by twicepix under CC BY-SA  with wpseopix.com

Not Moving

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Stiff as a board

Have you ever seen a street artist like this one before?   I’m sure you have round your city or
town.  The point of the exercise is for the artist not to move.  It is hard for him to do because it is not natural.

Yet put a person on a stage in front of an audience and suddenly they become as stiff as our friend here.

You might feel awkward by doing gestures; to your audience it looks strange if you don’t.

Some cultures and countries tend to gesture more than others.  For some though it can be hard.

You can get your ideas and thoughts over better if you use not just your voice but also hand movements and facial expressions.

Look through your talk and find instances when you can use gestures. As an example,   if you were speaking about size, relative location or the position of something you could use your hands quite naturally.  These would be descriptive gestures.

When you are in conversation in a normal setting it’s surprising how many times you use them.

The one got away   

If you have been fishing and you want to tell your friends
about the huge fish you had caught but had got away, how would you do it?  With the aid of gestures of course.

It is the most natural thing to do.

So in you public speaking look for places you can dogestures.  You may feel that it is forced at first.

With practice it will seem natural and will certainly enhance your presentation.

So get moving those hands!!

]]> http://publicspeakinghq.com/http:/publicspeakinghq.com/success/feed/ 0 http://publicspeakinghq.com/http:/publicspeakinghq.com/success/ http://publicspeakinghq.com/http:/publicspeakinghq.com/success/#comments Sat, 12 Nov 2011 15:09:02 +0000 Kev http://publicspeakinghq.com/?p=23  

When you are giving a presentation you can sometimes concentrate so much on the information you’re giving, you can forget that you’ve draped yourself over the podium.

Check out these top tips on what, and what not to do. 

So, some top tips there.  Remember, no hiding behind the plants!!   

Aeroplanes and spiders

What scares you the most?  Would you believe the scariest thing for most people has nothing to do with insects or being thousands of feet in the air with no visible means of support.

Getting up and speaking in public is one of the most frightening things you can do.

The thought of standing in front of an audience waiting for you to deliver a talk that is both informative and entertaining can be as traumatic as walking across Niagara Falls on a tightrope.  

Yet, if you get it right, public speaking can be hugely satisfying for you and your audience.  Think of the times you have had to listen to public speakers.  It is a pleasure to listen to someone delivering the information in a confident and interesting way.

Would you like salt and pepper on that?

Have you ever had bland food?  You know something is missing.  Put on a bit of salt and pepper and it tastes so much better.

Speaking in public can be like that.

Just delivering the facts in a bland way will leave your audience feeling like they have had a tasteless meal.

However, with a few techniques you can leave them with a three star Michelin experience.

Err…err… I’m err a bit err nervous. 

OK we all get nervous.  Nervousness can be good.  It gets your adrenalin going.

However too much of the nerves can be bad.

The trick is to channel all that nervous energy in the right direction and give brilliant presentations.

You need to get away from the attitude of “just getting it over with quickly”.  Nobody is a winner then.  Not you, not your audience.

There are techniques that can calm you down and let you get your information across in a calm and controlled way.

If err you err haven’t err prepared well you err can start using err filler err words.

And the secret is……

The most important thing you can do before you get up in front of an audience is prepare, practice and practice.

You must be well rehearsed and familiar with your content.

If you haven’t practiced your material enough then you have good reason to be nervous.  So make sure you practice.   Practicing with a timer is a good idea. 

Are you sitting comfortably…then I’ll begin   

You can put everyone at ease if you appear relaxed.  When you get up to speak take a deep breath, smile and count to three.  This will give you a few seconds to compose yourself before you begin.

Now you’re ready to go with your speech.

But wait!

 There is a lot to do yet.

We will be looking next at techniques to really ramp up your speaking skills to another level.

You’re going to love it.