Speaking infront of an audience.

Hello David,

For me, who is a very introverted person, I have found that preparation and practice are the keys to public speaking. I am still nervous speaking to large crowds. Knowing what you are speaking about is vital since it will give you confidence in your knowledge. Practice like wise gives you confidence in your skills to deliver that knowledge and public speaking is all about confidence.

Personally my practice these days comes from preaching once a month (I am a part time youth pastor) and teaching the youth group at our church.

Maybe someone else has some excercises or other helpful advice but this is what I used.

Best regards,

Eric

Good morning David. I don't think you have a "problem" with public speaking. You have assessed yourself which was half of the problem for me.

When I was in college I dreaded those speech courses and even after I started moving up at work was terrified of addressing groups. Here are some tips I give new managers:

If most people speaking would sit, I stand (if appropriate)
Look past people to give the appearance you are making eye contact with a lot of the audience; once someone looks "at" you then move on to someone else.
Make eye contact with their foreheads. After a while of speaking in front of people you will hopefully find that it gets easier and you can make solid eye contact throughout.
Practice, as Eric said, and then practice some more; video tape your presentation to watch your body language, etc.
Years ago I discovered that rehearsing while driving was a great way to remember the flow of the material, without simply reading it verbatim.

Even though you may not enjoy it today, find opportunities that force you to speak in front of groups. Being willing to speak in front on an audience, even a small once, will seperate you from your peers and your competition (as I'm sure Mark will attest to).

Lastly, because I love finding hidden gems in books (Freakonomics on data modeling in business, Jack: Straght From the Gut on making difficult decisions) I would recommend, although I'm not sure where you can find it, a sales training tape/video from Mark Victor Hansen titled, "38 Proven Ways to Close that Sale". This is a sales training program but I listened to this a hundred times and found that it improved my speaking and presentation skills more than anything. Presenting is simply getting people to "buy" not "what" you are saying but to simply "buy" into listening.

- Dave

David-

Being nervous is natural. The more you do it the less nervous you will become. Most audience members WANT you to succeed. They are pulling for you. They are NOT the enemy. Practice, practice, practice. I practice every formal presentation I give.

Here are a few other tips that have helped me:

- Do not read a speech or read your slides – speak to the points
- Slow down – pauses for thought and effect are okay
- Try to connect with the audience and get them involved: “Does anyone have an example of this they are willing to share?”
- In the case of a presentation, face the audience
- You are the expert – not one member of the audience would be willing to get up and talk to your subject
- Focus on your PURPOSE for being there – purpose overcomes pain
- Try to have fun while doing it

Hope this helps

Gary

[quote="dvgeoster"]point on:
Thanl you everyone for your advice i will try and use as many of them as I can.[/quote]

David, one piece of advice that I can give - The purpose of a presentation is 100% centered on the audience. Its not about what you feel, its about what they recieve.

Try this exercise - stand up straight in front of a full length mirror and hold your arms down by your side. Think about your arms - they feel unnatural, right? Now look at your arms - they look normal. What you are probably feeling when speaking is partly that difference between how you think you look and how you're seen. Trust me, the audience sees you as normal because you ARE normal.

BTW, this same lesson seems to be repeated time and time again through life - the management version is "it isn't about you, its your people". Mark's version is "Communciations is what the listener does". Its not about me.

Hope it helps - don't know if this is exactly what you need or not, but it was my big hurdle.

Brian

Your getting a lot of help, here! I do a LOT of public speaking, and I can tell you that the themes expressed by the folks above are very consistent with my experience. It comes down to this: if you KNOW the material, you'll have confidence. I'm not talking about simply memorizing it; I mean that you should develop a deep understanding of your presentation.

Listen to the way Mark and Mike talk on the podcasts. They obviously know a great deal about the subject and are very anxious to share it. Their knowledge and enthusiasm come through very powerfully.

So, study the subject until you are confident that you've developed expert knowledge. Practice your pitch to develop a smooth flow. Then, just get up there and [i]communicate[/i]. After awhile, you'll find that it's easy.

R/
Len

Hi David:

I am very impressed with your enthusiasm about learning. The fact that you are listening to this podcasts and that you recognize the importance of public speaking - both of these- while you are still a highschool student, is a good indicator of your great potential!

Anyway, I would like to suggest that you look into Toastmasters Club in your area. It is a volunteer club which will give you the opportunity to practice and improve your public speaking skills. You get to learn some practical tips (like the kind of advice we get from Mark and Mike on management here) ,see lots of samples (good and not-so-good), and hear the evaluations which point out those "good and not-so-good" stuff. Most of the speeches are pretty interesting. And their membership fee is very minimal.

Many clubs also run a Youth Leadership Program, which target students like you. So ask them about that and join the program if you can.

I joined one of those in my college freshman year. And to this day, I am still glad I did.

Best of luck, and keep up your thirst for learning
May

In addition to the above, if you haven't listened to them already dig through the archive as Mike and Mark have done a few podcasts on presentations.

One focused around the actual delivery called 'Presentation Basics - principle 1' (30th Jan 07), one around 'Presenting with Powerpoint' (18th Sep 05), and a split cast on how to deal with answering questions on a presentation (Feb - Mar 2007).

3 things help myself a lot to feel better (and, than, deliver better):
. PREPARATION about the topic
. PREPARATION about the audience
. PREPARATION about the physical place

The third one might be strange but it helps me a lot.
I like to be there BEFORE people arrive (walk a little bit on 'the stage' and prepare it, walk a little bit where the audience will be located, get familiar to the all stuff)
and WHEN the people is already there (doing mainly the same stuff).

PierG

PRACTICE.

REHEARSE.

PRACTICE.

REHEARSE.

Mind-numbing, boring, repetitive...and has gotten me to the point where speeches cost $25,000. Seems to be working.

I'm not a great speaker....but I practice A LOT.

There is no magic bullet, but there will be a series of casts on this.

Mark

I echo the suggestion above to join Toastmasters. It's an international organization and you can find one near you at toastmasters.org. Toastmasters gives you a laboratory to try out and improve your skills. My first speech still holds the record for 247 um's and ah's, but now I've learned to pause without resorting to verbal graffiti. More important, each speaker is evaluated by another club member and you'll discover things you've never noticed about your speaking (body language, eye contact, etc.) that can help you improve.

At least in the US, Toastmasters is incredibly inexpensive. Once you pay your registration fee, dues run around $70US a year. That's an outstanding ROI. You can gain leadership experience by becoming an officer, coaching experience by evaluating other speakers, and you might just make some great networking contacts if you belong to a public club. Of course, you might stand out from the crowd if you join an employee-only club as well.

I also highly recommend the book, [b]The Exceptional Presenter[/b], by Tim Koegel. I posted it about it in the forum several days ago:
http://www.manager-tools.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=2335

For those of you making presentations, I recommend the blog, Presentation Zen @ Presentationzen.com.

I look forward to Mark & Mike's podcasts on this topic. I've seen Mark speak several times and you might say he "walks the talk."

Yea, pun intended. :D