Pete’s Blog

Three Tips to Help Get Past Your Fear of Public Speaking

From the desk of Peter Margaritis

80 million American’s are mortified to speak in public. Peoples’ fear of public speaking beat out fear of drowning, needles, snakes, heights, and even clowns.

Sound like you? If you dread the thought of speaking in front of a group, I can help! You will learn three strategies to help get you past your fear and deliver a more compelling and engaging presentation.

Overcoming your fear of speaking in front of a group is difficult.  Your heart is racing, your adrenaline is high, and your inner critic is telling you all the negative things that could happen. All eyes are on you. You actually feel sick from stress and fear. What can you do?

First, you aren’t alone! Even professional speakers like me get a little nervous before a presentation. Working with clients I help everyone understand that overcoming their fear of public speaking is an acquired skill. Here are three tips to help.

Tip #1: Be prepared. Know your subject, understand your audience and be ready. There is a difference between preparation and perfection, no presentation is perfect.  Yes, you will make a mistake, maybe more than one. Most of the time, unless it’s a real blooper, the only person who will know about it is you. If you know your material inside and out you can have a conversation with the audience instead of a presentation.

Tip #2: Silence your inner critic. Use the improv technique of Yes And to boost your confidence.

Are you nervous? Yes, and I am also prepared.  Are you really prepared? Yes, and I am looking forward to sharing with colleagues. Were you selected to present because you know your stuff? Yes, and this is important to my career.

Tip #3: Practice. Go live in front of friends or family before the big day. Revise as needed, and get comfortable with your material. As you practice, that critical voice that has hounded you for years will fade away.

These three tips are the foundation for compelling and engaging presentation. Hope they help you out. Check my website at www.petermargaritis.com for more details.

Dealing with the Unknowns of Public Speaking

From the desk of Peter Margaritis

When it comes to public speaking, this is one of greatest fears people can have.  There are a number of reasons fueling this fear, but the unpredictable variables that come from speaking no doubt add to the anxiety.  You probably know what I’m going to suggest in order to combat these fears – that’s right, improvisation.  I’m going to present a few common scenarios that can occur when needing to speak publicly and how improv can help you avoid a panicked meltdown at the podium.

When Heads Start Bobbing

I’ve seen people fall asleep within 15 minutes during an hour-long presentation. If you do enough speaking, you’re going to see heads bobbing, particularly at all-day workshops and seminars. The unfortunate part of that is when people walk out of a presentation like that, about a third of what they heard stays behind them in the room. They don’t retain it. Within two weeks they barely remember anything—not even the name of the speaker.  Think about the investment wasted.

While it’s very much the attendee’s job to be respectful and stay awake – it is just as much your responsibility to engage your audience to make staying awake easier.  You must do this through connecting with them, which isn’t going to happen by rattling off a bunch of bullet points in a monotone voice.  Think of your audience as a one-on-one interaction – try to create a relationship together. You can do this by giving examples to illustrate the material, or introduce exercises that require participation.

Something to keep in mind, you’re not going to connect with everyone.  There will always be someone sitting there that clearly projects, “My boss made me come to this.” You can’t do much about that person. But as for the rest of them, you can focus on making that connection that will

The Show Must Go On

There will be times where what was planned on, simply gets thrown out the window.  Maybe there’s a technical malfunction preventing you from using your computer and slides, or someone cancelled in a line-up of speakers and you need to unexpectedly change when you present.  The unpredictable is quite frankly predictable.  Plan for things to not go as planned – or at least prepare yourself with the ability to be adaptable – yet another important element of improvisation.

I once heard a story about a gentleman who was giving a presentation and fell off the stage. He apparently misjudged a step. He tucked up and rolled, stood up, and continued his talk. He made it look as if he had done the stunt on purpose. Now that’s what I call thorough preparation for any contingency. The lesson there is to take advantage of your forward momentum, whether you are stumbling literally or figuratively. On with the show.

Contact me today for your upcoming keynote – I can show you firsthand how engaging I can really be.  Also, learn more about leveraging improv to improve your career by visiting www.improvisnojoke.com where you can download a free chapter of my book, Improv is No Joke.

The Killer of Creativity in Corporate America

From the desk of Peter Margaritis

Thinking out-of-the-box – the ubiquitous buzzword used in today’s business world, especially in corporate America. Why not just say what you mean: we want management to be more creative. Right? Sadly, they can’t be. They don’t seem to have the necessary tools to inspire  creativity.  Management, you ARE the killer of creativity. Let me explain.  

In the book Creative Confidence by Tom Kelley, he states, “An Adobe Systems poll of 5,000 people on three continents reports that 80% of people see unlocking creative potential as key to economic growth. Only 25% of these individuals feel that they’re living up to their creative potential in their lives and careers.”

What? Only 25% are living up to their creative potential? What is killing the creativity in corporate America?  Is it lack of time – no! Is It that we are too busy – no! What then?

It’s khakis!  That’s right, those drab pants and skirts that are proudly worn in every corporate office. Khakis, along with a polo shirt – preferably blue!  

The definition of khaki, according to dictionary.com is “dull yellowish brown.” You can’t be creative when you are wearing blah. You might as well be an actuary or an accountant.  Dictionary.com also states, “a stout, twilled cotton cloth of this color, used especially in making uniforms.” That’s right; you are wearing a uniform.  All you need to complete the look is a lanyard and name badge while eating at restaurant, as if to say, “Yes I am attending this conference and I am still wearing my name badge.  I still don’t know how the waiter new my name.”

Khakis are to creativity as accountants are to sales.  Khakis go with almost everything. They are the ketchup of clothing. Well, not entirely true. Ketchup has flavor!  My apologies to the Speciality Food Association, the National Hot Dog Council, and to ketchup lovers everywhere.  Ketchup is cooler and more creative than khakis.

Here are the top three things I hate about khakis:

  1. The word is hard to spell. It just doesn’t flow. K-H-A-K-I It is spelled like you need lots of phlegm for the H sound, which of course is silent.  Then why use the letter if it is silent?  
  2. If you wear a khaki colored shirt with khaki colored pants to work, you’ll be eating lunch by yourself for a very long time unless you are Jack Hanna, aka Jungle Jack.
  3. For men, I have three words for you: urinal back splash. You can’t walk out of the men’s room with wetness in your zipper area.  I’ll take you 10 – 20 minutes to get them dry.  Unless your restroom has a hand air dryer.  But then the ballerina moves you need to get close enough to dry your khakis will be the reason that human resources calls you into a meeting.  

Khakis are the killer of creativity.  What if Bruce Springsteen wore khakis instead of jeans?  His concerts would last an hour; his biggest hit song would be titled Born to Walk; and Courtney Cox would have never done a music video with him.  Look around, those who are highly creative don’t wear khakis, PERIOD.

Let’s start a movement to have khakis banned at work! Call your congressmen, call your senators. Better yet, let’s make the khaki ban a Presidential Executive Order.  Now that is a ban both parties can support, and we can bring creativity back to corporate America today!

 

Controlling Feelings of Anxiety

From the desk of Peter Margaritis

I’ve been constantly reminded of the need to understand our limits. As a diabetic, for example, I have to listen to what my body is telling me all the time. If my blood sugar is calling for me to tweak my schedule, I must listen and adapt. When you are aware of the signals, no matter your specific situation, you will know what to do—and that’s true whether you’re trying to pick up on the messages that your body is sending you or on the messages that an audience is sending you. It is the awareness itself that plays a major role in reducing stress.

Improvisation and awareness has helped me manage stress so that I can take better care of myself – allowing me to better respond and plan my next step. The skills of improv clearly are a strength in times of crisis. As you listen, assess, and adapt to each scenario presented to you, you can more effectively overcome anything. And, as you do it more and more, you become confident that you are indeed able to deal with a situation. As a result, your confidence increases…while your stress decreases.

If you understand that you can control how your body reacts to a medical condition, then you should also be able to understand that you can control feelings of anxiety when confronted with a new and uncomfortable situation. We all have found ourselves facing appearances we might prefer to avoid, whether we’re called into the office or hauled into court or going on a job interview or delivering a speech. Again, you have the power to silence that inner critic’s prognostications of impending failure. Tell yourself, “Yes, this feels difficult for me, and I can do it.”

We must do a lot of things that we don’t want to tackle. Those tasks become much harder if we cop a bad attitude. “I hate talking to people and networking” will defeat any chance of doing well at such activities. There is a huge difference between “I will do the best I can” and “This is going to fail.” If you adopt a better attitude, one that doesn’t broadcast defeat, you might actually find that you are doing pretty well. You can feel good about your accomplishment.

Whether your stress results from a physical condition or something else, so much depends on your ability to perceive things positively. Either you win, or you let the stress win. Your choice.

Learn more about how improv principles can improve your career by taking the Yes, And Challenge. Sign-up at www.petermargaritis.com and share your experience on Twitter and Facebook using #YesAndChallenge.

Improv Is No Joke Podcast Episode 4: Ed Mendlowitz Show Notes

From the desk of Peter Margaritis

Ed Mendlowitz is a long-time CPA and a partner of prestigious Withum Smith+Brown. He’s also a member of many CPA societies and has taught financial and accounting courses for 11 years. He’s a firm believer in CPE and uses his CPE training opportunities to network with other CPA’s from around the world. He’s full of wisdom and insights and he shares many great nuggets with us today. If you would like to listen to the entire episode, you can click here, or you can download the episode on iTunes, Stitcher or Google Play.

Ed considers himself the last of the “expert generalists.” He started his firm a long time ago and the only way he could grow was to never say “no” and to do anything that came his way. He grew his first practice from two people to fifty before finally merging with WSB years ago.

WSB does something that many other accounting firms don’t do; they create unique, fun and fresh videos that they use to promote their brand on the Withum1 YouTube page. The videos started as a way to chronicle their yearly ‘state of the firm’ meetings and to excite the staff. This has also had an added benefit of being a recruiting tool for new talent just emerging from their accounting education.

WSB does a lot to wine and dine great prospective employees, just like how many companies wine and dine prospective clients. Where many companies fall short though, is they start by doing anything they can to land the client, then once they’re on board, they eventually forget about these existing clients.

“If they paid attention to existing clients with the same effort and interest that they do to get a new client, they’d get a lot more business from existing clients and the firm would grow and their clients would do all their recommending and referrals for them.”

Through his love of CPE, Ed attains over 100 credits per year. Most of this is through going to LIVE CPE events. He prefers these over online CPE because of the human interactions that come from these events. He meets about 40-50 new people at each event, often times inviting the lone person to join him for lunch or dinner. His networking skills have earned him referrals from all over the world.

Personal connections have always been a part of Ed’s business, but many other accounting firms just don’t do a good job with it. They often think that doing the client’s taxes and meeting commitments is developing a relationship. It’s not. It’s when you reach out with a personal touch that really matters. When you’re in the neighborhood, stop by and say “hi.” This creates availability and clients love when their CPA is available.

Ed recommends returning phone calls promptly, and if there’s a problem you need to let them know ASAP. You should precipitate phone calls with questions and suggestions for the client. These build your client relationship and will often lead to referrals. “The referrals you get from existing clients are the way you can tell if you’re doing a good job or not.”

Creating a comfortable environment for your employees is another relational aspect to accounting that every company needs to work on. Within committees or groups, create an atmosphere where people can spitball ideas that can turn into something great. “Bad ideas lead to good ideas, no ideas lead to nothing.” Innovation and crazy ideas have led to many successes in every aspect of life, so don’t miss out on this opportunity within your own company.

Ed truly delivered with some great nuggets of knowledge and insights into networking within the CPA community. You’ll hear from Ed again in the near future on the podcast, so stay tuned.