Want to cut your fear of public speaking? Then when you step onto a platform to give a speech you must be prepared. Successful public speakers know that they must be prepared to teach, lead, or even to entertain. In order to have a successful interview with the media following a speech you must be prepared for either a good or a bad question.
Remember, television, newspapers, and radio stations have their question lists and the hosting has his own agenda. It only takes a hungry host and a hungry audience for the tiniest interview to become a big deal.
It’s one thing to have a prepared act, but it creates another thing to be prepared. You may think you know what questions to expect, but you may be surprised.
To prepare a prepared act as a public speaker, there are three main areas to be aware of.
- Perspective – This is a tip for doing your job in a more polished, confident manner. You may feel that you’ve prepared, but if you’re not as confident as you claim to be, you’re doing something wrong.
- Technique – Look back at your work from the perspective of a professional who is conducting an interview. For example, if you’re in the business of speaking to organizations on a committee or board, you may feel that you are superior to others. Remember, there are many potential speakers in the marketplace who can be called upon to offer their services.
- End Goal or I bet number – This ideally is a goal that you guide yourself to. You may want to interview with a radio station, or the local television station. You may want to speak to a newspaper or turn a personal speech into a workshop. If the end goal is you to set a new goal for speaking, there are people who hold interviews with individuals who are endeavoring to create the perfect resume, giving a speech to an association, or speaking at a service club.
When you are in a room with an interviewer or a panel of interviewers, welcome them with a smile. Prepare your thoughts and keep your voice as level as you can. Always be sincere and look the interviewer in the eye. A little friendly competitiveness in your actions will help you to become a better speaker even if it comes through in your tone of voice, facial expression, gestures, or eye appeal.
As you prepare for a presentation, it is vital that you look into yourself, your own eyes, and your own ears. Loudpure emotions may be suburbs and they naturally die down. It is necessary for the public speaker to show that he or she is in control and confident. And while you may feel more as confident when you are in a room full of other seminar veterans, it won’t be a hundred percent authentic when you are apprehensive and unchallenged.
Do not envy or criticize other speakers, as you are building your own confidence. This unfortunately is where this phrase has become portrayed incorrectly. We see a confident person and say, “Reggie Tragge is a fine speaker”. Then you have a few moments to express that “Reggie’s one of us” and then walk away. You wonder why said person is not successful.
Reggie Tragge recently gave a speech to a company in LAPAK303 Reduce Small Businesses. After listening to the program a few times, I saw Reggie telling a story about his first job at Xerox, the company that wrote the opening paragraph from the mouth of Mary Quantor, the company’s initial president. The company president had a saying, “If I had to choose only one commodity to make-up the uses of the enterprise, that would be Xerox. We did not sell any machines. We made but one thing: Xerox clerks.”
When you learn to be confident, an interview with a interviewer or a panel of interviewers will take on a life of its own. Let them see your confidence. You may want to take a different approach from the last time you met a presenter, or you may want to rehearse.
Rehearsing will help you be prepared. Just knowing what the topics are, and knowing how to respond to the host’s questions, is going to be much more successful. Only practice what you know.
Tackling an audience will be much more fun and successful when preparation begins.Bring your knowledge up to date and take on the leadership of a naysayer. There will be those that love to snow you with negative rants. You will face unbelievable, clarity challenged people. Those will make the show worthwhile. What about the listeners?