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Fun Ways to Practice Public Speaking with Friends
Updated: Oct 26
Chisme sessions that turn into strategic public speaking practice.
by Yvonne Armenta, Founder of Latina, Presente
The way you practice your public speaking can transform your relationship to the art.
Why practice at all?
We learn by doing.
It becomes familiar (a habit).
You train yourself to put sentences together a lot faster.
You build muscle memory (literally your body knows what to do & how to move).
You can see and hear yourself out loud, which makes you more aware of how your audience sees and hears you.
You can differentiate between what is actually you; your most natural form of expression versus what you've been told to be more of.
Practice, a tu manera can be the difference between a speaker experience that feels like your own and one that you feel disconnected from.
While one of the best ways to practice is often in similar situations and environments to that of which you'll be actually performing in (it's why dress rehearsals are vital), these are a few everyday practices that can help build your natural essence as a speaker, effective communication, and impactful delivery...con amigas!
Prefer to listen? Tune in wherever you get your podcasts.
3 ways to practice your public speaking with friends
Gather your friends for a night in, bring some snacks, get cozy (or dress up!), and take 5 minutes each to share your presentations.
A few ideas to get you started:
A "what I do for work" presentation.
Your friends know you're a badass, but also probably have no idea what a real day in your life looks like. If you can make this clear to them and share the essentials, you can definitley build the muscle for more official presentations where you have to provide essential information for stakeholders to make decisions.
An informative speech all about your latest obsession.
This can be as simple as your cafecito order or your new-found passion for documentary producing. Gather the information that you've been researching, share it clearly with your amigas, and maybe even get them to obssessed with you.
Pitch your next hangout activity.
This helps you practice saying it out loud even when there are different opinions in the room and it prepares you to outline exactly what you need to get the "yes". It requires you knowing your audience, their budget, their likes/dislikes, and even how they make decisions.
Unpopular opinion - Tedx Talk style
Have fun with this, get silly, get serious, get curious. I'll leave this here as an example of a very popular saying "it's not what you say, it's how you say it".
Ask your friends to deliver feedback
This part is just as important as the practice. It's the part of the practice that shows the committment you have to your craft and the committment your audience has to you because they care about your growth outcomes.
First, what do they remember? What did they feel?
What sparked their curisoity and what would they like to know more about?
Non-verbals: from their standpoint how did what you say match with what your facial and body language expressed?
Voice: if they were to give an adjective to describe your tone, what would it be?
Give flowers: What did they enjoy or get clarity on?
Moments to zoom into: Where did they sense uncertaintly in your voice (if at all)? Where did they wish there was more information provided? Where could you have improved overall delivery?
Use the Public Speaking con Cultura practice cards as a warm-up or post-presentation continuation of your practice.
Speakers love using these to practice together and cover the fundamentals of speaking, while also getting to reflect and connect with each other.
Over 78 prompts covering storytelling, voice inflection, body language, & affirmations.
Stay connected to our Latina, Presente community and subscribe to our newsletter for updates on upcoming programming, events, and future cohorts.
Our practice is the foundation for our presence, growth, and impact as speakers.
Let's bring curated public speaking practice labs to your teams, organizations, or friend groups!
Reach out: yvonne@chatswithyvonne.com
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