Public speaking is tough. All eyes on you, the thought of failure slowly setting in, gripping you with fear and anxiety. Most of us have felt this at some point in our lives. I felt this in college giving a presentation on asset management, I felt it during an investment pitch on the job. So how do we overcome this fear. Thankfully there's an easy remedy: practice, practice, practice. The more familiar you are with public speaking the easier it becomes. Again, public speaking is tough, but it can also be your greatest asset. Forbes.com featured an article short list of why public speaking is great for you:
1. You will be viewed as a leader
2. It will increase your exposure
3. You will gain trust from others
4. It will reduce your competition; most people hate public speaking so much they will avoid it at all costs
5. It will redefine you
So, if you're like the vast majority of the population (those of us who hate public speaking) why not try and focus on improving upon your weakness? Again, practice creates the best results. Here, are a few organizations that specialize in training individuals in public speaking. If anyone is a member and would like to comment, or if you would like to add to the list please do so in the comments section.
Where to practice:
1. Toastmasters International- been around since 1924 so they must be doing something right
2. University Public Speaking Clubs- check out a local university in your city for public speaking groups
3. Meetup.com- has a large network of local public speaking groups
The easiest time to work on public speaking is in college and there are two basic methods for doing so:
1) Take the lead in all your group presentations, as well as join organizations / clubs which require you to speak in front of people. 2) Hit the bar and talk to everyone you see.
Personally, I like the combo platter.
Combo platters always get a +1
You'll get used to it, realize 90% wont even be paying any attention.
Option 4.) Spend two years on the trading floor and stop being so self-conscious.
Seriously, traders are the cruelest critics. If you can present in front of a group of them, you can present in front of an audience of pretty much any size.
Option 5. Teach...
Practice is the key. At my UG all classes taken through our business school had a group presentation component, which forced everyone to experience presenting/ public speaking at least a few times a semester pitching unique subject matter to different people over four years. Let's just say I absolutely hated it back then, but I'm glad I was forced to learn how to present and talk in public.
11 Tips of Speaking Publicly (Originally Posted: 02/01/2015)
Your heart is pounding, palms are sweaty, you’re weak at the knees, and you are nervous as you can be. Anxiety starts to set in, you start to have thoughts about what they think about you and you try to judge them through body language and facial expressions. Yes, the anxiety, nervousness, and those queasy feelings that you get when you’re about to speak in front of a large crowd. Public speaking can be considered one of the most daunting and scary task to do and sometimes you have to do it.
Even those who are a professional at it, still get a little scared as well. We all have experienced some form of being nervous, anxiety, and queasy feelings. Public speaking is more than just speaking in front of a large crowd to persuade, it is also a form of communication to the audience you are about to communicate with. These feelings can occur through speaking in front of students when presented to do a research project. It may happen when you have to make a sales pitch, or even that interview for that dream job. While it can be scary and cause unwanted feelings, there are ways to help calm yourself and project your confidence. Before I dig in to the list of what you can do, I would like to share a personal story of mine that did involve speaking publicly. From 2006-2007, I deployed to Iraq for 15 months and besides the basic soldier duties, I was tasked to give briefings since no one else would (when tasked with something that is not your responsibility, I considered this “involun-told”). I didn't know what I was briefing about and nor did I even know what was going on. I was nervous and my heart was beating out of my chest. I would have to brief 250-350 soldiers daily and they would come in different sizable groups.
Not only were the numbers large, the ranks of some of the soldiers were as well (think officers and high ranking civilians). Then add in that the margin of error had to be extremely small to the point of having no error what so ever (unless the higher command changed a few plans). After a few months of giving briefings, my heart wasn't beating out of my chest and I wasn't even nervous. I became much more relaxed and confident.
Scenarios such as the one I shared above do occur and they occur more often than I thought. However, everyone will be put in a position at some point to speak in front of a large crowd and here are a few tips to help ease your thoughts and feelings (By no means am I a professional or an expert, just basing off experience):
Fellow monkeys if you have anything to add or share go ahead and post it. I’m sure there are a few tips that are can be of value.
Good post but did anyone else read the first line with that one Eminem beat in their head?
Cannot be unseen
"palms are sweaty" just triggers my inner eminem :D
I suggest join a small public speaking group for practice. This is an extremely valuable skill. The first time I had to speak in front of a group (more than a hundred people) I was only 15. Needless to say I have had many opportunities to speak and comparing myself from day one to now, you wouldn't believe it was me.
I'll second that. Join a toastmasters group, the benefits for your personal confidence and professional communication skills can not be overstated....and it doesn't take much time out of your week to just participate. A lot of the time there will even be clubs that form within individual companies.
As a former anxious public speaker turned fearless public speaker, I cannot stress the practice point enough. If you rehearse repeatedly, are confident in the material you are presenting, and don't follow a strict word-for-word speech, you will have no issues.
After all, once you get over the first 30 seconds of presenting, you will speak effortlessly and fearlessly.
I've found that the people that have prepared word for word speeches and presentations are usually the ones that have the hardest times with speaking publicly because they can get flustered so much easier if they lose their spot in the note card or speech.
Whenever I do a presentation, when I prepare all I do is get a few notes that I want to hit on for each slide, but never a word for word paragraph or anything like that. I never even use quotes, instead I'll paraphrase, because I can do a presentation 20 times, and I won't say the same thing exactly like I did in a previous presentation.
As a former anxious public speaker turned fearless public speaker, I cannot stress the practice point enough. If you rehearse repeatedly, are confident in the material you are presenting, and don't follow a strict word-for-word speech, you will have no issues.
After all, once you get over the first 30 seconds of presenting, you will speak effortlessly and fearlessly.
take a xanax, that helps
Take an acting class. Sounds dumb but did I that 1st semester freshman year in college and now I don't get nearly as nervous when doing public speaking
Toastmasters. This is the answer. I joined a club at work and they met every Thursday at lunch time. It instilled a ton of confidence in me when in front of a crowd. I think the most helpful part of each meeting was the "table topics" session, where you got up in front of the group and had to answer an ad hoc question and speak for 2 minutes. It's amazing how quickly your mind will get over the "fear" portion of speaking, and switch to a quick, Clear Thinking mentality.
Yeah, I was thinking of eminem, but also one of my classmates would sweat profusely when speaking publicly. Toastmasters is an excellent way to help with public speaking and one that I would encourage everyone to join for a while.
Public speaking / confidence seminar - Dale Carnegie 2.0 (Originally Posted: 11/17/2017)
Hi,
I am looking for a valuable public speaking / confidence seminar a la Dale Carnegie that Warren Buffett attended. Anything you can recommend in Europe? I have to improve my skill when it comes to presenting investment ideas.
sreedich, sorry there are no responses yet. Maybe one of these topics can point you in the right direction:
More suggestions...
Hope that helps.
Mindset for presentations (Originally Posted: 12/08/2016)
Hey there,
this might sound mundane to many of you, but do you have any advice for speaking publicly i.e. presentations or the like? I don`t know what it is, that makes it so difficult/terrifying to me. Other than the sheer practice, is there e.g. a simple mindset-attitude that you have as an advice for these situations?
Be prepared. Practice. Visualize yourself giving the best presentation ever. I know, its not easy, but keep at it for a bit and it will work wonders. All these things will give you the confidence you need, to succeed.
Visualization is so powerful. So is confidence.
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