Posted by John Concrane on November 19, 2019 in Education
Fear of speaking in public can be a major obstacle if you want to progress your career. Here are a few public speaking tips and a recommendation if you are searching for a public speaking class. Nervousness Is Normal. Practice and Prepare! All people feel some physiological reactions like pounding hearts and trembling hands. Do not associate these feelings with the sense that you will perform poorly or make a fool of yourself. Some nerves are good. The adrenaline rush that makes you sweat also makes you more alert and ready to give your best performance. The best way to overcome anxiety is to prepare, prepare, and prepare some more. Take the time to go over your notes several times. Once you have become comfortable with the material, practice—a lot. Videotape yourself, or get a friend to critique your performance.
Add some style: If you are using presentation slides, then make the most of them. More than being pretty, the slides should be functional, but adding a bit of fun and colour usually doesn’t hurt. Here are three quick tips to improve slides: Keep the words on each slide to a minimum; Ensure any words or visuals are large enough to be seen at the back of the room; Only include images, videos and animations to help clarify your points. (Don’t add them if they have the opposite effect!); You don’t want to have everything you are going to say in the slides. Just prompts to help remind you what to talk about and audio/visual media to enhance any point you are making. The best way to deal with the (sometimes unfortunate) need to speak publicly is to embrace it, realise how it will help you and your audience, and enjoy the conversation that it sparks. See extra details Career advancement.
Project confidence. The more you project confidence, the more confident you are likely to feel. Get out there and own the room. Even if you are terrified. Fake it. Look people in the eye and command their attention. Don’t go over the allotted time. When in doubt, go under the allotted time. Less is sometimes more. But never, ever, go over. It’s poor speaking etiquette and shows you are not prepared. It’s also disrespectful of the agenda for the event. Again, just practice.
What people say ? Great speakers care about their audience and the audience can feel it. Mike cares about his readers in that same way to make sure you have the best experience going through his book. He knows if you take what he’s teaching to heart, he can change your life. However, even Mike doesn’t expect you to finish the book and magically become a fearless public speaker. Mike has laid out actionable steps you need to take to put what you are learning into practice to truly benefit from what he is teaching. The book shows the value of investing in oneself. Mike also provides action lists at the end of each chapter and an address where the reader can reach him to get a free coaching session. The Amazon book can be acquired here: How to manage better ebook.
Have fun experimenting: This is the most important tips of all. Have fun with the crowd. Try new ways to give the best presentation to your audience. Maybe experiment with a new funny approach, or walk around the hall instead of being static on the stage. Have fun with experimenting on human behavior and you will see that public speaking is not that bad after all. Remember that there are no failures, only different results.
Mike’s training stretches from private Spanish speaking schools in Mexico, national college debate tournaments, master classes in cultural leadership, certifications in coaching, and his current MBA. Mike has been a professional speaker for 18 years and has spoken to groups of 10 to 10,000. Source: https://thepublicspeaking.school/.