Public speaking fear can be a huge obstacle if you want to develop your career. Here are a few public speaking tricks and a recommendation if you are searching for a public speaking class. Use Audiovisual Aids Wisely. Too many can break the direct connection to the audience, so use them sparingly. They should enhance or clarify your content, or capture and maintain your audience’s attention. Practice Does Not Make Perfect: Good communication is never perfect, and nobody expects you to be perfect. However, putting in the requisite time to prepare will help you deliver a better speech. You may not be able to shake your nerves entirely, but you can learn to minimize them.
Throw away your notes: Although you should have written notes on all of the points you want to make for each slide, don’t take them into the presentation with you. (If you must have something in case of an emergency, then create a list of bullet points below your slides in your presentation software.) Using notes has two key harmful effects on your talk: Firstly, notes make it appear like you aren’t an expert on the topic. They reduce your credibility. Secondly, they become something to hide behind to help contain your nerves. If you are looking down at your notes, then you aren’t engaging with your audience. If you aren’t engaging with your audience, then they aren’t listening properly. Additionally, if you are reading directly from notes then your tone of voice will likely be flat, and you will have minimal stage presence. If this is the case, you might be talking about the most exciting topic on the planet, and your audience may well still be nodding off. See extra info How to manage better.
Know the environment. Know the venue where you will be speaking. Get there well ahead of time. Walk the room. Walk the stage. Get a feel for the vibe of the environment so you are more comfortable when its “go time.” Test all equipment. Nothing sucks more that last-minute technical difficulties. Avoid adding even more stress by testing any and all equipment and audio visual functions ahead of time. And have backups. Slow down. We have some great sayings in the SEAL teams: “slow is smooth, and smooth is fast, ” and “don’t run to your death.” Nothing shows nerves more than racing through your presentation. If you want to impact the audience in a meaningful way, make sure they actually hear what you are saying. Slow it down.
What people say ? I bought this book to help prepare for some upcoming speaking engagements. Public speaking has never been my thing , no matter how many times I have done it. I agreed with points the author makes: Prepare, prepare, prepare (and how to), show up early, smile. However he brings up other pointers that I was not aware of and will definitely incorporate in my routine (don’t want to give away too much). It’s an easy read and he shares his emotions and embarassing situations. What was really interesting to learn is, even with all his experience, he still uses these strategies for every speech! Thanks for writing such a practical book. The Amazon book can be obtained here: Overcome fear of speaking book.
Make mistakes intentionally: This is another trick I encourage you to try. Once I “accidentally” dropped my notes on the floor, and while picking them up, I warned the audiences that the presentation will be more confusing after this. I heard some laughter from the floor. The idea is to gain control of your audience. If you can make them laugh and be more interactive with you, your presentation will have that casual feel to it which will make it more memorable than others. Ultimately you will find it easier to do.
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/.