If the thought of standing on a podium in front of a large audience terrifies you, you’re not alone. Approximately 70% of the population experiences an intense fear of public speaking. But fear not, because in today’s webcast, we have the Triple P method to help you conquer your fear, stay calm during your next oral presentation, and keep your composure intact. Let’s dive into the details and equip you with the tools you need to succeed.
The Prevalence of Glossophobia
Public speaking, also known as glossophobia, is widely regarded as one of the most common phobias among Americans. Glossophobia is defined as the fear of the tongue, which aptly captures the anxiety associated with speaking publicly. A study conducted by Texas Christian University found that individuals with high trait anxiety experienced more physical symptoms of distress when speaking in front of an audience. So, if you feel like any social interaction is akin to entering a lion’s den, take a deep breath and relax. We’ve got you covered with our Triple P method.
Knowing your subject: Familiarize yourself with the topic inside out. Jot down the major points you want to convey to your audience on a webcast worksheet. Organize these points logically, starting with an attention-grabbing fact or anecdote to hook your listeners. Follow it up with supporting evidence, personal stories, and persuasive statements that will win over the audience.
Knowing your presentation: Plan the structure of your speech step by step. Determine how you will present each point effectively. By organizing your thoughts and ideas on paper, you can alleviate anxiety and gain confidence in your delivery.
Step 2: Posture and Physicality
Maintaining the right posture and physicality can significantly reduce anxiety and help you deliver your speech with ease. Consider the following tips:
Prioritize your physical well-being: Avoid consuming large meals or dairy products before your speech, as they may cause excessive throat clearing. Keep a bottle of water on stage, if permitted, to stay hydrated and provide moments to pause and regain composure if needed.
Stand naturally: Find a comfortable stance that allows you to breathe and speak freely. Avoid being too stiff or slumped, as good posture conveys confidence and control.
Step 3: Pander to Your Audience
Successful public speakers know how to engage their audience effectively. Follow these guidelines to win over your listeners:
Maintain a natural cadence and pace: Avoid sounding robotic or monotonous. Speak in a conversational tone, and don’t be afraid to inject humor or asides where appropriate. A well-timed joke can elicit laughter and help establish a connection with the audience.
Stay self-effacing: Don’t take yourself too seriously. Be humble and relatable, and if there’s a moment of silence, turn it into an opportunity for a lighthearted joke. Let your easy demeanor and natural presence create a positive rapport with your audience.
Conclusion
If public speaking feels more intimidating than facing a poisonous reptile, fear not. By following the Triple P checklist, you can overcome your fear and deliver a compelling speech:
Prepare extensively: Know your content inside out and organize your ideas effectively.
Watch your posture and physicality: Stand naturally, breathe from your diaphragm, and maintain good posture.
Pander to your audience: Engage them with a natural cadence, humor, and relatability.
Remember, practice makes perfect. With time and experience, your confidence will grow, and public speaking will become less daunting. For further assistance, you can connect with us on Twitter @WatchWebcast, email us at watchwebcast@gmail.com, or leave a comment below. We wish you all the best in your future public speaking endeavors!
Giving a speech can be a nerve-wracking experience. The pressure of walking on stage and knowing what to say can be overwhelming. However, the way you open your speech can make a significant impact on your audience. In this article, we will explore the best and worst speech openers to help you captivate your listeners during your next presentation, pitch, speech, or toast.
The Worst Ways to Open a Speech
When it comes to opening a speech, there are a few cardinal sins that should be avoided. Let’s take a look at some of the worst ways to start:
1. **Technical Difficulties**: Never start your speech by drawing attention to technical issues such as microphone problems or bright lights. Doing so will only distract your audience from your message.
2. **Nervousness**: Avoid mentioning your nervousness or how uncomfortable you feel in front of the audience. Acknowledging your nervousness will make your audience more conscious of it and create an atmosphere of anxiety.
3. **Half-hearted Welcome**: A lackluster or insincere welcome can set a negative tone for your speech. Avoid generic niceties or compliments that you don’t genuinely mean. However, if you can turn it into a humorous moment, like the example of Ken Robinson, it can work effectively.
The Best Speech Openers
Now that we’ve covered what not to do, let’s explore the best ways to open a speech and captivate your audience:
1. **Use Stories**: One of the most powerful ways to start a presentation is by telling a compelling story. Stories have the ability to engage the audience’s imagination and capture their attention. By sharing a personal or relevant story, you can create an emotional connection and make your audience feel involved.
2. **Present Your Big Idea**: Start off your speech by presenting your big idea or main message. Don’t make your audience wait for it; instead, dive right in and capture their attention from the beginning. Frame your big idea in an interesting and thought-provoking way to pique their curiosity.
3. **Quirky One-liner**: Humor and curiosity can be excellent tools to open a speech on a high note. Dare to start with an intriguing statement, a funny one-liner, or a question that grabs your audience’s attention. This approach adds an element of surprise and makes your speech more memorable.
Examples and Fill-in-the-Blanks
To help you understand how to implement these speech openers, here are some examples and fill-in-the-blanks that you can use:
1. **Story Opener**: Once upon a time, share a relevant story. I’m here today to share this story with you because explain the significance.
2. **Big Idea Opener**: You’re here for a reason, and that reason is present your big idea. The single most important thing I want to share with you today is emphasize your main message.
3. **Quirky One-liner Opener**: Did you know share an interesting fact about yourself, the audience, or the topic? Add a related statement or question that leads into your content.
Conclusion
Opening a speech effectively is crucial to capturing your audience’s attention and setting the tone for the rest of your presentation. By avoiding the worst speech openers and utilizing the best strategies such as storytelling, presenting your big idea, or using a quirky one-liner, you can engage your audience from the start.
If you’re interested in further enhancing your presentation skills, consider joining our course, “Powerful Presentations,” where we provide a framework for sharing ideas confidently and authentically in any setting. From stage performances to online videos, we cover various aspects such as nonverbal communication, storytelling, and humor. Visit sciencepeople.com/presentations(sciencepeople.com/presentations) to learn more and unlock your full presentation potential.
Remember, your speech opener sets the stage for success, so make it count!
Have you ever been asked to speak in front of a large audience and share personal or professional stories to inspire and ignite creative action? For many of us, the idea of public speaking can be daunting. However, public speaking is a skill that can be honed and mastered with practice. In this article, we will explore the lessons in public speaking, focusing on the key elements of grace, credibility, and resonance.
Embracing Vulnerability: The Journey of a Speaker
Before diving into the intricacies of public speaking, let’s take a moment to understand the author’s personal journey. Born with a hearing impairment, the author had to undergo speech therapy during their formative years. They also faced multiple surgeries related to their ears, leaving them with a speech deficiency. Ironically, the author has now become a speaker who helps others find their voice. This serves as a reminder that even superheroes have their flaws. The author’s journey has led them to discover the importance of listening in effective speaking.
The Power of Listening: Grace in Public Speaking
When it comes to public speaking, grace is not just about what you say; it’s also about how you say it. Physicality plays a significant role in delivering a great talk. The author shares their experiences working with clients and highlights some common pitfalls to avoid. Here are a few aspects of grace discussed:
Feet: The Soft Rock Star Pose
– Some speakers tend to walk excessively or exhibit awkward movements on stage.
– The author introduces the \”soft rock star pose\” as a solution, encouraging speakers to stand strong and firm before speaking.
– This posture helps minimize distractions caused by excessive movement or the urge to wander.
Body: Swiveling and Gestures
– Swiveling, a subtle movement some speakers unknowingly exhibit, can be distracting.
– Friends and colleagues can provide valuable feedback to speakers who may not be aware of their swiveling habit.
– The use of hand gestures can be powerful, but excessive or repetitive gestures can detract from the message.
– Speakers who experience nervous shaking can find comfort by giving their hands a purpose, such as holding a clicker or a hanky.
Scripts: The Pitfall to Avoid
– Many speakers rely on scripts, but they can hinder effective delivery.
– Using a script often leads to visible shaking, as seen when speakers hold a piece of paper.
– Eye contact with the audience is compromised when the speaker constantly looks down at the script, amplifying their nervousness.
Credibility: Crafting Compelling Stories
In addition to grace, credibility plays a vital role in engaging an audience. It involves the content of your speech, the stories you choose to tell, and how you deliver them. Here are some key points to consider:
– Storytelling: Stories have the power to captivate and connect with the audience emotionally.
– Models and Frameworks: Utilizing effective storytelling models and frameworks can enhance the impact of your message.
– Authenticity: Revealing vulnerability and personal insights can make your speech more relatable and memorable.
Resonance: Leaving an Impact
Resonance refers to the audience’s response and emotional experience during and after a speech. It involves leaving a lasting impression and evoking a specific feeling or action. Consider the following aspects of resonance:
– Emotional Connection: Maya Angelou’s famous quote highlights the significance of how people feel after listening to a speech.
– Audience Engagement: Great speakers focus on understanding and addressing the needs, desires, and emotions of their audience.
– Inspiring Action: A powerful speech should motivate listeners to take action or implement positive changes in their lives.
Conclusion
Public speaking is an art that requires the mastery of grace, credibility, and resonance. By understanding the importance of physicality, choosing compelling stories, and connecting with the audience on an emotional level, anyone can become a more effective speaker. Remember, it’s not just about what you say, but how you say it that truly leaves a lasting impact. So, the next time you find yourself standing in front of a hundred unfamiliar faces, embrace the opportunity to share your voice and inspire others through the power of public speaking.
Reviewer: Queenie Lee It’s 1903, and this extraordinary guy named Teddy Roosevelt is standing on the edge of the Grand Canyon. At that time, people wanted to create hotels and spas and turn the Grand Canyon, in 1903, into a profit-making Disneyland of the environment.
And he stood and said no. And he created a tipping point for the environmental movement and for the world. He said, “Leave it as it is. The ages have been at work on it and man can only mar it.” (Applause) The world would have been a different place today without those words, those tipping point words from President Theodore Roosevelt.
Fast forward, his fifth cousin, President Franklin Roosevelt, 30 years later, 1933, in the midst of a huge crisis, the Great Depression of America, said a few words to create a tipping point towards healing for the United States.
Franklin Roosevelt: First of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself, nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror, which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.
Richard Greene: The world would have been a different place without those words, at that time, from that man. So, in my 30 years of studying public speaking and great speeches, I found that there are seven secrets that great speakers do, that other people don’t, and it’s my belief that every single human being can be a great speaker, and that their words can create a tipping point, and that their words and their essence can change the world.
The first secret is about words and understanding that words can be the best, the most amazing in the world, but they only actually touch people and communicate 7% of the impact that one human being has on another.
Voice tone – the variation in your voice, the enthusiasm, the love, the passion that comes through your voice – 38%. Your body language: are you looking into someone’s eyes, or are you looking over their head and not connected? So words, voice tone, and body language, those are the three vehicles, the three pathways, that great communication happens in.
Secret number four. What most people do is they throw so much data out, trying to prove that they are smart, trying to get all the content out. Words are the 7%. What’s important is what is that one thing that you want to leave people with? What is that headline? That’s what makes a great speech.
That’s what we are talking about today. Secret number five is fascinating. If you are afraid – are any of you afraid of public speaking? 41% of the world, across cultures, is terrified almost to the point, and often to the point, of actually turning down speaking appointments.
Whether they are political leaders, or business leaders, or charitable leaders, they turn down opportunities to shake the world because they are scared. There are a lot of reasons why people are scared, but in my experience, the number one reason is that we don’t know what public speaking really is.
We don’t know the true definition. The true definition of public speaking is that public speaking is nothing more than having a conversation from your heart about something that you are authentically passionate about, right? If you think it’s a performance, you are going to be 0% you and 100% actor, and we don’t get to see and experience and feel who you are.
So, I want you to write the word speech down on a piece of paper, and I want you to put a circle around it, and I want you to put a line through it. I don’t want you ever, ever to give another speech.
That’s not what great speakers do. They don’t give a speech; they don’t give a performance; they don’t make a presentation to the audience; they have what? They have a conversation with. It’s a circle.
It brings us all together. We are a web, connected to every other person. That’s what great speakers do. When I first met Princess Diana, she looks me in the eyes and says, “You know, I am so scared of public speaking, and I wish that I could do what Charles does.
” Now, this was when they were actually breaking up, so it was even more difficult for her to admit that. And I said, “What does he do?” “Well, he just stands up there, and he tells this funny joke, and then he moves on, and he is completely unfazed by it.
” And I told her that Prince Charles doesn’t have what she has. And what she had, was what touched and moved the world. People connected with her on a human level. And all you need to do, Your Royal Highness, is just share from your heart, that huge heart that you have, and your gut, and people will love you.
Even through the speech that scares you, they will feel you; they will know you; they will connect with you. That’s far more effective than giving a speech, than telling a funny joke but not sharing your heart.
So, secret number six – and you’ll notice this in some of the speakers – is that we actually have five parts of our brain. Those five different senses – seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, touching, and feeling – translate into four different actual communication languages.
Speak one of them, you’re not going to be very good. Speak two of them, you’ll be average, no matter who you are. Speak all four, no matter who you are, you’re going to rock the world. Because you’re going to be giving every person in the audience something that they can connect to.
And visual is the energy; it’s the language of energy. It’s Robin Williams – I’ve used him as an example, and I’m going to continue to use him as an example. How amazing was Robin Williams. Auditory is the ability to translate details of what you see, what you think, what you feel into a story, into words.
Ronald Reagan was a great example of that. Auditory/Digital, that’s the Albert Einstein, the Bill Gates. The analytical, statistically driven kind of information. If you don’t have that, you don’t have the foundation of credibility.
People go, “Wow, that person is very charming, but there is no there there.” Kinesthetic is the James Earl Jones, the Morgan Freeman, the Barry White. Oh, baby … (Laughter) It’s the poet Ali. It’s that connecting thing that is inside of each and every one of us, that is the most important thing, in being a speaker, in being a communicator.
And then seven, you can just have this and nothing else, and you will still rock the world. As so many people do. And that is your authentic passion. What is it that is so effing cool that you just have to share it, or so effing compelling? And I use that middle word, you can use whatever version you want, because it’s a visceral thing, it’s not intellectual.
So let’s go back on our chronological tour of great speeches that have created tipping points in the world. Now this person, Lou Gehrig, didn’t create a tipping point in terms of the global geopolitics of the world, but he created a tipping point in terms of understanding the human spirit and his own.
Here it was, as you all know, he was diagnosed with ALS. He tried to play, couldn’t play. He had to end his career, and Yankee Stadium held a day for him – Lou Gehrig day, it was in 1939. He gets out there.
He, like so many of you, was petrified of public speaking. And he is there; he is there, and then, just when it’s time for him to go on, he starts backing away. He said, “I can’t do this. I can’t do this.
” His manager comes up to him, puts his arm around him, says, “Lou, they’re all here for you, my friend. They’re all here for you.” And walks him up and he goes, and this is what he says. Lou Gehrig: Today, I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth.
RG: Everyone who studies public speaking puts that speech in their list. It’s just unbelievable, the sense of gratitude that this man had in the middle of his own personal crisis. But let’s go to the next year.
A huge tipping point is about to happen for Great Britain and their battle against Nazi Germany. Three days before the speech, King George goes to Winston Churchill and says, “Please, I want you to be the Prime Minister.
We’ve got to do something; we’ve got to face this threat.” And this is Winston Churchill. It’s just audio. They didn’t have the video in the House of Commons in 1940. Winston Churchill: In stage of the house, and I said to those who joined the government, I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears, and sweat.
RG: The world would have been a different place without Winston Churchill and those words, and that level of conviction, leadership, and resolve. Let’s move forward now. I have three from John F. Kennedy, and you’ll see why.
This one, you all know about. He was following an old general, Dwight D. Eisenhower. He is in his 40s, a whole new era for America and the world. You’ll be familiar with the first part of this but probably not the second.
John F. Kennedy: My fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country. (Cheering) (Applause) RG: He continues. JFK: My fellow citizens of the world, ask not what America will do for you but what together we can do for the freedom of man.
(Cheering) (Applause) RG: The world became a different place because of that speech and that new president. And he proved it several times, a couple years later at Rice University, he is talking about his authentic passion: put a man on the moon.
Listen to the level of detail here, and notice that this is such a visionary leader that he even commits himself and the United States of America when we don’t even at that point know how to do it. JFK: We shall send to the moon, 240,000 miles away from the control station in Houston, a giant rocket, more than 300 feet tall, the length of this football field, made of new metal alloys, some of which have not yet been invented, capable of standing heat and stress, several times more than have ever been experienced, fitted together with a precision better than the finest watch, carrying all the equipment needed for propulsion, guidance, control, communications, food and survival, on an untried mission, to an unknown celestial body, and then return it safely to earth, re-entering the atmosphere at speeds of over 25,000 miles per hour, causing heat about half that of the temperature of the sun, almost as hot as it is here today, and do all this, and do it right, and do it first before this decade is out, then we must be bold.
RG: How amazing was that? Sadly, he didn’t get to live to see that. But he made it happen through his vision, his leadership, and creating that tipping point with that speech. And then, as you know, the famous speech, he is in Berlin.
The West Berliners are suffering mightily. He goes in and says they’re not alone. JFK: All free men, wherever they may live, as citizens of Berlin, and therefore as a free man, I take pride in the words: Ich bin ein Berliner.
(Cheering) (Applause) RG: OK, so, next year after that, or actually later that year, Dr. Martin Luther King, I think you’ve all been aware of this, no one would doubt that this speech, half of which he ad-libbed, ad-libbed this speech, shook the world and created a tipping point.
Martin Luther King: I have a dream (Applause) that my four little children will one day, live in a nation, where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.
I have a dream today. (Cheering) (Applause) RG: If only it were true, and we’re making progress because of that speech. Barbara Jordan, someone you may not know, Texas Congresswoman, was the last person to speak at the Watergate Committee, talking about whether we, in fact, were going to impeach Richard Nixon.
She was a freshman congresswoman; it was around midnight, and yet, her words with that incredible voice tone of hers shook the world and catalyzed the movement against Richard Nixon. Barbara Jordan: Today, I am an inquisitor, and hyperbole would not be fictional and would not overstate the solemnness that I feel right now.
My faith in the Constitution is whole; it is complete; it is total. And I am not going to sit here and be an idle spectator to the diminution, the subversion, the destruction of the Constitution. RG: Barack Obama.
BO: Tonight is a particular honor for me because, let’s face it, my presence on this stage is pretty unlikely. RG: And that’s it, right there, that speech was a tipping point. It changed America, whether you like him or not, that one speech in 2004 changed America.
We don’t have audio of this. But one of my favorite speeches ever is a speech given by Albert Einstein. He says: the most beautiful and deepest experience a man can have is the sense of the mysterious.
To sense that behind anything that can be experienced there is a something that our mind cannot grasp and whose beauty and simplicity are but a feeble reflection … To me, it suffices to wonder at these secrets and to attempt humbly to grasp with my mind a mere image of the lofty structure of all that there is.
And he did that and created a shift, where we understood how matter and energy are the same, and created a new paradigm, and some people even think that it mirrors this ancient symbol for God called Ohm.
If you look at it, there is a backward E, there is an equal sign, there is an M, which is on its side, there is a C, and there is a supernumerary that also looks like the square. E=MC2, thousands of years ago, reflected in Albert Einstein’s discovery in 1906.
I want to play this, in my opinion this is the most powerful couple minutes of recorded oratory, recorded tipping-point speech making in the history of the world. Feel it and notice, this is the last speech he gave before he died.
He died, and it was obvious he knew it, he died the next day. MLK: Like anybody, I would like to live, a long life, longevity has its place. But I’m not concerned about that now. I just want to do God’s will.
And He’s allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I’ve looked over, and I’ve seen the promised land. I may not get there with you, but I want you to know tonight that we as a people, will get to the promised land.
(Cheering) (Applause) So I’m happy, tonight. I’m not worried about anything; I’m not fearing any man. My eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord. RG: So, are you afraid of public speaking? If so, you’re along with half of the people on the planet.
The way over that is to see it as a conversation from your heart and to ask yourself this one question: What is my Dharma? What is it that I am passionate about that I want to share with the world? Something that my unique DNA, which is contained in every one of 50 trillion cells carried in 50,000 atomic bombs worth of energy, that’s what Einstein said, will allow me to be out in the world, make a difference, and give speeches, share my passion, and make the world a better place.
Every single person I’ve worked with has the ability, in their own way, to break through, to make the world a better place, to bring that passion out, and to create a tipping point that will change every single thing on the planet, and indeed, make the world a better place.
And I encourage you, to, please, step through the fear, share your passion, share who you are authentically and make that difference. Thank you all so much. (Applause) (Cheering)
The way you practice a presentation directly influences the outcome. So in this video, we’re going to talk about how to practice a speech. Let’s get into those details. (soft music) Hello there, friends.
Alex Lyon and we are at the end of a three-part series on public speaking this month. The first video is on the importance of public speaking. The one before this is on how to improve and this one is specifically on how to practice a speech.
So let’s get into the five ways that I recommend you practicing a speech and at the end of this video you may wanna stick around because I have a couple of resources to suggest to help you move your public speaking to the next level.
So the first way to practice a speech is to practice from an outline. Not word for word notes. I’ve given some version of this tip in a lot of different videos but let’s say it clearly. You must practice from an outline, a bare bones outline if you want to sound conversational, which is really what your listeners want from you.
They don’t want you to read your speech, they don’t want you to sound like you’ve memorized it. They want a conversation. And the way to get there is this. You take whatever notes you have to prepare at first, your first few drafts, and then you just keep cutting them down over and over again every time you practice until all you’re left with is a bulleted outline of your key points that you are going to hit.
That’s all you really want in the end. And that way you have a safety net to fall back on so you won’t ever lose your place. You can just glance down at your notes and then bounce your eyes right back up and present from an outline.
That’s the best way. Practice from an outline and in the end present like an outline. One of the things I will do in fact is, so I don’t sound like I’ve memorized it, I don’t sound like a robot, is every time I practice, I might say it a little differently on purpose so that I’m not tempted to memorize.
So don’t try to put it word for word, don’t try to memorize. Talking points only and practice from that kind of outline. The number two tip on how to practice is to spread out your practice sessions over time.
Don’t cram the night before. Don’t cram the morning before your presentation. I recommend spreading your practice sessions out over three days. The idea is to practice about three times each day over those three days.
I like to practice about 10 times before I stand up and speak and it’s really easier to do if you spread it out. A lot of great things happen when you spread out your practice sessions. The first thing that happens to me is it calms me down.
It says to me, hey there’s time. So if my earliest few practice sessions, practice times, don’t go so well, I say hey, there’s time. No problem, I got a few more days. I’ll work out these kinks. Another great thing that happens is, let’s say I’ve practiced it three times and then I sleep on it.
Oftentimes, in the middle of the day I’m doing other things, I’m washing dishes, my brain keeps working on it and keeps figuring out better ways to say something or a quicker way to get to the point. So in that downtime I believe that our brains are still working on it and we benefit from that downtime as well.
The other great thing about breaking up your practice sessions is it helps me with my composure in the moment. Because it feels to me, like muscle memory with an athlete, that I’ve done this before. I’ve been doing this presentation for days.
So it really helps me stay composed and at the moment. So spread out those practice sessions three times a day over three days. That usually is about what you need. The number three tip is to focus on only one or two improvements each time you practice it.
So you might just work on your structure and your outline the first few times through, that’s normal. The next few times through just pick one or two things, like oh now I’m just gonna work on looking up from my outline, eye contact for example.
The next time through you might just work on gestures and your posture a little bit. Every time you practice, add one or two things you wanna improve on because when you add too many things all at once when you try to get it perfect every time you practice, you’re going to get paralyzed because you can’t really improve more than one thing, or maybe two things, in any given practice session so focus on improvements and then start checking those off the list.
And then your fundamentals will all be in place by the time you actually stand up to present. Number four is to keep practice sessions realistic. Do not, for example, the whole time you’re practicing isolate yourself completely and make conditions perfect.
Because what ends up happening in the moment of your actual presentation is it won’t go perfectly. People will walk in late or they’ll get up to use the bathroom or there’ll be somebody with a lawn mower outside your window.
In fact, I’ve been recording this morning and there is a neighbor working with a chainsaw nearby that keeps distracting me but you just power through it. So after a few times practicing alone what I end up doing, when I practice, is I add distractions on purpose.
Like I will put the television or some music on and then I’ll talk over that because it creates a little bit of noise and distraction for me to cope with and I know that if I can practice through those distractions that during the actual moment I’ll be ready to push through.
Even if something weird or odd happens, it won’t throw me off as much. So keep practice sessions realistic. And the number five tip is to visualize the first 30 seconds and the last 30 seconds of your presentation.
So by visualization, I mean the way a sports athlete does it. So you picture yourself walking up through that first 30 seconds of the moment, starting off your presentation, and then the last 30 seconds how you’re gonna close.
So athletes do this with great success. There is a study by Laure Ecard published in the 1980s and a lot of other studies like it on basketball free-throw shooting and they found people that only visualized actually did improve a little bit.
For people who practiced free throws, basketball free throws improved a little more. But athletes who did both, they visualized and they practiced, did the most improvement out of any of the groups. So by visualizing the first 30 seconds and last 30 seconds you’re going to be boosting your overall performance up quite a bit even if you don’t get to practice it a few extra sessions.
So those are the five tips I recommend in terms of how to practice for a speech. These are the ones I use personally and I have coached a lot of people over the years to use them and they really do work so put them into practice as soon as possible.
So I mentioned a couple of resources at the beginning I wanted to tell you about that are for you. The first one is a free PDF download. It’s instant tips to make you a more confident and composed public speaker.
You put your email address in and I email you those instant tips. It’s a PDF download. The second resource is a full course that I have created called Present Like a Pro. It’s a whole course and it’s designed to help you become a top 10% speaker in your professional setting so if you really want to get into it, I invite you to check that out.
The links to all these resources are in the description below the video. So question of the day, how do you recommend practicing your presentations that help you the most? I would love to hear your thoughts on what helps you in that section below the video.
I look forward to reading those comments. So thanks, God bless and I will see you soon.
Let’s talk about how to improve your public speaking skills. We’re gonna talk about five ways that you can get better, so let’s get into those details.
I’m Alex Lyon, and we’re gonna talk about how to improve your public speaking skills. This is the second video in a three-part series that I’m doing this month. The first video is the importance of public speaking, and then the next one is how to practice a speech.
But in this one, we’re going to look at five ways that you can improve your public speaking skills. So let’s get into that. The number one way that you can improve your public speaking skills is to speak about a topic that you care about.
When you are passionate about a subject, you are going to put way more work into it because you’re motivated. And no one has to tell you to do it. You want to speak about this topic. And speaking about a topic that you don’t care about, you can still get better, but you will take your skills to the next level when you’re passionate about the subject because you’re like, oh, this is so important.
And I really wanna get this across. And you want your listeners to benefit the most. So, in my experience, when you care about a topic, your skills will go to next level completely. So figure out what you really wanna talk about and look for opportunities to speak about that particular topic.
The second way to improve is to watch great speakers. Identify some speakers that you admire, that you look up to, and watch what they do. Now, don’t copy them. Don’t imitate them. But watch two or three different kinds of speakers that all have their own skills and learn from them.
By watching a few different people, what you’ll do is you’ll see the general skills that cut across, and then you can pull out of that principle that you can then apply on your own. For example, I really admire Patricia Fripp.
She’s a very well-known professional speaker, and she is an amazing storyteller. And so I don’t tell stories the way she does. She has her own unique way, but I said I wanna get better at telling stories.
So when I speak publicly, I tell a lot of stories. I also like to be funny. Now, I’m not a standup comic by any stretch, but I like to watch standup comedians like Jerry Seinfeld, just to get inspired by their amazing skill to make people laugh with just a one-line joke.
That’s impressive. So watch great speakers. Pull out the general principles from them. And then put those into practice for yourself. The third way to improve is to prepare. And this might sound a little dry, but I can tell you that 95% of the way a presentation turns out is determined by how you prepare.
And that basically means making a clear outline beforehand, so you really have your thoughts in order, intro, a few main points, and a conclusion. And also, practicing from that outline a whole bunch of times, five, six, seven times.
I practice about 10 times or more for every presentation I give. I know some people who don’t practice at all. They just put out their whole outline, and then when they stand up to speak, it’s the first or maybe only the second time they have spoken through it.
And you can usually tell. In fact, I teach this stuff to professionals. I do workshops for companies, and I can’t tell you how many times someone, it’s their turn to go up and speak. And they say, you know, I’m just gonna wing it.
Well, you can tell what’s gonna happen ahead. I already know what’s gonna happen. The people who prepare always do much better than the people who say, I’m just gonna wing it. So preparation is really key.
Don’t underestimate that. Get alone in a room. Talk through your notes. Stand up the way you would really stand up, and power through it. You also may want to record on your phone your practice sessions.
That can be really motivating. It can identify a couple of things that you need to work on. So record yourself, and it’s almost like getting another person to give you feedback. The fourth way is to get more experience.
There are a lot of low-risk, low-stakes ways to stand up and present. Maybe you would run a short training session for example in your workplace around the people that you already know. That’s how I got my first start after college.
I had done public speaking in college, but then on my first job in Rhode Island, there was an opportunity to do a training session. And so I did a 20-minute session on listening skills. And I can tell you right now, it wasn’t good.
In fact, I remember looking out at a lot of confused faces in the room for that 20 minutes. But it helped me start. It was a starting place, and everybody was supportive. They were all my coworkers. They were all on my side.
Look for low-stakes opportunities, low-risk opportunities to speak. Maybe it’s announcements at church. Maybe it’s like running a training session. Maybe you can do a little meeting where it’s just four or five of you, but you prepare your thoughts in advance as if you were going to be speaking publicly.
Look for as many opportunities as possible to get more experience. And the fifth way is to take a class. So maybe you’re in college. Look for a public speaking class. Look for an advanced public speaking class after that.
Maybe on the job where you work there are opportunities and workshops and people that come through to teach communication skills. Take one of those. You can take an online course. And one of the great things about a course of some sort is that the instructor has already thought through some of the most common issues that people need to overcome, and so they’re gonna take you through a curriculum and move you forward in all those other areas.
Like I have a lot of people that say, well, I’m so nervous. If I could just get over my nerves, then I’d be better at this. Well, yeah, that’s a start but really learning concrete skills is going to help you get better, and a teacher can help guide you through that process instead of just guessing on your own what you need to work on.
Now, at the beginning of the video, I mentioned there are a couple of free resources that I wanted to tell you about. The first one is free. It’s an instant PDF download that you put in your email, and I send you tips to help you become a more confident and composed public speaker.
So you can look for the link to that in the description below the video. And the second one is a full course that I have created. It’s called Present Like a Pro. And the whole goal of the course is to help you become a top 10% presenter in your professional setting.
So I invite you to check that out. Again, links and descriptions are below. So question of the day, what do you think the best ways to improve your public speaking are? I’d love to hear your thoughts on what works best for you, and I look forward to reading those comments in that section below the video.
Sadhguru: People always say, “No, I’m not used to speaking into the microphone.” It’s not about what people think about you. When that happens, after that they become okay. Do you see, I just say whatever I please?
Sadhguru: It’s not that you put more pressure upon yourself, it’s just that.
.. you went and made a fool of yourself in front of a group of people. So… you don’t want to make a fool of yourself. How can you make a fool of yourself, unless you’re one? (Laughter) Questioner: I don’t think I am.
Sadhguru: You can’t make a fool of yourself, nor can you make an intelligent one out of yourself, isn’t it? The way you are is the way you are. Now… in trying to be smarter than what you are, that’s when you make a fool of yourself.
You’re generally not so hard upon yourself if there was no public watching you. Isn’t it? That’s the whole thing. If there’s nobody watching you and you make a fool of yourself, you are not hard on yourself, you are very pardoning, isn’t it? Yes? Ten people are watching you, and now.
.. the message of your stupidity is going to spread around the world… That’s what is bothering you. No, your very stupidity should bother you, not the publication of your stupidity.
Your very stupidity should bother you, that’s when you will turn spiritual. It’s not about what people think about you. You are foolish with so many aspects of life, that bother you, not because ten people are watching you.
When that happens, you will naturally turn spiritual. Now, you are only concerned about, “In front of ten people it happened.” I think it’s good, a revelation is happening. Now… why are you doing public speaking? Why are you doing public speaking? You don’t do any public speaking, you just speak.
People always say, “No, I’m not used to speaking into the microphone.” I tell them, don’t speak into the microphone, you just speak. Microphone knows what to do. (Laughter) Why should you speak into the microphone? You simply speak.
A microphone will do what it has to do, isn’t it? And why are you doing public speaking? If there is public sitting here, naturally you will be… you know, there may be somebody who is going to pull you down out there.
I was recently, about eight-ten days ago, I was with a group of people in New Delhi. This person, now he is little out of action, but… he was, at one time, the Prime Minister’s right-hand man, and he was a minister, and he was… played many roles.
He’s gone around the world, spoken to any kind of, and every kind of, group in the world. We were just talking about something, and… he said even for… I know this much, he has been with some great leaders in the country, like Indira Gandhi.
He’s been next to her, right through her power stage, and he said, “The greatest leaders when they first stand in front of a crowd, there is a little bit of nervousness. After that, they become okay.
” I said, “This nervousness is happening to you because you claim that… they are a part of you, but it is not true, that’s why it’s happening to you.” If you truly saw that this is all a part of you, you are just talking to yourself, where is nervousness? You can say anything you want.
Do you see, I just say whatever I please? (Laughter) So, you don’t do any public speaking. If you truly hold everything as yourself, you simply express what is true with you, and that’s all. Why would you be?
.. a mess, and then why do you have to beat yourself? Let them have the pleasure of beating you. If you are talking senselessly, they will have the pleasure of beating you. Why should you do it? Their job it is.
Leave other people’s work to their hands. You don’t try to do everything, isn’t it? If you talk senselessly, they will throw stones at you. Let it happen that way. Don’t throw stones at yourself, it’s not necessary.
The quality of your presentation, plus the size of the audience, creates the level of attraction you create as a speaker. So the first thing we talked about this morning is the stage effect. The stage effect is the unfair advantage that you create.
For yourself, by standing in front of an audience, and I just want to give you a little bit more information about that. The stage effect is a really fascinating thing. The stage effect is kind of like it works like this.
The quality of your presentation, plus the size of the audience, creates the level of attraction you create as a speaker. Does that make sense? So what that means is that the bigger your audience, the more attractive that’s going to happen, and I’ve noticed this very much in my career, because when I go out on tour, when I launch in a new country, I might go on a tour in a new country and nobody knows me, and so I go there and some of the audience, some of the events might have 20 or 30 or 40 people, but then some of those people end up coming to one of my workshops.
Those people have a certain attitude toward me when they come to the workshop, as my career in any given country gets bigger, like when I came here to Tal some years ago, and I did an event, and there were about 2 500 people in the audience.
They treat me differently than the people who saw me with 30 people, because there’s something powerful about people watching you. The same thing applies to YouTube. Somebody sends you a video and it’s got four views, and somebody sends you another video and it’s got four million views. Which one are you going to watch? The views are the size of the audience, and so, if it’s got four million views, you’re more People are more likely to watch it if you’ve got five thousand people in the audience. It creates more attraction, and so what this means is that when you stand up in front of an audience and you deliver from your heart, you are creating a level of attraction that is far beyond what you can create one-on-one. If there are 10 people in the audience, it’s far more attractive than one-on-one.
This is so important because in marketing, there is no system of marketing that is more effective than personal contact. I’m not talking about effectiveness in numbers. There are many systems that can do better with numbers, but I’m talking about effectiveness when it comes to creating a lasting memory or impression with somebody.
Nothing will create a more lasting impression than face-to-face contact with somebody. But the problem is that face-to-face contact isn’t very practical. How many people can you meet and really connect with in a day? I mean, if you really have it back to back and you’re spending, I don’t know, if you live in England, you can kind of travel around pretty quickly and meet with a lot of people, because there are 60 million people living on a postage stamp.
But if you live in Canada, it’s a little different. I was working in Canada in Vancouver, and I had a client in England. We’d been doing business for a few years, but we’d never met before, and one day he called me and said, “Eric, we’re finally going to get to meet,” and I said, “Austin, what’s happening?” He said, “I’ve got a conference I have to go to and I’m coming to Canada.”
I said that’s great. I said, “What’s what’s the schedule?” He said, “Well, I’m flying into Toronto on Monday.” The conference is on Tuesday, and I’ve got Wednesday and Thursday free. So I figured we should get together for lunch, and I said, “Okay, um, when are you planning to come out to Vancouver?” and he goes, ” I have a rental car now.
Some of you will be aware of North American geography, but some might not. So I just want to put this in perspective. This is Canada for you. If you would like to drive from Halifax, Nova Scotia to Vancouver, Canada, and you have three friends to do the driving with you, the car only stops for you to put petrol in it, eat, and sleep in the car.
It will take you four and a half days. It’s just that you know it’s a big place. What I’m getting at is that face-to-face contact in our world today is not going to be the most effective because it takes so much time, but the good news is that face-to-face contact is even more powerful than face-to-face. It’s even more powerful.
I am well. Let me ask you, and if you already know the answer, I don’t need your answer. If you don’t know me, you haven’t met me. Am I introverted or extroverted? Who thinks I’m pretty extroverted? Whoever thinks I’m pretty extroverted seems to think I’m up here on stage doing whatever. How many of you think I’m more introverted?
So the fact of the matter is, I am significantly more introverted than I am extroverted. You will notice that I will walk around here. I don’t walk up and talk to people all the time and introduce myself. I wouldn’t say, “I’m shy.”
I’m just introverted, and one of the greatest tools of the introvert is learning how to be great at storytelling and standing on stage, because then you don’t have to go meet people; they come and meet you. It’s different.
You meet them all at once. It’s an incredibly powerful thing, but that’s social. But what about economics? If I’m a business consultant and I’ve got my friend Derek Eric and Derek, and we’ve decided to buddy coach each other, we’re going to try and get through our stuff, and what we’re going to do is go to a networking event and have a competition to see who can meet the most people.
So introverted business consultant Derek goes off to the event with a pocket full of business cards and he’s meeting all the people. “So good to meet you. I’m so happy to meet you. Here’s my card.”
Do you have a card with you? Do you have one? Do you have a card as well? Can I have and and and Derek is meeting them all, and at the end of the day, he’s got a pocket full of business cards. On the other hand, I am an introverted Eric business consultant too.
I don’t want to do all that. I call the organizer and say hi. I’d like to come and speak at your conference. Here’s my show reel, here’s my bio boom, and I got myself booked as a speaker. I walked on stage.
I spoke for 45 minutes. I make people laugh, maybe cry, maybe think I give them distinctions on who’s going to have the most business cards at the end of this conference. I probably am, but wait a minute.
Let’s call it a tie. Let’s say we get back to our hotel room. We take out our stacks of business cards, we put them down, and it turns out it’s a tie. Okay, so we have to go to the tie-breaker round of the tie break around.
How does that work? Well, what we do is start calling the people we meet. So Derek starts picking up the phone and saying, “Hey, do you remember how we met at the conference?” It was over by the Starbucks.
I was the blue shirt. Do they remember him? Barely a few. I might see if I call them, pick them up, and go hi. It’s Eric. You’re Eric. Calling from the presentation, I’ve created a deeper, lasting memory.
Is it true? So the tiebreaker is that I have as many business cards as I have, but these business cards mean something. They connect. Something now, let’s go to the next tie-breaker round, where one can charge more for the same consulting services.
I want you to hear me about this. This is not a small thing. This individual does not charge 10% more than this individual.This person can charge many times what this person can charge. I didn’t fully understand this.
Until one day, I was doing an event in Las Vegas, Nevada, and I did my presentation at this event. Many speakers were there. I spoke for about two hours, and then these guys walked up to me afterward. I was standing with my wife.
They walked up and said, “We’d like to buy you lunch.” What do I know at this point? They want something, but I’m hungry, [laughs]. So I accept the lunch, and so we go off for lunch, and we’re sitting there at lunch, and they start trying to hire me to work for their company in California.
I don’t want to live in California. I live in the Dominican Republic and just to put this in perspective for you, how many of you are familiar with kiteboarding? So how many are not familiar with kiteboarding, but you are familiar with wakeboarding? So I’ll describe kiteboarding for you.
It’s like wakeboarding, right? It’s like wakeboarding; you’re on a snowboard type thing and wake boarding. The boat is pulling you right, but with kiteboarding, it’s like you control the boat and the boat can fly.
It’s an incredible sport, and I live on a kite beach where there’s wind for 10 months of the year. San Diego is beautiful, but the wind is seasonal and the water is. There’s a technical term for this. Let me just say I have it here.
I have it on my phone. I looked it up. It’s freaking cold. It’s really cold, and so if I don’t need a wetsuit even in December, I’m not interested in going to live there. I didn’t want the job, but they kept trying to get me to do it, and I finally said, “Look, what do you really want from me?” They explained what they were looking for, and I said, “Um.”
“Well, could we hire you as a consultant?” they asked. Actually, no, I’m not looking. I’m busy. I have a full calendar, so I’m not. I want to spend time with my family. I don’t really want to, but I don’t like saying “no” either, so sometimes I’ll say “no” with a number.
This is one of the smartest ways that any of you will learn to raise your prices. So you deliver so much value that people want to do business with you, and then you say no with a bigger number, and so I decided to do that as well.
Could we have you come in for like one week a month for six months? I wanted to say no, but I didn’t. Instead, I said sure, it’d be twenty thousand dollars for each week. They said Okay, I said, and then I said, “Wait.”
Whoa, whoa, before you say, “Okay, I don’t fly on the weekend, I’m with my family.” I fly on Monday and I fly home on Friday. So it’s three days and twenty thousand dollars and they said okay and so for the next six months.
I did this before and I would have sold it for a fraction of that amount if I was open to consulting, which I wouldn’t have sold, because I didn’t want it, but all of a sudden I found the stage effect had an immediate and powerful financial return.
It helps you sell things, it helps you get a job, and it helps you get that promotion. It helps you get funding for your business and it helps you recruit people for your company. It’s the ability to leverage that’s so powerful now. In order for that to work, though, we have to have some skills.
We talked today about how to get more comfortable, but now what we have to do is talk about some skills. One of the most important skills you can develop as a speaker is the ability to go to a conference and deliver a talk that will appeal to the highest percentage of the whole audience.
Irrespective of the topic, because you will occasionally get asked to speak at conferences where there’s a wide variety of people in the audience and your topic might only appeal to half or a third of the people, is that possible, and so the trouble is, you’d almost They’d be better off if the other people would just leave, because if they stay in the room with their naysayers’ energy, if they stay in the room checking their Facebook, if they stay in the room talking to each other, they’re going to ruin the energy of the room and they’re going to distract other people from your presentation.
You know, they don’t all sit on their side, right? So you get the interested person and the disinterested person and the interested person, and then it just messes up the room and you can’t make them leave, and so what you need to do is keep their attention, and so in doing that, we use something.
That is what we call broad-spectrum appeal, which is to deliver with broad spectrum.’s to be delivered in a way where the audience likes what’s going on, even if the topic isn’t a direct match for them. So there are some keys to this.
The first key use stories We already talked about it this morning. Stories are the operating system of the human mind. You see, if you tell somebody something, they’re not going to remember it, but if you relay the information to them in a story that triggers emotion, they’re going to remember it. You see, your mind has too much stuff to process, and so what does it decide? What to hold on to and what it will hold on to is anything that has an emotion attached to it.
Does this make sense to you? You see if you have a day that’s completely boring and you have no emotions about that day, Will you ever remember that day? No, but if you have a day where you had an intense emotional experience, like when somebody drove into your car, are you going to remember that day? You had an intense emotional experience.
If you have no memory, sorry, if you have no emotion, there’ll be no memory. If you have too many emotions, you could end up with PTSD. That’s ultimately, what it’s about is that the emotion is so intense that it writes the memory in so solidly that it can’t be shaken out. Once we begin to understand that emotion is the glue that causes memories to stick, once we get that, then we know that we have to deliver things in a story format which is the operating system of the human brain.
People come and go now and then, Eric. That’s all fine and good. You’re up there telling your stories. I don’t have any stories. Does anybody feel a little like that? They don’t have so many stories, or the other thing they say is, “Well, Eric, but I have to.”
I have to just deliver the numbers. I just I’m an accountant, and I have to deliver numbers to the board of the company. How do I write that story? Well, what you begin to realize is that delivering a story is about the way you deliver anything and-and what I mean is that if I have to come and deliver the numbers, then I can walk out here, and I can say, ladies and gentlemen, of the board, I have the numbers. We projected 14 growth for the quarter, and in fact, we achieved 16.
Well done everyone; that’s how it’s done right. In fact, that’s somebody doing it quite well in our world. It can be done a lot worse than that. How many of you have been to a conference where you’ve been sitting in the middle row and you’ve been wishing? Were you on the edges? Has anybody been to that conference? Right, so I’ve been there and so what? If that’s the case, what if? I walk out and go.
Ladies and gentlemen, the board, I’ve got the numbers from the accounting department today and I’m really excited about this, because when we set the targets, you’ll remember, we projected 14 growth for the quarter, and you might recall, I wasn’t a big believer.
I wasn’t so optimistic about that and so this morning, when I got the numbers from the accounting department, I held the envelope in my hand. I just took a moment before I opened it, and then I tore the envelope open and read the report, and then I had to read it a second time, and I’m not kidding.
I had to read it a third time to understand what happened. We predicted 14 percent growth on the horizon and ended up with 16 percent.Is it different? I created suspense, I created drama, and I made it a story.
It didn’t even take much longer, but I did it in a way that you will now remember it. In fact, I will be able to walk up to some of you in three or four days from now and ask how much growth did we post and you’ll go, “Yeah.” It was 16, right, like you will, because I gave it to you in the story.
So the first thing you have to understand is that it’s not even that you have to have so many stories. You have to recognise that the information needs to be delivered in story format. When it’s delivered in story format, it becomes memorable.
The only way you’re going to get anybody to remember anything is by linking an emotion to it. How many people in this room did you have in school in your first 12 years of school? You had at least one or two teachers that to this day, you would love to have lunch with them and thank them for the contribution they made in your life.
Keep your hand up if they were a storyteller. Nine times out of ten, more like 99999 times out of a thousand, these guys are storytellers. Isn’t it true? They’re totally storytellers. And the teachers that didn’t tell you stories, you don’t remember what they taught you. These days, you don’t even remember their name.
Do you know that I moved? I grew up largely in Halifax, Nova Scotia, on the eastern side of Canada, and one of my teachers was When I was in grade three—and I know, every country uses different grades, but three means like eight years old, and so I was seven or eight years old, I was in his class, and he was brilliant at storytelling.
He understood everything about storytelling. One day, he understood the suspense. He used to sit in his chair and he would put his leg up on his desk. You know, kind of bad manners, don’t you think? So we often sat in our when he came into the class, and we’re eight years old, we’d put our feet up on our desks, and then he walked in one day, and he goes,
You guys, You think that’s funny, don’t you, and we’re like, yeah, you do it, so we can do it too, kid, thinking right, and he goes well. I’m going to tell you why I do it. He said one day, I was going out on my first date in my car, and I was driving along when I dropped my girlfriend off at her house after an incredible day, and then I turned around and I was so high.
I was so happy. I was so full of love from this experience. I’d gone out on my first date, my first in my car, my first time and I was driving along and I was heading low when suddenly something happened to the car.
Somebody had hit me a little bit from behind, and then the car started to slide, and it was sliding toward this tree, and I saw the tree, and it was the weirdest thing, because there was nothing I could do and the tree just kept getting closer and closer and it was almost like slow motion, and all of a sudden, I just slammed into the tree and then and then, and a little while later, I woke up on the road. The weirdest thing was that I’d never been able to do the splits before, but now I was doing the splits. The only problem was my knee was bent here and so this bone had been broken.
So badly that it was sticking out through the skin, and so now there’s a metal rod in my leg, and so when I sit at my desk while you guys are working, if I don’t lift my leg up on the desk, it becomes incredibly painful.
That’s why I put my feet on my desk. He says otherwise it’s considered incredibly impolite and I’m sorry I didn’t share that with you earlier. I was eight. I still remember that story.
Incidentally, I have not shared that story once on stage until this moment. I have never shared that story that I can think of. I still remember it from when I was eight. Then one day, he comes in and he goes, because one of the important types of stories to tell is metaphorical or allegorical, where you tell a story that the audience wants to hear.
This has broad spectrum appeal. You tell a story that the audience wants to hear, but that’s teaching something else. So one day he walks in and says, “Guys, it’s health class.”Does he have our attention? No, we’re
Eighth grade health class doesn’t get interesting until you’re 12. I mean, let’s be clear: 12-13 health class starts getting, you won’t admit it, but it’s starting to get interesting right. You’re eight years old, it’s not interesting, so he’s like, “It’s health class, nobody’s interested,” and he walks up to the blackboard and he takes out this thing and he’s like, “So he says all right now: does he have our attention?” Why does he have our attention? It was 1978.
No, it’s 1978. Okay, no matter how popular Harry Potter becomes, he will never have an impact on society.you watch any three hours of television in North America, any three hours of television news, any sitcom movie, you will hear a Star Wars reference.
That’s the way it is. He understood this in 1978 when, in 1978, he was drawing characters from the Star Wars universe and he did this. He goes now to this force field. Was he brilliant? This force field is your skin.
He says these are antibodies; they are defending you; and these are the germs and bacteria that are trying to get into your body and make you sick. When I was eight years old, that’s exactly what the blackboard looked like, because he understood how to tell stories.
Storytelling will change everything about the way you do a presentation. It will change everything about the way the audience receives it, and the beauty is that stories are broad spectrum automatically. The toughest audience I’ve ever had is the absolute toughest audience I’ve ever had.
I got this phone call. Eric, would you come and speak at this inner-city school in London? I will speak for schools pretty much unreservedly if I’m around. If I’m nearby, I’ll do it pro bono. If I’m around and it’s free, I’ll show up and do it.
The one thing is that when I’m doing pro bono speaking, I won’t always put in the same level of preparation as when I’m getting paid. I have things to do in my life, so if I’m speaking for free, I just kind of show up and wing it.
I’ve got enough stage experience that I can usually pull that off. It’s okay, and I get to the school and I haven’t done any research, and I walk in and the headmistress walks up to me and says, “Are you ready?” and I go, “Yeah totally.” I’m ready.
I said which kids I was speaking for, and she said all of them. I said, “Oh really, um.” What kind of school is this? Is it a high school because I could speak to all of them? You know, sixth, eighth, sixteenth, and eighteenth grades in high school.
I could do that, or is it a junior high? You know, thirteen to sixteen. I could do that, or is it like the last half of elementary school? You know, six to twelve, or you say, eight to twelve, or is it elementary school? I could do that.
“Six to five to eight or something I could handle,” I said, and she replied, “no, it’s a k-12.”I said k-12. That means for those who don’t understand k-12, It means that the youngest kids will be four years old and the oldest kids will be 19.
..They will be from 4 to 19 in one audience. I said really, how interesting. I said, “How long how?” How long do I have to speak for an hour and a half? They’re from 4:4 to 19. and I’m going to speak for an hour and a half? I said: “Okay, excellent, no problem,” and so immediately I started going through the system I was going through.
I have to if I’m going to create a wide range of emotions and feelings, which I need to figure out. What’s common to all these kids, like I’ve got it figured out, is the first thing that is common to all of them. All of them are common, all of them.
Now you have to tell the story slightly differently, but the fact is that four-year-olds do like stories. They like the same stories over and over and over again, and do 19-year-olds like stories? Sure they do.
In fact, telling layered stories is one of the most valuable skills you can develop in the world, and you all know this, even if you’ve never heard the term before: layered stories. This is what I’m talking about.
How many of you have ever watched a Disney movie with children and you’ve noticed that you suddenly realised as a child? You were watching a movie that was actually made for adults. Isn’t it true? You watch a Disney movie and there are weird little sexual innuendos and adult jokes that are all above the consciousness of children, so they’re telling two stories, and so this idea of being able to tell parallel stories or multi-layered stories is really valuable.
So I’m thinking, okay, I’ve got to tell a story and make sure it has four-year-old features and 19-year-old features in total. First thing, I decide, second thing: what else is common to all of these kids games?Do four-year-olds like games? Do 19-year-olds like games? Done deal. I’ve got it covered. Then I think about it.
I need one more thing. I require a thread.I needed some kind of thread that I could use, and I suddenly realised what it was, and I thought back to Mr. Kulczinski’s Harry Potter, because that was what was going on back then. If you were four years old, did you, like Harry Potter, damn right, you did if you were five or six years old.
Did you like Harry Potter? Absolutely if you were seven or eight, or nine, or 10 or 11 years old. Did you like Harry Potter when you were 12 years old? Absolutely if you were 13, 14, 15, 17. 18. 19. Did you like Harry Potter? You did, but secretly you read the books in a brown paper bag. You didn’t like them. But it was a bit, and by the way, if you were 20, 25, 30, 35, 40 years old, did you like Harry Potter? Damn right, you did. My wife and I lined up at a bookstore to buy the final Harry Potter book on release night at midnight, and we had to buy two copies because there was no way one was waiting for.
The other Harry Potter was pervasive, it was pervasive, and so then I went out and I delivered a talk for these kids, and I used stories. I played a game with them and I used Harry Potter references. I talked about guys. I’m going to show you some really cool stuff, and by the time I show you this stuff about your life,
All the other people will seem like muggles to you because you did that work for them, and at the end of my talk, the kids celebrated. I got a big clap from them. Everything was fantastic and normally, when I finish a talk, it’s the audience that wants to come over and say hello, take a picture, and do that fun stuff, but not this time.
This time it was the teachers, literally, and by the way, I just want to say that again, especially if there are any Americans here. Actually, I just want to be clear that you can’t have your head literally explode unless it actually explodes.
I just want to be clear about that. Something that bothers me every now and then is the teachers, literally. Which means they were actually right, literally cornered me. I’ve got my back against the wall and the teachers are surrounding me, and they’re going.
How did you do that? How did you do that? I can’t hold them for half an hour. One age group, I said, first of all, you need to relax. I said I only had to hold them once. I only had to hold them once, and I was new and I was novel, so you can’t blame yourself.
The first thing is, I only had to hold them once, and they were like, “Yeah, but still like.” I have to hold them for a whole hour for my class, and I just can’t do it. You held them for an hour and a half and all the age groups.
I said, “How did you do that?” and I broke it down for them. I said to you guys, it’s about storytelling. I told him about Mr. Kulczinski and no kidding. They immediately asked me if I could come back and speak at the school again for the teachers, because teachers are not being taught really effectively how to teach; they’re being taught how to babysit and how to run a curriculum.
Does this make sense, with such broad spectrum appeal? It all starts with the realisation that story is the ultimate language; it’s the ultimate operating system for the brain, and once you realise that, you make certain that your talks always include a percentage of story.
You know, you tell them some information and then you use a story to prove it, or you tell them a story and they get the information from inside the story. But the fact is that no emotion, no memory was done then.
The next thing you saw me do there is: what is the common thread among the audience? You always want to know. What’s the common thread of the audience as best you can figure out who your audience is and try to figure out? What’s common about them? And if you can’t find anything that’s common about them, that might be the common thing.
I will often come out here and do it right now. Shout out to some of the countries you guys are from. Let me hear it: Canada, United States, Mexico, UK, Brazil, Korea, Israel, Ukraine, Crimea, that’s that’s Russia! Now! Isn’t it that’s not funny? The point is, all of a sudden, I’ve found something where you’re all uncommon with each other.
Only I’ve made that common because you’re an incredibly international group and suddenly I can speak to you all about me. I’ve created something uncommon in common. Does this make sense? And so you want to look at what the common threads are in the company, in the audience, and then let’s get to delivery delivery.
It’s so straightforward, guys, and it’s not what most conference speakers are doing. How many of you guys were at the finals at the speaking academy? Okay, there were what, 14 or 15 speeches? Have you ever been to a conference where all 14 or 15 speakers appealed to you like that? What happened there? Do you know what many of you came up and said to me? Many of you walked up to me after that and said, “But why were they at a speaker course?” That’s what they came and said to me, “I’m like you, I should have seen him on that day.”
On Day One, some of them were very talented on Day One. Some of them were so shy and so nervous on the day, that if you handed them a microphone, it kind of looked like this, and that’s not what it looked like on the day.
Five did it, so one of the things that we showed them and that you saw was using a range of vocal techniques, not speaking in one tone. You’ve all been to that conference where somebody stands up and puts you to sleep for an hour, and they weren’t.
even a hypnotist, but they should have been. Ladies and gentlemen, and fellow toastmasters, I don’t mean, look, I love toastmasters. I truly believe that it is one of the things that each of you should do, which is to join a Toastmasters group and practice.
The challenge is that it’s a great place to practice, and what often happens is that people become formulaic speakers. If, if, if anybody ever comes up to me and says, “Did somebody do your course?” The only reason I want them to know that they did my course is because they were so much themselves.
You understand, and so when we talk about delivering, we’re talking about delivering with passion, about you delivering yourself to the audience, about you being who you are, about me being who I am.
I am not interested in the speakers that can come up and act really well. It can be fascinating, it can be wonderful. I saw a talk once. It was one of the best talks. I’ve never done I admire the speaker a great deal.
It was incredibly funny. It had hugely poignant moments in it, it taught really valuable stuff, and it was clinically perfect. It was one of the best talks I’ve ever done, but he’s just missing one thing: heart and soul.
It was perfect. He moved to the exact right place every time on the stage to say the right thing, and he did the right posture every single time for this thing that he did, and everything was clinical, and then when he wanted to go back and reference that story,
He went back to that same spot. This is all really powerful skills to have, but if the audience can tell that you’ve done this same talk a hundred thousand times, then it doesn’t feel genuine anymore and the heart connection is broken with the audience.
You should know your story so well that you can tell them with imperfection. You can tell them like you’re telling them at the dining room table. Yeah, I’ll be in the middle of a conversation. Sometimes I’ll be going.
You know, it’s like that time. You know, What is the archaeologist, Harrison Ford, Indiana Jones, doing? That’s right! What are the odds that I forgot Indiana Jones? What are the odds of that? They say that whoever you admired most when you were 11 years old is who you grew up to become, in Indiana Jones.
Go look at my website. I mean, I travel around the world, I’m interested in archaeology, and I’m in the bush with the animals all the time. There’s no way, I forgot his name, but I’ll do it right then.
Why? Because it breaks the story and makes it look like it’s fresh and coming out of my soul, it makes it and then the other thing is. Does it get the audience sitting on the edge of their chair going? We better pay attention because he sure isn’t right. It’s it.
It brings them in and the other thing that it does-and please hear me about this, because some of you have one of the greatest fears of speaking, and that is that you might one day be on stage and forget what you were going to say: who’s.
I’m afraid of that. It’s horrible that you’re standing up here and you’re going. Oh man, they’re never going to pay me now. It’s just that it’s horrible, but the good news is that the audience is paying attention. And so I will do my Indiana Jones trick every now and again to keep the audience alive and fresh, and then every now and again I will get distracted.
Something will happen and I’ll have how many of you have ever found yourself giving a presentation and your brain is talking to you back here. Yeah, every now and again, my brain will distract me and then I might forget where I was going and then I’ll go What was I going to do with that, and then the audience said, “You were going this way.”Isn’t it true? They will tell you that you never need to be afraid of it again. Don’t be afraid.
Just tell really compelling stories, and make sure they’re paying attention. Then you don’t have to worry about remembering ever again, because here’s the real funny part: in many of my trainings on speaking,
I will do that a few times, and then I’ll come to the part where I’m teaching that I do it. I’ll do it without showing them, and then I’ll go. How many times have I forgotten what I was going to say or where I was in the story, and they’ll say, “Oh, three or four times this morning,” and then I’ll say, “And then I’ll show them what I did,” and then I’ll say, “And how many of them were real and they have no idea.”
They have no idea, and I will tell you it does happen to me. I’ll tell you it’s ten percent compared to how often I do it, but it does actually happen to me and I’m never afraid of it. “Oh crap,” I think as I stand here.
Where was I going with that and I’ll look down at a section of the audience and they’re like, “oh, oh yeah?” Where was he going with that and then they’ll tell me and I’ll go? When I say thank you to them when they come up with the answer, how do they feel when I say thank you to them? Do they feel great? So you don’t have to worry about that.
You engage the audience when you tell stories. If you tell stories, you will have their engagement, but then you have to use the vocal range. You have to use your voice when it’s when a speaker stands up and does that, good evening.
Ladies and gentlemen, I’m so glad that you came here for my talk today. What I’m going to do is attempt to kill you through boredom. I’m going to use this one vocal tone the entire time, which some of you currently find pleasant, but within a short time you will stop hearing my words at all. Who has seen that speaker?
We all have, and now here’s the good news for you: how many of you think it would be really cool to become a speaker? How many of you would like to do that? Here’s the good news. How many of you have all seen that speaker? You’ve all seen them think about this.
If you’ve seen that speaker, that speaker is making money as a speaker. I’m not kidding you, it’s like the easiest place in the world to be the best. So if you just walk out and be yourself, they’re not willing to do it, and so you can walk into any conference and instantly be one of the top speakers simply by being yourself, using your voice and telling stories that it’s been done.
It’s absolutely incredible. I just received this incredible.Lucas is a young man who discovered me on YouTube and ended up signing up for and participating in our wildfit program.never met him before and he did our wildtip program, but then he got more interested in my stuff and it turned out.
I was doing my speaking academy programme in Calgary, and so he signed up for it. He’s like 23 or 24 years old. This is pretty proactive behaviour for a 23-year old and he signed up for it and he showed up and he was so quiet and so reserved and then, at one point, he got up to introduce himself and he told this whole story that none of us knew. My team didn’t know it.
None of us knew it. He says he found Eric on YouTube. I signed up for a wildfit. I’ve lost 35 to 40 pounds and I’ve given up alcohol and drugs. I’ve completely turned my life around because of WildFit, and so I knew I had to come out to this programme and learn about speaking and stuff.
So I got another video from him. I got it just yesterday. Actually, no, I got it this morning. I watched it. This morning he has, since doing the speaking academy, gone out and spoken in two speech contests, like in these big contests for speaking, and he finished in one third place and he finished in the other one in first place.
He had never done public speaking before coming into the program. He is so grateful for his ability to communicate, but here’s the kicker: those winning prizes were things that all that was for him was empirical evidence.
What really blew him away is that now, when he has to talk to the adults in his life, he’s able to communicate with them effectively. When he has to talk to the police, if somebody pulls him over for speeding or whatever, he’s able to talk to them effectively. He said it’s given him this ability to communicate and it’s fantastic.
It changes everything, do you know? I was driving along in Tanzania and had just finished. I used to run these leadership programmes where I would take people up Kilimanjaro to teach them leadership. Skills and state management skills and all this kind of stuff, and after the Kilimanjaro trip, we went to Zanzibar and a few of the clients came with us.
My mom was meeting us there because my mom does a lot of work in Africa and in Tanzania specifically, and my wife was there, so we’re in the car and I’m driving and I’m driving along and I’m not wearing a shirt because it’s Africa.
Okay, it’s very hot and I’m not wearing a shirt, and I come around the corner and there’s a policeman there with his car and he waves me down and says, “Excuse me, can I see your driver’s licence please,” so I show my driver’s licence and he In Tanzania, it’s against the law to drive a car.
Without your shirt, I’ve been to Tanzania several times: I’ve climbed Kilimanjaro seven times, and I’ve been to that country to not climb the mountain. I’ve been there. It is not illegal to drive without your shirt on, okay, but I know what’s going on. I go, “I don’t think it’s illegal to drive without your shirt on here,” and he goes, “Yes.”
It is. And I said, “Well, at this point in my head, I’m like, “No, it’s not a Muslim country.” Zanzibar is a Muslim area within a larger country that has a non-denominational approach to language and religion.
So no, I chose not to say that to him, and he said, “Well, you’re going to have to pay a fine,” and I said, “Fine, I’m okay with that, and I’m not going to pay a bribe.” That’s what he wants. He wants a bribe, and I won’t do that.
I’m not going to pay him a bribe, so he goes well. You’ll have to come with me, and it turns out that I’m right beside the police station, so we walk over to the police station. Now many of you will know-or some of you might not-that Tanzania used to be Tanganyika and it used to be under German control and think about when it was under German control, right like back in those days, you know, doberman, pinschers, and that kind of stuff-and so this building was clearly built back then, you could just see it had that gestapo look about it and I walk into this gestapo building and he takes me into a little room and it’s a gestapo room.
I walk into the room; it’s concrete, and I sit in the chair. There’s a desk, and there’s a guy behind the desk who is wearing a military style uniform, like he has ribbons and medals. I’m not kidding you, and this is all, by the way, designed to intimidate me.
I sit down, and, as I sit down in the chair, I realise that the lamp over here is aimed exactly at where my head is in the chair, still left over from when the gestapo was there. If I listen really carefully to the walls, I can hear that we have the face of getting the answers from you right now.
You know, and this is all by design to freak me out, but I just unfreaked out, so I’m just sitting there. I just made that up, so I’m sitting there having this, you know, conversation with him, and it goes well.
You know, you should be respectful and wear your shirt and blah blah. Well, yeah. I guess so, but I don’t really think it’s illegal. So I challenge you to write me a ticket and show me how it’s illegal and he’s like
Well, we might maybe be able to avoid the whole ticket thing and I’ll go. I think we should avoid the whole ticket thing and hope he goes well. Maybe you could make it worth my while to avoid the ticket thing, and I said, “Uh, no, write me a ticket,” and so we have this little banter in conversation and outside in the car.
My mom is in the car with a couple of my clients and my wife and one of the clients goes and they’re freaking out, because you know what, if you haven’t travelled a lot and and the guy you’re travelling with just gets hauled away by the police in a military uniform, you know you’ve watched CNN, you know what’s coming up, you know something bad, and so they turn to my wife and my mom and they go, “Mrs. Edmuts,” which she hates because, like she changed her name back after the divorce again, “Eric” and she said she’s in the passenger seat of the car and she goes nope.”
I’m worried about the cops, and true to form, about four minutes later, I walk out with both cops with me. The one cop comes up and opens the door. For me, He opens the door for me, I get in, he closes the door, and then he hands me a hand-drawn map that he’s made to get me to the spice market.
No fine, no bribe because I was comfortable communicating. Being comfortable communicating is your right. It is your right, and so one of the ways that you become comfortable with it is by recognising that you’re already comfortable with it.
You are, you just forget every now and again. Here’s one of the ways you remind yourself: it’s called alcohol, isn’t it? I mean, I’ll tell you, I’m not a super big fan of alcohol myself. I haven’t had alcohol since I was 21 years old.
I have no judgement about people having alcohol. In fact, some of my friends are much better people after one drink. You know, they’re just more fun, but the fact is that what happens when we drink alcohol.
Our inhibitions are reduced somewhat, and-and I remember seeing this commercial. It was actually a radio commercial. So I didn’t see it. When I heard it, it was a radio commercial in Canada, and what they did was they had the sounds of a party full of eight-year-olds, and then they had a ten-year-old party, and you could hear the eight-year-olds, ten-year-olds,
You know, partying and doing their thing and then a sound with adults having a party as well, and you can hear the difference-it’s a big difference. Then they said now. Here are the eight-year-olds after the cake and the sugar and the ice cream. Where the eight-year-olds are different completely. It went like nuclear blah, blah, and you’re yelling, and then you can hear it.
It was just incredible, they said, and now here’s the party with the adults after four bottles of wine have been consumed by them, and what you could not tell the difference between was the children and the adults, the children on the sugar and the adults on the alcohol, you couldn’t tell the difference between the sounds.
The pitch was slightly different, but everything else was the same. Now, what’s happening is that when we drink alcohol, it’s like, it gives us permission to be a little louder than we normally are, or a little quieter than we normally are, or a little bit more vocal and use bigger hands.
Is it true? So what I’m saying to you is that you are already a good communicator, but sometimes we need a rule or a mechanism or a chemical to help us get that out, and so what I want to suggest to you is that it doesn’t have to be that way and and you can watch this like at our workshops-you’ll see me-do this. I’ll have somebody up on stage and they’ll be delivering like an adult.
I would like to tell you a story about the time that I went to Disneyland and they. I just stop talking like that, and I just stop for a minute. Tell the story like the audience is full of 12-year-olds. What do they do on the stage before they go? I’d like to tell you a story about the time I went there.
They know what to do. They know what to do. They start using their full vocal range, and so I want to share with you what that looks like there. There are some different communication frequencies in our population, so there are some people that are largely more visual in the way they communicate. They’re largely more visual.
So what does this mean? It means that they think in pictures, and a picture is worth a thousand words. So they stop. They talk quite quickly because they have to get all the pictures out, and since they are so visual, people tend to talk really quickly and loudly, and they speak like this.
There are some speakers that are quite well known for being very visual. Anybody have any names? You know, if you want to create massive action in your life, you have to make a decision, and then once you’ve made the decision, you have to take action, and once you’ve taken action, you’ve got to check the results. If you’re not getting the results, you want to change your approach.
There are other speakers that are more auditory. They have a more steady tone. They talk with a predictable cadence. They speak in a way that is quite pleasant to listen to for a short period of time, but is also somewhat hypnotic.
They use words like sounds. Listen to me. I’d like to share with you that they have this kind of different energy about them. Then you’ve got another group of people that are a lot more kinesthetic in their delivery or feel centered, and they talk really quietly and use long pauses.
They give you time to process the things they’ve said. They use words like “feeling,” “warmth,” and “connection.” Those are the visual people. It’s driving them crazy. So the fact is that all of those ranges-and if you really look back at everything that I’ve done so far today, I’ve used all of them.
I’ve used all of them and yet most speakers will come out and they will deliver their talk right here. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen and fellow toastmasters. I’m going to continue to speak like this for another hour and a half, and as I continue to speak like this, I’d like you to know that the cabin is deep pressure depressurized. In the event that the cabin depressurizes, oxygen masks will drop from the ceiling.
Ah, so these people are louder and faster. These people have more cadence, more predictability, better pronunciation. These people have soft long pauses. These people use words like “vision,” “destiny, “see it done.” These people are crazy; they say things like “can’t.”
You understand what I mean: you’re not a cartoon, and these people here use words like “listen” and “click.”For me, I like the sound of that, that resonates, and then when these people talk about it’s in their gut, I feel really warm.
Is it true, but here’s the good news: your audience includes all of those people, not just 30% of them.30. 30. It’s not like that. That’s the way it’s taught very often. If you’ve studied neurolinguistic programming or psychology, they’ll often teach that there are some people that are like this, and there are some people.
No, don’t do that. It’s a thermostat, it’s a thermostatic range. So there’s some people that are here and here and here and here and here and all the way up-your whole audience is made up of these people, and I learned this because I’ll tell you it’s not just useful on stage, it’s useful in your entire life.
The first time I learned it, I was 22 years old and I was in another category just slightly above this one called global thermonuclear visual. It made Tony Robbins look very quiet. I was so fast and so excited about everything, and I was always basically
I was like this: I was terrified to be on stage, but with my friends I was nuclear visual, and then I went off and I learned this stuff, and I was in sales and I was on telesales, and I would pick up the phone and I’d call people and go hi.
This is Eric. I’m going to sell you some stuff today and-and I did very well-I had the highest call levels in our company. I had the highest closing average in our company. Then one day, I learned this stuff and I sat down at my desk and I was ready to make more calls than I’ve ever made before. The average sales person in our company was making 35 calls a day.
I was making 50 a day, which was making the most money for me, but I had made a commitment to get to 75 a day. Now I was not going to have a moment of peace. I was going to make calls every second and I went down and I went to make my first call.
I picked up the phone and there’s Marilyn and I’m going, “Oh damn it.” I don’t want her to be the first call. Today a woman never takes my call, never returns my call, but we didn’t come here for this to be easy. Did any of you come into this life for it to be easy? Because I just want to tell you that sometimes you want it to be easier, but if video games were any easier, people would stop playing them. If books were any easier, you wouldn’t read them. And I just want to tell you that the next time your life’s a little difficult,
You should rejoice in that because you came here for that. Didn’t you? I’ll prove it to you. How many have ever had that breakup? You know the one! The really soul-destroying breakup who’s had the soul-destroying, crying-awful breakup.
What kind of music did you listen to? Okay, you came here because it’s delicious, even the pain is delicious. That’s why we listen to that. So glad you made it. I will just sit here and cry myself to sleep.
We like it. Okay, What was I getting at, Maryland, Maryland?I actually forgot about that time. And so I pick up the phone and I call Maryland. I’m going to break through. I’m going to get through my I think, I’m throwing because millennials back then had to press buttons and before that, we actually had to dial You, you might not know this when we talk about dialing a phone number. It’s because we used to have to dial anyway, so I press the buttons and then Marilyn does not answer the phone because she never does, but her voicemail comes on hi.
This is Marilyn and, uh, I’m not here to take your call, but if you feel like it, you can leave a message. You know, after the beep, I’m going to beep, hey Marilyn. This is it. That’s not what I learned, and I deleted the message.
Hi, I’m Vanessa from SpeakEnglishWithVanessa.com. Do you have a fear of public speaking? Let me help you. Have you ever needed to give a speech in your native language? How about in English? A very nonprofessional study I did of my friends shows that 99% of people have a fear of giving a speech in public. If you are part of that 0.01%, you can go ahead and leave. But oh, okay, I see everyone is still there, all right. Today I’d like to give you some more tools in your public speaking toolbox to help you feel more comfortable and confident when you give a presentation or when you speak in public.
To be a confident public speaker, you need to bring your A game. When you bring your A game, that means that you are bringing the best part of yourself forward. You are doing your best. So let’s talk about three skills that you need.
In order to bring your A game, you need to bring your body game, your mental game, and your preparation game. To help you bring your A game, I am going to give you a little presentation. This is going to be public speaking practice for me, but it’s also a presentation about the way you can best bring your A game.
Are you ready? Let’s go. Let’s start by talking about your body game. When you give a presentation, how are your shoulders? Are they hunched forward or back? Do you feel like you’re standing up tall? How about your spine? Is it leaning over or do you feel like you’re reaching high to the sky? One of the most popular TED Talks on YouTube is by a lady called Amy Cuddy.
And she was talking about how your posture affects how other people see you. But it’s also how you see yourself. So when you are giving a presentation like this, or even if you stand like this, you feel smaller and less important.
If you stand strong, other people will feel that too. But most importantly, you will feel like that. So that’s why we’re talking about your body game first so that you can prepare your body with good posture, which will also affect your mind.
When you walk into a conference room to give a speech, are you walking like this, kind of hunched over and not sure of yourself, trying to feel a little bit smaller? Or are you standing straight and tall and confident? Even if you don’t feel like it, it’s good to have a posture like that.
You don’t have to walk in like some kind of overconfident gorilla, being a little bit crazy. But being confident in your posture, even a little bit, will make a big difference. The next part is your mental game.
So we’ve already talked about your body game, making sure that your body and your posture are the best they can be. But what about what’s going on inside your head? Well, when you are prepared and ready and thinking positively about your presentation, it’s already the best start.
I want you to focus your mind on being positive. This is easier for some people than for other people. Some people are naturally more positive and some people are naturally more negative about things in their lives.
So I have one big tip that will help you to be a little bit more positive. When you’re giving a presentation, whether it’s in front of a big crowd of people, just a couple of people, or just a business presentation, try to focus on how your presentation will help other people.
When you focus on helping other people and meeting their needs, you’re less likely to be stressed about it yourself. So I challenge you to think about how this marketing presentation will affect the people I’m talking with. If you think, “Okay, my presentation will help them to get a better marketing plan and will sell more,” then you’re already feeling a little bit more positive.
This is for those of you who struggle with negative self-talk. the mental game section is really tough for you. I challenge you every morning, especially right before you’re about to give a presentation, to create some kind of short and easy positive sentence.
Sometimes we call that an affirmation, and that means that you’re thinking about something that will positively affect your mind, and usually that’s how your presentation will affect other people. So maybe in the morning when you wake up, two days before your presentation, you say, “My marketing presentation will help us sell more products.
This is super simple and it’s not really fancy. But when you say that to yourself with a deep breath, “My marketing presentation will help us sell more products.” It’s so simple, hopefully, it’s true.
You’re focusing on the positive things—the impact that your presentation will have instead of the mistakes that you’ll make and all of those things that make us feel really nervous. The third game is the preparation game.
Now, this is the one that a lot of us focus on the most. Writing the speech, making sure we have the best pictures on our PowerPoint, all of that. But do you know what? Sometimes we overlook actually saying the speech out loud and preparing it verbally.
If English is your native language, it’s usually recommended that you practice your speech three times. But if English is not your native language, imagine if you are watching this, it’s probably not.
It is best to do it more than three times. Three times is not enough. This is my recommendation. Practice your speech twice, paying special attention to your intonation and the way you say it. Make sure that you have all the words exactly the way that you’d like them, and then, on the third try, I challenge you to record yourself.
You could just record your voice. That’s a good first step, but because we’ve already talked about how your body and your mental game are also really important, I challenge you to record yourself with your phone.
You can just set it up. It could be really simple if you just practice the speech in front of the camera. And then go back and watch that as if you were the audience as if you were your coworkers sitting and watching your presentation.
Or if you’re giving a speech in front of a big group of people, imagine that you’re the audience. What do you think of the audience? Are you engaging and looking at them? Are you feeling really nervous? And you can see, “Oh, I’m stuttering a lot. I’m shaking a lot.
Try to assess your body and your words as if you were the audience. After you’ve recorded yourself, I want you to practise it two more times. This is going to help you to just level up your skills. You’ve already kind of assessed or critiqued yourself.
So those two other times should be way better than the first two times that you did it. What do you think a professional athlete does on the day of their big game? Do you think that they watch some TV and kind of just sit around? No, they do not distract themselves from their objective, which is to win that game.
So this is what I want you to do on the day that you have a presentation. Let’s say you have a presentation at 3:00 PM. When you go to work, focus on that presentation, review it, and do everything that you can for that presentation.
I want to give you a quick example of this guy, Ryan Suter. He’s a hockey player. He has a very strict game-day routine, and I think it’s a good way to show that professional athletes are not distracted on the day of their big game because they want to fulfill their potential.
They want to do the best that they can. So you can also kind of imitate his style. On the day of his big game, he goes to the skating rink, skates a little bit, talks with his coaches, and they have a meeting with the team.
Then when his team goes out to lunch, he orders the same thing. You don’t need to do that; it’s a little extreme. But he orders the same thing every time. And then, after that, he takes a quick nap, goes back to the rink, talks with his coworkers or his teammates, talks with the coaches, and gets a chance to kind of mentally prepare for the game.
Then they go on the ice, they practice, and they have the game. Did he do anything that day that wasn’t related to hockey? Not really, except for eating and taking a nap, which are kind of necessary for life. So I want you to focus on nothing else that day if you have a big presentation and you especially feel really nervous about it.
Try to do everything that you can possibly do for that speech on the date to get your mind ready, to prepare yourself. So on the day of your big presentation, I want you to focus. Don’t distract yourself. Don’t have friends over for lunch and talk about other things.
Focus on your presentation. Visualize it going well. Everyone’s responding positively; you’re having a great time; they’re understanding; they’re learning a lot, and your speech is helping them to achieve their goals.
So in conclusion, to bring your A game to your presentation, you need to bring your body game, great posture, your mental game, positive thoughts, and your preparation game, active practice. So thank you so much for this quick presentation.
Thank you for learning with me. I hope that your presentation skills will improve from here. How did you enjoy that presentation? My presentation skills are not perfect. My speaking style is not perfect, but I want to come across as a professional.
Someone who knows a lot more about public speaking than me. So if you would like to dig deeper into this topic of having confidence when you give a speech in public, I invite you to join me in my course, The Fearless Fluency Club.
This month you’re going to meet Nathan, who’s one of the organizers of a local group called Toastmasters. Toastmasters is a nonprofit international organization that helps anyone in the community who wants to participate learn to speak better and more confidently in front of others.
I also visited Nathan’s Toastmaster Meeting here in my city. So if you join The Fearless Fluency Club this month, you’ll get access to my conversation with Nathan about public speaking skills, some of the positive things he’s learned, and some of the negative things he’s learned.
And you’ll also get access to a Toastmasters meeting. I went to this meeting and I recorded it, so you can kind of get a sneak preview of what a Toastmasters’ meeting is like. It was actually a lot of fun.
So if you would like to learn more about public speaking, feel free to join me in The Fearless Fluency Club. And make sure that you write the word “new” in the coupon code section, so that you can get the first 30 days of the course for only $5.
The regular price is $35 per month. But if you write the word “new,” you’ll get it for just $5 for the first month. Now I have a question for you. Have you ever given a speech in English? Have you ever given a speech in your own language? Let me know in the comments below.
You’ll learn what you need to do to speak confidently and fluently.
Public speaking is a skill useful in school, at work, or if we want to convince a group of people. Investor Warren Buffett called it the most important skill. We can learn to advance in a career. Here is a short guide to mastering the most powerful weapon.
If we want to bring change to the world, Take one issue. You really care about it. When you study it, you are intrinsically motivated to learn it deeper and put in the extra effort. Later, it gives you passion.
You need to inspire your audience. When we speak in public, passion is probably our most powerful force. It shines through our eyes and straight into the hearts of the audience. One simple message: every issue has many angles from which we can highlight them.
But the audience has a limited attention span and many other issues in life. So if we say too much, they will lose interest. To make a message Stick Chris Anderson recommends boiling it down to one idea that is worth spreading.
A speech is good. If it plants one creative seed in the heads of the audience, that seed can then grow into a sprout that can change lives and be shared with others. structure. Over 2000 years ago, The Greek philosopher, Aristotle, established three simple rules for good speech.
Establish credibility. Ethos Give good arguments, logos, and convey emotions. Pathos, But you can also tell a personal story or present a problem and then offer a solution. GET HELP. A good method is to use note cards.
You can use one card per argument and keep the deck in your hands, alternating them. As you speak, Politicians often read their speeches from a teleprompter. Professionals often sell their ideas with the help of slides. When you have a product to show, demonstrate it.
If you try to memorize your speech and you have one hour, spend 20 minutes studying and 40 minutes practicing to recite it. That’s usually the best ratio. They speak their language. It doesn’t matter what we say; it matters what they hear.
According to Nerdwriter, Donald Trump speaks in a way that any fourth-grader can understand. Him. Guy Kawasaki recommends using what he calls “salient points.” People don’t want to know how large a battery is.
They want to know how long they can use it. When preparing, ask yourself, how does my issue matter to this particular audience? PRACTISE Before you present, practice your delivery. It’s important that we stand with arms raised, palms open, facing out.
We should speak loud and clear and make eye contact with our audience. One way to practice Try to speak in front of friends who don’t know the topic. Then you will see if they get your point. Alternatively, you can also record and watch yourself on video.
Check your stage. How big is the room? How many people will listen? Will you need a microphone? Professionals will want to walk onto the stage diagonally from the left-back. Apparently, it’s the most dynamic way to make an entrance.
Also, always have a glass of water. It’s next to you, so you can take a sip whenever you’re losing it. Don’t be afraid. Everybody can experience speech anxiety, also known as glossophobia. It’s natural and sometimes actually helps us achieve excellence.
Mahatma Gandhi called it “the awful strain of public speaking“. For years, It prevented him from speaking up, even at friendly dinner parties. But in 1942, Gandhi convinced 60,000 people with his “Quit India Speech” to join a peaceful revolt against British colonialism.
..He spoke up. The people followed his words, and the British left, open for sympathy. When you enter the limelight, wait until you have everyone’s full attention. Then play to win. Sympathy is also called capitation benevolent.
..One way to do that is to excuse yourself. You can say, “you are a smart audience, so I don’t really know what I can still tell you.” Obama opened his 2008 speech in Berlin with the words “I have to admit that I have developed a special place in my heart for the German people.” And they loved it.
Build Curiosity Once they like you, grab their attention by building curiosity. Provide a fact. Statistics or a study Or start in the middle of a story with “On my fifth birthday, my father started crying.”
It was the day he lost his job.”Dananjaya Hettiarachchi, a champion of public speaking, asked,” raise your hand. If you have an emotional mother, “and everyone did,” But you can also do something funny or open with a crazy stunt.
Deliveries Your message Now make your arguments, share those personal stories, and deliver metaphors that create images in the minds of your audience. If you forget what you wanted to say, don’t worry.
, andNobody understands what you were trying to say. In 1963, Martin Luther King gave a speech in Washington. In the middle of it, he stopped reading from the script and started to improvise. He delivered one of the greatest speeches of the twentieth century, “I have a dream.” CLOSE After you are done, summarise your arguments or repeat the core message.
But you can also leave them with a quote: “Share your dream of a new future or close.” Your speech, like our videos, should end with a specific call to action. Here it comes. Write a speech about an important issue such as education.
Open with sympathy, build curiosity, and then bring in your convincing argument. In the end, it closed cleverly. Limit your speech to 200 words and post it in the comments below. If you want to learn to speak in public, you should also practice your speech.
For example, the next 5 days. 15 minutes each. Ideally, record yourself on your phone so you can track your progress and learn from your mistakes. Upload. The last try of each day on Youtube and share the link in the comments.
Then we can see how you progressed and applaud you for trying, failing, and doing it.
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