Afraid of public speaking? Get over it

You always read about a report that says fear of speaking in public is ranked more highly than dying or jumping out of an airplane.. or something.

I don’t know how accurate that is or whether it is an Internet perpetuated myth. True or not, it doesn’t really matter. You need to get over it!

Well.. you need to if you want to have a much better chance of growing your business or career and being perceived as an expert; someone worth listening to.

Why speak in public?

I’m not going to belabor this point. Some quick reasons:

The podium imparts credibility: If you cover what your audience knows, you are perceived as an expert because you are bolstering what they know… they are smart, so you must be too. Say something new and innovative and you are perceived as an expert because you introduced a new idea.
It forces you to organize your ideas: Having 20-30,45 minutes to cover an idea means you have to pick and choose what you will cover.

Getting over fear

Again, not really the point of this entry.. but join Toastmasters or take a speech and communication class. Most important, give a presentation as quickly as you can.

The first time I had to present to a group of adults, I was 14. It was an article writing class I took with my father. I had to pitch my article. I got up to the teacher’s desk. Looked out at all the “old” people there – mostly 30-50 year olds – ancient!! I started speaking, the room got fuzzy, and the next thing I know my father was propping me up because I had nearly fainted.

It gets better.

Making Your Presentation Palatable

This is the real information. These are lessons that if adopted will help you present more effectively.

3 Main Points: That’s it. Don’t do more. 3 Big ideas are what people can walk away with easily. You can cover some detail in those 3 main points – and your audience may remember some of those details, particularly if they are framed within those 3 main points.
Eyes, Ears, Heart: This came from an excellent speaker I saw once – Vince Poscente. The idea is this, in the first 2 minutes, use an anecdotal story. Be in motion. Engage their senses and their emotions. (see example below)
Use slides for an Impact, not an echo:If you have not picked up Presentation Zen, I recommend it. Basic idea: Do not DO NOT DO NOT have slides with bullets listing the points you are making. Why should they listen to you.. they can read.Below are two slides I use in my presentation, Throw Away The Box: The TAO of Innovation & Creativity. I use them to represent what the world see and believes about creative people – that ideas arrive fully formed.. ie: like the mouth of the Amazon but that the reality is that ideas form smaller – like the origins of the Amazon – a droplet.. but start to build from many places, until the creative idea/product is realized.I do not have any words on these slides.. they are simply meant to enhance the idea; to add impact. People get it.
More energy… and then more: People in radio get this. You are far less animated and energetic than you believe. This can come across as boring or stale… There are few things worse than being boring as a presenter.
Key tip: Video your speeches – and then review. It is painful.. I promise but you’ll know what to fix.

Here is a snippet of a presentation I gave several years ago.. the story about the phrase, “It’s On!”

Start Immediately

You can put it off – but do so only as long as you want your career or business to be limited in it’s growth potential. It’s up to you.

If you speak, what problems have you faced? What other tips can you provide?

If you do not speak.. why not?

http://dr1665.com Brian Driggs

Good food for thought, Matt. Love the story about “It’s on!”

I am very much a text-based life form. Don’t really do any speaking in this sense of the word. That’s looking to change in coming months, as I’ve been asked to do some lunch-and-learn events about social media, community development, and such. Figure these are going to be great opportunities to get my feet wet when “it all pays the same.”

Should speaking/presentation skills get to the point of being part of my livelihood, I’m going to need to keep this stuff in mind. Because I am so “textual,” I tend to be wordy. Combine that with my tendency to follow tangents, and it’s clear I need to begin with the end in mind, pare things down (to three takeaways), and come correct with a presentation which doesn’t render my speaking redundant.

I like to tell people my train of thought has no rails. Instead, it moves freely in any direction because it rides on a plane of ball bearings. (And, if you can imagine a freight train moving like that, well, you see my predicament.)

Cheers.
http://www.MatthewMoranOnline.com Matt Moran

Hey Brian:

Check out Presentation Zen – I think you’ll appreciate it. Plus it will help your text-based nature become more image conscious.

Here is the cool thing.. I am WAAAAYYYYY tangental.. so, 3 take aways means I only need to sort of in a roundabout way bring everything together into those 3 take-aways.

Remember: Eyes, ears, heart! Get your audience vested.
http://dr1665.com Brian Driggs

I’ve heard of Presentation Zen. Should probably zoom in on that one.

The tangental mind is like an unrestrained hyperactive child with a Mountain Dew on a playground. Living in almost constant brainstorm is incredibly awesome (wouldn’t change it for the world, frankly), but there are times when that energy needs to be harnessed and channeled in a specific direction. The 3-takeaways idea is solid. I’ll definitely be using that one, sir.

An aside, I’m not receiving any notifications on your comment replies, Matt – Notify box checked or not. Any thoughts on a plugin like Disqus? I pretty much live or die by the email notification these days.