26th Jul2010

What’s your story? My Prince’s Trust experience

by Rich

Last weekend I spent the day with a group of young people between the ages of 17 and 23, who were all completing a 10 week Prince’s Trust challenge.

These young people had all come from disadvantaged backgrounds and trouble homes, but have enrolled on the course to help them get their lives back on track and learn valuable skills that will help them to achieve their full potential.

As part of the course, which has included learning team building skills, working on community projects and developing leadership qualities, the team are expected to give a presentation to 150 people at their ‘passing out’ event. Such a task is daunting for many of us who have not experienced the things these young people have and so for them to step up and present in such a way is absolutely huge.

Working with several of my colleagues from Hamwic Speakers I spent the day with the group of six to help them overcome their fears and produce outstanding presentations for this event.

I have to say it was the most rewarding thing I have done in a long time. I truly believe I gained just as much from it as I hope the Prince’s Trust group did.

As with most young people. Chatting, laughing and having ‘banter’ amongst a group of peers was not a problem for this group. However, as soon as the situation became formal, and the public speaking was expected to be more structured, nerves began to kick-in.

The first exercise we therefore completed was to get each team member to tell us what they did at the weekend. I began by telling the story about my ridiculous sunburn and then let the others follow on. This was done informally, sat down and at the end I pointed out that everyone had already given a speech. We were away – the development had begun.

The following hours was spent working individually with the team after seeing them present briefly stood in front of an audience, talking about themselves. We looked at ways theirs first speech could be improved and how these lesson could be applied to the second, and most important speech in a few weeks time.

Room for improvement was identified in body language, losing notes (each individual knew their Prince’s Trust story so well they really didn’t need them) and engaging with the whole audience, not just that one friendly face in the front row.

The strengths of this group when it came to public speaking were in bringing emotion and passion to their speeches – something you don’t often find in young people nowadays (apparently!)! These youngsters were truly grateful for the opportunities that the Prince’s Trust had given them and this showed in their speech content and delivery. Their body language became more animated and enagaging, smiles shone through and brilliant stories were told about the past ten weeks as they began to talk about the Prince’s Trust. So many accomplished, experienced and professional speakers find it hard to produce real emotion and here were these so-called ‘disadvantaged youths’ doing it completely naturally!

When the time came for the second set of speeches, a practice of what would be delivered at the Prince’s Trust ‘passing out’ style event, the improvements that occurred were unbelievable and produced a huge sense of pride in everyone present. This had happened in just one morning. Imagine the development that will occur in these young people over the coming months and years – they really have the potential to be stars.

For me, the biggest improvement came in each youngster due to one large factor – belief. We spent the morning teaching public speaking skills, but by doing this we also helped (I hope) the group to realise that their story was important. That the people who would be present in a few weeks time wanted to hear their story and that they would truly delight in hearing them tell it well. Believing that your audience wants to hear your story will inspire confidence in any one and it worked wonders here.

To any one involved with the Prince’s Trust who is reading this – thank you for giving me the opportunity to work with you. The work the Trust is doing is truly inspirational.

I will be at the final event for this group of youngsters on the afternoon of the 29th July in Basingstoke to provide last minute advice and watch the group wow their families, delegates, peers and tutors and will of course do my best to blog about it soon.

Category : Public speaking riffs
1 Comm
22nd Jul2010

Apologising for nerves during a speech

by Rich

I’ve read a lot of articles and books that mention referring to any nerves you may have as a good way to make light of your fear during a speech.

I’m not sure I agree entirely. I personally feel that this is acceptable for social speeches, such as toasts, wedding speeches.etc, but is not something you should do during a business or professional speech. Unfortunately our corporate culture does not look kindly on perceived weakness! 

So what do you do if you are nervous in a business talk or speech that you have to give?

Prepare.

To avoid nerves in business speech or presentation, preparation is always the best remedy.

If you know all the data, all the facts and all the answers to questions, you’re the expert in the room and you can’t fail.

If you fail to prepare, you prepare to fail. Sorry, no shortcuts.

Category : Public speaking riffs, Public Speaking Tips
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2 Comm
15th Jul2010

The night before a speech

by Rich

Dave has a night out the day before the big presentation. He wakes up bleary eyed, hung over and goes and gives the presentation of his life. Dave’s lucky, a little cocky and gets away without the preparation and nerves that everyone else has about speaking. Lucky Dave.

So what should the rest of us be doing the night before a big speech or presentation?

Chill, relax, have a little you-time.

Hopefully you’ve spent some time preparing your presentation already. You have the facts, the data, the slides if need be, what you are going to present is ready. But are you ready?

The night before a big speech should really be all about making sure the instrument that will be delivering the speech is in top condition – that’s you.

What makes you relax? What makes you feel confident? What makes you feel good about yourself? If you don’t feel like a million dollars about yourself before giving that speech then your nerves will most likely be greater, you’ll feel more tension and you won’t perform at your best.

Get a good book, run a bath, make sure your ‘power suit’ is ironed and ready to go, exfoliate, eat some chocolate, take your partner out for dinner, do what makes you feel good. Get some sleep, wake-up, feel a million dollars and be ready to floor your audience with a stunning presentation.

Don’t do a Dave. He’s just the guy that got lucky and can nail a presentation on a few hours sleep and no preparation. Chances are you’re not, and do you want to risk finding out?

The night before a presentation is all about you, not the people you will be talking to.

You’ve spent days and weeks preparing a talk for them, spend a few hours on you!

Category : Public Speaking Tips
0 Comm
11th Jul2010

Opening a speech

by Rich

The opening line in any speech is the most important.

Know it, live it, breathe it every second of every day leading up to your speech.

If you can deliver that opening line perfectly, confidently and powerfully, you will have already gained the confidence and interest of your audience and reduced your nerves before you even start your second line!

Your opening line is your first impression – use it to your advantage.

Category : Public Speaking Tips
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05th Jul2010

Eye contact in public speaking

by Rich

Eye contact is the simplest and often most effective way to engage an audience. For the nervous speaker it is often a hugely daunting thing to do. Many of us would rather not look at the large, imposing audience in front of us.

However, a speaker who looks around at their audience and draws them in, provides a much more entertaining and effective speech.

So how should we use our beautiful baby blues when public speaking?

Where you shouldn’t be looking during a speech:

  • At the ground
  • At your slides, reading the bullet points to your audience
  • At your colleagues, relatives or anyone not officially in your audience
  • At your feet

Where you should look during a speech to really engage your audience:

  • At various individuals, directly in the eye
  • To the back of the room, just ever so slightly above the back row of your audience, so that you appear to be talking to the whole room
  • At an item, or object if you are drawing your audience’ attention to it. If your audience are engaged, they will follow your eyes to the object.

Thinking about where we are looking whilst speaking is difficult for the nervous speaker, but a great way to introduce this into your speaking is by planning ahead.

The first time that you try to put using eye contact in your speech into practice, identify several points in your speech at which you will look to a certain area or audience member in the room. Make these points relevant to the speech content if you can. Learn the points that you planned along with the text of your speech and implement them as you go.

Don’t worry if you forget a few, but try to use some of the eye contact points you planned as you give your speech.

You will soon find that not only does your speech become more engaging for your audience, but over time and with practice you begin to naturally use eye contact with your audience in your speech too!

Category : Public Speaking Tips
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1 Comm