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Roś
Natalia Roś,
a journalist from Laba
Giving a lecture at a conference, participating in a debate, speaking before a board of directors or even conducting an online training session can keep many professionals in their field awake at night. It has nothing to do with experience in the profession or the knowledge one has. Public speaking generates stress, insomnia, irritation or even panic.
Piotr Szekowski, a lecturer and public speaking trainer at TEDx conferences, comes to the rescue. Although he claims that theory won’t give us anything, it’s worth learning a few steps that will help you prepare for a speech. And then practice georgia telephone number data practice, and practice some more, because practice makes perfect, especially in this field.
What is the ideal speech?
Each person may define the ideal performance in a completely different way. This may include, for example:
substantive preparation;
attractive workmanship;
consistency and authenticity;
memorability;
engagement;
openness to dialogue;
sense of humor.
That is why it is not worth sticking to one definition, but you should strive to be a great speaker. And the best recipe for learning to perform is practice . No book or lecture will help. Knowledge should be implemented and tested on your own body.
7 Steps to Preparing the Perfect Speech
#1 Build Mentality
We often deal with stage fright, stress, or shame related to public speaking. How to act despite these physical or mental adversities?
To express yourself, you have to expose yourself. It is worth trying, even though it exposes you to judgment, because there is much to gain.
Check your assumptions and goals. We all live with different kinds of assumptions. When we learn, we use stereotypes and beliefs that we ourselves have about ourselves – for example, we don’t like our voice, we don’t think we have anything interesting to say, etc. It’s worth remembering, however, that showing off your voice is not the goal of a speech. It is to deliver value.
What you focus on controls you. In our professional lives, we operate in two modes:
reactive — thinking, speaking, feeling and acting are based on limitations, i.e. I can't, I don't know how, I don't like the way I speak, the way I look, etc. When we react to these stimuli, we avoid what we don't want and focus on the obstacles.
creative — thinking, speaking, feeling and acting are based on possibilities, i.e. what I desire, what I want, what is my goal, etc. It is a concentration on calming the voice and finishing the thought.
#2. Pass on value
We should focus on conveying value during public speaking. The most important thing is to think about how to meet the expectations of our audience.
How to convey values? Above all, don't complicate things! We don't want to give the impression that we consider ourselves the greatest specialists in the room. You can immediately hear the creation of distance in the voice, and see the mask of a specialist on the face.
It is also worth conveying values in an orderly manner . Our task is to speak strategies that will then allow us to group values in our heads.
#3. Generate an idea
When preparing for a speech, it is worth answering the following four questions:
WHAT: What do I want to convey?
WHY: Why do I want to provide value?
WHO: Who am I telling this to? To whom am I directing my message?
HOW: How to convey these values? With what tools?
#4. Get ready
More than half of speakers do not prepare for their speeches . We think that since we are specialists in a given field, we can easily talk about various issues related to our profession. The preparation process is not only about answering the four questions above, but also drawing a presentation plan: from general to specific, including the simplest elements and the more complicated ones.
The process of preparing for a speech begins with a skeleton , or an outline of what we will be talking about. This will help maintain healthy proportions. If your speech is two minutes long, you need to spend 20 minutes preparing it . However, if it is an hour long, it is worth spending 10 hours preparing it and spreading it out over several days.
Record your speech and listen to it or deliver it in front of someone to make sure that what you have prepared is clear and understandable. It is worth referring it to someone you trust who will give you constructive feedback – whether you have good pace, whether you are using the right sentence structure, etc. The next step is to shorten your presentation and clarify your points.
#5 Use Storytelling Models
We can tell stories naturally. We create outlines of the adventures of the characters and their transformations, successes and failures. To make our story credible, it is worth adding examples, references to other situations, providing a source of knowledge or research results .
