Confident Public Speaking

Confident public speaking – moving your mountain.

Public speaking is said to be one of the top 5 biggest fears in people’s life, but it is one we can manage. First, we need to bring our anxiety under control. We do this by making the audience comfortable, otherwise the audience won’t receive the message we’re giving.

We feel uncomfortable and awkward when we listen to someone who’s nervous. We can also disengage, so we need to eliminate that uncomfortable awkwardness, if we wish to be a great speaker.

You need to be relaxed too. As soon as the anxiety presents itself and this usually happens just before we speak, we perspire. We might shake, or tell ourselves we’re nervous. The mountain has arisen and now we need to oust it.

Pay mindful attention when you feel nervous. Talk to the nerves, talk to yourself, that nervous part of you. Tell yourself it’s ok and you’ll find it won’t spiral out of control. Take a deep breath and admit to yourself you’re anxious.

Also, reframe how you see the talk/performance. Practice it in your mind. See yourself doing well.

There’s a right way and a wrong way and sometimes we make a mistake when we try to perform. Practice in front of a mirror and you should be able to iron out any kinks in your performance. Go over your speech, until you are comfortable and fluent.

There is no one way when it comes to speaking - it’s only a conversation after all.

You might like to start with questions. That causes the conversation go two ways. It gets the audience involved and helps you feel it’s a conversation rather than a speech.

Write questions you might expect you’re going to need to answer in your talk. What do you think your audience wants to know? Put yourself in their shoes.

Use conversational language. Don’t use flowery, overpowering, long-winded words. Keep your talk to every day language.

Don’t use distancing language, language with words a beginner won’t understand. You might know your topic well, but the people around you might be new to the topic, so keep your talk basic, unless you know your audience is past that basic stage.

One must consider, perhaps the topic is important to you. If it’s important to you, it will also be important to others. When you feel the topic is important, your likely to be more confident in giving it, as you know it will help someone else who might be struggling in your area of expertise.

If you’re teaching, remember to keep the steps simple; first this step, second this step and so on. It keeps the flow moving. Giving steps, or numbers, aides the audience to remember. It is less jumbled in their mind, if they can follow the steps.

If you can, bring yourself into the present instead of the future. This way, you’ll be calmer. Don’t worry about what the future of your talk is, concentrate on the here and now.

If you’re still nervous, before you go on stage, perhaps try some light exercise, right before you speak. This will take your mind off your nerves. Nothing so strenuous, as to make you come on stage in a sweaty heap, just a few star jumps, squats or push ups, if you’re able.

Count backwards from one hundred (by 6’s). This makes you think of something else and it also warms up your voice. You could even try a tongue twister. In this moment you’re not worried about being in front of people.

Greet the anxiety, reframe any area of tension, become present in the moment and then off you go. Simple.

As I’ve gone through life, I’ve taken my worst subjects and turned them into my strengths. Public speaking is one of those. I started out in complete fear, shaking, and with high anxiety. Now, although still not perfect, I know I’ve come a long way and these are the methods I’ve used to help me get there. I hope they help you too.

None of us are perfect. We all look back, after the speech is said and done and wish we’d have added this or said that. None of us get it right every time and if you mess up, your audience will forgive you. A sentence out of order, a misquote in the middle. It’s not the end of the world. Just say; ‘excuse me,’ and keep going.

You might like to look at speech giving as a fun challenge, rather than an insurmountable obstacle. Changing your perspective helps realign you’re your outlook, towards a more positive end result. Besides a fun challenge is much more interesting, don’t you think, than an insurmountable obstacle?