Last night I was teaching a group class on public speaking and I wanted to share 4 big takeaways to help you get started on your path to building your confidence as a speaker:
1) Start with your Mindset
If you find public speaking intimidating, it can be helpful to look to other activities that aren't as scary.
I love this analogy and I often talk about how public speaking is like learning to play baseball. Whether you’re learning a new sport, an instrument, or the art of stand up, chances are high that you’re going to be bad before you’re good.
If you can accept that as a given, and be willing to do some awkward practice runs, you’ll improve so much quicker.
2) Be willing to be a beginner
Going back to comedy, if you watch stand up, you’ve probably seen some bad jokes.
If you play an instrument, you probably took part in some less than stellar school concerts. (Thank you home videos for preserving my early clarinet concerts)!
And if you frequent smaller comedy clubs, you might occasionally see headliners trying out their material because that's how they figure out if their jokes are funny to other people.
3) Practice
Practicing your presentation for other people is the best way to find out if your content makes sense and is meaningful to other people.
It might feel awkward to practice before you're finished, but getting feedback early on is crucial. It will pay off tenfold and I guarantee it's worth the potential embarrassment.
I call my trainings experience labs because a lab is a place to experiment.
Think of it like chemistry class.
You run experiments and see what reactions you get. You try out new things and you evaluate how they work.
4) Don’t be afraid to mess up
Practice should be messy. Don’t wait until your presentation is finished to start practicing. As soon as you have an outline, start working through your ideas out loud.
It’s okay to fumble. Check out What to do When You Stumble for 5 tips to gracefully handle presentation blunders.