By The Princeton Review
The second week on the job at The Princeton Review, I was asked to present a seminar on Financial Aid. I was petrified since that was not my expertise as I was an SAT teacher turned campus outreach rep. What do I know about Pell Grants, aid packages, and the government forms? The angst this generated through my body was overflowing, but within six months I was speaking twice a week on topics ranging from College Admissions to SAT Testing Tips to Essays in front of hundreds, and I finally honed the Financial Aid seminar.
This started my best marketing conversion tactic - performing over 150 seminars per year. Public speaking is really a performance and the secret is practice. All performances generate trepidation. Every actor, comedian, musician, athlete, lecturer, and magician can tell you all about performance anxiety. The idea is not to get rid of your nerves. The idea is to convert them into energy.
I practiced and practiced just like an athlete practices his craft every day until it became second nature. As you transition from football into your second career, you can transfer your practice and conditioning techniques from the field to the boardroom. Start small if you have to – lead a discussion group for your team, department, church, etc. To become more effective, you may want to master some of these presentation hints.
1. First of all, you need to be clear with the message you want to deliver. Only then can you be sure that the message will be communicated clearly to your audience when you speak. Brevity with completeness. It means focusing on speaking about the main ideas you want to convey; anything more is usually a distraction.
2. Find your style and stick to it. Everyone has a certain style that he or she is comfortable with and if you can be comfortable with yourself during a presentation, it will help you to have the confidence to present better. Do not try to be someone you are not, as that often backfires.
3. Tell it like it is. Tell your audience what you are going to tell them, tell it to them, and then tell them what you told them. Start with an intro, include an "agenda" or set of goals for the presentation, provide the content and information, and summarize.
4. Practice. Practice. Practice! Know your speech well enough to maintain eye contact with your audience. Rarely look at notes. Improve your memory so you retain key phrases. Practice with a tape recorder. Try to work from key points extemporaneously (after intense solo rehearsal) rather than from a set script. Don't memorize.Knowing your content extremely well will also allow you to be more conversational as opposed to scripted. You need to present, not to recite. Rehearsing includes the entire presentation. Use the same tools too. If you are using slides, or a projector, and have access to the room you will be presenting in, rehearse there. Even rehearse by imagining yourself speaking, your voice loud, clear, and confident. Visualize the audience clapping.
5. Be confident. It is difficult to try to listen to someone who is speaking without confidence, let alone be convinced by what they have to say. Hence it is important to make sure that you can be perceived as confident even if you truly are not! The first step is to prepare well and know the subject matter that you are going to present, and then you will be able to show that you know what you are talking about during the presentation. The final trick, which might not be too obvious, is that you should admit what you don't know. Nobody knows everything so it can in fact increase your credibility when you have the confidence to say, "I don't know."
6. Enthusiasm. Absolutely nothing will help your presentation more than communicating your passion, and it will add credibility to your message.
7. Pace yourself. Don't gotoo fast or too slow. First-time public speakers will naturally rush headlong to finish, garbling every word. Mistake. Take your time. Even if you miss some points your audience typically won’t know, but you will be under control. Also if you sound hurried or speak too fast, the audience may feel that you are not open to input.
8. If nerves wallop you at any time during your speech, take a deep breath, smile, and switch gears to a relevant topic you know well or use the audience for interaction such as asking a question. Focusing on someone else will allow you to regroup and calm down.
9. Create an emotional attachment and build rapport. Greet some of the audience members as they arrive. It’s easier to speak to a group of friends than to strangers. This will help the first impression the audience receives. It will also calm your nerves. Use the name of audience members when you call on them – it will make it more personalized. Smile while you chat. Smiling helps inspire pleasant, thoughtful communication. Use personal stories.
10. Timing comes with experience. As you practice, pick the best spots to pause, especially after jokes and witticisms.
11. Try for as much body control as you can muster. If your hands shake, grip the lectern. Don't bob or rock either back and forth or from foot to foot.
Good luck and if this doesn’t work, then picture your audience naked, which will rid your nerves.