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Are You Afraid of Public Speaking?

Guest post by: Adam Sonnhalter

Article Overview: It's common knowledge that fear of public speaking is one of the top fears for most people (not you of course). Why is that? In this article, I share some of the lessons I learned from an 18-year old exchange student from Germany who addressed a recent Rotary Club.

Are You Afraid of Public Speaking?

It's common knowledge that fear of public speaking is one of the top fears for most people (not you of course). Why is that?

I was at a Rotary breakfast the other day and the featured speaker was an 18-year old exchange student from Hamburg, Germany.

Now here is an 18-year old addressing about 100 adults over breakfast in something other than his native tongue (i.e. English instead of German).

Now by no means was his speech flawless, few speeches ever are. But he delivered it with such confidence and in such an unassuming way that everyone enjoyed it. There were lots of smiles and jokes and questions from the audience.

So what can an 18-year old exchange student teach us about public speaking? Well, here are a few things I took away from it:

1. Go with the flow: things rarely go exactly as planned, whether it's during a presentation or in life. So expect that things will go wrong and adjust. Remember, you're the one in control of this presentation.
2. Know your material: you're in the front of the room for a reason. YOU'RE THE EXPERT ON THIS MATERIAL!! In the case of our German exchange student, he was sharing information about his family, his hometown, and his experiences while here in the U.S.
3. Focus on the audience NOT YOURSELF: remember that the focus of your presentation is your audience, NOT YOU! Most of the fear and anxiety people experience with public speaking is wrapped up in them focusing on and worrying about themselves. What will people think of me? How do I look? Am I talking too fast? Instead of asking so many questions about yourself, how about some questions about your audience? What is my audience hoping to get out of my presentation? Do they seem interested and engaged (i.e. taking notes and smiling at me) or do they seem bored out of their minds (i.e. nodding off or texting their friends)?
4. Keep time: few things will annoy your audience more than you going over your allotted time. If you have 20 minutes to present, make sure you're done in 18 minutes. Everyone will be happy because you finished early. It's a great way to win over the audience. This also gives additional time for questions from the audience. Then you can really address things they're interested in!
5. Don't be stuck to your PowerPoint: I personally will rarely use PowerPoint. I'll use a few handouts and whiteboards or flip charts to sketch out concepts. If you do use PowerPoint, don't be wedded to it. Keep the bullets short and sweet and use them as crib notes for the points you want to make. Don't read the bullets or "memorize" your speech, you'll put your audience to sleep! And don't worry about having to cover ALL THE MATERIAL in your PowerPoint. I recently saw a presenter respond to someone's question during the presentation by saying "he didn't have time to answer the question because he had so much material to cover." HELLO, your audience is telling you what they want to know about! I pretty much stopped listening at that point, and I'm sure the questioner stopped listening too. Again, it's NOT ABOUT YOU!
6. Get moving: don't be stuck in one place when presenting. Make sure you're moving around the room as you make different points in your presentation. Feel free to approach your audience and even go into the audience to help keep them engaged. Think Phil Donahue!

I'm convinced that with a little practice and by keeping things simple, anyone can be an effective public speaker. Let me know what else you have found to help you or others be effective public speakers.

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Article Tags: fear of public speaking, focus on the audience, rotary club



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