Confident Public Speaking Success

How to make a powerful talk or presentation

The thought of having to speak in front of a large audience may make your stomach churn with deep fear and anxiety. Most people fear having to get up and speak in public. In this chapter we are going to look at how you can become confident, successful and anxiety free when it comes to speaking in front of a large audience. You will learn how to give an interesting and entertaining talk or presentation.

There may be a number of reasons why you need to give a talk or a presentation in front of a large group of people. It could be for a college course, business or for any conference where you have to address an audience. You are going to become confident. You will really enjoy giving talks and presentations.

I once turned up at a university course to give a presentation totally unprepared. I did not know the subject very well. The subject was boring. I tried to blag my way through, but as soon as I attempted to open my mouth nothing seemed to be happen and there was a lot of stuttering and stammering. People were looking at me disgusted as though I were a strange and pathetic person. Someone had to take over the presentation for me in the end. So I understand what it is to be anxious and fearful of public speaking.

However when it came to subjects that I was actually interested in and enjoyed, I developed to become a confident entertaining speaker. After listening to some highly successful professional speakers at seminars and on courses, I began to learn some great skills in public speaking.

For your talk to be a success, you have to either like what you are talking about or feel passionate about the subject matter. You need to choose a subject that you enjoy. If you hate the subject or find it boring then your presentation will not be a success. Unless however you can take boring information and present it in an interesting way, which at least you find interesting. A confident speech means that you are confident in the information and the message that you are giving. If you are passionate about the content, then your speech will go far.
Success in confident public speaking is 80% preparation. You need to know or have researched your subject matter so that you can structure your talk in a logical interesting way for presentation. You need to identify the purpose of your talk. The purpose of your talk may be to entertain, inform, educate or help people in some way. If you are at college the purpose of your talk may simply be to discuss information and show that you understand it. If so look at the criteria that is used to grade your presentation, and make sure you cover everything. One other purpose of a talk may be to persuade an audience to do something or to see something in a different way. Another purpose may be to empower an audience or help solve their problems, to give them something of immense value.
Generally your success in confident public speaking is determined by how interested, entertained, informed and empowered your audience become. You need to be giving your audience something of value. The talk has to be structured for the audience. You need to appeal to their emotions, desires or needs, and make a promise to solve problems or help them reach a goal for instance.
One way of overcoming public speaking anxiety is to forget yourself and focus on your audience, on giving them high quality content.
Imagine that all your audience members have merged into one, and you are talking to one person. Always keep them in mind as one whole, one group of people. Imagine that your most important person is sitting at the back row. Always keep the tone of your voice raised slightly so that this person can hear you. Remember that the purpose of your talk is to give, to constantly give. You are giving love to your audience. The more love you give and send out to them, the more they will appreciate your presentation. You need to connect with Love and have an open heart toward your audience.

Be careful about your judgements of yourself and other people. Most people who fear public speaking actually judge other people negatively who speak in public. I once saw a girl interviewed about why she fears public speaking. It turned out that her greatest fear was to be judged negatively. When asked what she meant by that, she then went into great detail about how speakers can be judged. It actually turned out that this is what she does to most people who speak in public. You generally fear what you do, or what you have done to other people.

You need to select your audience correctly. If you are giving love to your audience they should naturally respond by having an open and friendly attitude toward you. If you are giving Love then people will naturally Love your presentation and find it amazing, and you will naturally entertain them and make them laugh- as well as fulfil the real goals of your presentation.

If your subject is boring, if your work it boring then you are obviously in the wrong course or job. If this is the case your presentation is subject to failure. A big part of anxiety and depression is being in the wrong place. If I could go back in time instead of going to university I would actually take the money and go work and travel around the world. In my opinion university is a complete waste of time and money. The only reason that I went was to try and experience greater levels of freedom in my life. However being able to work and travel anywhere in the world is the greatest freedom on Earth. You can then learn valuable skills on the job and have fun at the same time, rather than be jobless or without any valuable skills when you leave.

The biggest anxiety you may experience is the preparation leading up to the talk- the few moments before the presentation. This is when you may be psyching yourself up or visualizing the worst possible scenarios in your head- vividly imagining how it is going to be a disaster. Stop that! Sometimes anxiety is just a label we give to our emotions. Try shifting this fear into excitement. If anything imagine the prospect of it turning out the way you want it to. Try and visualize this. You may visualize people commenting positively on the talk, being impressed or really finding it interesting. Say a prayer. This affirms exactly what you want to happen, what you goal is. Ask God to bless your talk and make it turn out the way you want it to. This is powerful visualization. Say affirmations like, “My presentation is a success”, or “I feel terrific” or “I can do it“. Say these affirmations with emotion and repeat a few times. Remember the opposite from being shy and afraid is to Love, to give.