On March 27th, our mentor Kátia Campelo came in for our Weekly Talk on Oratory. Kátia is a speech therapist, expert in public speaking and the director of the Space of Oratory Kátia Campelo. She trains politicians, lecturers, and officers in the art of communication and speaking. We were happy to have her come in give us some very useful tips on how to capture our audience by being ourselves, delivering our message effectively and using powerful nonverbal behavior. Below is a summary of some of her main points.


katiacampelo21212

1- Understand some basic communicative truths and your objective.

-Humans are constantly judging one another.
 -Humans naturally feel a necessity to be accepted.

-Studies show that only 7% of how you communicate is based on the content.

-Communication is the act of bringing the sender closer to the receiver.

-Speaking in public does not just refer to formal situations; it happens every day.

-Communication is symbolic- Speech is full of symbols that we associate with experiences and memories.

-The more you listen to yourself speaking, the more power you will have over your words.

2- Stop repetition of words

Improving your oratory is an everyday practice. If you repeat words in daily conversation, you will repeat them when you are speaking formally. Always practice speaking clearly and directly, cutting out extra meaningless words, the “ums” and the “likes.” These words distract the audience and distance the communicator from the receptor rather than bringing them closer.

3- Understand how to organize your speech

Always have a beginning, middle and end. Make sure to have a powerful ending that lets the audience know you are finished.

4- Posture

Nonverbal communication is huge. Practice being conscious of your posture and pay attention to what message your nonverbal cues are telling the audience. Body language, facial expressions, gestures, eye contact and tone directly affect how your message is conveyed.

5- Understand the profile of your audience

Understand who your audience is so you can deliver your message to them the most effectively. This doesn’t mean change your personality. Always be who you are no matter who you are speaking to but understand your audience so you can best deliver communication objective.

6- There is a technique for everything

Study your speech patterns and focus on what specific details you need to practice. There is a technique for anything that needs improvement so stay positive and don’t ever get discouraged!

Take a peek at this behind the scenes interview with Kátia! It is in Portuguese but even if you can’t understand you can probably see a lot from her nonverbal behavior!

Thanks for coming in Kátia! Our new entrepreneurs will be taking your advice to heart and using it to practice their pitches for our upcoming Investor Day!