Month: April 2020

From personal experience, here are a few aspects that contributed to my fear of public speaking:

• I didn’t want to sound like an idiot in front of other people.

• I convinced myself that I would forget everything I’d have to say once I got in front of my audience.

Today I love speaking in front of people, and it doesn’t matter the size of the crowd. Let me share with you a few tips I’ve learnt to help you conquer your fear of public speaking.

Preparation of TalkBenjamin Franklin said, “Failure to prepare is preparing to fail”. When giving a “talk” (that’s how I like to refer to speeches of any kind) I prepare well in advanced for it. Even if you do not have the luxury of time there is a framework you can use to prepare your talk. Just like writing an essay, build an outline of your talk using the titles of Introduction, Main Body, and Conclusion. “Tell ‘em what you’re gonna say, say it, and tell ‘em what you said”, as the old adage goes, it’s just that simple. In the Dale Carnegie course “Breakthrough to Success” I learnt to use plain language that everyone can understand. Many people feel the need to include big words or technical jargon to make their talk more impressive, but it doesn’t. I was also encouraged to never write out my whole talk. Instead I remembered three or four key points that my talk was built around. This took a lot of the pressure off of me as I didn’t have to memorize every word and every line.

Each point was illustrated with a story that acted as an anchor in the audience’s mind and makes the talk extremely effective. Think about it, when you listen to someone give a “speech” to you what stood out in your mind. Aren’t memorable speeches covered with analogies, and stories that touch different emotions within us? Use the stories and analogies as bridges in your mind to connect you from one point to the next.

A key point to remember as well is no one knows every word you are going to say, so if you get stuck, draw a blank, or missed something just move on and no one will know. Don’t apologize either. Apologizing for missing something makes the situation more awkward for you and your audience.

Practice, Practice, PracticeIt is how the good become great, and a few of the greats become legendary by practicing as much as possible. Knowing your material and practicing delivering it numerous times alleviates the majority of fear built up inside. I used many opportunities while I’m alone to go over my talk. It doesn’t have to be from start to finish every time, but it helps cement the points of your talk in your head. So when I’m driving, in the shower, or at my desk and I know I’m alone I just go over my talk. As time drew closer to delivering my talk I would then start timing it. It is difficult at first, but once you persevere the timing becomes easier, and it’s almost as if you have a countdown timer in your head. A small suggestion is if it’s a fifteen-minute talk you have to give, practice to finish 30 seconds or a minute earlier. No one likes to listen to a person that rambles on, and if your audience knows you allotted time, they’ll be checking their watches.

In part two of How I Overcame My Fear of Public Speaking And How You Can Too, I will discuss finding your authentic voice and delivery style for giving your talk. For now, remember these three points: one) it’s just a talk not a speech, two) write out three or four points you want your audience to remember, anchor them with stories and analogies that also act as bridges from one point to another, and three) practice, practice, practice!!

Create a core talk that reinforces your specialty and practice it. Then, come up with a compelling title for your speech. Remember, your presentation isn’t a sales pitch; it’s a way to showcase your expertise. So, provide great, practical information that is helpful to your listeners.

Make the same speech in lengths of 30 minutes, 45 minutes and 90 minutes. This will be a talk you can use over and over again. Show confidence by using humor and letting your passion shine through!During your speech, your audience gets an opportunity to meet you without obligation and to get a feel for your personality, style, and expertise. The people who like your approach will either hire you or spread the word about your company.

Your audience is a goldmine of prospects, so don’t miss out on this opportunity to get their contact information. Be sure to pass around a sign-up sheet to collect the names of attendees. As an incentive, offer them a free special report or a subscription to your ezine for signing the sheet.

In every city, there are associations, service clubs, and support groups that are looking for speakers for their meetings. Check your telephone book and highlight some of these. You can start with smaller groups as practice.

After you feel comfortable with your speech, seek out larger groups who have members in your targeted audience. When you call, ask for the name of the person in charge of lining up speakers. Offer to speak for free and explain the ways in which your speech will benefit the group’s members. Be sure to mention the remarkable title you developed – it will help sell your presentation.

Once you begin to promote yourself as a speaker, groups will hear about you and you’ll find yourself getting requests, as well. After you begin to get more engagements and feel at ease with speaking, add more topics to promote. If a group liked your speech, you can tell them you have new material and they may ask you to return to speak again.

Develop a speaker’s sheet that you can send to groups. Create a page on your website that describes your expertise, background, and speaking style. Include testimonials if you have them. Hand out information to your audiences about you, your company, and your services. If you have information products, you can often offer these for sale for people to purchase at the event.

Public speaking is a powerful way to get new customers and leads, so be sure to incorporate it into your quiver of marketing techniques. You’ll find opportunities abound when you commit to getting yourself out there!ACTION ITEM: What idea do you want to develop into your core talk? List three potential ideas right now. Then, come up with an attention-getting title. Show them to your existing customers and ask them which one is of the most value to them. Develop the winner into a speech of different lengths.

As the old adage goes, “More people are scared of speaking in public than are afraid of dying!” If you’re one of those people, don’t worry, with these ten tips you’ll soon have them eating out of your hand, giving you a standing ovation and demanding an encore! Its true – standing up and speaking in public does get easier with practice but for everyone, there still has to a first time! Learning to overcome the fear is vital if you’re going to take your business to the next level of success. Use the following to give you the confidence you need to pick up the phone and offer your speaking services to all the appropriate groups and societies in your area… 1 Speak only on subjects which you understand. Failing to observe this golden rule will lead to you getting caught out sooner or later! And remember to show enthusiasm for your subject – if you can’t get excited about it, chances no-one else will either.

2 Establish yourself as the authority on your subject, which will give you instant credibility with your audience. Keep it brief and explain why people should listen to, and believe in, you! Do this in no more than three sentences.

3 Remember that your audience’s main thought is “What’s in this for me?” Make sure you answer this unspoken question in your introduction – and when you introduce an element of curiosity, you’ll have them sitting on the edge of their seats, desperate to find out more.

4 Never, ever start a presentation by saying that you’re nervous, or that you’ve never done this kind of thing before. You’ll just draw attention to the things you most want to hide. Indeed, your audience will start looking for evidence to back up what you say. And if the unexpected happens, and you do find yourself having to wing it on the spot, then wing it – but just don’t tell your audience. You won’t get sympathy; instead you’ll just look unprofessional.

5 Breathe! Nervousness can make you breathe shallowly – which won’t help the timbre or projection of your voice. It also helps to have a glass of water handy, should your voice dry up or should you need a little thinking time (pausing for a sip of water makes you look confident). 6 Stand when making presentations – it gives you an immediate air of authority. Actually, it’s often the fact that we’re standing while everyone else is sitting which makes us so uncomfortable when making presentations. It’s to do with eye levels – usually when we talk with people we’re at a similar eye level which helps create rapport. Think about talking with a child for a moment, if you want to make them feel more comfortable, it’s usually a good idea to crouch down so that your heads are the same level. But exactly the opposite occurs when we stand to make a presentation. Just understanding this can help reduce your anxiety. 7 Use your energy – your auric field – to attract your audience. Before starting your presentation, spend a few moments – perhaps while you’re being introduced ‘mentally visualising your energy field expanding to encompass the whole room. It’s worth practicing beforehand as it’s a very powerful tool which will make your audience automatically warm to you, without understanding quite why. 8 Be aware that communicating with others is about more than your words. In fact, only 7% of your words are taken into account – the rest of your communication is understood through the tone of your voice and body language.

9 Invest in the style and colour of clothes which suit you best. Women should wake up and (non-dangly) earrings, in order to look “finished”. Open-toed shoes look less professional and men should never wear either white socks or grey shoes. Wearing a jacket implies authority and bear in mind that you should dress appropriately for the message – and for the audience. 10 Finally, remember that no-one else knows what you were going to say in your talk anyway – so don’t worry if you miss out a chunk of your speech – no-one else will be any the wiser!

© Olivia Stefanino 2008

Many people associate a panic attack and public speaking. They usually have had an anxiety-producing public speaking experience. They may test that past memory of public speaking again, but often the same anxiety reaction results. People who have to speak publicly on a frequent basis and suffer from panic attacks are always searching for a panic attack remedy.

Amber’s Story

Amber had many risk factors for panic attacks when she entered high school. Her mother had a history of anxiety as well as her older brother. Amber was successfully able to avoid a speech class until her final semester of school. In order to graduate, she was going to have to take speech.

Although she had never received a diagnosis of panic attacks or an anxiety disorder, Amber had always dreaded taking a public speaking class. Just the idea of standing up in front of a class of her peers caused Amber to feel dizzy and nauseous.

When Amber walked into her first day of class, the teacher could see how nervous she was. He came up to Amber after class and discussed her obvious discomfort with this public speaking class. Amber discussed her physical reaction to having to speak in front of her peers. She explained to her teacher how she was:

Amber’s teacher recommended that she visit with the school counselor before their next class meeting. Amber was embarrassed by her reaction and was even more anxious about having to meet with the school counselor, but she knew that she was not going to be able to graduate if she could not figure out some way to get through this class.

The school counselor was very familiar with the signs of a panic attack and especially with students feeling uncomfortable about speaking in front of their friends. To help Amber get through her next day of speech class the counselor recommended that Amber stand up in front of her family every time she wanted to talk that evening.

So Amber told her family what she was trying to do to help get over her fear of public speaking. At dinner, Amber stood up every time she asked to have an item passed to her. Before bed, Amber stood in front of her parents and brothers and did a pretend speech.

Although speaking in front of her family was a lot different than speaking in front of her peers, it did help her get through the next day of class without having a full blown panic attack. Amber was extremely uncomfortable during her speech class but was able to focus and get through the class.

As the semester continued on, Amber asked some of her friends to come to her house the night before she had a big speech due. She would then practice her speech on her close friends and family until she was able to get through it without an extreme amount of anxiety.

The technique Amber used to overcome her panic attacks is called systematic desensitization and is one of the most widely used remedies for people suffering from panic attacks.

Dry mouth, fast heart, sweaty palms, blank mind – yeah I’ve been there! It’s easy to fear public speaking. But I was never just content with overcoming fear. I wanted to be a great speaker. What I needed was a way of calming down and applying simple techniques and strategies to talk like a pro.

When I’d learned to relax (more of that later) I learned and applied the following four steps.

1 Reassure your audience – they need to know you know your stuff and you are human! 2 Hook them by being interesting and relevant. Tell them why what you are saying is relevant to them. 3 Inspire them by giving them information and ways of seeing that are new and applicable. 4 Leave them on a high by telling a story them encapsulates your central message . How do you become confident enough to apply the four steps?Here’s some tips some of which are practical some of which are to do with the way you think about your public presentations and also how you can start to change the way you feel about them.

Tip OneBreath your way to calm. When you breath out you relax that’s why people sigh when they’re stressed.

Breathing in without breathing out causes hyperventilation and worsens anxiety. Just before your speech take five minutes breathing in to the count of seven and out to the count of eleven (quick count-not seconds!). On the out breath hold it a second before breathing in again. This will produce quick and lasting calm. Remember extending the out breath calms you down.

Tip TwoYou have a responsibility as the presenter but relax you don’t carry all the responsibility. Presenting is a team effort. Audiences are responsible for politeness, extending their attention and attempting to learn. It’s not all you-it’s a meeting of two halves. Never mind how they judge you. How do you judge them?Tip ThreeUse metaphor and stories. We all experience life metaphorically. The most technical logical person spends at least two hours a night dreaming! Talk detail if necessary but present patterns with metaphors. Folk from 4 to 104 love stories. Use em.

Tip fourCaptivate attention by using words that evoke all the senses. Describe how things look, sound, feel, smell and taste. Paint pictures and sensations in their minds with your words.

Tip FiveVary your voice tonality and speed of delivery. Keep them alert and engaged. Convey energy when need be and slow down when you need to ‘draw them in close.’ You are the conductor to their orchestra. And pepper your talk with humour. Your willingness to be funny shows personal confidence and confidence is contagious.

Tip SixTell them what they are going to get. What they are currently getting and then what they have got from you. Sell your sizzle!Tip SevenWatch and learn from other great speakers until compelling, relaxed speaking is a part of you.

Rehearse positively. You need to rehearse how your going to feel as well as what you are going to present. Don’t think about your forthcoming presentation whilst feeling nervous as this creates an instinctive association between fear and presenting. This natural negative self-hypnosis is very common with nervous speakers.

Hypnotically rehearse your speech whilst feeling relaxed. This produces the right ‘blueprint’ in your mind. In fact when you do this enough times it actually becomes hard to be nervous!All great speakers know how to use great self-hypnotic rehearsal. Hypnosis changes attitudes and can bring emotion under control. I used hypnosis, to change my instincts around public speaking. Now I just can’t get nervous whether it’s 50 or 500 people. The world needs great communicators. Go for it!

 

”There are two types of speakers; those that are nervous and those that are liars.” Mark Twain

Most of us put public speaking at the top of our list of things to avoid. Then along comes that promotion or new opportunity, and with it, new responsibilities. Among them: communicating, powerfully and effectively in public. Before you rush to get out of that responsibility, consider what it can do for you.

This one ability–communicating ideas powerfully and effectively–can impact professional success more quickly and more absolutely than nearly any other. Become an effective communicator, and you will solidify a reputation as an effective leader. Yet many otherwise accomplished executives never learn to communicate well and take pains to avoid having to speak in public at all.

That’s a lot of wasted opportunity. You can’t expect your ideas to be considered or followed, much less admired, if they’re not communicated well.

Speaking to a group, even a small group that knows you, can be an intimidating. No one has yet died in the effort. We can all get past our fear of public speaking with practice. The important thing is to understand the power you have, that we all have, to communicate effectively. Here are some tips for powerful public speaking:

–Don’t hide behind charts, graphs and power point slides. Despite the cliche, facts don’t speak for themselves. Materials can only support your communication, not substitute for it.

–Accept the “public” part of public speaking. Speeches and presentations delivered before an audience really are about you and your ability to connect. If you’re bored, your audience will be as well. Find the passion in your work and build your presentation or speech around it.

–Put real effort into the question and answer period following your speech or presentation. For many in the audience, it’s their chance to connect with you and you to them.

–Make sure your public speech or presentation isn’t simply a recitation of the facts. Your audience could get that from you in an email. What any audience wants is your perspective. Always provide a context for the data or information you provide.

–Never go long. Any performer knows it’s best to leave them wanting more. Make sure you have something your audience can take home with them to think about.

–Don’t forget to speak ABOUT something. Your main points should be clearly stated and they’ll be back. Before long, you’ll be wondering how you ever considered public speaking something to avoid!

Above all, practice, practice, practice. Don’t run from public speaking opportunities–embrace them–and the power they have to promote your professional success.

Everyone loves to laugh, and we all know that humor can be a fantastic ice-breaker and rapport-builder. It can also, however, have us fall flat on our faces. How then to most effectively use the powerful tool that is humor to add to a speech and not take away from it? That is the question these tips aim to answer.

Make sure it makes you laugh. This should be a given, needless to say, but just in case it’s not, let it be said now, explicitly and in no uncertain terms – if it’s not funny to you, it’s not going to be funny to them.

Make it personal: The easiest and most appropriate place to find humor to use in your speeches is from your own personal experience. Rather than pulling out a joke you got out of a book, try instead to relate a funny story or anecdote from your own life. And if you think your life has no funny experiences to draw from, then that’s the funniest thing of all. Everyone’s life is chock full of hilarious happenings, we just have to know where to look and how to recognize them. For starters, look for experiences in your past that you found embarrassing at the time. What were moments of humiliation for us in the past are now, in the present, ripe fruits and valuable gems to reflect on with light-heartedness and humor.

Make sure it’s relevant: Humor is an excellent ice-breaker, yes. And it’s a great rapport-builder, indeed. But it should never be used solely for breaking the ice or building rapport. It should be relevant too, meaning it should speak directly to the subject matter of your speech. Your humor should enhance your message in some way, more than merely being humor for humor’s sake.

Try it out first: Before using a joke or funny story on your audience, try it out on a few friends or colleagues first. Make sure that other people find it funny too. And in practicing like this, you also get the opportunity to fine-tune your delivery of the humor to maximize the impact.

Keep it short and sweet: You’re not a comedian, you’re a public speaker. And nothing turns a crowd off more than a joke or a story that just goes on and on with no end in sight. Keep this critical point in mind when finding and practicing the joke or story you choose in order to infuse a bit of humor into your speech.

Make sure it’s audience appropriate: Consider your audience when considering what you tell them to make them laugh – PublicSpeakingNow.com has plenty of suggestions. Make sure it’s appropriate for the group. Not only does this mean keeping your humor clean in mixed company, but it means selecting jokes and humorous anecdotes that won’t offend those present, thereby sabotaging your entire speech.

Use a visual aid: Visual aids are a favorite elements of great speeches, whether a projection on stage or a printed handout given to each individual. When thinking about inserting humor into your speeches, then, considering incorporating it with another element of powerful and effective speeches, using humor as a visual aid. You do this by showing a slide or a video of a cartoon or comic strip, or printing one out on the handouts you intend to distribute at the speech’s close.