Category Archives: Communication

Dec 08 0 comments
Communication

Public Speaking for Shy or Private People

Niamh wrote:


Learning public speaking is like learning to ride a bike. All you need is some initial courage and a sense of balance. Then you have to change gear as appropriate. Once you’ve progressed that far you simply learn when to put on the brakes.

Most of us have suffered from listening to poor public speakers. We’ve squirmed as they’ve gone on endlessly saying the same thing in a dozen boring ways. Most of us too have admired brilliant speakers and wished we too could captivate an audience. At the very least most of us would like to express our views in public without losing our courage not to mention our voices.

The thing most public speakers have in common is simply a fear of making fools of themselves. They may be college students who have to study rhetoric as part of their schooling. In adult life those who attend may be budding politicians, trade union activists or aspiring business people. There may also usually be a few shy singles and some married couples sharing a new experience in communications. However interesting the mix they don’t usually expect to start the class with breathing exercises.

Teachers will explain that these exercises will help pupils relax. The truth is that when you see others puffing and blowing you have to laugh. You simply can’t take yourself too seriously when you are bent double swinging your arms energetically. In the context of all this merriment it is usually a only a short matter of time before you all introduce yourselves and explain why you are taking public speaking classes.

You first challenge is that you have to get used to speaking aloud. So many teachers provide poems and tongue twisters, even bits from the Bible for you to try. You may be asked to bring in your favourite book and read it to the class. You will discover that they quietest person in the class probably loves gruesome tales of the supernatural while the strongest looking footballer loves lyrical poetry. Once you have got used to the sound of your own voice you progress to speaking about everything under the face of the sun.

One week you may rivet your class with your speech about spies. The next week you will find yourself giving your views on the political system or the World Cup. A good teacher will help you to expand your mind and broaden your interests. You may find yourself in the public library swotting up on a totally new subject and actually enjoying it as you visualise yourself impressing your classmates. It doesn’t take long before you are hooked on the challenge of captivating your audience. It won’t matter to you whether they are classmates, members of the local chamber of commerce or even the world synod of bishops.

That’s fine when you can prepare your speech days in advance. Speaking off the cuff is a totally different but part of public speaking is teaching you to think on your feet. So try to imagine what you would say about forks, Santa or the sky at night without any time to prepare. A simple one-minute off the cuff talk can seem like endless torture. Eventually though you master the idea of making a riveting start, interesting context and a thought-provoking conclusion, even if you don’t know the first thing about the subject. You are on your way to being a competent public speaker. Obviously though you will speak with more passion and zeal when you are inspired by the topic. So if you love sport you will find that your sports speeches will have that extra something and that’s good.

All through your life this skill it will be an asset to you. You may have to speak on graduation day, at the office party, when your best friend celebrates his birthday or even at your daughter’s wedding. Your audience may be schoolmates, the local historical society, a computer convention or simply the parish youth committee.

You learn to use a microphone so that it doesn’t catch the knocking of your knees. You will have learnt how to emphasise a point, how to use notes, how to chair a meeting. You master nervous habits such as hand twisting or foot tapping. Most importantly, you learn to write to be said aloud rather than read. You will find yourself listening critically to other speakers whether they are on radio or television or in a local club. You will start saying to yourself, “he never mentioned X” or “He should have said something about Y”. You become, In fact, the original armchair critic. Above all though you will learn that public speaking is great fun.

Public speaking is a very personal thing. It gives you confidence and it makes you more articulate. It teaches you how to put your ideas in sequence. It also helps you to make new friends. Many public speakers join groups such as Toastmasters and make it a lifelong hobby. Others are simply satisfied to be able to give their viewpoint at a local meeting. If you are really lucky you might even find yourself being paid to lecture on a pet subject!

Being able to speak well in public helps your self-esteem. You may find you are welcomed to parties, invited to functions and it might even help you to impress your boss. Certainly it will expose you to lots of new ideas you hadn’t considered before. You might, like one speaker, learn to think of income tax as today’s equivalent to the tithes once paid to the church to support the poor. Now that’s what’s called a persuasive speech!

Some people of course are naturals and can address any audience anywhere with enthusiasm and ease. Most of us though consider public speaking as a fate worse than death, until we learn to master it. The problem then is that by then it will be like the weekly crossword, you’ll just have to keep at it until you get it right.

There is absolutely no feeling like that of holding an audience in the palm of your hand. So go on grab their attention, entertain and inform them and send them away with your words ringing in their ears.

Whether you call it oratory, rhetoric or public speaking it will enhance your life and help you to make lots of new friends. Like learning to ride a bike it is a skill, once learned, that you never forget.

You may wobble a bit if you get out of practise but soon all the skills you have learnt will soon come back. Then you’ll be freewheeling all the way and your audience will be delighted to come along for the ride!



Dec 05 0 comments
Communication

How You Can Overcome Your Fear Of Public Speaking

Regina Maniam wrote:


For some people, public speaking is an ordeal. Speaking in front of an internal team is bad enough and this gets even worse when they have to speak to an external audience. There is the great fear that some of these people know more than you.

Knowing more is not the only qualification that is being considered in public speaking. Being a speaker means being a subject matter specialist on the topic you are to discuss with your audience, and the ability to bring it across to the audience.

No matter how well-prepared you are, you will experience the “butterfly” thing in your stomach which can cause you to lose focus if left unmanaged. Unless you are cold dead, you will experience the nerves in you and feel the usual symptoms of delivering even the simplest pep talks.

You Are Not Alone

In two separate studies conducted regarding public speaking, it shows that more than 40% of the respondents have a fear of public speaking and do not consider doing it in their lives.

In another related study of fear, 70% of the respondents ranked public speaking as something they will most consider as a panic situation. Additionally, more than 80% of the surveyed population would consider dying instead of delivering an actual speech in front of a huge crowd.

No matter what the circumstances are, handling a speaking engagement requires skills, intellect and time management intertwined to produce the best results characteristic of experienced individuals.

Tips for a Perfect Speech

There are rules and there are rules on public speaking. While you may have your own fears, there are things that you can do to speak in front of a large audience like a pro and create that good and lasting impression.

Not only will that effective and convincing speech delivery make you popular among the larger audiences, it feels good as well on your part for it is something that you can consider as part of your accomplishments.

SOme guidelines are provided below. These have proven effective for some people. Every individual is unique and not every rule will apply to every one. Try out each one. Pick out those that work for you and keep applying them. It will give you a good start in handling the fear of public speaking.

Your personality will be your auxiliary tool in choosing which among the recommendations listed below works best for you and will also provide you with the best oratorical output possible.

1. Fear is Human

To err is human, to forgive is divine, says the old cliche. While this old saying does not pertain specifically to public speaking, it gives an idea of human imperfection to everything else.

Although our technology has advanced a lot, our ability to commit mistakes is likely guaranteed. However, this same reason should not become a part of your excuse for unsuccessful delivery. Give yourself enough time to practice and master your piece!

2. Practice

For every successful oratorical activity, there are three things a speaker has to put in mind: first is practice, second, practice, and third practice again.

No one can underestimate the power of a constant yet effective speaking drill. This helps you memorize your lines and master them paving the way to creating adlibs as you go along the way.

3. Fill in the Bucket of Confidence

Confidence is what matters in any public speaking activity. Do not let the fear of a speaking presentation control you. Use these emotional and physical limitations to your own advantage and overpower performance anxiety to overcome the fear of public speaking.

4. Expect Nothing But Perfection

Nobody is perfect just as your audiences are not perfect. People fear speaking in front of a large crowd because they are afraid to fail. In a number of studies in psychology, the brain has an inherent ability to store any emotions, be it negative or positive, in the subconscious mind.

The subconscious mind as you know, operates on a non-conscious level of brain activity. It functions without you knowing and creates activities that do not come from your normal willing.

If you convince yourself into believing that you can achieve perfection in your target activity, there is a greater possibility of achieving it. Your mind prepares your body for such an activity and operates as if it has done it before and you will not feel as though you are new to it.

Imagine that you are getting a standing ovation after your speech. This helps greatly in overcoming the fear of public speaking as it feeds your subconscious mind. Imagining making the speech is not a good idea as you might see yourself making mistakes and this gets into the subconscious as well and may increase the fear of public speaking. Instead, just focus on a successful outcome and how excited and happy you are personally and how the audience is very appreciative of the content value that you provided.

5. Act as If No One is Watching

We sometimes fail because we set standards that are way too high for us to achieve. This limits us from achieving the level of success that we are capable of reaching and hinders us for further accomplishments in the task.

Your audience would definitely not want to see you trembling and communicate the sense of nervousness in yourself so you better hide it as much as possible. Do not make a big deal out of your own errors but instead move ahead and keep a positive outlook that everything will turn out just fine.

There is only one way to overcome the fear of public speaking. Do it and learn from the experiences.



Dec 04 0 comments
Communication

A Public Speaking Nightmare

Paul Tobey wrote:


Recently, I attended a keynote presentation by a major radio executive in Toronto. Which, may sound interesting enough but, what happened at this event may make you think twice about how fine tuned your public speaking skills really are!

It all started innocently enough when a representative from the hosting organization got up to introduce the keynote speaker. What happened next can only be described as a complete public speaking meltdown and a humiliating nightmare.

After taking the stage and nervously placing herself behind the podium, she immediately launched into a twenty minute litany about herself, her quirky mother, nine rooms in her house, her alcoholic father, her trip to Boston, her move to New York etc. And, as she rested her elbows on the podium she held tightly to her face two goose-neck microphones. (I know you can picture this in your head!) And, while this looked obviously inappropriate she also never got around to mentioning anything about the keynote speaker.

With growing frustration, chairs around the room started to shift, people started to moan, and people began to give hand signals to hurry up and get off the stage. Yet, despite all the warning signs, she just kept going. Then, it happened. She got heckled by the audience! “Get off the stage for crying out loud, let the speaker speak!” said one. “That’s enough!” said the other. And, this was not just any audience! This was a prominent well-to-do money making business audience.

Not only did she never even get to the point but, but she failed completely in her duty to introduce and honour the keynote speaker. After realizing her professional blunder (due to the loud heckling from the audience) she politely said “well it looks like I’ve run out of time”. Though she tried to regain her composure, she sheepishly began reading the guest speaker’s credentials off a page in a monotone voice like she was reading names from a phonebook.

I can honestly tell you that it was truly painful to be in that audience and watch such a complete and utter self-destruction! The whole room was not only uncomfortable but some audience members were clearly angry! This is just one example of the many potential public speaking mishaps that I witness on a regular basis.

Other common public speaking mistakes include…

When the speaker fails to build trust with his/her audience

When the speaker tries gimmicks or jokes that interfere with their message

When the speaker fails to effectively communicate their message and/or product/service benefits

When a speaker puts the audience to sleep

When a speaker manages to exclude their entire audience by focusing all of their attention on one member (or target members) of the audience

Have you ever heard ineffective speeches or pitches by politicians or by business leaders and colleagues? Did it garner your trust or lose your trust? Have you ever heard sorry speeches at weddings that made you say “yikes”? Have you ever attended a seminar where you were filled with so many statistics that you were bored after ten minutes? Have you ever witnessed an amazing seminar and wished you could do the same?

You may be interested to know that public speaking is an art that can be taught. In fact, everyone can learn the basic template for a winning and successful presentation. Learning public speaking can be a fun and stimulating experience that will empower you in any boardroom or public presentation. It can give you the confidence you need to achieve the higher success that you want! Simply by learning the secrets of powerful speakers you can make affect great change in both your professional and personal life! Avoid the professional pitfalls and public blunders altogether. Public speaking training is not only a great investment in your professional career; it’s a great life investment that will reward you again and again.



Dec 03 0 comments
Communication

Is Your Fear Of Public Speaking Hold You Back?

Faye B. Roberts wrote:


A recent Gallup poll found that 40% of adults have a fear of public speaking. Comedian Jerry Seinfeld once stated that at a funeral, most people would rather be inside the casket than giving the eulogy!

Public speaking fear can cripple your career since it’s almost impossible to be successful in business without having to speak to a large group at some point in time. But an excruciating fear of speaking can make this a painful experience.

Whether you call it performance anxiety or stage fright this crippling fear is a performer’s equivalent to writer’s block. It can stop you cold in your tracks.

The stress of recalling the next line of your speech and the anxiety caused by being on stage can be a powerful combination. Add the fact that a single mistake can mar your presentation and you have a recipe for debilitating stage fright.

Nearly every speaker has had a bout of stage fright at some point in their career. Fear of public speaking manifests itself in many situations, and for people from all walks of life. It ranges from nervousness when talking to more than a couple of people at work, to full blown panic at the mere thought of speaking in any public situation.

Whether you are the person who dreads the moment in a meeting when someone turns to you and says; “What do you think”? or you virtually pass out at the thought of any public speaking, you CAN be helped.

Learning to speak in public is very much like eating an elephant - one bite at a time. Practice on your friends or family. They don’t even have to know that they are your “practice audience”.

Learn some small piece of information and then informally introduce the subject at the next family gathering or outing. Be prepared enough to be able to answer questions on the topic. See, that wasn’t so hard, now go out and gather more information on another topic and do it again. Your public speaking abilities get better and easier each time you do it.

Once you feel comfortable speaking in small, informal gatherings then branch out to bigger arenas. Perhaps your church group or bridge club, your volunteer group or a meeting at work.

Your fear of public speaking will diminish each time you repeat the process. As you get more and more comfortable speaking in public you will find that the tension and stress you used to feel may still be there, but you can use it to enhance your performance. All it takes is the willingness to try and you just may find your life is greatly enhanced by it.



Oct 30 0 comments
Communication

Train the Trainer, Mastering the Art of Public Speaking

Paul Tobey wrote:


In a world of get-rich-quick schemes and self help books that promise to make you rich and feel worthy at the same time, it’s difficult sometimes to separate quality information from hype. So, when a friend told me about an upcoming seminar that promised this kind of life-changing information I approached it initially with a lot of skepticism.

I certainly had no idea what to expect since the hype surrounding the event was simply massive. However, since the course was free, my wife and I figured well, we’ve nothing to lose and everything to gain; including a nice weekend trip to Montreal.

From the first minute we entered the room we were totally engulfed in energy. It was a huge hotel ballroom with over two thousand people in attendance. There was a simple but attractive stage with two large projection screens which straddled each side.

As the speaker began you could just feel the energy and abundance of knowledge. This was indeed a master speaker at work. He paced everything just right. There were group exercises, self-evaluations, dancing, breaks, music, tons of valuable information and of course selling. The entire three days were performed with mastery beyond anything I had ever seen.

Now, as a concert pianist, I’ve had a lot of experience with logistics including; staging, lighting, music, sound and staffing support. All of which has to be well coordinated to have the desired affect with audiences. But, this show was beyond excellent. It was superb. The end result? I heard that these guys made two million dollars in that one weekend.

Think about it for a second. They put two thousand people in a room for three days and they walk away with over two million in sales.

I learned a lot in those three days but I knew I wanted to learn more about how they do what they do. So, when the opportunity came up to purchase one of their courses that teach exactly how they do it, I leapt at the chance. I grabbed my credit card and ran to the back to sign up.

I always thought I was a pretty good entertainer. In fact, the newspaper and magazine reviews would always comment on my entertainment style. But Train the Trainer I would teach me how to take that to the next level. When I arrived to Vancouver for the 4 day intensive I found 300 eager people looking to hone their skills in public speaking. I wanted to master the craft of entertainment. As I suspected, over the next few days I did learn large amounts of valuable information that would help master the art of entertainment. Things like how to read a room and how to shift an audience’s energy. In short, I learned how to engage and enroll an audience 100% of the time. Most importantly, they taught me how to make an offer. They also taught us how to put bums in seats, how to produce a successful event and how to leverage a success to obtain another.

Needless to say, Train the Trainer I was a remarkable experience for me. I came home so inspired that I self-produced a Christmas Concert where I sold 322 CD’s to an audience of 600 persons. That’s more than 50% of the people that went home with product that need. So, I had learned how to make a great offer from the stage. Train the Trainer cost me over five thousand dollars, but in one night I sold enough product to cover that cost. My return on investment had only begun.

The following few months I would be afforded opportunities to speak, perform more concerts, and offer tele-seminars and intensive training sessions on subjects that were close to me both personally and professionally. One thing I had learned is that you could only teach what you know and what you have had success at. Therefore, I chose to teach about my successes such as internet marketing, public speaking, personal development, tinnitus and much more.

My audiences grew exponentially and my online sales more than quadrupled! The more I put into practice what Peak Potentials taught me, the more I felt a sense of mastery I never experienced before in both my concerts and seminars. And with that growing self-mastery came the financial goals I was striving for which what is brought me to the Millionaire Mind Intensive in the first place.

I admire both T. Harv and Peak Potentials for the level of production and sophistication they have brought to their seminar business. I continue to be grateful to them for introducing me to a whole new way of entertaining and educating audiences. I went to them to help me become a better entertainer. Instead, I walked away with both personal and professional skills that helped me achieve higher heights as a father, husband, entertainer, money manager, public speaker and trainer. And so, I too became inspired to take that valuable information and pass it on.



Jan 28 0 comments
Communication

Public Speaking Training Can Really Help your Business

Paul Tobey wrote:


Did you know that the most successful companies have professional speakers in key positions or are the head of the company? Have you ever seen Bill Gates, Steve Jobs or Donald Trump do a presentation? These are just some of the speakers that have pushed their companies through the corporate roof.

Are they winging it? No. In fact, most successful people know that to really stand out in business you have to be able to stand up in front of and audience and extol the virtues of your company. That takes serious presentation and public speaking skills.

And, for those skills you need to go to a professional. Unfortunately there are not that many professional public speaking trainers around to give you the information you need. So, it’s likely that you’ll have to do a little bit of travel to find a course that will teach you exactly what you need to know.

So, what will these professional trainers teach you? What are the skills necessary for excellent presentations? First and foremost the good public speaking trainers will teach you how to enroll and engage an audience. That means; keeping their attention focused 100% of the time. If they’re daydreaming, sleeping or talking to their neighbor they can’t possibly be paying attention to what you’re saying.

How do you keep them enrolled and engaged? That’s where most public speakers fail. You see, many speakers think it’s all about them and how well they speak, but that’s not it at all. In fact, the best public speakers are the ones that make the audiences the star by asking a lot of questions and getting the audience to respond. When the audience hears a question the mind wants to automatically answer it. If all you do is spew out data and more data, it will go in one ear and right out the other.

Another good way of keeping their attention is to get them to finish your sentences. For example; if I use the sentence, “most people get up every day and go to _____,” the audience would likely respond by saying “work.” When you use sentences that have obvious endings and you leave out the ending and motion for the audience to respond, 99 times out of 100 they will. That means they’re listening, enrolled and engaged.

Now, let’s say you’ve figured out the whole question and response thing, what should you do next? A good public speaker knows how to move about the stage. Standing behind a podium and reading from your notes is a sure path to failure. Learning to move about the stage is an art from which can be learned if you have the right teacher. For example; did you know that when you’re addressing the right side of the audience you should be on the left? Why? Because, if you address the right side while on the right, you’ll lose the left side’s attention.

Also, never move towards a person when they ask a question. Always move as far to the opposite side of the stage as you can and give them the floor. Again, the last thing you want to do is forget about the whole audience and focus on just one person. The question usually applies to everyone anyway.

Finally, there’s the whole debate of whether to use notes or not. I do, but in limitation. I use headlines to remind me of where I’m supposed to be in the presentation. I glance at the headlines every once in a while just to jog my memory about the topic at hand. Never, write your speech out word for word. First of all it looks like you’re reading and second of all it looks like you don’t know your subject, which of course you should.

Next article I’ll speak about the perfect presentation template and how to use it in your next speech, training or even sales pitch.