Pete’s Blog

Public Speaking Skills Part 4: Presentation Day

From the desk of Peter Margaritis

You’ll want to arrive early so if you are unsure of where you’re going, look it up. Getting lost is not a valid 2013 excuse. Give yourself about 45 minutes to check the room, be sure the projector or microphone are working and to meet any other presenters, organizers and early arrivals. Feeling good in the room helps calm nerves.

As you are introduced, take a few deep breaths to help slow down your inner clock. You want the audience on your side from the beginning, so show energy, enthusiasm and passion in your voice from your first words. And smile – it will be heard in your voice and pass through the audience.

I always look for friendly faces, people who show their interest in the topic through their body language. These folks want to be Edutained. They want you to succeed. Make eye contact and check back with them often – if they look a bit confused you may need to let the audience catch up with you, maybe revisit an especially difficult point.

Get your audience involved by taking polls or asking simple questions. If you make a mistake own up, take a deep breath, and move on.  Humor (not jokes) can help you keep the audience with you. Remember, there may be bumps in the road but you’re taking people on a journey.

Public Speaking Skills Step 3: Practice

From the desk of Peter Margaritis

practice-practice-practiceYou’ve worked to Program Your Brain to face your fear of public speaking and have been working on Building Your Confidence. Now it’s time to practice or rehearse your presentation.

Because you are an expert on the subject you’ll be presenting, you know what you’re talking about. Let’s take that presentation and carefully look for pitfalls.

Power Point with a Point
Slides presentations are great tools but we’ve all sat through presentations where the speaker reads exactly what’s on each slide. And we all hate it! Slides should feature a headline or a few words and a picture or image that help tell your story. They are a supporting player in your presentation. You are the star.

There’s No Business Like…
Education + Entertainment: that’s what I call Edutainment, the balance between learning and enjoying. It’s far easier to pay attention and retain information when it’s presented as Edutainment. Personal experiences and anecdotes related to what might be dry subject matter can help the audience pay attention. Little surprises along the way have helped many speakers through the last hour of a day-long meeting. Create an experience for them, one they can retell with a smile.

Over and Over and Over
How do you get to Carnegie Hall? Practice! Okay, old comedian material aside, you have to practice your presentation. Use your slides, props or handouts. If possible, get into the room you’ll be using. If you will be standing on a stage, stand while you practice. If you’ll be seated a conference table, practice that way.
If possible, rehearse in front of peers, and ask for questions, especially important if there will be a Q&A after your presentation.

How much practice is too much?  There’s no set limit, but you’ll know you’re ready when those six common fears we talked about earlier are gone, or at least not as noticeable.

Networking Tools

From the desk of Peter Margaritis

social_networkingBuilding a productive network of friends, colleagues and associates doesn’t just happen. It takes a bit of planning and effort. For years I’ve used two simple forms to help me Identify, build and expand my network. You may want to read my blog post, Networking: Even Accountants Can Mingle first, then feel free to use my forms as is or revise to fit your needs. With a little work, you can grow a strong network. Let me know it goes for you – I’d love to hear your success stories.

Here are my tools, hope they help you:    Identify / Build Network            Expand Network

Public Speaking Skills Part 2: Build Your Confidence

From the desk of Peter Margaritis

confidenceSo far in my series “Get Past Your Fear of Public Speaking” I talked about Programing Your Brain – getting your mind ready to face your fears. This next step will help you build confidence and visualize success.

A few highly gifted people can try something new and be truly good at it. For most of us, mastering a new skill takes time. Say we want to learn the tango or juggle knives. On the first try chances are we would fail, our confidence would plummet and, based on my own experience with the tango, never try again. It takes time to build confidence in any new skill.

Start with what you know: you have been asked to present because you are an expert on a topic or you are the leader of a team whose work is important. You know that. You know what needs to be shared in a presentation. You know that you are the right person for the job, that you can bring energy, passion and excitement to the topic. You know you can speak to anyone, anywhere about this very important topic. You are confident that you can do it. You will do it.

Then imagine giving the presentation. Picture yourself in the room or on the stage. Watch yourself – see how calm and confident you look. See the audience – they are totally focused on what you are saying. Look, you’re smiling.  You own it. You are in the zone.

As with Programming Your Brain, repeat this exercise daily.

Get Past Your Fear of Public Speaking, Part 1

From the desk of Peter Margaritis

Whether presenting to a group of clients, room of colleagues or your own staff, taking center stage can cause anxiety and fear in the most able person. In fact, public speaking ranks as a top anxiety-producer in a whopping 74% of us, and is downright debilitating in nearly 20% of all people. Over the next few weeks I’ll share some techniques that can help reduce that anxiety and will, I hope, bring you to a new level of confidence when presenting to groups.

Through my work with groups on presentation skills I’ve learned there are six common fears about public speaking:
• Forgetting what I’m going to say
• Not reacting appropriately to questions or unknown situations
• Not appearing to be a subject expert
• Losing my train of thought or getting lost in my notes
• Boring people
• Showing signs of stress like sweating or coughing or mumbling

And the things people really value in other speakers are their ability to seem calm, to interact with their audience and to make an interesting, meaningful presentation.

You can overcome your fears and you can learn to make valuable presentations. It takes time, attention and practice, but I’m going to share some tips that I use everyday.

Step 1:  Program Your Brain

Nothing is flawless, nothing is perfect. Even professional speakers like me make mistakes – the mic doesn’t work or we have a coughing fit or maybe even get distracted and forget what we were talking about. What strong speakers do have in common is the ability to get past the bump and enjoy the rest of the ride.

Rather than focusing on what could go wrong and how much you dread public speaking start re-programing your brain. Create a mantra for yourself that supports success. Your brain will do what you tell it to, so give it the right message. Sounds simplistic, I know. But it’s no different than an athlete getting psyched for a game or getting in “the zone.”

Repeat after me: This presentation is a great opportunity for me, and I will do a very good job.

Now repeat again. And again. And again. The next time someone asks how the presentation is coming do not say how you’re dreading it, how you wish someone else would step up or that you hate public speaking. Those are negative statements and your brain will believe you. Instead say “It’s a great opportunity for me and I look forward to doing a good job for our company (or firm or group).

Check back for my posts on Steps 2 thru 5.