Public speaking scares the c*#p out of the majority of people.
It takes a lot of energy to stand put yourself in front of a group, be they strangers, peers or friends and share your knowledge or your story. It doesn’t even have to be a large group, giving a talk to a small group can be just as daunting as they might have questions you can’t answer.
You might feel like you want to be sick, you might want to pee.
Tension might give you a headache, or a dry mouth.
Fortunately it was my fear that actually drove me to become familiar with ways to give a great talk and keep people enthralled. When I was a teenager, I was a Rotary Exchange Student in Saskatoon, Canada. This meant attending Rotary Meetings once a week to be part of the fellowship and each Tuesday I would have to listen to a different guest speaker (who may or may not have had interesting things for a 17 year Aussie old girl to hear). They all had different styles most were not polished public speakers, some were off the cuff, which is pretty hard to do, you really have to know your subject inside out. Some had prepared notes that they talked to or worse, read from. Some had slides that they used and some were show and tell. Let’s just say, more than most had me wanting to nod off so I used to sit and people watch the other Rotarians and see what their reactions were to what they were hearing.
If you’ve ever been to a Rotary Meeting the ages of the members range from 30’s to 90’s, so to keep everyone interested is a hard thing to do. Back then it was only men, now days there are women Rotarians also, so the topics might be a bit more interesting to girls now.
As a student at the time, I knew I was expected to give a talk on myself, my family and my country at some point throughout the year and maybe more than once, just the thought of it made me frightened. Public speaking was not something I was taught in school. I wasn’t confident I could pull it off.
Preparation, well before I left Australia was vital. I had a lot of slides to share (this was pre PowerPoint) and lots of unusual facts about aboriginal history from the area I grew up in. People know me by my laugh, it’s pretty loud, but I don’t consider myself a funny person. So to keep this group engaged I had to pull out all stops. I had to master my fear and be memorable.
What did I do to create my point of difference? I needed to make them all sit up and listen, so here is what I do;
- Be organised, no one likes to have to wait for you to start. That includes preparation as well as audio visual.
- Ensure your introduction is memorable. I used slides of my family and friends that were not posed, but showed them all having a good time. Give them a funny visual, you don’t need to be a comedian yourself. A crazy animal shot or video is always a crowd pleaser or a blooper related to your topic will keep them interested.
- Make the talk interactive, find a way to include the participants in the discussion. Pose a question? Ask does anyone know what this is? Use people’s names if you know them. Ask your audience is everyone still awake? This is particularly good if you are a speaker after a meal. The oldies have been known to nod off if they are at the back and think they can hide.
- Give them facts that they can take away and share. Maybe use a worksheet with questions they can answer from your talk. Give away a prize if people get it all right.
- Teach them something. Anything….people crave knowledge and ways of weaving it into their lives. A good public speaker is an educator.
Public speaking will always be a challenge, but to keep your fear at bay, use my points of difference to ensure people walk away happy in the knowledge you entertained them and gave them something to think about.
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