Recently, I attended one of the famous Highland March Professional Development Series featuring master networker Jason Kallio, President of ExpoVantage. Did he have great content? Yes. Was he prepared and organized? Yes. But that’s only part of the reason he won the crowd. He was funny, entertaining, and engaging. He made us laugh and he talked with us, not at us. He was in the moment and built on the comments that people shared.
As a public speaking expert, anytime I’m in the audience, I spend up to half the time looking at the audience to see how effective the presenter is. The answer lies in their focus. If their eyes are glued to the presenter, that’s great; otherwise there is a problem. All eyes were glued to Jason throughout the entire presentation. I have seen other prepared, organized, and structured presenters in that same room lose the audience. Why the difference? Content is a commodity; delivery is everything.
Jason is also a professional magician; so he adheres to the philosophy that every presentation is a performance. He realizes that excellent content that is well prepared is NOT enough to earn the audience’s attention. Great content must be delivered in a performance. Here are some of the reasons people loved him:
1) He opened with a magic trick that conveyed a major point about networking.
2) He invited participation and wove that participation into his presentation.
3) He was very much in the “here and now”. He used appropriate humor to respond to audience remarks, and got to know the members of his audience as he went along.
4) He spoke to each member individually, focusing his eye contact on one person at a time instead of doing the common superficial scanning.
5) He was excited because he knew he had prepared for a performance, rather than a presentation.
After watching and analyzing thousands of presentations, here is something I’ve learned: presenters who think their only responsibility is to disseminate information are usually painfully boring – irrespective of their content. Presenters who understand that their presentation is a performance usually win the crowd.
Of all public speaking tips, these may have the most universal appeal.
In Video Lesson One, we discovered how to veil the nerves caused by fear of public speaking: shaky hands, shaky voice, dry throat, and fear of freezing.
In this ten-minute video we will uncover the secrets of emulating confidence. There are some situations in which, no matter how well-prepared you are, you will feel the pressure. That’s okay because you now know how to veil the tell-tale signs of nerves (Lesson I); so you are ready to learn how to appear confident on the outside, even though you don’t feel that way on the inside.
Apply these five public speaking tips to projecting confidence, and you will shine. Nobody will detect the fear you may be experiencing. The beauty is, just by simply knowing these tips, you will actually begin to feel more confident from within. That’s a double bonus.
We hope you enjoy and benefit from this “how to overcome fear” training video. Please share it by clicking any of the icons below.
We who are interested in public speaking realize the importance of non-verbal communication. We study what the audience perceives about our movement, posture, gestures and facial expressions. While it can take years to understand the nuances of body language, here is something you can learn in one minute:
In the overwhelming majority of cases, touching one’s face transmits a negative signal to the audience. Depending on the nature of the touch, it could give the impression that you are lying, insecure, nervous, agitated, or impatient. Is this fair? Absolutely not. You may simply have an itch. It is reality, however, that face-touching generally gives a negative impression.
The one minute lesson: Avoid touching your face when public speaking.
Now that you’re aware, just watch how many people do it. Like umming and ahhhing, it is a challenge to stop. Just being aware will give you that edge to curb the habit and project more confidence. This is especially important for those who network through BNI and chamber events. If people perceive you as lacking confidence, many will erroneously assume that you are unsure of your product and service. Don’t give them that opportunity!
At a networking meeting, a young woman was getting ready to do her 10-minute BNI presentation on her business. She had done her homework, and was well prepared.Previously, she had confided in me that she dreaded public speaking, but knew it was a “necessary evil” if she wanted to grow her business through networking.
She had heard me doing a persuasion speech on sales, and she said she was going to apply that strategy to public speaking. This was the crux of the strategy:
Before the sales appointment, you must CARE enough to research your prospect, and prepare for questions and roadblocks. However, during your presentation, you must not feel you NEED this particular piece of business. You must know that life goes on either way. You must feel that you would like the business, but you will be fine either way. Sales guru Carl Harvey shared this philosophy with me, and it works. It frees you to simply relax, establish a relationship, and enjoy the process.It makes you feel and appear more confident, and subtly communicate that you offer something they need. You also avoid looking like the desperate salesperson.
This woman applied that philosophy to her speech. She had, in essence, over prepared, but moments before she was on, she adopted an attitude that this presentation would neither make or break her; so she might as well have fun.
Her presentation exceeded even her own expectations. She was natural, funny, and on target.
What happened? The problem is that presenters get nervous because they care TOO MUCH about how they appear before their audiences. By “too much” I mean that the pressure actually hurts their natural ability to communicate.It makes them shaky, stiff and monotone. Most presenters’ main roadblock is their own psychology. By adopting the attitude “this presentation will not really change my life in any significant way,” you mitigate the exaggerated pressure you have fabricated.
What a great application of a sales strategy to public speaking!
If you want to learn how to improve public speaking watch other speakers AND observe their audience while they speak. Consider the faces of the audience members and look at their eyes. What you will see most of the time is polite interest at best and boredom at worst. On occasion you will see an engaged audience – what is the speaker doing (or not doing) to get that reaction? Take mental notes.
I watched a woman bore her audience with a Power Point presentation. BUT then, her computer quit. She had no hard copy; so she completed the presentation with NO aids. This created some tension, which awoke the audience from their mental slumber. Because she stopped reading from her slides, she connected with the audience. Their faces changed from exhibiting apathy to shining with interest. Even though her organization and smooth pace suffered a bit, her ability to connect more than compensated.
What can we learn from this? PowerPoint is great to make a visually powerful POINT, but not to deliver an entire presentation. A slightly bumpy presentation without the crutch of Power Point is far more effected that a smooth presentation with it.
In our previous blogs we spoke about veiling the nerves. Once that is accomplished, we are ready to emulate what a confident person does, even though we may not feel confident from within.
Two “tricks” that we’ve discussed are pausing and moving at a moderate pace. Here is another technique for exhibiting confidence.
In college, I was already an avid student of public speaking, and I made it a point to compare and contrast students’ public speaking performances with those of our professors. This is not to say that professors are necessarily great presenters, but they do tend to look comfortable and confident. When students are asked to speak before the class, even though they might have a great presentation prepared, they usually appear nervous and awkward.
Of course the professors typically spoke at a much slower pace, but I also noticed that they tended to lean a great deal. Later, when I began studying body language, my observation was confirmed by research: confident people will lean (when appropriate) and nervous people will not. Professors would have one hand in the pocket and, on occasion, put the other hand on a table or desk. This is a great telegraph of comfort and confidence if it is NOT a formal presentation. Clearly you would not use this technique giving a eulogy or a presentation to the board of directors.
On a side note, in social situations, for example a house party, studies show that guests who are comfortable and confident will tend to lean as well.
There you have it, the power of the lean, just make sure you don’t fall over!
Once you can successfully manage/veil your public speaking fear, you are ready discover how to emulate confidence, even when you are not feeling that confidence from within.
What are the common denominators of a confident speaker? After years of studying presenters, both nervous and confident, I’ve uncovered the nuances that make the difference.
1) We have already discussed the first: pacing, which dictates that more confident speakers tend to do everything at a more moderate, purposeful pace. Nervous speakers tend to race, both physically and verbally. As as side note, research shows that people who talk too fast and bustle around the office are PERCEIVED as lower in the power chain than those who talk and move at a moderate pace.
2) Confident speakers PAUSE. Without the pause, people cannot digest as swiftly as you speak. Of equal importance your pauses clearly communicate that you are confident (irrespective of whether it is true). Always pause when you make a strong point. Pause when you are searching what to say next. As we discovered in the avoid freezing blog entry, pausing makes YOU feel awkward but it makes you LOOK confident. Conversely, “umms and ahhs” to fill the silence make YOU feel more comfortable, but they make you LOOK far more awkward.
Public speaking fear can be managed easily and effectively using these techniques.
In learning to veil the fear of public speaking, we must address the common fear of freezing. Here is a simple technique:
Memorize rote your opener and closer. Why? Research shows that nerves spike in the first few moments of a presentation and in the last few moments. When nerves spike you are more likely to freeze; so by memorizing, word-for-word, your power opener and power close, you will have more confidence when you need it most.
Clearly if you are using Power Point as a crutch, all you need to do is look up at the slide, but for the more effective presenters who chose not to read from their visuals, keep the following in mind:
1) Freezing to you is simply pausing to them. Four seconds feels like an eternity for you, but it seems like a respectable pause to the audience. It feels weak to you, but they interpret it as confidence. It’s okay to “freeze” to allow your brain to catch up; then move on. Avoid “Ums and ahs” and any filler. It is counterintuitive that filler makes YOU feel more comfortable, but it makes your audience think you are insecure.
2) Keep in mind that, in most cases, the audience does not know the layout of your presentation; so if you freeze on a point, just move to the next. You can address the missed point later in the presentation without anyone noticing.
3) If you’re using notes, avoid writing in sentence form or, even worse, paragraph form. For a nervous speaker this can be deadly. Once you lose your place, your eyes start to race through the text to find where you left off, and the panic snowballs as the seconds tick away. Bullets in large font ensure that in just a glance you can get right back on track.
Freezing is simply a mind game with one player – you. By employing the tips above you will be more confident that you will not freeze, which means that you’ll be less likely to freeze in the first place.
There you have it, yet another tip to manage your fear of public speaking.
Veiling your fear of public speaking is quite simple, once you know the quick-fix tricks. We’ve already discussed how to stop the shaky hands and how to stop the shaky voice. Now we’ll share a simple technique for handling the dry throat.
Just do a search on the web, and you’ll find many people seeking a remedy for the dry throat when they become anxious. Here it is:
1) Forget water because it quickly dissipates within a minute. If, however, you do drink water before or during your presentation, make sure it is at room temperature because cold water constricts the throat making public speaking more difficult.
2) The best remedy: luke warm orange juice. It will give your throat a silky coating that will LAST through your presentation.
3) If you’re caught off-guard and have nothing with you: Imagine eating Sour Patch Kids, which will get your saliva glands into action.
4) A teaspoon of honey will give you a lasting coating, and it may be more palatable for you than luke warm OJ.
The benefit to you of using one of these remedies is that you won’t have to swallow mid sentence when public speaking, which is a dead giveaway that your are nervous. Now with one less thing to worry about, you can concentrate on your delivery.
Please share your comments on how to veil your fear of public speaking.
Does your voice shake when you are speaking in public? Just like the shaky hand, your fear of public speaking triggers the release of excessive adrenaline, which causes your voice to shake.
What big mistake do most speakers make when their voice gets shaky? They lower the volume. It is natural to want to lower your volume when you hear the shakiness in your voice, but it is counterproductive. It makes the shakiness more obvious.
The solution is to raise your volume when your voice is shaky. The extra adrenaline in your body causes your vocal cords to have tiny vibrations that make that shaky sound. When you speak loudly, the bigger movements of the vocal cords will veil the smaller vibrations caused by nerves. In essence, you drown out the shakiness in your voice.
While counterintuitive, it is this simple: turn up the volume to overcome the “shakes”.
More to come on veiling your fear of public speaking.
Recently, I attended one of the famous Highland March Professional Development Series featuring master networker Jason Kallio, President of ExpoVantage. Did he have great content? Yes. Was he prepared and organized? Yes. But that’s only part of the reason he won the crowd. He was funny, entertaining, and engaging. He made us laugh and he talked with us, not at us. He was in the moment and built on the comments that people shared.
We who are interested in public speaking realize the importance of non-verbal communication. We study what the audience perceives about our movement, posture, gestures and facial expressions. While it can take years to understand the nuances of body language, here is something you can learn in one minute:
In our previous blogs we spoke about veiling the nerves. Once that is accomplished, we are ready to emulate what a confident person does, even though we may not feel confident from within.
In learning to veil the fear of public speaking, we must address the common fear of freezing. Here is a simple technique:![dreamstime_11462314[1]](http://www.targetintellect.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/dreamstime_114623141-300x195.jpg "dreamstime_11462314[1]")
Veiling your fear of public speaking is quite simple, once you know the quick-fix tricks. We’ve already discussed how to 
