At a recent seminar I attended, a woman who was in the seminar with me expressed her nervousness about an upcoming speaking arrangement. Having just done a speaking engagement in March, I understood completely. Getting in front of a room full of people and performing (because let's face it - that's what you're doing) can be nerve-wracking. But eight years as a theatre major and three years as a performance poet have taught me a thing or two about dealing with that nervousness, and I thought it would be good to share some of the tips I've learned.
1. Write your script beforehand, but don't memorize it. The worst thing you can do is read from a script, or sound like you've got this thing memorized and you're reading from a page. Remember Ben Stein? Bueller, Bueller... okay - old reference - but seriously, that's what it sounds like. Write a complete script for yourself, rehearse it once or twice, but when it comes down to presentation time, speak from your outline (see next tip).
2. After you've rehearsed your script, create an outline and use that to guide you through your presentation. It's very tempting to use the bullet points of the presentation to guide you (especially if you have it on a screen in front of you), but often, that will come out like you're reading from a script again. Find the essence of the points you're making, and create a brief outline, or "flow," of touch points that will guide you to the topics you need to cover. Repeat the flow to yourself a couple of times just before you go up. Then, speak from your heart and your passion on the subject. After all, you likely didn't accept a speaking engagement because you were bored!
3. Rehearse the day before, not the day of. Doing it ahead of time puts you at ease when the time comes - that way, you'll be more prepared and less nervous.
4. Forget about it for a while. The day of your engagement, find whatever you can do relax and get your mind OFF the presentation until about 20 minutes before your presentation, and then review your flow just before you go on. The day of my first big presentation, and the day of any performance I've ever done (and I've done hundreds) I sang. I sang in the shower, I sang in the shower, I sang whatever song I could think of to sing for at least an hour before the performance. Then, about 10-20 minutes before the performance, I looked back at my notes, practiced for a little bit, took a few deep breaths, and went to it. That worked for me, but everyone is different. Find what works for you and commit to it.
4. Speak from your heart and remember your "why". This was just covered, but it bears repeating. You're doing this for a reason - maybe it's to get new business, maybe it's to get recognition, maybe it's just because you love talking about the subject and want to share your knowledge with people. Whatever it is, figure out why you're doing this and let that why guide you through your presentation. Show your passion for the subject, or your business, or whatever you're speaking about.
5. Breathe. This can not be emphasized enough. Observe your breath for a few moments before you begin and make sure that your breath is full and complete. If it's shallow, try this trick, common in yoga: breathe in for a count of five breaths, hold for a count of four, and breathe out for a count of eight breaths, expelling all the air. As you breathe, make sure that your breath is coming from your belly, not your chest. Your belly should be expanding as you breathe in, and contracting as you breathe out. Breathing this way will also help you project, which is key in large groups.
Hopefully, these tips will help you the next time you find yourself in front of a crowd, sharing your knowledge. Break a leg!
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Comments: 13
Thanks!
They helped me immensly in the days when I had to worry about public speaking. Luckily, I haven't had to do any. I hate the pressures and avoid it at all costs.
Your tip on breathing is the best. One of the first effects of stage unease is a tightening of the diaphragm. Yogic breathing is great stuff.
For my most recent 'presentation' (an election speech for my university's undergraduate Senate Chair, which I won!) I wrote most of my speech ahead of time and then mostly read from it, changing a few words here and there. The disadvantage to that was that I'm used to using eye contact to keep people listening and it was much harder to do that while reading. On the other hand, I'd put a lot of effort into my particular wordings, and not forgetting those was great! Bothering (for once) to write my presentation ahead of time was very useful for focusing my thoughts (I tend to ramble if you can't tell...). Since now I'll have several similar things to do this upcoming semester, I think I'll find myself coming back to this article for assistance!
*pats on back*
I'm so proud of you for making the home page!!
Thanks for the tips!
IMHO, your most important point is #4. Chances are very good that a student will be faced with an assigned presentation, so there is a chance of not having volunteered or offered to present on a topic. However, in the "real world" of our jobs (including parenting or volunteering,) it really is crucial that we don't volunteer to present on a topic that is not important to us in some way.
IIt's easy to talk about what we love, but there are plenty of topics about which we may be either clueless or incurious. In those cases, it's a huge amount of work just to get educated, knowing all the while that those who came to hear us actually *do* want to know about the topic, and possibly already know more than we do. That sort of thing is what eats at our confidence and makes for a poor presentation.
It's about being fair to the audience: if we are bored, we will bore them. If we don't care for the topic, we will not get them to care, either.
When we choose to present on something we love, we enjoy the research, we enjoy sharing what we've learned, and that is always obvious to the audience. Our love or enthusiasm for the topic makes the presentation easy: it feels worthwhile and it doesn't feel like giving a presentation anymore -- it's just sharing.
Just my cheerleading for #4. :-)
Oh, how I wish I'd seen this about a week and a half ago! I had to act as mc for our Girl Scout end of year ceremony (couldn't coerce, cajole, or bribe anyone to do it for me.) The breathing advice would have helped so very, very much!
Have printed this out for reference, in case I'm unable to find someone to take over next year.
Congratulations on making the editor's pick!