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Zero To Hero In 25 Years

    I’ve been on my public speaking journey for over 25 years now. I guess it all started in Intermediate school when I was a cheerleader and slowly developed throughout my different working roles – running educational seminars as a Financial Adviser, facilitating meetings with my team while with a large hotel company, facilitating large networking events, facilitating group coaching sessions and recently, a bit of musical theatre!

While having tea with a friend today, I was reminded that – at one point in my life – I was not brimming with self-confidence!   I was relating my story of shifting from a very small high school (my graduating class had a whopping 50 kids) to the University I attended (Michigan State University), which had a student population of 40,000 – many of whom lived on campus.   My friend said – “that’s like an entire town in New Zealand!”

What she didn’t know until I told her was I was TERRIFIED during my first month at Uni because of the sheer size of the place.  But, I did such a good job of hiding that fact that I actually caught the eye of my now-husband who was in the same maths class as me.  Go figure – he once told me that he noticed me because of how CONFIDENT and CALM I appeared! (I later confessed that it wasn’t actually confidence, it was terror.)

Now, I’ve developed “real” self-confidence over the last 25 years, but what I want to share with you today from this little walk down memory lane is this:  if you’re asked to step up and speak – to a group of colleagues, a networking group you’re involved with, a sports team – and it’s not really your cup of tea, you absolutely CAN appear calm and confident even though you may be shrinking in terror on the inside!

Here are the basics that got me through in the beginning: 

  • Stand up straight – your posture says a lot about how confident (or not) you feel.
  • Breathe and project your voice – as soon as you stop breathing, your voice rises and you SOUND scared.
  • Make good eye contact with your audience – keep your eyes moving from person to person  around your audience…it’ll make you look like a pro (and help you feel like you’re just talking to one person and not a whole group of ‘em).
  • Smile – it will not only help relax your audience, it will help you relax, too.
  • Practice  – know your topic and try your best not to “wing it”.

I suppose, in relation to projecting confidence, you CAN indeed, ‘fake it ‘til you make it’ and learn how to control the fear, even if you never totally eliminate it.

So, get out there!  You CAN do it. 

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Still MORE Tips on How To Become A Better Presenter

I am grateful that I often receive favourable comments and feedback after I “give a talk” or present on a given topic.  When I stop to think about WHY my audiences seem to consistently take away something of value, I arrive at the following conclusions (I hope some of these will help you as you construct your next presentation!):

1.)     Tell STORIES!  Each main point of your presentation should have a great story built around it that helps get the point across in a very palatable, entertaining way.  Your audience is more likely to remember the story you told about how your client actually USED one of your products than they are to remember a list of facts about your product.

2.)    Don’t over-rely on statistics and quotes from OTHER people.  Your audience is there to see YOU and hear YOUR views.  While startling statistics can (and should) be used appropriately to capture attention, they should not be a main point – they should serve to support one of your main points.

3.)    Get your “mojo” working and bring ENERGY to the platform.  No one likes to listen to a speaker drone on and on in the same, flat tone of voice (I’ve sat through more droning University lectures than I care to remember).  You will not capture your audience’s attention and imagination by standing stock-still behind a lectern (I like to call it a security blanket.)  Move around the stage with intention and vary your tone of voice and volume levels throughout your talk in order to help you maintain the audience’s attention.

4.)    You don’t have to tell jokes or be funny.  A little self-deprecating humour is often a good thing (I invariably let the audience know that I’m a “recovering American” living in NZ and this often gets a chuckle) but don’t overdo it.  BE YOURSELF!  If you’re not naturally funny in your everyday life, don’t try to be funny on stage – it will fall flat.  There are plenty of ways to engage and entertain your audience without resorting to humour.

Try video clips embedded in your presentation, or stories (see point #1), or vivid images (a picture is worth a thousand words, right?), or as I often do, draw up a “live” diagram or chart on a whiteboard or flipchart (depending up on the size of the room).

I’d love to hear your feedback or comments on your speaking experiences and what works well for YOU!

 

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Some Tips I’ve Used To Become A Better Presenter

People often remark that they don’t know how I can stand up in front of a room full of people (3,000 a few years back!) and say something besides ‘uhhhhhh….’!

You’ve heard the old cliché  – people would rather die than speak to a group.  I think that’s going a bit far; however, we all speak to groups of people every day.  The key difference is that the folks we speak to every day are usually work associates or friends.  When we get up in front of a proper ‘audience’, those people are usually strangers and have the strange power to terrify us.

Here are a couple of things to remember that will, hopefully, help you deliver a BETTER presentation the next time you find yourself in front of a group.

1.)    PREPARE & PRACTICE what you’re going to say.  I know most people think, “I know my material – I can wing it!”    I’m here to tell you that is a mistake.  I know from personal experience that as soon as my nerves kick in before a talk (as they always do), no matter how well I ‘know my stuff’ I can STILL come across as a babbling idiot if I haven’t practiced my talk.

2.)   The audience members don’t know what you’re supposed to say!  If you omit something or flip two points around – and you will – they’ll never know it!

3.)   People don’t come along to a talk (generally) to be educated – they come along to be ENTERTAINED!    Be sure to use visuals, stories, case studies based around REAL people, etc. in your talk.  “Death by Powerpoint” is SOOO last century!

4.)   Your slides are not your presentation – YOU are your presentation.  So, as much as feasible, leave the slides behind and just talk to your audience like you would tell a story to your friends.

That’s enough for today.  I have a lot more, but I remember learning these things and it took time to digest them and move away from my old (bad) habits.