How to Conquer Your Fear of Public Speaking Gina Dolin Public Speaking & Leadership Development Coach

Have you ever felt nervous when standing on stage? That nervous feeling, like hundreds of butterflies are fluttering in your stomach, all trying to go in different directions.?If this sounds like you, you are not alone.

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Here are 3 techniques to set the butterflies free.

1.??Prepare

2.??Connect

3.??Mind Shift

Prepare

How do you prepare for a presentation? ?

Know your audience. ?What information do they need and want?

Before writing the speech, think with the end in mind.?There is an old saying ‘if you don’t know where you are going any road will take you there’.?Don’t let this be you. ?Is this presentation to inform? Persuade? Act??All three?

Now that you know where you are going, make sure your opening grabs your audience’s attention. A though provoking statement, a story or a startling static are ways to grab your audience’s attention.

Have a strong close.?Ask them how will they use the information??What next steps might they take? ?What is it you want them to think or do? Then tell them.

Practice is a critical part of preparing. After you have practiced at home, the next step is stage time.?In real estate, the saying is location, location, location and in public speaking it is stage time, stage time, stage time.

Find friendly and honest audiences that will provide feedback. ?A Toastmasters group is a great way to find such an audience.?A presentation in front of an audience will provide insight. Notice their reactions. Are they laughing at your joke? Do people look confused? You may need to shorten a story, find a different way to explain a concept. ?Or you can hire a coach to find the best way to tell your story.

What else can you do to prepare??

·?????Find out where the is venue and how long it will take to get there.

·?????Find out where you can park.

·?????Whose equipment are you going to use. If it is being provide can someone be there to help with the setup.

·?????Be familiar with the stage.

·?????Consider taking a spare change of clothes, needle, thread, and safety pins.

What happens when you prepare for your presentation? Confidence.

Connect:

Making friends with the meeting planner will help you provide the right information to connect and engage your audience.

If you have the opportunity, stand near the door, and greet people as they enter.?This is a great way to build a connection. Your audience will feel friendly towards you and you towards them. As you see all those friendly faces in the audience you will start to relax.

Believe it or not, one of the easier things that you can do when you are on stage, is look people in the eye.?Start with looking at someone in the center of the audience, look to someone on the right, then back to center and then the left. ?

Your words make up only 12 to 15% of your message. The rest of it is tone of voice, and body language. Looking at your audience is one of the most important aspects of body language. Other forms of body language include moving with purpose and facial expression that match your words.?Example: If you say you are happy, smile.

When you look into the eyes of your audience, it feels like a one-to-one conversation, and it makes it personal. ?They know you care about them, and you want to communicate with them. The other great thing is that when you connect with your audience, you start to relax. Because when you follow step one and you prepare, what you're going to see is people nodding their heads, people smiling at you, and laughing at your jokes. And this will set those butterflies free. You’ll enjoy being at the front of the room and sharing your expertise and your message.

Telling a story is a great way to connect.?

Early in my career, I was a sales solution engineer, which led me to my first presentation.?The audience included, the VP of IT, and other IT managers at General Motors. As so often the case, I was a subject matter expert and clueless with respect to delivering a presentation.

The night before the event, the sales manager called for a rehearsal. He requested we do a walk-through of our presentations.?When he heard mine, he said “Miss Dolin, that's the worst speech I've ever heard. I don't know why you even bothered to show up.” I went back to my room a bundle of nerves and spent hours working on and rehearsing my presentation.

Lucky for me it went “ok”.?Ok, because I had practiced the content.?Ok, because the table in the room was long and narrow. So, by talking to the man at the end of the table, everyone felt like I was talking to them.?This was lucky because I didn’t know about the importance of eye contact.

Never wanting to hear those awful words again, “this is the worse presentation ever”, I took a two-day intensive public speaking class.?This led to more speaking opportunities coming my way.?What helped me take my public speaking to the next level was a public speaking coach. Like so many other things, public speaking is a learned skill.?Don’t leave your public speaking skills and your career to luck.

Mind Shift

What is the mind shift??This is the secrete sauce. The shift is from thinking about yourself…. to how best to serve the audience.?

?The presentation is about your audience, not you. It's about the service and the information that you're sharing. Whether you're going to educate, persuade, inform, or motivate, the message is all for them. Think about how you can be of service, help the audience, deliver the best information for the audience. Before you get on stage, take that deep breath. Think about how much you care about sharing and serving the audience.?

You’ve implemented all your steps, now enjoy the party.

Rock Your Career! ?Schedule a discovery call to find out how public speaking coaching can benefit you.