The perfect career advancement with public speaking guides
4 min readPublic speaking fear can be a major obstacle if you want to develop your career. Here are a few public speaking tips and a recommendation if you are searching for a public speaking class. Nervousness Is Normal. Practice and Prepare! All people feel some physiological reactions like pounding hearts and trembling hands. Do not associate these feelings with the sense that you will perform poorly or make a fool of yourself. Some nerves are good. The adrenaline rush that makes you sweat also makes you more alert and ready to give your best performance. The best way to overcome anxiety is to prepare, prepare, and prepare some more. Take the time to go over your notes several times. Once you have become comfortable with the material, practice—a lot. Videotape yourself, or get a friend to critique your performance.
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. Read more info Public speaking course.
Make eye contact. This one is very important, and it doesn’t matter how big the audience is. Make eye contact with as many people as possible. It makes the audience members feel like you are speaking directly to them. And don’t just stick to people in the first couple rows. Look at the people in the back too. Know your material. If your goal is to become a thought leader or actually teach the audience something, only a truly authentic understanding of the material will get you there.
What people say ? You should also remain true to yourself and not try to be someone else during speaking events. There is a ridiculously silly & funny video clip link embedded in the book that illustrates this point quite well. Mike then presents seven strategies to help the reader get over the fear of speaking. He weaves in stories and anecdotes drawn from his own experience in the art of public speaking. He also adds beautiful quotes that can be extracted and used in the readers’ daily lives. My favourite ones are Strategies #4 and #7. The one strategy helps the presenter to speak to large crowds. Big crowds can appear quite intimidating. The other one takes the reader through an intense preparatory process. Mike gives an example of how he drives his teams on the latter but also how he lets go after the process & expresses gratitude for work done. The Amazon book can be obtained here: Public speaking coach book.
All you have to do is admit that you are a bit nervous speaking to your audience. When you do this, the audience will be more forgiving if your nervousness shows up later on. More importantly you will feel more relaxed now that they are not expecting a world-class presentation. Imagine their surprise when you gave them the best presentation ever despite your nervousness. The best way to do this is by joking about it. Here’s an example of a good one. “On the way here, only God and I knew what I will be presenting. (looking a bit nervous) Now, only God knows.”
Mike Acker is a communications coach, speaker, and author with over 19 years of experience in speaking, leadership development, and organizational management. Known for his authenticity, humor, and engaging presence, Mike specializes in fomenting personal and organizational awareness, allowing clients to create their own personal growth track. His approach is earnest, informed, and holistic, leading to a more satisfying balance in work and life. His expertise in communications and leadership has attracted politicians, business entrepreneurs, educational leaders, and executive managers. Source: https://thepublicspeaking.school/.