Public speaking/ Presentation tips - Page 3

FINALLY someone mentions Toastmasters. A big +1000 on this, and here's why:

At every meeting you'll see speakers in various phases of development. Some may look like naturals, others will be painfully awkward, but everyone remembers when they too were painfully awkward. After joining, you'll be given a manual with speaking projects and probably assigned a mentor who wants to help you get comfortable at the front. You write your own speeches (with given objectives in mind), and deliver them to the group according to the schedule.

After each speech, you'll get a formal evaluation from a more senior member who should point out what you did well, and give you something to improve for your next speech. The rest of the members will give you some form of written feedback - mostly positive, but ideally with something you should try to improve. You should get markedly better with each speech you give. Try for one speech a month, or more often as your schedule permits.

And the folks who look like naturals? Most of them still come around because they want to help the new members get better quickly. I often stay late after meetings because a new member wants my feedback on how they delivered their speech, or perhaps how I would have tackled their speech - a different opening, closing, props, etc. Pick your club carefully, go for the one with the strongest speakers, and you'll be surprised at your progress.

I don't understand the last part about being nervous because these are your peers and they're comparing themselves to you. That part will never go away, and why would it concern you anyway? You can only control what you have control over (which is you), so join TM and get cracking!

I joined Toastmasters while in B-school, I was among the younger members of my club, and they got me up to speed in a hurry. I say this in all humility when I tell you that by my last semester, I was a better speaker and presenter than anyone else in any of my classes, except for one of my professors.

As others have said...

Know your subject thoroughly... and

Be yourself.

When I was a baby attorney, a senior partner pulled me to the side and said,

"Steven, can the judge kill you?"
"Steven, can the judge eat you?"

Then, what are you worried about.

Oh.. in terms of your audience being nekkid... better yet.. picture them nekkid, EXCEPT.. they all have on black wool socks.

my advice would be just preparation and being confident and comfortable.

I would usually have 2-3 shots of espresso to focus, I didn't have access to adderol but it would have helped I think. Its different for each person.

I would again stress be relaxed, my knees locked in class during my first speech. I got a sympathy C, but you really don't want to fall in front of colleagues/clients.

Great advice in this thread... just to mirror a few points:

- being a little nervous is completely natural, even for some of the people that do it daily. It'll usually go away literally after the first three sentences.

- most of all: know your subject matter and, in my opinion, have a bullet-proof outline for your presentation prepared you can fall back on even if you panic completely. This alone should give you enough confidence to carry you through.

- I find it quite effective (especially if you are one of many speakers that day) to relate to the audience in some way before launching into your actual presentation by putting the subject matter into context for them, appropriate humor, etc.; it's good to prepare some "canned material" beforehand.

Good luck!

If you sound like you are speaking too slowly that's probably the right speed - most people tend to speak to fast due to nerves etc.

Humour, even slightly lame humour, self deprecating or whatever at the beginning defuses the tension situation, you can make it feel as chatty and casual as possible, this doesn't mean don't have power point or speak badly, just be cool

Know your subject matter, and read around it a fair bit

Have it planned out but do not read from cards or a page, have bullet point notes for prompts but anything more than that and the temptation is to start reading it aloud, and you will spend too long looking down rather than engaging with your audience

Excellent idea. I forgot that I used to do this in my early days, before I became much more comfortable speaking. Make sure your bullet points are written in about 20 point font so you can read them at arms length. It's not good for your audience see you squinting to read your notes.