona if you're to show audiences your true self and to reach and move them. To do so, you must accept that audiences don't want a perfect speaker—or even an "excellent one." They just want you. The more you can be comfortable speaking in public without wearing a mask of excellence, the better communicator you'll be. A great way to do that is to learn the 10 ways to stay fully focused when speaking.

It's easier than it may sound, once you accept that you truly don't need to be someone or something you're not. Once you come to that realization and can act on it, you're ready for the next step: externalizing all of those wonderful attributes named above and getting them through to audiences.

That's where performance-based techniques of public speaking come in. That's the basis of The Genard Method, the system of theatrical techniques for non-theater professionals that I developed and have been teaching for the past dozen years.

These techniques are not mysterious, and they are absolutely at your service for becoming more confident and competent in moving audiences. They are simple techniques that are simply powerful tools for developing and demonstrating an effective performance persona for public speaking.

Think of them as your key to reaching and benefiting the world's most important audiences: yours.