Public speaking can be a daunting and stressful experience for many people. However, with the right mindset and skills, you can overcome your fears and become more resilient in front of an audience. In this article, we will explore some of the key factors that help you build your confidence and adaptability as a speaker.
Before you prepare and deliver your speech, you need to have a clear idea of why you are speaking and what you want to achieve. Your purpose will guide your content, structure, tone, and style of your presentation. It will also help you focus on the value and impact of your message, rather than on your nerves or mistakes. To find your purpose, ask yourself these questions: What is the main point of your speech? Who is your audience and what do they need or want to hear from you? How do you want them to feel or act after listening to you?
I was a nervous novice, unsure and hesitant. ?? Picture me, gradually turning setbacks into stepping stones, discovering confidence as my guiding light. The stage transformed into a canvas with positive visualization, creating a loop of success in my mind. ?? Embracing feedback sculpted my skills, fueling resilience. ?? I forged connections with the audience, turning nerves into a source of energy. ?? showcasing resilience under the spotlight. ?? In this journey, resilience became the thread weaving through my success story. ?? Picture me not just as a speaker but as a storyteller turning challenges into triumphs. ?? Confidence, preparation, positive visualization, feedback, audience connection. ???
To create a speech that captivates your audience, you need to understand its purpose and objectives. This understanding will be the foundation for every aspect of your presentation, including content, structure, tone, and style. By keeping your purpose in mind, you can confidently convey the value and impact of your message without being hindered by nerves or mistakes. Let your words shine brightly and leave a lasting impression on your audience. I remember the moment I delivered my icebreaker speech at the Toastmasters Club meeting, I chose to emphasize the benefits my audience would gain from hearing my story, and this decision helped develop my resilience in public speaking.
El "para qué" de tu discurso va a determinar su impacto y tu delivery. ?Por qué? Porque cuanto más foco pongas en ti, menos vas a aportar a quien te escuche. Empieza por definir la idea que quieres transmitir. Elige solo una. Y desarrolla tu storytelling para que tu audiencia llegue a ella por su cuenta. Tu misión como speaker no es ganar reconocimiento ni cumplir con un compromiso. Tu misión como speaker es crear el espacio para que tu audiencia llegue a una idea transformadora.
One of the best ways to improve your public speaking skills and resilience is to practice and rehearse your speech as much as possible. This will help you familiarize yourself with your material, refine your delivery, and identify and fix any potential issues or gaps. It will also help you reduce your anxiety and increase your confidence, as you will know what to expect and how to handle different scenarios. To practice effectively, you can use these tips: Record yourself and watch or listen to your performance. Seek feedback from others and incorporate it into your improvement. Simulate the actual speaking environment and conditions as closely as possible.
Apart from practicing and rehearsing, the key point is “owning your material”. Never present anyone else’s material, whether it’s a presentation or a demo. Always create (or compile) your own material and the flow or story how the material evolves. This way it may not even be necessary to memorise anything.
I can't say enough about the importance of knowing your material, especially when things go awry. Practicing your speech allows you to internalise the content and really own it. When everything goes smoothly, this means you can throw in inflections and add a certain level of personal flare/pizzaz. When things DON'T go smoothly - real life examples from my work include: tech/visuals failing, fall back screens not working, presentation partners missing a beat/ freezing - knowing your material will allow you to power through gracefully and confidently, and the audience won't even know the difference.
To truly enhance your public speaking abilities, it is crucial to maintain a consistent practice routine. Whether you choose to rehearse in front of a mirror or with your loved ones, this regular exercise will enable you to identify any areas of improvement and boost your confidence when delivering speeches. Engaging in frequent practice sessions is undoubtedly one of the most effective methods for refining your public speaking skills and building resilience for future presentations. The more you dedicate yourself to rehearsing and honing your speech, the greater the impact you will have on your audience.
Building resilience as a public speaker requires consistent practice and rehearsal. Here's why: Increased Confidence: The more you rehearse, the more comfortable you become with your material and delivery. Anticipate and Address Concerns: Rehearsal allows you to identify potential challenges and practice how to handle them. Develop Effective Techniques: Through rehearsal, you can refine your delivery, timing, and use of visuals.
Practice. Practice. Practice. No matter how good you think you are, you can be better. Find someone you trust to watch you practice. If you feel uncomfortable about it, then they’re the right person. Be open to the feedback. It will hurt. A lot. But you will get better because of it.
Public speaking can trigger a range of emotions, such as excitement, nervousness, fear, or joy. Instead of trying to suppress or ignore them, you can embrace them and use them to your advantage. Emotions are natural and human, and they can help you connect with your audience and express your passion and authenticity. To embrace your emotions, you can use these strategies: Acknowledge and accept how you feel and what causes it. Reframe your negative emotions as positive or helpful, such as seeing nervousness as a sign of caring or readiness. Channel your emotions into your speech and use them to enhance your delivery and engagement.
I attended some presentation training once and they tried to change how I presented. They wanted to tone down the emotion and to tone down the”how big” I was when presenting. I tried it and it was terrible. Every piece of feedback came back with: It’s not you. You’re not being authentic. I think you need to be yourself. Embrace the emotions. When you do that, others will see authenticity and will empathise and thus start to “feel” what you’re presenting more than just hearing you.
Even the most experienced public speakers, like myself who have delivered over 45 keynotes in Toastmasters Club meetings, can feel a surge of emotions, be it anxiety or nervousness. However, it is crucial to channel those emotions towards delivering a confident speech. Embracing these feelings as normal is essential for honing your delivery and captivating your audience with genuine passion and conviction. Let your emotions fuel you as you take the stage and deliver a speech that exudes confidence.
Emotions are good. As my spouse always says: ‘For you it may be the hundredth time you are doing this presentation, but for the audience it is the first time.’ It’s always good to realize that, so there’s nothing wrong with having those flutters in your stomach.
Selbstfürsorge ist entscheidend. Negative Kritik ist nicht immer pers?nlich gemeint; externe Faktoren spielen oft eine Rolle. Die Kunst liegt im Unterscheiden von konstruktiver und destruktiver Kritik. Bei negativer Kritik: Einen Schritt zurücktreten, reflektieren, objektiv prüfen. Videoaufnahmen helfen, Gesagtes zu analysieren. Nutze Kritik konstruktiv für pers?nliches Wachstum, ohne sie pers?nlich zu nehmen. Raum zur Verbesserung existiert für jeden; Feedback ist wertvoll für Weiterentwicklung. ???
Estas son las dos cosas que hago antes de cada conferencia: - Power posing. Mantener durante 1 minuto una postura de poder condiciona al sistema neuroendocrino a subir la testosterona y a reducir el cortisol. El resultado para hombres y para mujeres es más seguridad, más decisión y menos nervios. - Respiración consciente. ?Qué pasa si respiro profunda y tranquilamente cuando estoy de los nervios? Que mi respiración activa el sistema nervioso parasimpático y me relajo. ?La clave? Alargar todo lo posible la expulsión del aire.
Every public speaking opportunity is a chance to learn and grow as a speaker. Whether you succeed or fail, you can always find something valuable and useful from your experiences. Learning from your experiences will help you become more resilient and adaptable, as you will be able to recognize your strengths and weaknesses, celebrate your achievements, and overcome your challenges. To learn from your experiences, you can follow these steps: Review and reflect on your performance and feedback. Identify what worked well and what needs improvement. Make a plan to apply your learnings to your next speech.
Pay close attention to your energy when you are public speaking. Identify what helps you be at your best. When presenting, whether in-person or virtual, do what makes you the most comfortable. Stand if you want to stand or sit if you want to sit. Your energy and focus should solely be on your audience and you won't be able to do that if you are uncomfortable.
Being a distinguished Toastmaster, I truly appreciate the value of every speech delivery as an opportunity for personal growth and development. After each presentation, I make it a point to engage in thoughtful reflection and evaluation. This practice helps me identify both my strengths and areas that could use improvement, equipping me with valuable insights to enhance my future speeches. I firmly believe that this continuous learning from our speeches is essential to becoming a truly effective public speaker.
Of course getting feedback is great - but it's hard to get proper critical feedback as many people will avoid risking it. If you can put yourself into situations that force the issue: a public speaking course, a "train the trainer", toastmasters or whatever has robust feedback mechanisms built in. A little hack that works on general improvement of speech is to avoid noise words/filler words when talking to anyone. "umm", "aaaah", "you know", "like". If you can trim them out of day to day talking then they'll probably not appear as much. It's kinda common sense, but if something went wrong during your talk - think about how you might avoid it next time. Often this means bringing more stuff, being better prepared or turning up earlier.
Public speaking is not a solo activity. You can benefit from the support and inspiration of others who share your goals and challenges. Seeking support and inspiration will help you become more resilient and motivated, as you will be able to access valuable resources, advice, and encouragement. You will also be able to expand your network and opportunities as a speaker. To seek support and inspiration, you can do these things: Join a public speaking club or community, such as Toastmasters or TEDx. Find a mentor or coach who can guide and challenge you. Watch and listen to other speakers who inspire you and learn from their techniques and stories.
Drawing on my experience as a seasoned Toastmaster, I have had the privilege of taking on various leadership roles within the realm of public speaking. Despite my level of expertise, I continue to seek guidance from mentors and experienced individuals who generously share their knowledge and provide constructive feedback. The consistent engagement with these individuals has played a significant role in honing my public speaking skills, serving as both a support system and a source of inspiration for personal growth.
When you're watching a talk, what did they do that was good/inspiring, what was bad. Steal their good things (if it makes sense) and avoid their bad things (if you do them). I'd also suggest that making use of the audience if that's possible: get them to ask questions (always repeat or rephrase it back so everyone can hear) - that can be your source of support/inspiration in the talk.
Finally, one of the most important factors that help you become more resilient in public speaking is your mindset. Your mindset is the way you think about yourself and your abilities as a speaker. A growth mindset is the belief that you can improve and develop your skills through effort and feedback. A growth mindset will help you become more resilient and open to new challenges and opportunities, as you will see them as learning experiences, not as threats or failures. To develop a growth mindset, you can adopt these attitudes: Embrace challenges and feedback as opportunities to grow. Focus on the process and progress, not on the outcome and perfection. Celebrate your efforts and achievements, not your talent or intelligence.
TEN PRACTICAL RULES THAT ‘MADE ME FLY’ ON STAGE I transformed into a keynote speaker on design thinking innovation, performing all of the world. That’s why I like to share with you ten rules to become a great keynote speaker too: 1. Understand your audience by knowing what’s keeping them awake at night. 2. Tell stories. 3. Use gestures purposefully. 4. Entertain and use humour to break the ice. 5. Vary tone, pace and volume. 6. Be genuine and share personal anecdotes to humanise your presentation. 7. Be passionate. 8. Exaggerate as a real actor would do. 9. Dress up, fitting your subject and personality to create more impact. 10. Talk to one person (in mind). I wish you lots of success! #keynote #keynotespeaker #speaker #topspeaker
Always be thinking "could I deliver that concept with fewer words?". Be like a sculptor seeking to carve out everything unnecessary, but no more. Take a "growth mindset" on your topic first and foremost: know more than you're presenting. Experts speaking about a topic almost always carry themselves better than someone poorly prepared trying to bluff their way through. On energy/effort: reflect on how you'd feel in the audience.. Would you be walking away energised if someone does a half-arsed effort? Probably not. Fight "the curse of knowledge" when you're presenting - always try to think how your talk would sound to "new ears" and set context/depth appropriate to audience. Read the room: respond if slow/fast/too shallow or too deep.
The key is to just put yourself out there... A lot. You need to practise as much as you can, it will make you comfortable with all the uncomfortable. It never gets easier, it just becomes less hard. - Share your story on social media. - Ask your old professor if you can come speak to your old class. - Give a talk at your family dinners. - Apply to Toast Masters. Just make it a hobby!
One area less talked about is how to actually do it on the day. I have bounced around having bullet points and fill the rest (with practice) to completely scripted and read the text. If practiced well both methods can be done well with benefits of either method. Bullet points make it more authentic and conversational. Scripted works well if the area you're presenting is not your forte or if you are nervous. What works for me is to have the salient part scripted, usually the beginning and end. And have bullet points for personal story prompts. This way I was able to achieve authenticity as well as get over the nerves component.
La imagen importa. Y cuando hablamos en público aún más. - Usa colores sólidos. Los estampados distraen. Para que tu mensaje llegue, necesitas que la atención se focalice en tu expresión y en tus palabras. - Ten en cuenta el entorno. ?Es un escenario oscuro? Usa colores claros. ?Es un espacio abierto? Usa colores oscuros. ?Vas a ser uno más entre muchos ponentes? Usa un color llamativo. - En una videollamada usa colores vibrantes que te destaquen del fondo. - En un escenario usa ropa cómoda. Lo último que necesitas es estar preocupándote de botones que se abren o perspectivas peligrosas.
I would take advice as a grain of salt! I'm pretty comfortable on stage but sometimes my body is excited or anxious so my knees or hands shake. It's barely noticeable and I feel fine! Someone told me to break up my speaking by taking a sip of water as a pause. I did....but all of sudden everyone could see my shaking hand and it KILLED the vibe. Everyone was immediately uncomfortable and nervous for me. So know what works best for you!
Public speaking has its share of ups and downs. Not every speech will go the right way. You win some, you lose some. The initial nervousness will wear off once you've gained enough experience in public speaking. Resilience builds up after having gone through a series of misfired attempts, sometimes through no fault of yours. Getting through any such harrowing encounter will make a speaker resilient to failures and setbacks when things don't go the way you plan. Build on your confidence. Boost self- morale. Resilience will grow with each passing speech. There should be room for improvement in the future. Sometimes the audience is not too reciprocal. This can be a mood dampener. It's here that resilience will show in the way you react!