Public Speaking - A Fate Worse Than Death!
Recently, I have been asked to speak in public for the first time. This is a big deal for me and has my stomach in knots. What's worse, the pressure is all on me to perform effectively. So what can I do?
For starters, let's make sure these are things you're good at: Speak confidently and clearly, command attention well, be captivating and interesting to listen to, avoid being too serious or boring your audience off with pedantic details.
These are the things you want to be good at, but they don't all have to come naturally to you. The public speaking industry is full of professionals here to help you get better, and more importantly, keep getting better when it's important.
So here's my short list of general steps I would take on a case like mine.
The first thing I would do is read up on public speaking techniques and tricks. It's amazing how much you can find on the internet nowadays.
I'd also like to thank my teacher, Bianca Minarick, who inspires me to be a better writer each day.
The second thing I would do is study. Read. Read some more. The more you study the less nervous you'll get, the more confident you'll feel, the more things will click into place and it all becomes easier.
Public speaking is really about communicating with others, and before you can do that effectively you have to learn how to listen too.
A third thing I would do is join a Toastmasters club. This is an organization where people who want to improve their public speaking skills tend to go. You'll find like-minded people to practice with and it's a great way to learn and get better. But, like anything, its effectiveness is dependent on you putting in the time and effort to get better.
And finally, no matter what you do, it is still important not to overdo it! You will want to speak in public as much as possible but make sure that you are not doing too many speeches. To make yourself less nervous, the best thing you can do is talk more often. And, when you get the chance, speak in front of a camera so you can watch yourself.
To sum up this article, here are my tips:
Learn as much as you can about public speaking and practice your skills frequently. Listen well in order to speak effectively. Join a local club and make some new friends along the way! Don't overdo it - when in doubt, wait until you are ready!
Public speaking is hard but with a little perseverance and hard work it's doable. No matter how nervous you are, I wish you good luck.
As part of my gig, I am required to give a talk on a sexual topic. Although I've given talks about my own sexuality before, I'm worried about how to go about it and what I should talk about. After talking with my superiors at work however, they're confident that the materials we have were just fine and are willing to let me try again.
But I really don't know what to do. I have no idea what to talk about, so it looks like I'm going to have to wing it...
How did your first time go?
Well, the morning of my first talk arrived very quickly and suddenly. I woke up that day with an upset stomach, a headache and sweating from the heat of early summer. But once I was at work, things got a lot worse when my boss asked me how come I never talked about sex before. I was pretty much stammering over my words, before I finally said that I'd never thought about it and didn't know what to talk about.
"Well, think about it now, and come up with something." he responded sternly, while still being a nice guy. Some of my colleagues laughed at me as they found the whole thing funny and how awkwardly I was acting. After some time though, I went back to my desk in the dark office by myself.
But instead of thinking up a topic, I sat back and tried to relax. My boss had left to help out another coworker and the office was empty, so I figured it was a good time to try to calm down before my talk.
I did some deep breathing exercises I learned from watching TV and thought about what I could talk about. Suddenly, an idea popped up in my head when I realized that the theme for today's talk was sex. This made me think about how much cancer has affected me in my life.
Ironically, my mother passed away from cancer when I was only a year old. I grew up in an orphanage and never had a family growing up. In high school, a classmate was diagnosed with the disease, and I volunteered at her house to help one day out of the week. It is hard for me to think about the suffering she went through before her death so suddenly because she was young and should have lived longer.
Conclusion:
In conclusion, I spent a lot of time preparing for this talk, and when it was my turn, I went up to the front of the room and gave my speech. It went better than expected because I asked for questions during my presentation and only one person asked something that seemed like a trick question to me. Overall, everyone clapped for me at the end. It felt great to know that I did a good job after all the work I put into this talk.