When it comes to public speaking, some might assume the bigger the audience, the scarier the experience.

But that isn’t always the case. Some of the most nerve-wracking speaking experiences I’ve had have been in rooms of only six or seven people. In this month’s column, I will break down three tips for speaking to large audiences, and give three tips for speaking to small audiences.

Three tips for speaking to large audiences

1. When you’re speaking to a large audience, it often requires you to have a big stage presence.

Tools you may want to leverage are vocal variety, body language and visual aids. Your base volume should be loud enough for the entire room to hear you, and you can increase or decrease your voice at strategic moments of the speech to keep the audience’s attention.

If you’re speaking to a large crowd, you’ll want to move across the entire stage and incorporate body language to ensure the entire audience feels included in your presentation.

If you show up to a speaking event and there is a lectern with a mounted mic on one side of the stage, ask the event organizer if you have permission to use a lavalier or handheld microphone so you can move........

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