onomato-priyaa:

Hi!  Despite being a mess of a human, I’ve done my fair bit of pretentiously babbling on stage public speaking.  Although I’m definitely not a master of presenting, here’s some advice that’s helped me out a fair bit. 

before the presentation

• Don’t underestimate preparation!  Go over your speech as many times as you can.  It’ll get easier and easier the more you practise.  Ask someone to watch you rehearse your speech.  Feedback and reflection will help you pinpoint what your strengths and weaknesses are.
• Use PowerPoint with caution.  Avoid info-dumping, or copying your entire speech onto each slide. Just use it to display graphs, charts, key facts or stats.  You should always remain the centre of attention, not a screen!
• Don’t try to stick completely to your written speech.  Even if you pause, stutter, or accidentally change words, you’re still delivering your speech.  View your written speech as a guide, not a strict script.
• I cannot recommend cue cards enough.  It’s best to condense your points, rather than bringing in a piece of paper to recite from.

during the presentation

• Here’s something cool I’ve learnt:
• If you want to appear honest, welcoming or sincere, keep your palms open, facing up and towards the audience. Many interviewees will be seen doing this (eg. Chris Evans on Jimmy Fallon), as it demonstrates that you have nothing to hide.  
• However, if you want to appear more authoritarian, downward palms will help illustrate dominance and steadfastness. You’ll see far many more politicians and world leaders doing this.

• If you forget a part of your speech, move on and keep going.  If you don’t care, no one else will.  You can always add it in later if you need to.
• Speak from your abdomen; this makes your voice richer, deeper and stronger. People are more inclined to listen to resonating, lower voices.  
• There’s power in pausing.  If you’ve delivered a key point, stop for a beat - give your audience some time to fully register what you’ve said.
• Don’t worry if you ‘freeze’ on stage - just pause, nod, walk to the side to take a sip of water.  Calmly return to the centre and repeat your last sentence.  You’ll remain 100% in control.
• If you shake violently under pressure (like ya’ girl), remember to keep your breathing steady, inhaling and exhaling deeply from the abdomen.  It’ll stop you panicking - ‘nerves’ are only caused by poor breathing.
  
• Make eye contact with your audience.  Address the room, not your shoes!
• A trick I love using is to split the audience into four sections; make eye contact with each section in any random order, and you’ll find it less daunting.
• Remember: your audience is rooting for you.  They have no vendetta against you, trust me.  Just get up there and be the figure of confidence they’ve been anticipating.

after the presentation

• Retain a sense of power even when you walk off.  An actor wouldn’t break character as soon as once their monologue is finished, would they? Treat your presentation like a performance.  Even if you feel awful (which you shouldn’t!), keep your shoulders back and your head high as you step off the podium.
• Don’t obsess over any mistakes made.  It’s natural to immediately contemplate the ‘if only…’s or the ‘maybe if i…’s.  However, there’s no point trying to strive for a perfect presentation.  Your audience would’ve been carried away by your passion and enthusiasm.  That wins over perfection every single time.

stuff to check out

Charisma On Command - this guy’s a master at analysing famous actors/speakers, deconstructing their behaviours and teaching you how to emulate it.  He’s even done videos on Game of Thrones and Marvel characters!

TEDTalks: How to speak so that people want to listen

Hope this helped! x

(via lovflushed)