The Ps and Qs of Public Speaking

Avoid the pain

Which would you prefer - root canal dental surgery withoutan anaesthetic or a bit of public speaking? According to thepeople who research these things, most of us would preferthe former.

Public speaking is still one of our greatest fears and itturns grown men and women into nervous wrecks. The merethought of it turns our tongue to cotton wool, causes ourinternal plumbing to act up and our kneecaps to startknocking lumps out of each other.

The problem is that Public Speaking catches up with many ofus at some time both in our business and personal life.You're asked to do a short talk at Fred's "leaving do". Theorganisers of your business club want fifteen minutes on whyyou make "kafuffle" valves. A potential client wants apresentation on why they should give you the contract. Of course there's always the confident people who think "I'mreal good at this, lead me to the podium." The only thingisthat some of these people could bore your socks off and domore for insomniacs than the strongest sleeping pills.Maybe you'll be lucky enough to be sent on a Public Speakingcourse by your enlightened employer. But more likely, whenasked to make a presentation you'll get hold of a book onspeaking, start writing the speech and lose sleep until theevent.

Well, there's no need for all of this because help is athand. All you need to remember are your P's and Q's. Let'sstart with the P's

Preparation -

When you sit down to write what you're going to say, bear inmind who you'll be speaking to. Will they understand whatyou're talking about; will they understand the technicalstuff and the jargon? If in doubt remember the old saying"Keep It Simple Stupid". To quote Aristotle - "Think as thewise men do, but speak as the common man".

Make sure that what you say has a beginning, a middle and anend. Think of some anecdotes that help reinforce yourstory.

People think visually so paint verbal pictures for youraudience. And always remember, people want to know what's init for them - so make sure you tell them!

Place -

Have a look at the venue before the event if you can. It'snot always possible, however, even if you get there half anhour before, you can check out where you'll be speaking.Stand at the point where you will deliver from, imaginewhere the audience will be and check that they can see andhear you. You may even wish to place a glass of water whereyou'll be able to find it.

Personal Preparation -

Before any speaking event, think about what you are going towear; when in doubt dress up rather than down. You canalways take things off for a more casual look. Men couldremove their jacket and their tie. Women could remove itemsof jewellery.

Part of your personal preparation should include some mouthand breathing exercises. Practise saying some tonguetwisters to give your speaking muscles a good work out. Takea deep breath and expand your diaphragm. Then breathe out,counting at the same time, try and get up to fifty and notpass out.

As part of your personal preparation, write your ownintroduction. Write out exactly what you want someone to sayabout you, large font, double-spaced and ask the personintroducing you to read it. Believe me they won't object andwill probably be pleased and impressed.

Poise and Posture -

Whenever you're called to speak, stand up or walk to thefront quickly and purposefully. Pull yourself up to yourfull height, stand tall and look like you own the place.Before you start to speak, pause, look round your audienceand smile. You may even have to wait until the applause diesdown. Remember, you want the audience to like you, so looklikeable. Practise this in front of a mirror or your family;I've heard that children make pretty good critics.

Pretend -

I'm suggesting you pretend you're not nervous because nodoubt you will be. Nervousness is vital for speaking inpublic, it boosts your adrenaline, which makes your mindsharper and gives you energy. It also has the slight sideeffect of making you lighter through loss of body wastematerials. The trick is to keep your nerves to yourself. Onno account tell your audience your nervous, you'll onlyscare the living daylights out of them if they think you'regoing to faint. Some of the tricks for dealing with nervesare:

Get lots of oxygen into your system, run on the spot andwave your arms about like a lunatic. It burns off the stresschemicals. Speak to members of your audience as they comeinor at some time before you stand up. That tricks your braininto thinking you're talking to some friends. Have a glassof water handy for that dry mouth. Stick cotton wool on yourkneecaps so people won't hear them knocking. One word of warning - do not drink alcohol. It might giveyou Dutch courage but your audience will end up thinkingyou're speaking Dutch.

The Presentation -

This is it, the big moment when you tell your audience whata clever person you are and have them leap to their feet inthunderous applause. Okay, let's step back a bit - if youwant their applause then you're going to have to work forit. Right from the start your delivery needs to grab theirattention.

Don't start by saying - "Good morning, my name is FredBloggs and I'm from Bloggs and Company." Even if your nameis Bloggs, it's a dead boring way to start a presentation.Far better to start with some interesting facts or ananecdote that is relevant to your presentation.Look at the audience as individuals; I appreciate that thiscan be difficult when some of them are downright ugly.However it grabs their attention if they think you'retalking to them individually.

Talk louder than you would normally do, it keeps the peoplein the front row awake and makes sure those at the back getthe message. Funnily enough, it's also good for yournerves.

PowerPoint -

And for those of you who haven't heard of it, it's asoftware programme that's used to design stunning graphicsand text for projection onto a screen. As a professionalspeaker, I'm not that struck on PowerPoint. I feel that toomany speakers rely on it and it takes over the presentation.After all, you're the important factor here. If an audienceis going to accept what you say then they need to see thewhites of your eyes. There needs to be a big focus on you,not on the technology.

Use PowerPoint if you want but keep it to a minimum and makesure you're not just the person pushing the buttons. Why not get a bit clever at using the faithful old FlipChart, lots of professionals do.

Passion -

This is what stops the audience in their tracks. This iswhat makes them want to employ you; to accept what you'reproposing and make them want you to marry their son ordaughter. Couple this with some energy, enthusiasm andemotion and you have the makings of a great public speaker. Just think of our old friend Adolph Hitler, boy could hemove an audience to action. It's just too bad he was sellingsomething that wasn't to everyone's liking. Give your presentation a bit of oomph and don't starttelling me - "I'm not that kind of person." There's no need to go over the top but you're doing apresentation to move people to action, not having a cosylittle chat in your front room.

That's the P's finished with so let's look at the Q's.

Questions -

Decide when you're going to take them and tell people at thestart. In a short speech it's best to take questions at theend. If you take them as you go then you may get waylaidandyour timing will get knocked out.

Never - never - never finish with questions; far better toask for questions five or ten minutes before the end. Dealwith the questions and then summarise for a strong finish.Too many presentations finish on questions and the wholething goes a bit flat.

When you're asked a question, repeat it to the wholeaudience and thank the questioner. It keeps everyoneinvolved, it gives you time to think and it makes you lookso clever and in control.

Quit -

Quit when you're ahead. Stick to the agreed time; if you'reasked to speak for twenty minutes, speak for nineteen andthe audience will love you for it. Remember, quality is notquantity.

One of the most famous speeches ever - "The GettysburgAddress", by President Lincoln, was just over two minuteslong.

Right, that's my cue to quit when I'm ahead. Public Speakingwill never be easy for most of us but we can all do it awhole lot better.

Alan Fairweather is the author of four ebooks in the "Howto get More Sales" series. Lots of practical actions youcan take to build your business and motivate your team.-http://www.howtogetmoresales.com