Nine Amazing Steps to Overcome Fear of Public Speaking

Many people want to become great public speakers but only so few of them do. Sometimes, this is because of fear of public speaking. Don’t get me wrong though, even the best ones claim to still experience this unnerving sensation when facing a multitude of people and captivating their attention. The only difference is that great public speakers and presenters are able to manage their fear, thereby overcoming it in the process.

So how do these great presenters do it?

According to Inter-Activ, there are nine ways to do it:

1) Breathe!

2) Consciously visualize success

3) Stand as if you feel confident

4) Focus on your audience

5) Remember a past success

6) Prepare

7) Rehearse rehearse, rehearse

8) Step “into” a role model

9) Join your local Toastmasters club

Read on more details…

So what do you think? Do you agree that these things can help you become a fearless public speaker? Or do you want to add more?

Should the Slides Outshine the Speaker?

Slides outshining the speaker  is a common thing that I notice whenever I attend presentations. It doesn’t matter where the projector is or how big or small the screen is, the speaker usually prefers to be in the dark so that the audience can focus on his slides being projected onto the screen.

While this may seem common sense, Lisa Braithwaite emphasizes the fact that this is far from how things should be done when doing a presentation. In her blog post, Outshine your slides with proper lighting, she talks about the proper way to do it and why it’s important that the both the slides and the speaker be seen by the audience.

How about you? What’s your take on this?

The Worst Way to End a Presentation

While reading some blogs, I came across a post about how to not end a presentation. At first I find the question funny. But after a few seconds, I realized how crucial the question is. Really, what is the worst thing a presenter can do when he or she is done with the presentation?

Some of the answers given were:

“Are there any questions?”

“Using the words ‘in conclusion'”

“Talking too much after the Q&A part”

etc.

How about you? What do you think is the way to NOT end a presentation?

For more information on the answers of some people, head to this blog post.

Public Speaking Humor Material

How far would you go to make your presentations and public speaking stints interesting and a sure hit to your audience? After all, it’s true that humor can get you places. Just look at the top stand up comedy acts we have today. But then again, you also have to do your research so as not to sound forced, and worse, offend your audience.

There are five things you need to consider when selecting humor  material for your speech:

– selection of material

– appropriate targets

– people

– places

– things

To read the complete details of the five factors that can make or break your speech in terms of trying to be humorous, check out: Public Speaking – Selecting Humor Material

Powerful Graphics Guarantee Powerful Presentations

Mike Parkinson wrote this article about creating powerful presentations. He emphasized the fact that there are numerous presentation software users out there who create text-heavy slides accompanies by irrelevant graphics and canned clip art. Mike shares with us excellent solutions on how to solve this problem, guarantee that presenters from now on get to have powerful presentations through equally powerful graphics that will absolutely increase success rate.

Read the first part of this 2-part article here.