Why you should have bigger worries The thought of presenting before an audience, for some, can conjur up feelings of anxiety and fear. Many of the worries stem from internal dialogue such as, What if I forget my words? What if the audience do not like me? What if I have stage fright? What if I make a fool of myself?
Why woud anyone want to listen to me? Such worries can indeed cause people to turn down opportunites to speak or indeed to be extremely nervous throughout their speech. In fact, when you focus on a thing, it expands, so focusing on such worries, will not calm your nerves. However, these shoud be the least of your worries. In fact, I believe that you should have a bigger worry; how can I add value to my audience? When you do this, then purpose kicks in and diverts your focus from being you focused to being people focused. When we consider the reasons why people give their time, effort and money to attend an event, watching a speaker mess up. on stage is far from their agenda. What is on their agenda is the WIIFM – whats in it for me? They do not leave their homes to get at you, i.e. to criticise and condemn you. No! Instead, they leave their homes to receive something from you. Hence, your audience deep down, want you to do well because you do so means that they will leave the event better than when they arrrived. So, the next time you are nervous about speaking at an event, re-channel those worries in to one big worry – adding value to your audience and prepare accordingly. Also, visualise yourself delivering a speech that is both engaging and valuable. In doing so, not only will it help to diminish your nerves but it will also enable you to stand confidently in your purpose knowing that you have been given a fantastic opporunity to touch lives and to change hearts. to edit.
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I had the privilege of running a series of public speaking workshops for young people throughout the summer and each time I did, I left with a feeling of gratitude, satisfaction and joy. Gratitude for the opportunity that I had to touch lives, satisfaction in knowing that I had given it my all and joy in knowing that for many, this was a life transforming experience.
At the start of each workshop, many of the young people were exceedingly uncomfortable with the idea of speaking in public, for a number of reasons including shyness, not having anything to say and fear of looking silly in front of their peers. However, there is something powerful about sharing your own personal story, which immediately connects the listener to the speaker and enables them to see the entrapment of a comfort zone and the tremendous growth that occurs when you decide to step out of it. Sharing my own personal story about being an incredibly shy teenager and how I overcame this, meant that many of the young people could relate to my story and in turn could relate to me. When telling my story, I was then able to encourage them to step outside of their comfort zones and do the very things that they feared, because in doing so, ultimately the death of fear is certain. Once such a foundation had been laid and through engaging and interactive activities the young people were taught how to find their content, how to structure and how to deliver a speech, it was amazing to see them doing the very thing that they were afraid of. As they were given activities which were designed to build their confidence, a step at a time, some of the shackles of fear begin to fall away as they stepped outside of their comfort zones and one by one, began to find their voice, to speak out and to tell their story, stories that were encouraging, inspiring and definitely touched the lives of others. Through running these workshops, I am reminded yet again about the importance of helping the next generation to push past their fears, to find their voices and to tell their stories because in doing so, not only does it build their confidence and liberate them but their stories also have the potential to liberate others and to bring about positive change in our world. Please feel free to like, to comment and to share. Sandra Mighty is a public speaking trainer and coach who runs workshops and coaching sessions that are designed to help people to overcome their fear of public speaking, to find their voice, and to deliver their message There are certain skills that are required to enable you to become a dynamic public speaker and eye contact is certainly one of them. Here are three reasons why it is important for you to develop and use this skill.
Gain an understanding of how the message is received When communicating to an audience it is a two way conversation. You are the transmitter of information and your audience is the receiver. It is through eye contact that you will be able to gain an understanding of how your message is being received. When looking at your audience you are in fact reading the crowd with your eyes thus enabling you to see through their eyes whether your speech has evoked feelings such as empathy, enthusiasm or even confusion or boredom, hence giving you an opportunity to adjust your message where necessary. Connect with your audience Eye contact enables you to connect with your audience, including them in the conversation and making them feel important and part of your speech. It is as though you are having a speech party and your audience are all invited into the conversation. As you engage with your audience though eye contact, you are building rapport and a relationship with them. It therefore evokes feelings of inclusion and makes your audience feel as though you are speaking to them personally. This in turn helps your audience to pay attention to what you are saying. However, failure to give eye good contact, gives your audience permission to zone out of your speech and become occupied with something else. Portray confidence and believability to your audience When you are giving a speech, good eye contact portrays that you are confident and that you know your message and material well. In addition to this, it makes what you are saying more believable and puts your audience at ease with you. As you know, it is difficult to trust someone who will not look you in the eye. Hence it is key that when speaking you speak to your audiences eyes so that they can see that you are genuine. You must however, sure that you eye contact is purposeful and needs to be sustained for two to three minutes on each person. Although giving eye contact may be challenging for some when speaking in public , it is a skill that can definitely be developed no matter how daunting, or intimidating it may feel and the more you practice giving eye contact both in one to one conversations as well as different audiences the easier it will ultimately become. Please feel free to like, comment and share. Sandra Mighty |
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Sandra Mighty is a speaker aswell as a presentations and communications skills trainer. Archives
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