Better Presentation Skills - Don't Care Too Much About What Happens!

Caring about your audience and how you do as a speaker is a good thing. If you don't care about what you do, how well you do it, or what the audience takes away from it then you are just apathetic and probably shouldn't be speaking to this group.

However, caring too much can be just as bad as not caring enough. By caring too much you actually reduce your ability to perform well. It sounds ironic, but the more importance you put on succeeding, the less likely you are to succeed.

Caring too much is the number one reason people feel nervous before they speak. There are many reasons you can care too much: you are afraid of being embarrassed, the speech is important to your career so you want to do well, you think the audience is hostile, etc.

Allowing these nerves in makes it very hard for you to perform your best. It is hard to speak naturally when you are freaking out!

This happened to me in my early speaker days, during one of my first "big" speeches. I walked in to the event with my speech prepared. However, before my speech I spoke with several of the attendees. I found out that the year before that had a world champion boxer as their speaker. Here I was, this young guy going to do this little comedy speech, when they were used to speakers who had been on the world stage! "There is no way they are going to like my stuff," I thought.

On top of that, I started discovering that a lot of these people were very successful. Way more successful than me. Also, this was my first "big" speech and I wanted to do really well so I could get referrals and follow up business. I was counting on it.

I got up to speak, but it was too late. I cared too much, and psyched myself out. The speech was ok (they didn't ask for their money back or anything) but I got zero referrals or follow up. Nada. Zilch.

I realized afterward that the problem was that I put too much importance on what the audience would think. I wanted to do a great job and give great value to the audience, but I realized that all I could do was worry about doing my best, and if they didn't like it, too bad.

Now, whenever I start to get nervous about a speaking engagement, or anything else for that matter, I remind myself to do my best and not care so much about what the audience thinks. When I do this, my nerves immediately calm and I am able to perform much better. I encourage you to try this before your next presentation.

To read about six more mistakes speakers make, and to watch a free 20 minute video on how to be authentic and natural as a speaker, and to download a one-hour MP3 on how to be a better speaker, check out http://www.avishparashar.com/speakingschool/ Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Avish_Parashar

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Public Speaking - Five Awful Ways to Open a Speech

The opening of a speech is one of its two most important parts. There are many great ways to begin, and for each great beginning, there is an equally awful opening.

Here are five awful ways to begin a speech:

• "Hi there, I'm happy to be here..." Please! This is the most bland, boring, badly overused speech opening. By the time you reach the word "here", half of your audience is already asleep. The other half is looking at their watches, wondering "When is this going to be over?" Don't waffle: just start!
• "I'm very nervous right now..." Who cares? Why do you think it's so important for us to know that you haven't prepared, you haven't practiced, and you aren't ready? The audience does not need to know how you feel. When you announce that you aren't at your best, you are automatically setting expectations that you will be bad. It doesn't matter how well you perform. If you do the best speech of your life, they will leave while thinking to themselves: "I wonder how much better it would have been if he/she had been feeling good."
• "Did you hear the one about..." Oh boy! Whenever people start their speech with a joke, it's usually sign that they are just following "public speaking rules." These "rules" allegedly state that you must start a speech with a joke. The problem is that jokes are rarely related to the topic at hand. They are only there to make people laugh. Nothing wrong with getting people to laugh, as long as it doesn't seem forced. Otherwise, after the laughter, people will wonder: "What was the point of that joke?"
• "Here is a story you all know..." Ugh! The starfish story, anything from Chicken Soup for... any story you received over the Internet, all have the same basic issue: many people have heard it already. Stay away from stories that everyone has told, unless you bring a twist to it. For example, I once heard the story of the tortoise and the hare which contained, not one, not two, but three different endings to the story. Now, that's a twist!
• "The great philosopher A. Nonymous once said..." This is another one of those public speaking "rules": start with a quote. Avoid this, once again, because it sets up your audience with the wrong expectations. The expectation is the following: this is going to be another boring speech filled with information we already know. Use quotes, just not at the beginning of your speech.

The two most important parts of a speech are the introduction and the conclusion. The introduction sets the tone for your speech, while the conclusion determines how the audience will feel when they leave. Don't set yourself up for failure from the start: drop these awful openings from your repertoire.

Laurent Duperval helps professionals become influential communicators. He publishes the "Bring Out The Speaker In You" electronic newsletter, which aims to help readers improve their public speaking and communication skills. You can reach him at http://www.duperval.com Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Laurent_Duperval

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Motivation Presentation - It Wasn't Only the Egyptians Who Built Pyramids!

When giving a motivation presentation, audience analysis is essential. You must think of your presentation from your audience's viewpoint. Chances are your audience has been asked to attend your presentation (they have not come along voluntarily) and many well be thinking: "What's in it for me?"

Don't take that personally. When giving a motivational presentation, that "What's in it for me?" question should be your call to action. For your presentation to succeed, that is the question you need to answer. A motivational presentation should be structured in a way that takes your audience from where they are now to where you would like them to be. You first must engage your audience's attention at their current level, and then demonstrate through your presentation how you can fulfill their natural desire to move up to the next level of motivation. Depending on the goals of your presentation and the intended audience, whether a sales force, production personnel or a football team, you must give them a reason to listen to your presentation. A reason that relates to, and builds on, their own experience.

Way back in 1954, American psychologist Abraham Maslow developed the idea of a hierarchy pyramid of human needs. That hierarchy pyramid has been the foundation of motivation presentations ever since. He demonstrated that there are five basic levels of needs that all people have in common: basic, safety, social, self-esteem and achievement. These can be visualized in a pyramid-type structure with the basic level at the base, up to achievement at the apex.

In the business environment for example, Maslow's hierarchy from the basic level upward is:

• Basic needs, which can be met through, attractive salary, holiday entitlement, etc.
• Safety needs, met by safe working conditions, good pension, health cover.
• Social needs, such as company fitness and sports club, planned social events such as office parties (my favorite!)
• Self-esteem needs, by prestigious job titles, sales-person-of-the-year award, etc.
• Achievement needs, through promotions, interesting job assignments, and so on.

Maslow suggested that people can only be motivated to move up to the next needs-level when they have satisfactorily met the main requirements of their current level. In other words, you are unlikely to have much success in your motivating presentation in telling you audience they have been selected to work on a prodigious new project (self esteem) if their pressing concern is their cut in bonuses (basic).

Interestingly, Maslow found that that when the lower-order needs have been fulfilled, the desire to reach the higher-order needs (self-esteem and achievement) dramatically increase in strength. The ideal motivating presentation should therefore focus more on the higher-order needs. Needs that excite people to develop their talents to the best of their abilities and enable them to finding greater meaning in their work.

A Certified Technical Trainer, Ian has over 10 years experience in the coaching, training and development of personnel in the hi-tech sector. For more presentation tips, ideas and resources, visit http://www.presentation-power-tips.com Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Ian_W_Hay

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