Public speaking recommendations
Public speaking fear can be a major obstacle if you want to develop your career. Here are some public speaking tricks and a recommendation if you are searching for a public speaking trainer. Watch for Feedback and Adapt to It. Keep the focus on the audience. Gauge their reactions, adjust your message, and stay flexible. Delivering a canned speech will guarantee that you lose the attention of or confuse even the most devoted listeners. Let Your Personality Come Through. Be yourself, don’t become a talking head—in any type of communication. You will establish better credibility if your personality shines through, and your audience will trust what you have to say if they can see you as a real person.
Conquer your fear: Easier said than done, but understanding how your nerves affect your ability to speak publicly is a good start. Knowing what might happen will help to calm your nerves and carry on if they start. Firstly, the more prepared you are, the better and less nervous you will be and the better you will be able to deal with any mishaps. Do not drink caffeine beforehand it will heighten your anxiety. But do take water in case you get a dry mouth. Eat something beforehand, a low sugar level won’t help to dispel any nervous thoughts and will also affect your concentration levels. Remember that the audience is not there to see you. They are much more interested in what you have to say. They also have no interest in you failing; they are your friends not your enemies. Remember that you are speaking as a service to your attendees, this helps focus less on you and more on the content. Don’t tell the audience you are nervous. Nearly everyone suffers from some anxiety about public speaking; it is rarely as obvious from the outside as it feels. If necessary, use breathing and relaxation techniques before you begin to help settle any last minute jitters. Read extra details Public speaking coach.
Practice with distractions. Once I know the content, I like to add a little bit of distraction to test how well prepared I really am. Turn on the TV or rehearse while pushing your child in the swing. Anything that adds a little more challenge. Find a style that works for you. Different events will often require a different approach or style. Sometimes reading a prepared speech is fine. But know it backward are forward so you’re not staring down at the pages the whole time. Some use notes. Others prefer to be 100 percent scripted and memorized. If that’s your style, memorize the content so well that you can go off script if needed — and so you don’t sound like you’re reciting a poem. Use the proper approach for the appropriate event.
What people say ? You should also remain true to yourself and not try to be someone else during speaking events. There is a ridiculously silly & funny video clip link embedded in the book that illustrates this point quite well. Mike then presents seven strategies to help the reader get over the fear of speaking. He weaves in stories and anecdotes drawn from his own experience in the art of public speaking. He also adds beautiful quotes that can be extracted and used in the readers’ daily lives. My favourite ones are Strategies #4 and #7. The one strategy helps the presenter to speak to large crowds. Big crowds can appear quite intimidating. The other one takes the reader through an intense preparatory process. Mike gives an example of how he drives his teams on the latter but also how he lets go after the process & expresses gratitude for work done. The Amazon book can be obtained here: How to teach culture to my workplace book.
Redefine your audience: Redefine your audience generally means changing how you see your audience. Instead of seeing them as lecturers who are evaluating you, maybe you can convince yourself that they are all fellow students who are in queue to present after you. They are all equally nervous so there is no reason why you should be too. Or perceive them as long lost friends that you haven’t seen for 10 years. This way you can maintain eye contact trying to figure out where you have seen him before. To the audiences, they will see a very friendly and personal presentation.
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/.