By Poornima Vijayashanker
This post is based on my Confident Communicator Course, which I teach once a year. Registration for the course is open now through Friday February 10, 2017. If you’re interested in learning more about the course and participating in it, you can check it out here.
I was by no means a social butterfly as a kid. I didn’t fear approaching people one-on-one, but in group settings I was pretty shy and kept quiet. In fact, one of the reasons I joined the debate team in middle school and high school was because I knew I wanted to be a lawyer and figured I needed to learn how to overcome my fear of speaking in public.
Toward the end of my debate career in high school, I had done several hundred presentations and felt great. But when I got to college, I decided that being a lawyer wasn’t my calling. Instead, I majored in computer science and electrical engineering, which left me with no time for public speaking. I spent 4 years sitting in computer clusters coding away or doing engineering problem sets.
A few years after graduation, I realized that I missed public speaking and wanted to get back into it. I wasn’t sure how. Then I saw that there was a local event called Code Camp. Anyone who wanted to speak could submit a proposal. So I decided I’d talk about my scrappy little startup at the time, Mint.com.
Weeks before the talk I was nervous. Really nervous…
I hadn’t given a talk or speech in nearly 8 years. During that time I had managed to revert back to my shy ways and develop a case of stage fright.
The week before the event, I knew I needed to get over my fears if I was going to present.
I thought about all the cures for stage fright I’d heard over the years, but my years of speaking experience had shown me they weren’t that effective. Instead, I tapped into a different set of techniques to make my talks a success.
If, like me, you’ve ever struggled with stage fright, read on for 2 techniques that’ll help you connect with your audience and speak from a place of authentic expertise, with calmer nerves
Crowd Pleaser Teaser Test
The best speakers aren’t the BEST because they’re flashy or have something super insightful to say. They are the BEST because they’ve taken the time to understand who is in their audience, what the audience is looking for, and then tune their message to address the audience’s needs.
And no, they don’t have some magical mind reading method. They simply take the time to ask the event organizer the following questions:
- How many people will be in the audience and potentially attend each talk?
- Where are they coming from (location, company)?
- What are their interests?
- What are they looking to get out of the event overall?
- Who else is presenting and what topics are they covering?
They also confirm the skill level of the majority of the audience with respect to the field or topic.
And they don’t feel like they’re bothering the organizer, because the organizer wants the event to be a success, so they are happy to help out.
Before my talk I took the time to think about what the audience would want to know about being in a startup and growing it. I also decided that I wouldn’t make it too technical because the organizer told me that the attendees would know different technologies from one another (Java, C++, C#, C), and there was no overwhelming majority that knew one language.
This technique is also helpful for internal presentations at work. Rather than talking to an event organizer to research your audience, take time to think about the colleagues who will attend your internal meeting and ask yourself the questions above to determine what they need to learn from the presentation.
Ready for the next technique?
Most people will tell you to rehearse your talk, and it is important that you do. But it’s easy to spend lots of hours and still deliver a bad presentation.
Instead of practicing endlessly on your own, do the:
Get By With a Little Help From Your Friends Technique
- Practice on your own with an outline, not a script (more on that later).
- Practice in front of a camera, recording your presentation. Play it back, and watch for any strange gestures. You don’t need to be overly critical, you just need to be aware, and your mind will automatically correct this behavior. I know it seems a little strange, but it does work.
- Practice with one other person. This could be your best friend, significant other, or co-worker. The reason I recommend doing this is to help you sound conversational. It’s easy to have a conversation with just one other person. You can also have them provide you with feedback. If they aren’t familiar with the topic, then have them provide feedback on your overall style, poise, and gestures.
- Practice with a mini-audience. Round up a group of 3-5 people or more. Again, this can be composed of friends, family, or colleagues. Make sure there are at least a couple folks present who are knowledgeable about your talk’s topic and can provide useful feedback on your presentation’s content.
It’s easy to worry about not knowing everything. It can also hold you back from even presenting in the first place. I was only 2 years into my startup when I decided to present, and clearly didn’t know a whole lot. So I made it a point to be upfront about what I was going to cover, and what I was NOT going to cover. This made me confident that I’d meet the expectations of my audience … because I had set them.
On the day of my talk, I was less nervous than I had been the week before. All the preparation I did helped me feel confident. But of course, right before I spoke, I took many deep breaths and proceeded to deliver my talk in front of about 30-40 people.
Your audience will open doors for you
Afterwards, people stuck around to ask me questions. One guy even mentioned that a friend of his would really be interested in meeting with me, because he was an entrepreneur and very into the startup scene. The person he introduced me to is now one of my closest mentors!
Public speaking has given me an abundance of opportunities that I wouldn’t have received had I just sat in the corner and kept my nose to the grindstone—or in my case, my computer.
I know you’re interested in public speaking, which is great! But you might still have a case of stage fright that is holding you back…
Have you tried either the Crowd Pleaser Teaser Test or the Get By With a Little Help From Your Friends Technique? If you have, what were the results? Just let me know in the comments below!
If you enjoyed this post, then checkout my upcoming Confident Communicator Course. I’ll only be hosting this program once in 2017 year, so you won’t want to miss out! Registration ends Friday February 10, 2017 and the course begins Monday February 13, 2017.
