Do you think that if you knew that you looked and sounded just right, that your confidence to get up and make a speech would be boosted? Would your public speaking fears be banished by having the knowledge that the way you present yourself reflects a confident and assured speaker to all those who see you? Well in my experience it most certainly would and I have a way that might just help.
You see when I first went on a presentation skills course many years ago I had no confidence at all in my own ability to speak in front of an audience. The mere thought of it would bring me out in a cold sweat and I would be overwhelmed by nerves. The idea of me giving an assured and confident presentation in front of any audience seemed ridiculous. But within a couple of days all that changed!
The course was very much hands-on and involved role play routines and we went through the whole process of putting together a presentation. We learned how to research it, plan it and how to give it the correct structure. Then we formed up into pairs and actually filmed each other doing our talk.
Now if you've ever heard your voice on a recording you will know how it always sounds totally different to how you expect. So you can imagine what it was like to sit and watch the recording of our films.
It was quite a shock to see myself, but it was also a real education.
I could look at how I stood, examine the movements I made, and despair at how little I smiled. I was also able to listen to the tone of my voice, see where I did or didn't put pauses and hear the intonation and emphasis in my talk.
We had the chance to identify the good bits and to see where we could make changes to make it better. Then when we had done that we filmed it all over again.
The improvement was amazing and we got to keep the recordings so that we could show them to family and friends. When I showed mine the positive feedback was great and I've never looked back since. Seeing myself making that presentation really boosted my confidence and it can do the same for you.
So do whatever you can to get a way of filming yourself, you may even be able to set up a camcorder, or even just a webcam, and do it yourself if you prefer not to have anyone else present. I would recommend though that you involve someone you know and trust as their opinion will be invaluable.
Simply prepare a short speech, no more than five minutes, and film it. Then see how you look and sound. Examine the following:
- How you look.
- Do you smile enough?
- Your movements
- Your body language
- The tone of your voice
- Where and when you take pauses
- Your breathing
- Your intonation and pitch.
Decide what is good and what you can make better. Then do it all again, a number of times if you have to. Then, when you are happy with how you look and sound, be brave and show it to someone else. I'll be very surprised if they are not full of praise and give you lots of positive feedback.
Then you can be proud and confident that you can get up and talk to anyone knowing that you'll look and sound just right.
Public Speaking For College And Career
The speakers that touch your heart and impinge and impact the mind know how to establish a very special kind of rapport. In fact, it can be viewed as a very peculiar rapport that requires the public speaker to in a sense throw his or her heart and soul into their talk. Peculiar because the average sometimes even good public speaker is ignorant of this seldom addressed technique. Yet, just as in acting this is incredibly valuable because those who know this skill reach the top in their field. In acting it was taught by a famous Russian teacher and adapted by some acting schools in America. And, I am one of the few who knows the technology and more important how to teach it. In fact, the exercises are so concise; there has never been a student who didn't get it.
Done well, it establishes a very very powerful connection, an emotional connection that allows people to almost literally be inside each other's minds and provides a feeling of understanding of how the audience and speaker are thinking alike.
Some people consider this to be impossible, yet you can actually discover the secrets of how to do that with one person or thousands in the same room. How in the world do you make each member of an audience of many feel as though you were speaking directly to him or her?
As impossible as this may sound, it is an invigoration that most crave almost like a drug. The ability to get a public speaker's audience into that zone or trance is something thought of with envy.
One secret is to be in the zone even before your audience. If you want your audience to be in harmony with you, be harmonious first. Get into the zone you'd like them to be in and they (for the most part anyway) will follow you.
Now, I am not a Pollyanna. I know that certain topics at certain times, especially in the opening portion of your talk(s) are momentarily far from harmonious. I remember well the moments like they were an hour ago during which a member of the audience challenged me.
In fact, it was during my first morning as a trainer when this man yelled out ?This is a Crock of ?you know what.? In order to establish the rapport that I knew was mandatory to establish, if I was going to succeed, I simply asked him to explain and listened most carefully. After he was finished telling me, I asked him if there was more. I needed to be sure I got it all before asking if it was all right to continue.
Needless to say that bump in the road was in its special way the opportunity for us to get into a great rapport. The rapport with that participant was even a little more special than the rest of the audience.
It helps a public speaker handle what ever emerges.
What is Your Zone?
In my mind I perceive the zone to be God, Love, Spirit ?they are to me all synonymous. It is called the Dao in Far Eastern thought. Einstein said everything is energy. Our thoughts are, believe it or not, also energy! And, the best energy is the energy of the universe, the flow. When you mess with the flow you are in deep trouble. When you understand it and surrender, if you will, to it, you will win! Negative energy is the same energy but removed from or put up in resistance to the natural flow of the universe. No law is stronger that this law of the universe.
When you synchronize your thoughts and actions with the flow, you will win the endeavor. Appose it and it will essentially strike you down. Nothing can defeat the flow of the universe no matter how hard they try.
The people who spend their lives in jail for the most part tried their best to defy this law. Like the law of gravity they lost.
Anger is the opposite of the zone so we might analyze it as well. Far Eastern thought says a disagreement and anger only persist when there is a lie in it. Remove the lie and replace it with the truth and you are set free.
As a public speaker you must do your very best to be do and represent the truth. Are you really into your topic? Are you of clear mind? Are you up for the job? In order to have the confidence, the enthusiasm, you need to review your qualifications. This should provide you with a surge of emotional energy. You know that your public speech is uniquely yours and your audience will benefit by hearing you speak.
A legendary hypnotist and teacher Gil Boyne, recommends that all hypnotherapists get their baggage eliminated before attempting to help others. In hypnotherapy and other emotional therapies we are dealing with lies.
Ho do even honest people have lies in the minds? Most baggage comes from our youth. Everyone had the worst upbringing. Our parents were never issued a handbook to guide them and they had their own growing up yet to do. When you rise to the point that you forgive everyone who harmed you in your youth, you will realize that the emotional charge was only your own doing.
While you are not at fault, you made the decision to hold the grudge. Now if the universe is all energy and that energy is all going in one direction, the flow, you have now put up resistance to the flow and got that emotional energy stuck on you. You wear it like a dog that has a tail. Your tail is visible to those who know how to read people. We may be what we eat in terms of our cells, yet most of us ignore the effect our emotional charge no matter how deeply buried, has upon our cells. Wallace Waddles wrote how all disease begins in the mind.
Regressive therapy, which works miracles is about going back in your mind to the events that had pain loss etc. in them and reviewing or even reliving them as an adult today. What happens is you get the charge that you've been holding all this time off your chest, so to speak. You are removing the lies you told yourself when your brain was not yet fully developed, when you were incapable of having all the knowledge and experience that would have allowed you to immediately forgive.
That's the irony of life. The people who know the zone either have eliminated the emotional baggage and or know how to rise above it. The exercises I teach can get anyone above the fray and into the zone. And, I know where you can find the best counselors with the best emotional therapy, for the asking.
Both Tony Hall & Michael Seriosa are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
Tony Hall has sinced written about articles on various topics from self improvement and motivation, Public Speaking and self improvement and motivation. This article was written by Tony Hall who runs his own business providing individuals with personal and business skills development. You can learn more about developing your public speaking skills by visiting the website at:. Tony Hall's top article generates over 14800 views. to your Favourites.