Public Speaking?
Step 1 - Learn your material backwards and forwards. You need to really know what you are talking about before you can ever hope to effectively communicate the info to others. Step 2 - Practice in-front of a friend. First have them just sit there until you are done. Then, have them interrupt you with questions during the presentation. You never know how your audience will be so you need to be comfortable with both. Step 3 - Remember not to speak too quickly...When I first started to speak in front of people, I stammered and spoke very quickly due to being nervous...just take deep breaths and take your time. Step 4 - Make eye contact with each person for a few seconds tthroughout the presentation. It will help you by tricking your mind into thinking you are just talking to 1 person (dont ask me why..but it works).
For those who love speaking in public, how do you perceive the audience?
You can do a lot of useful work about audiences without loving public speaking. I always start my public speaking courses with an exploration of two things that are happening in the audience.1. I ask the audience “What are you doing for me as a member of the audience right now?” After a bit of discussion, they realise that they are doing very little for me. Very little nodding, hardly any smiling. A glorious absence of approval signs that they normally give when they have a one-to-one conversation. In fact they look bored/critical/judgmental. And that is normal for audiences.2. The next question is “Have you had any nasty thoughts about me yet”. The answer is no. “Are you staring at me really hard, are your eyes boring into me”. The answer is no.So the next question is a bigger one ��So how come you allow everyone else to take the space in front of you without any problem at all, but when you take the space, you are thinking that everyone is judging you negatively? You think everyone is noticing the bit of your body that you are self-conscious about or something very negative.”We massively overthink public speaking. The work on the course is really getting people to give themselves the same freedom they give other speakers when they are in the audience.Audiences have bored looking faces. It’s normal. But as speakers we need to have a mental shift and see those faces as Audience listening faces.So next time you are in an audience notice how generous/neutral you are with the speaker. Notice that you are not hyper-critical or determined to do the speaker down. Notice your blank face and other faces around you.If you can learn to reverse how you feel about blank faces, you can make a significant step to being more comfortable when you are public speaking.
Do you like the British Comedy called 'Keeping Up Appearances' ?
I love it too. I watched it everyday until I was seeing repeats of the repeats. I'm thinking of buying the DVD set. It's hilarious!
I'm 17 years old. I want to be involved in public speaking, but I just don't have the talent. I'm not good at explaining things (even when I talk to my friends). Do I still have a chance for this public speaking thing?
If you're willing to do the work, you have a chance at this public speaking thing. As a teenager, I didn't want to do the work. I avoided speaking in front of others at all costs. And when I couldn't avoid it - like when a teacher called on me in class - my face turned red and my brain turned off. This happened throughout middle school, high school and college. And then at work. Let me tell you, this social anxiety or whatever you want to call it really made me miserable. It opened the door for classmates to tease and harass me. It prevented me from meeting a professor's class participation requirement and knocked 20% off my final grade. And professionally, it made me look dumb in meetings.In my thirties, I realized that my career would flat line if I didn't do something about this public speaking problem. The logical thing at the time was to join Toastmasters. You can read more about how this helped me in my post How can I improve the impact of what I say during meetings? But, as a former boss of mine liked to say, "There's more than one way to skin a cat."Some of us have to test the water with our big toe before we consider wading in. I took a passive approach - I looked for someone to emulate. I watched news shows, TED Talks, and presidential debates. I paid attention to whose style I liked, and whose I did not. After identifying a few favorites, I deconstructed what they said and how they said it. I internalized this.At the same time I watched a lot of improv comedy shows. I learned that using the tools of improv did more than just improve my public speaking skills, it also helped settle down my social anxiety. Laughter has a way of doing that. Immersing myself through observation and study helped me get more comfortable with the idea of public speaking. This gave me the confidence to start contributing in meetings. Eventually, when I had to speak to a topic on the agenda for the meetings, I was able to more calmly gather my thoughts and express them without panicking. I say all this to make the case that you can improve your public speaking skills. It could take a long time and a lot of effort, but if you're willing to do the work, you do have a chance at this public speaking thing.
How can someone who writes well but has difficulty speaking up and conveying thoughts improve?
The best way to get better at speaking up? Do the work.As a teenager, I didn't want to do the work. I avoided speaking in front of others at all costs. And when I couldn't avoid it - like when a teacher called on me in class - my face turned red and my brain turned off. This happened throughout middle school, high school and college. And then at work. Let me tell you, this social anxiety or whatever you want to call it really made me miserable. It opened the door for classmates to tease and harass me. It prevented me from meeting a professor's class participation requirement and knocked 20% off my final grade. And professionally, it made me look dumb in meetings.In my thirties, I realized that my career would flat line if I didn't do something about this public speaking problem. The logical thing at the time was to join Toastmasters. You can read more about how this helped me in my post How can I improve the impact of what I say during meetings? But, as a former boss of mine liked to say, "There's more than one way to skin a cat."Some of us have to test the water with our big toe before we consider wading in. I took a passive approach - I looked for someone to emulate. I watched news shows, TED Talks, and presidential debates. I paid attention to whose style I liked, and whose I did not. After identifying a few favorites, I deconstructed what they said and how they said it. I internalized this.At the same time I watched a lot of improv comedy shows. I learned that using the tools of improv did more than just improve my public speaking skills, it also helped settle down my social anxiety. Laughter has a way of doing that. Immersing myself through observation and study helped me get more comfortable with the idea of public speaking. This gave me the confidence to start contributing in meetings. Eventually, when I had to speak to a topic on the agenda for the meetings, I was able to more calmly gather my thoughts and express them without panicking. I say all this to make the case that anyone - even people who suffer from social anxiety - can improve their public speaking skills and get better at speaking up. It could take a long time and a lot of effort, but if you're willing to do the work, you can develop that skill.
I am good at public speaking. how do I find a monetizable niche?
Speak for free. Prove mastery... money will flow...Success ke pichhe mat bhaag.Knowledge ke pichhe bhaag.Success jhak maar ke tere pichhe aayegi.Same with Public Speaking. speak for free... anywhere and everywhere you can.... schools, churches, open mics, stand up comedy, kids shows, street shows, mela, for a political party, at village panchayats... Just Do it....But do you have the BALLS to do it?~LoneySoul
As a public speaker, have you ever got lost or stuck in your notes, and it took a couple of seconds to recover? From your training and experience how were you able to recover quickly and smoothly?
To be visually pleasing most speakers do not use notes. When preparing a program, they may write on index cards some keys words pertaining to each aspect of their program. They will then TALK about each word. The main thing professional speakers are doing now is telling stories. If you can tell a story about each word/topic on your cards, your speech will have a better flow.After they decide on which topics (words) to be discussed, they may think of an acronym/word and use the acronym to keep their presentation in order. For example, a speaker may have written on an index card, risk, objectivity, pessimistic, neutral, encouragement and self. By thinking of the first letter of each word the speaker may arrange the words to spell PERSON….or any other word of his/her choosing.By using PERSON to keep them on track:P - pessimisticE - encouragementR - riskS - selfO - objectivityN - neutralThey practice what they will say about each word. NOTE: the speaker is using this to keep him/her on track, but the audience has no clue. They will just think the speaker is THAT good! There may be other methods; however, this has worked for me, as well as other speakers I know.If you would like to learn how I overcame the fear of public speaking, read the book Rise Above: Conquering Adversities. It’s also available in ebook format on Amazon Kindle.All the best to you!
What is the fear of public humiliation called?
Universal --I swear to you that every person fears public humiliation. The fear of public speaking is number one and bypasses the fear of death and spiders. The reason forthe fear of public speaking is actually the public humiliation that is involved in public speaking of one messes up her or his speech.