Five Tips for Overcoming Public Speaking Nerves – Public-Speaking
Five Tips for Overcoming Public Speaking Nerves
Your mouth is dry, heart palpitating, and knees knocking. You go into panic, facing a dreaded public speaking assignment.It doesn't have to be so.These five tips will give you some strategies to overcome those symptoms and have the butterflies flying in formation.1. Deep breathing will pull in oxygen. Adrenalin, secreted to help you deal with the fear brought on by little doubts, causes breaths to become shallow, or causes you to hold your breath. Deep breathing will help your brain work to capacity, and forcing the slower pace will quell the panic.2. Bluff. Stand tall, with shoulders back and chest out. Smile. Even though you don't feel happy or confident, do it anyway. You will look confident and your body will fool your brain into thinking it is confident. This really works!!
Bluff ? body and smile3. Keep you mouth and throat hydrated. Plan to keep a drink on hand while you are speaking., though this sounds impossible. Visualising how you will use it if you need it, and calling up the audacity to do such a thing will carry across to your attitude as you take your place to speak, placing your glass just where you need it to be.4. Adrenalin sends the blood rushing to the fight/flight centres of your brain at the base of the skull. Place your hand on your forehead and press gently on the bony points. This will bring the blood to the parts of the brain that need it to present your speech best.5. Know you are prepared. Obviously this depends on actually being prepared, so take every opportunity in the days leading up to the speech to prepare your material. Be familiar with the structure of the presentation, and the ideas to use. Memorise the most important parts, and the parts you are frightened of forgetting. I would memorise the opening of the speech and in the moments before presenting it, would reassure myself that I knew that part, and that would lead on to the rest. It worked!!If you want to develop your speaking confidence, visit an ITC club. You will have the chance to find the strategies that work for you and perfect them. ITC offers a supportive environment and constructive evaluation for you to develop your communication skills.This article was written by Bronwyn Ritchie for Communicators Logan City, an ITC Club. All rights reserved. You are welcome to reproduce it accompanied by the following information: ITC is an international organisation offering training in communication, leadership and organisation skills. International Training in Communication provides opportunities for personal growth that show immediate results. The ITC website is at http://www.itcintl.com/
The Porch Light* Method to Speaking Confidence – Public-Speaking
The Porch Light* Method to Speaking Confidence
You know the feeling. Looking out at a sea of faces, you notice a few scowls, frowns, even droopy eyelids on some of your audience members. What are they thinking? Do they disagree with your points? Are they in a bad mood? Do they just not like YOU? You bend over backwards to win them over. You smile, establish eye contact. But the longer you speak the more hopeless you feel as you see your desperate attempts to please fall flat. At the end, feeling discouraged and anxious, you limp away.It doesn't have to be that way. By using a simple image--the porch light--you can give the same talk with such enthusiasm that scowls won't bother you. In fact, you may even be able to turn those frowns upside down!Remember going trick-or-treating as a child? You would carefully examine all the houses to determine which ones would yield the good "loot." Most likely, the brightly lit porches with elaborate Halloween decorations would have friendly, generous, confection-laden people behind the door. Also, you most likely skipped the houses with dark, unswept porches for their lack of promise.Imagine the faces of your audience members as porch lights. Some will be brightly "lit" with smiles and encouraging looks; others may appear uninviting. The trick is to speak into the spirit of the bright porch lights. Let in support from those who are encouraging you. Speak into the generosity of those porches that are lit, rather than into the perceived criticism of the uninviting ones.Does that mean you ignore the unlit porches? No. Instead of speaking from a panicky need to win them over, addresss the frowning faces with the same energy that you project toward the friendly faces. Easier said than done? Perhaps, but you can make it easier if you remember the following:1. Negative expressions probably have nothing to do with you. People frown when they have a stomachache; they scowl when they're reliving a fight with their spouses; they drop off when they spent the night rocking a sick baby. Nine times out of ten, they had turned off their porch lights long before you walked in the room.2. Usually far more porch lights are ON than off. Most people in your audience want you to succeed. But you can get so focused on forcing the negative ones to like you that you don't let in the support of those who already do! It's a shame when warm, supportive energy goes unused. Besides, if you speak appreciatively into the positive energy of the "on" porch lights, the "off" porch lights see the magic that's happening between you and your supporters. That's often all it takes to turn on lights all over the room.3. Just because a person's porch light is off, it doesn't mean nobody's home. The person might just be concerned, anxious, or distracted. With a little more information or reassurance, that listener's porch light might come on more brightly than all the others.The next time you speak, remember the wisdom of your trick-or-treating days: Don't spend a lot of time on dark, uninviting porches. Instead, enjoy the warm light of the inviting ones. That's where you'll find the best treats. And, who knows? The grumpy neighbors peeking out from their dark windows may see your joy and decide to turn on their porch lights after all.* Based on an image mentioned in SPEAKING CIRCLES(R) Facilitator Training. The SPEAKING CIRCLE(R) method is a revolutionary new approach to increasing speaking confidence and charisma. To learn more, visit www.speakingcircles.com.About The AuthorMelissa Lewis turns traditional thinking about public speaking upside down to give people more comfort, confidence, and charisma in front of groups. She is a certified facilitator of SPEAKING CIRCLES(R), president-elect of the National Speakers Association Kansas City Chapter, and author of the soon-to-be-released book, Upside Down Speaking. For more information, call (913) 341-1241 or visit www.upsidedownspeaking.com.Melissa@upsidedownspeaking.com
Public Speaking Tips – Public-Speaking
Public Speaking Tips
1. No speech is ever perfect. Perfectionism creates more fear. Do your best and leave it at that.2. Forget about what you forgot to say. Trust that the audience heard what was needed.3. Someone has said that you should put ten hours of practice into every one hour presentation. You can, but it's over kill. Practice until you feel like you have 80%, let the other 20% take care of itself. If you know your stuff, you may not need any practice.4. Make it clear. No rambling. No tangents. The audience should leave knowing your position whether they agree with it or not.5. Be conversational. No sterile speech patterns. No monotone. Speak like you would to a friend over a cup of coffee.6. Toss out ego. It's not about you or your acceptance; it's about giving the audience value they can grow from. Too many speakers have their esteem wrapped up in being liked.7. Stop playing "What if..." What if I freeze? What if I forget?8. Be you. Chances are high that your friends consider you warm and humorous. No one is against a speaker like that.9. Use props if they clarify a point. In one of my presentations I have 2 jars on stage. One filled with money. One filled with trash. I get an audience member to crack the trash jar with a hammer. Then we talk about the crap they fill their lives with and the result of that. Then another person cracks the money jar. We talk about how to fill our lives with wealth. Close: "What's in your jar? Nothing you haven't placed there yourself."10. Get to know the audience. Meet and greet before and after. Get as close to the crowd as possible when speaking. Forget the the podium.11. Use as few notes as possible. I like a single sticky sheet with my points on it.12. Your life provides your illustrations. Every experience holds the possibility of an example or truth others can learn from.13. Don't tell jokes. First, most are not funny. Second, most of the people have heard the lame things. Third, a story of something foolish you did as a child is funnier than any joke on the planet.14. You don't change lives. People have to take your words and apply them in order for change to result. You are responsible to them, not for them.15. You become what you think about. Think scared, you'll be scared. Think passionate, you'll be passionate. Trace your feelings and you'll discover they came from thoughts.16. Your best for this moment is the best you can do. Don't compare yourself to famous speakers. You can learn, grow, and become better, and you should. However, don't allow what you are not at this moment to hide the greatness of who you ARE at this moment.17. Fear is part of speaking. Even the best speakers feel some slight butterflies from excitement. Fear is not unusual; it's typical. Don't be surprised by its presence.18. You cannot get better if you do not speak regularly. Join a club like Toastmasters to get experience and exposure. There's a crazy mindset that runs through the brains of some speakers. They think that they can get in front of an audience and be fabulous the first time. Not gonna happen. No one plays an instrument without practice. The same is true with speaking.19. Impromptu and spontaneous speaking only work when you understand the communication rules and know how to break them. Many top speakers "ad lib" 80% or more of their messages. That's only possible because they KNOW the exact response their words will bring. Their material may be new, but it's not an experiment. They know how people will react to their words before they ever use them. Do you have audience response ESP? Do you know if the audience will laugh, cry, or clap BEFORE the words come out of your mouth?20. If you can't summarize the intended result of your speech in one sentence, then you're not clear. There should be no doubt about the value and intention of your presentation.21. Sometimes it's your job to offend. I have an upcoming speech that is going to highly bother the attendees, but the CEO will love it. The audience will get what they need, not what they want. That's the way is has to go sometimes.22. Don't sacrifice clarity for cuteness. If you're amazed at the cleverness of your speech, then chances are better than great that your audience won't be.23. Outlining your speech should never take more than hour. If it does, then you're working too hard on something that almost everyone will forget. Jot down your points. Subtitle some illustrations. Then practice. Speaking is much easier than people make it out to be.24. Self-effacing humor works miracles. Last Friday I walked into our church's baptismal pool by accident. Got soaked from the chest down. Good news: My cell phone was saved. Bad news: It went to meet its maker a few minutes later. I've gotten phone calls galore from friends teasing me. I've already jotted down the details along with several ways I can use this embarrassing tale as an illustration. If you're not willing to look dumb, then you're not too smart.25. Don't take yourself too seriously. First, other people can recognize it, and it will turn them off. Second, your own body will recognize it and turn you off.26. Words will never become ineffective. We live in a world of advanced technology. Multi-media abounds. But NOTHING will ever replace an individual with a bold message, the passion to share it, and an audience wanting to change.Paul Evans is the executive creator of Instant Speaking Success. http://www.instantspeakingsuccess.com Over 24,000 public speakers receive his weekly speaking letter. Sign up is free. Paul's public speaking course has help thousands of speakers overcome fear and deliver with power and passion. http://www.greatpublicspeaking.com