Public speaking
Three quick and easy brain hacks for public speaking anxiety
In the moments leading up to giving a presentation or speech, many people feel a surge of anxiety—heart-racing, hand-quaking, sick-to-their-stomach anxiety. Some of the work to fortify oneself against the fear of public speaking happens well in advance of the actual presentation or speech. But when the adrenaline and cortisol flood your body right before you take the “stage,” you need an additional, entirely different set of tactics.
Read MoreHow to introduce a speaker (or how to write your own introduction)
If an event has a speaker, s/he will need to be introduced. At larger events, that’s often done by someone whose primary function is to act as MC; at smaller events, the event or meeting planner is likely to introduce the speaker in addition to all their other responsibilities. In either case, the content of that introduction would ideally be developed well in advance of the event.
MCs/event hosts will want to contact the speaker(s) for some raw information to use for crafting the speaker’s introduction. (This is especially important if the event host will be introducing more than one speaker, as the introductions should have some continuity in the content and style.)
When there’s no MC, the speaker him/herself will likely need to supply the introduction. This is often the case at smaller events and meetings (and podcasts!) where the planner has a myriad of responsibilities and might overlook it until quite late in the game or simply not know how to do it well.
Read MoreIf you write out your entire presentation, do this
Not everyone writes out the entire content of their presentation (or speech… or sermon…), but many people do. I always coach my clients to avoid doing so because it causes us to become too focused on word-for-word delivery—which isn’t helpful for either the speaker or the audience.
But there’s another reason it becomes a problem. If you’ve written out your content in full sentences, you’ve likely hampered your delivery (and the success of your message) without realizing it.
How?
Read More3 hacks for the nervous Christian communicator
My latest article for Our Daily Bread was the intersection of my two passions: faith in Jesus Christ and public speaking (and helping others do it well). The former is obviously more important to me than the latter, despite naming them in the same sentence. Many ODB readers contacted me with comments about their challenges speaking in public, so this seems a fitting time to offer some guidance for those in my faith-based readership who also need to share a message publicly.
Read MoreMy #1 rule for public speaking. And its corollary.
Like much of the world, I’ve been watching the public discourse on Naomi Osaka’s departure from the French Open. I’m not a tennis player so my interest isn’t related to the sport itself. Instead, I’m processing the reasoning behind her decision.
I confess I don’t know the innerworkings of her story; I know only what’s been shared in recent days on various media outlets. She’s cited bouts of depression over the last four years, as well as anxiety over public speaking in press interviews.
Before I address the public speaking aspect, I feel compelled to speak on the former concern: Mental health is still a topic we don’t address openly enough as a society. There’s stigma and shame where there shouldn’t be. (Sidenote: I’d argue this is exacerbated within the church when we “counsel” someone struggling with mental health issues to simply have more faith. Resources here.) I’m grateful for the people (many athletes) who’ve courageously shared their battles with us, bringing the topic into the public forum. Let’s honor their stories—and those of so many who struggle silently—by responding with respect and compassion.
As it relates to the public speaking anxiety Osaka references, I offer an insight and a challenge for us all.
First, the insight…
Read MoreHow to deliver your best talk to a hybrid audience
At long last, we’re seeing a slow return to in-person events.
As speakers, most of us are thrilled by the prospect of once again being in the room with our audiences… to feed off the virtuous energy cycle and be able to more effectively respond to their non-verbal cues. Hooray!
Yet lower costs and higher attendance make virtual events likely to be permanent fixtures; some events have grown their audiences four-fold because of the virtual setting. What virtual events can’t do, though, is replace the many boons of in-person events, so trends indicate that hybrid events will become the norm.
What does this mean for speakers?
Read MoreTa-da! TEDx!
I’m dedicating this week’s blog post to the amazing 2020 TEDxBoise speakers.
This group signed on for a six-month effort to build the talk of their lives. That was back in October 2019.
Well, we all know what happened next… COVID.
In March 2020 we postponed the event and plotted a course toward a 2021 event with the same crew. And then we had an opportunity to get our speakers on stage in the fall, thanks to the generous folks at the Idaho Shakespeare Festival. So this resilient crew readied themselves to deliver their talks with just a few weeks of notice.
We are–at long last–ready to share their talks with you.
There are a wide variety of subjects represented in this cohort. I recommend you click through to the TEDxBoise site to read the descriptions and find the ones you’d most enjoy. But if you want to watch the whole thing through (as if you’d been at the event), you can find a playlist here.
I saw firsthand how hard each of these speakers worked on their talks. They didn’t have the benefit of a 400-person audience to help them launch their talks into the world so perhaps you’d be willing to share the ones you enjoyed with your own networks?
Enjoy!
Think your presentation is done? Not so fast.
As speakers and presenters, we need to take a cue from the writing world.
The written word and spoken word need to be structured differently and use different rhetorical devices, syntax, and vocabulary. (This is a challenge that surfaces often when I’m preparing writers for a big talk.)
But one important commonality exists between them:
Read MoreThe problem with most pitch decks (and presentations of all kinds)
Probably more than 90% of the entrepreneurs I help prepare to pitch for funding make the same mistake. (Frankly, more than 90% of all presentations make this mistake.) In a practice session with an entrepreneur this week, it surfaced immediately, on the second slide… and all those that followed.
The problem?
Read MoreFor when you’re presenting to a grid of black squares
I asked the participants in my virtual workshop what challenges they experience when presenting. Some of the usual answers surfaced: finding the right content (and the right amount of it), feeling nervous, having enough preparation time, and trying to create the slide deck that doesn’t look like a user manual.
Then came an unusual (and wildly appreciated) answer:
Read More