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________________________________________________________________________Welcome to“Five Secrets to Becoming an Incredible Speaker It's Kerrie Espuga, Founder andManaging Director of Corporate Trendsetters.”Jerry Seinfeld once said 20 years agothat people would rather be in the casket at a funeral than be stating the eulogy.Why is that? Why is public speaking still the number one fear? Is it because we'rescared of what the audience is thinking or if they're judging us? Are they thinkingthat we many not be the expert? Are they going to outwit us during the Q&A? Allthese negative thoughts go through our minds, and oftentimes these thoughts arecausing the nervousness in the first place. Sometimes it goes back to when we wereyounger. Kids oftentimes will speak in front of anyone; they'll say anything whenthey're little. However, as teachers and parents judge them, mold them, and shapethem, oftentimes these fears develop over the years. Therefore, what we're going todo today is uncover some secrets of becoming an incredible speaker, and one wayis to calm those nerves. Here are the Five Secrets or Five Steps to Become anIncredible Speaker.mber One: The Eye Contact.One way to truly connect with the audience is to hold eye contact with one personper sentence. We've all been in an audience where people just scan over theaudience's heads. That does nothing for the audience, because sometimes, we cantell that they're looking above our heads on the wall.We really need to focus ongetting proper eye contact, one sentence per person. For example, we will look atone person and say, "We teach a public speaking course," and then look atsomebody else and say, "Our participants oftentimes build their confidence." Soagain, one sentence per person holding the eyes for that sentence with one person.Moreover, do not scan over their heads. That Brady Bunch recommendation is oldnews. That’s secret number one: Hold eye contact with single members of theaudience.Number Two: The Practice.There are various ways to practice. Practice alone. You could practice withcolleagues, which we'll get to in a moment. You know that old real-estate saying,"location, location, location?" Well, with public speaking, it's "practice, practice,practice." Practice with distractions; practice your Q&A with answers to questionsthat may come up. What are the tricky questions? What if they say _____? How willI handle this? Remember reserve power. Make sure you save some of your answersfor the Q&A, because we don’t want to tell them everything we know during thespeech, because then they might outwit us on the Q&A. We want to make thespeech a little teaser, so in the Q&A, we have some reserve power. Don’t telleverything you know, because you want to save some quality for the Q&A portion.In fact, sometimes people dread the Q&A portion, but their credibility can really bebuilt in the Q&A.As far as distractions, have you ever tried practicing in front of aloud TV, looking at a loud TV? We just had someone in class the other day who went

home and practiced his speech in his car with the radio really loud. He said hisconfidence built. So, practice with distractions.As practice, ask your colleagues tointerrupt you on purpose so that you can recollect your thoughts. So, practice,practice, practice, alone or with others. Whether it's a TV, people interrupting you,or your radio, make sure you practice with these distractions. Because whendistractions happen during your real speech, you'll be able to handle them…noproblem, like with people arriving late or the food cart going by. If you're used todistractions, then you'll easily get on task (where you were in your speech).Number Three: The Freezing.People always ask, "How do I prevent freezing? How do I prevent going completelyblank on stage" because that's happened to people and they really want to knowhow to prevent freezing. One way is to calm the nerves. The way they do that is byusing their own words. So, no full sentences, no memorizing, and just know the keypoints that they want to say. Jot down a few necessary bullet points, to illustrate your main points and the overallpurpose of your talk, and use your own words. We had this one fellow in class theother day who had full sentences written down and he tried to memorize the wholething, and he kept freezing in front of the class. Finally, we all asked him to put hisnotes down and made him use his own words, and it sounded great. Talk aboutuntapped potential! He actually emailed me saying his presentation went reallywell and people were coming up to him afterward wanting one-on-one attention. So,that's what's exciting, to see the turnaround with these folks. They'll be so nervousat the beginning of Day 1 and by the end of Day 2, they feel like a million bucks.So, no memorizing, only know which key points you want to cover, and always useyour own words. We've all been to those speeches where the Speaker sounds likethey're talking to one person, and we think “How on earth do they do that?" Thereason is, they know where they want to go, but they used their own words at thatpoint. They don't read anything. They glance down for an idea and then speak tothe audience in their own words; glance down at an idea and speak to the audiencewith their own words.Number Four: The Feedback.Like we said, as in real estate - "location, location, location." With public speaking,it's "practice, practice, and practice."Practicing without feedback is like notpracticing at all. Some speakers believe they're doing really well, but nobody'sgiven them the feedback, so how do they know if they're really doing well?Oftentimes, people will ask their colleagues to listen in, and ask for feedback. Oreven after a meeting, ask "How was my participation? How was my confidence inthat room? Did I convey the message appropriately? Was I too wordy? Did Iramble too much? Did I sound like I had conviction? Was I conveying my messagewell?”Ask colleagues, even if it's not after a huge speech, but after a meeting or

after a teleconference. Always chime in the first 5-10 minutes of every meeting orteleconference, because then you don't have to think about when you're going tochime in. Just get it over with, so to speak, and then your credibility goes up. You're also helping the leader of that teleconference or the meeting, so you'reperceived as a team player who has conviction and confidence. In the first 5-10minutes of any meeting or teleconference, say something to build that credibilityand get that practice out there. And then ask your colleagues later for feedback onyour participation. And humor: If you're ever going to add humor to a talk, makesure that you run it by somebody first. Similar to comedians, we always want tomake sure that we run our material by somebody before we do it on the stage. Wewant to make sure that it's appropriate and that people laugh. They say appropriatehumor is great because it adds to any talk and what audience doesn't want tolaugh? However, we have to make sure that we are appropriate in that humor.e learn so much from the face, the appearance, the body language, and if you'reexcited about a topic, you can see it without even hearing it. So, we want to makesure in our face that we're fully animated. We want to make sure we're using oureyebrows, we're using gestures with our arms, and we're dressed professionally.Make sure you're dressed the part. If your message is about being casual, gocasual. If you're speaking to boardroom execs, you might want to put on that top-notch suit. So, appearance of being professional and having the appropriate facialgestures, as well as animation, are all crucial to engage your audience. Voice shouldinclude appropriate inflection, tone and pitch, and make sure everything is right onpar with your message. As for body language, keep your feet planted; feet are stillbecause that exudes confidence. No pacing back and forth or doing the cha-chaside to side. Keep feet still, and then use arm gestures. That will keep the audienceengaged. It will keep them connected, and will be able to engage our audience andmake ourselves that much more credible.In summary, be aware of thebody, keep feet still, use big gestures, and show animated face. Make sure when you dopractice, ask forfeedback. To avoidfreezing, make sure there's no memorizing.Practiceusing your own words, different ways to say it every time you practice. Then, usethose distractions; TV, people interrupting you, radio. Lastly, hold

Category:	Creative Writing
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Upload Date:	04/30/2009
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