Speaking and Public Speaking

[onthepath]

Hi All

I was at a function last night where i was one of the keynote speakers - perfect opportunity to attract some quality babes, if i pulled it off, i'd be cat nip. I had a brilliant speech prepared - my written communication skills are quite good. and i had practiced it enough so that i was comfortable presenting; the speech went off brilliantly.

HOWEVER, then came Q/A time. I was caught off guard and suddenly found myself babbling and mumbling my way through. and i could see the atompshere of the crowd becoming bored.

WHen i'm with my closest friends, i can talk fairly eloquently about any subject. with strangers, i shift the convo to the other person and minimise my talking. but when i'm the centre of attention, i find myself thinking too much about what i want to say, and how to say it in the most intelligent way possible - compensating obviously for some insecurity about the way people percieve me.

so how do i go about fixing this?

thanks

 

[CORVETTE06]

i took a public speaking class at college

and went to a thing they had at my job on how to give presentations. they filmed us and gaves us great tips

 

[Francisco d'Anconia]

Over preparation is a b1tch. It can make you extremely flustered when you find out that you haven't covered every single base. How can you anyway?

The best presenters don't lecture to the masses, they interact with them; as if they were having a one on one on one on one on one on one conversation. Think of it as approaching a group of women at a club as opposed to just one. You engage each one; one by one by one by one.

Your problem is that you started as a typical "lecturer" and just gave a presentation. Even though the presentation was good, you couldn't switch to the conversational QA format. However, if your presentation was more conversational, there wouldn't need to be a transition to a QA type format.

The key thing to understand is that when presenting you should be comfortable with the information; just as comfortable as if you were talking with your friends about something you were passionate about. Yeah, you may have notes but they are only a card with one or two word topics. You quickly read the topic, a lightbulb goes off "Yeah, I know about that," and then you damn near ad-lib. It's just another conversation.

 

[The Inside Man]

I'm going to play devils advocate, I've had a couple beers or shots before almost every speech I gave in college...about 20 of them(speeches). Its enough to take the edge off, but I have problems with anxiety starting and then I tend to flow pretty well and get into conversational mode at the end. Just an idea, not for everyone, don't get too close to the teacher/boss if you do! lol And supposedly vodka is the only alcohol that doesn't give the strong alcohol breath.

 

[whatsup]

I'm going to play devils advocate, I've had a couple beers or shots before almost every speech I gave in college...about 20 of them(speeches). Its enough to take the edge off, but I have problems with anxiety starting and then I tend to flow pretty well and get into conversational mode at the end. Just an idea, not for everyone, don't get too close to the teacher/boss if you do! lol And supposedly vodka is the only alcohol that doesn't give the strong alcohol breath.

alcohol definitely helps. but you'll never improve your sober game unless you game while your sober.

 

[Bible_Belt]

You have to practice anything to get better at it. Join a speech club like toastmaster's, or do something to practice speaking to groups.

http://www.dmoz.org/Business/Busine...ation_and_Training/FAQs,_Help,_and_Tutorials/

 

[decadentdestruction]

I took a effective speaking class ( speech class) in school, and that helped me out alot when speaking in front of a group. I had to write speeches about events or fake events, and one thing I learned is all speeches are 10% facts and 90% bull****, now whenever I have group projects I end up presenting the research or project,because everybody else
is to shy. one thing I like to do is have humor in my presentations and that helps ,