Public Speaking Question

I do a number of things:
* deep breathing
* pretend I'm speaking to just one person
* pretend I'm speaking to someone i know very well.
* introduce myself to those in the first few rows that way I'm more comfortable speaking to larger groups

I would speak really fast to get it over in a quick manner.

1. Understand your audience wants you to succeed, not fail
2. Realize no one knows what you're going to say, so say what comes to your mind
3. Prepare - use bulleted notes with highlighted topic headers vs. a page of exact verbage
4. Take a moment to pray, listen to music, or simply relax in quiet before speaking, if possible

Gerald Payton wrote:Hello guys, I was wondering if there are various ways to speak in public without being nervous...

There are a lot of ways to remove the nervousness. Being nervous is only a natural thing when you speak in public especially if its your first time. One way to slowly remove your nervousness is by being sure of what you will speak to the public about and by thinking positive thoughts always...

Here's one that I've never needed but please try it and see if it works for you. It's the old stand-by, "Imagine that your audience is naked."

Or imagine them wearing chicken suits. Or dripping with chocolate. Or any visualization that makes them look silly or downright ridiculous. I'm no expert but I guess anything that makes you giggle will burst the grip of fear.

Try this: In order for us to speak well we must gain presence on stage, In order to gain presence we can use a technique called grounding:

It works like this: Imagine thick strong roots growing from the sole of your feet all the way to the ground,pulling you firmly into the ground.

Now extend these roots to the four corners of the room

If there is nervousness or tension imagine it flowing from the body to the ground.

The key here is to create stability....

Maybe you dont have to talk, what about a using a laptop and projector and just have a slide show?

A few tips help me...

1. The more you do it, the easier it gets. If you only speak publicly infrequently, then join toastmasters or even speak in front of family or friends, local town council, etc...The more you do it, the less anxiety

2. Talk to one person, even if there are 1000 - pick on main person to focus on, you can still move your eyes across the crowd at different times, but focus back on that one person I find helps

3. Know your topic and visualize your successful talk before you go on...run a "movie" in your head of your talk going well, relaxed, fun and successfully - this also helps a great deal

Public speaking is not an easy task as some might think because it takes great courage to speak in front of many people without being nervous...

Gerald Payton wrote:Hello guys, I was wondering if there are various ways to speak in public without being nervous...

There are many ways for you to overcome your nervousness when speaking in public. One of those ways is to be your self and just look at the crowd like they are your friends or just common people that you talk to each day, that way you will easily relax and loosen up...

The biggest secret to not being nervous is having solid fundamentals.

When you brush you're teeth in the morning, if you're like most people, you're not particularly nervous. You're not shaking over the prospect of "doing it wrong." You've done it a million times before, and gotten a thousand lectures from your dentist, your parents and your kindergarten teachers on how to do it. It's automatic.

You need to get to the same place with public speaking. You know you're "there" when you stop think about presenting in terms of "what ifs," (what if they don't like me? what if I screw up? what if no one laughs at my jokes?). the key is to get a firm grasp about what makes for solid speeches--how different techniques of structure and delivery can be used to elicit different emotional states in an audience, why they matter, and how to craft them. What the most effective styles of organization are for different tones and topics of presentation. Building up a well stuffed tote bag of rhetorical techniques.

Unfortunately, I didn't come from the traditional background of public speaking--I didn't speak until I was 3 or so, so my family threw me into competitive public speaking lessons, and I've kept up with it ever since. It's too bad, since it means I don't have a handful of books I can recommend to you that I used, or recommend a specific course or lecture serious (truth be told, I'm not a fan of a lot of what I've seen).

That said, if you have any samples or practice presentations you'd feel comfortable uploading on youtube, perhaps as a private upload if you'd prefer it not going into general circulation, you could send me a link to it and I could try to give you some basic feedback.

Good luck on your presentations!

Hello Gerald,
I love all the replies you've got relating to public speaking - you've a lot to chew on, and perhaps you've been putting some of them into practice. Which ones, and how are they helping or not?

When are you first aware of the nerves gaining ascendancy before you give a talk? What, in your imagaination, is the worst that can happen, should you stutter, stumble, seize up or heaven help it 'run off'!!

I've not given many public talks - but when I do I practice EFT on myself - Emotional Freedom Technique. Have you heard of it? It is brilliant - and is a superb first aid tool for anyone. Simple to learn, simple to use, and totally - no, about 2% of people appear to have no benefits from it, but perhaps they're too special in the first place - and helpful for everyone. In a nutshell it helps to calm the body by sending messages to the brain, and lowering the adrenalin.

Look EFT up on the internet - I suggest having a session with an EFT therapist, who hopefully will guide you to use it in the best possible way.

Best wishes.
Susannah

Hi Gerald
Most speakers get nervous because they are thinking about whether they will make mistakes and what the audience thinks of them. In other words the focus is from the audience and onto the speaker. It helps to turn this the other way around - make it all about the audience. If you focus on how valuable your message is to your audience and what a difference it could make for them, it really doesn't matter if you make mistakes - you're there to help them.
Good luck
Tina

Hi Gerald.

I believe the big thing about the nervousness for public speaking is that people are afraid to fail.

First, as above mentioned, remember that your audience wants to see you succeed and not fail.

Second, imagine that you're in a place where you feel comfortable. Imagine that you're watching a game with friends, or having dinner with the family.

Most importantly, I advise you to think back of a moment where you felt so confident that you could do everything. A moment that you were successful and you were convinced of your qualities. Now remember that moment, that feeling of invincibility, and access it before you go up on stage. When you're confident, failure is out of the question, because you don't think about it.
That's it