Overcoming Speaking Jitters; Fear of Greater Knowledge

Last week I spent 90 minutes with the current cohort of MBA students at the University of New Brunswick – Saint John (https://www.unb.ca/saintjohn/business/mba/). The program is a fast paced one-year version. I completed these same studies in 2013. 

I spoke with the students about public speaking fundamentals and offered some tips and shortcuts, including some that should help with their group presentations. I also encouraged them to be opportunistic and to mine their experience for personal stories they can use to enhance their presentations. 

Life Experience

Great speakers draw upon their life experience and especially customer service experiences for relevant content. Sometimes these experiences can seem trivial at first glance but can be funny, useful and illustrative for presentations. Any story you recount to a friend or colleague with some degree of passion could become a reusable speaking asset. 

Managing Jitters 

During the question-and-answer section, a young woman asked how she can overcome pre-presentation jitters. After the formal session we talked some more and she indicated she has speaking experience, and has confidence in her skills, but she still feels strong jitters before taking a stage. Further, she said she is usually quite nervous that someone in the audience will ask her a question that stumps her, or someone will make a point to showcase his knowledge, perhaps perceived as superior knowledge.

 

Tips for Managing Jitters 

Here are some tips if you feel jitters before a presentation;

1. Jitters are normal

Many people will avoid situations when they must stand before an audience and present. Speakers will feel anxiety because they want to do well. It’s normal to have performance anxiety. Prior to a big game, professional athletes will often be physically ill, but once the game starts, their skills engage and they simply play the game. Be confident in your skills and preparation.   

2. Know precisely what you’ll talk about

Make your plan. Know your key points. I advise that you do not memorize any element of your speech, expect perhaps the structure. It’s fine to take a page of key points on stage that you wish to address. Don’t worry about the precise words you’ll use, or precise sentences.  Be confident in the key points you wish to speak about, and your ability to speak to each.

 

3. Give yourself a pep talk before you hit the stage 

Be confident that you’re prepared, you trust your plan, that you can speak to your key points, and then proceed. You know your content.

4. Questions outside your experience 

If someone asks a question outside your experience, frame your answer around your observations, and indicate the question is outside your familiarity. This could sound like “thank you for the question.  My experience/research focused on the three areas I’ve discussed, and while interesting, your question/scenario is outside my experience/research.” 

If you expect the questioner may persist, you should likely end your response with “I see we have another question over here.” 

Conclusion 

It’s normal to have jitters before speaking to an audience.  You want to perform well and deliver value. These few points should help you manage your jitters. 

Lost In Thought: Empowering Personal Development

 

Sometimes I’m asked why I continue to attend Toastmaster meetings after so many years as a member. There are many reasons, most notably because I recognize that public speaking is a skill and any skill requires practice. Each week at a Toastmaster meeting, I practice skills such as thinking on my feet and spontaneously crafting short speeches. I have sufficient knowledge about the craft, but I need regular practice and feedback from audience members to understand if my messages are effective.

Another reason I continue to attend is to see people develop in our supportive Toastmasters environment. It is an absolute joy to see people make progress. The supportive Toastmasters club environment was important to my development back in the 80s, and still today. It continues to nurture new attendees.

A Recent Example

I witnessed another example of this nurturing environment a few weeks ago.  A university student joined our Toastmasters club because she had a severe fear of public speaking.  In her initial attempts at impromptu speaking, she could only manage a few short sentences when she would stop, lost in her thoughts, and unsure how to proceed.

Over the past couple of months, she has learned to better manage her thoughts, and had some successes. Her confidence and skills are developing. When someone has a deep fear of public speaking, I’ve observed that they seem to move through a pattern of believing they can’t perform, to having some modest success, then better success, and ultimately should they persist they arrive to a point where they know they can perform, and they then learn to manage their way through various speaking engagements.  Some even reach the point where they enjoy public speaking.

Who Gets Lost In Their Thoughts?

You may know someone who gets lost in her thoughts when she speaks to an audience. You likely know someone who is reluctant to speak to any size audience and this is inhibiting his development.  If this is the case, I hope you invite, and perhaps accompany, that person to a Toastmasters meeting. There is no commitment to join, and most clubs are very open to guests and welcome their attendance (Some clubs are resident within companies making it difficult or impossible for people outside the organization to visit).

You can find a club via the Find A Club link at www.toastmasters.org

Every day I receive a Google alert with links to news and items related to Toastmasters.  Here is a good one about a reporters experience with Toastmasters in Australia

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2022/feb/01/the-devotion-the-positivity-the-awkwardness-what-i-learned-from-joining-toastmasters

Nervous Energy and Dancing During Speeches

 In December I was invited to participate on a panel of judges for presentations delivered during a university competition. The participants all did quite well. I’ll offer some observations that address some public speaking habits in general.

As this was a masters level business program, the students skewed towards late twenties or older. Some were very skilled presenters; however, it was clear many had little experience. There is no substitute for experience.

I didn’t notice any of the speakers rely on notes to any great extent, which is very commendable. There were five teams of five to six people, and each team member delivered a short speech as a contribution to presenting team results. 

Purposeful Movement Versus Purposeless Movement

I noticed many of the speakers managing nervous energy unconsciously with near continuous movement, dancing away.  It is better to move a little while not speaking, then plant the feet, and speak.  Finish a component, move, plant the feet, and speak. Constant moving is distracting for many audience members, and visibly demonstrates nervousness.

Word Choice and Use of Non-Words

Most participants used a minimum of filler noises like ‘um’ and ‘ah’ but several used a quantity that I found distracting. When someone’s speech is full of ums and ahs, I need to work to filter them out to concentrate on the words and sentences, to interpret the overall message.  As a listener, you filter them out too, and this is additional work for the listener. If you need to work too hard on filtering, you will feel some mild fatigue as the speaker concludes. You might even comment to a colleague that such a presentation was exhausting.  

Few people will entirely eliminate filler noises, but we can all work to be aware of our usage and minimize them.  We concentrate hard on good word choices. Most of us can do a better job on concentrating on filler noises and catching them before they escape.

Managing Questions and Answers

In my experience, when managing Q&A sessions with a team of varying experience, it is best to have an experienced leader field the question, perhaps shape the response, and invite another team member to expand on details when appropriate. It was evident during these presentations that any member was enabled to answer a question. That’s wonderful empowerment for the team members, but not ideal for sharing and managing information. 

At times, those answering went far beyond the initial question, which in some situations, might expose more information than is necessary. The students were eager to jump in – they were being graded – however, in a public environment, a respondent should simply answer the question clearly, usually addressing only what was asked, and being cautious about elaborating, as this could lead to a more penetrating discovery.

There were a few occurrences during the team presentations where an elaboration to a question queued me to ask a more penetrating follow-up question, although I didn’t.  In respect for the students and our time limits, neither the judging panelists nor I followed up on these elaborations. In general, speakers should only answer the question asked. Be cautious when elaborating and illustrating additional knowledge and details. I’ll mention my desire to follow-up dealt mainly with exposure of team dynamics, which in my opinion is the real value of these team exercises. It appeared some teams had some challenges working together.

Time

Many of the teams did a poor job of managing their time allotments.  This is a cardinal sin in public speaking.  Don’t exceed your time limit as it impacts the remainder of the program.

Summary

In summary here are my observations;

1.    Be aware of nervous energy and use purposeful movement instead of purposeless movement

2.    Be conscious of word choice, but even more conscious of non-word choices, that is, filler noises like um and ah. Too many and you’ll exhaust your audience, who will then be unfriendly towards your proposal.  

3.    Field each question with professionalism and invite team members to elaborate only when appropriate

4.    Answer the question

5.    Avoid elaborating when it offers little value and could expose more information than the team might like.

Creativity Sources: Gary Numan and “Cars”

 

Do you know the song “Cars” by Gary Numan? It’s an old song released in 1979.  He feels safe in his car.  He can lock all the doors.

It’s an interesting tune for a few reasons. One of the YouTube channels to which I subscribe is titled Behind the Vinyl. They invite musicians to talk about distinctive songs they’ve released.  I’ve watched Gary Numan’s four-minute interview on this song and was struck by his trust, innovation and the creativity that enabled the song to see life. You can see the interview here https://youtu.be/ehUDudbtqsQ 

The distinctive bass line, the riff that opens the song and reoccurs throughout, is a result of Numan purchasing a bass guitar.  He didn’t know how to play bass guitar, but he plugged it in and the first notes he played sounded good.  It became that opening riff in “Cars.”

Simple Stories

I love that simple story because it provides an example of innovation, in that he used an instrument with which he was unfamiliar, an unfamiliar tool. The story also illustrates creativity and instinct, which applies to speeches as well.  We should trust our instincts more often. If you’re wondering whether a story fits in your speech, give it a try. Afterwards ask for some audience feedback.  Sometimes audience members see more value and different perspectives in a story than you might see.

 Another distinctive element in “Cars” is a very long note he plays on a Moog synthesizer. He holds the note for eight seconds, a long time for one note.  In the video he explains that while building an overlay onto the song he pressed the note on the Moog and didn’t know where to go next, what note to play next, so he just held it. Trusted his instinct.   

Additionally, while he doesn’t mention this in the interview, yet another distinctive element is that the song does not have a chorus, it contravenes traditional song structure.  

Finally, he talked about the inspiration for the lyrics about feeling safe in his car.  He described making a mistake in London traffic, then some people trying to pull him from his car to beat him up, so he made his escape in the car via a sidewalk. He felt safe in his car. He can lock all the doors. May you and I never discover a similar source of inspiration.

Songs and Creativity: Aerosmith

I play guitar and I’m a geek about music. There are so many great stories about how songs were created. Another terrific and simple story describes how Aerosmith’s “Walk This Way” came about.  Steven Tyler writes about it in his autobiography, which is not a book for the faint of heart. Guitarist Joe Perry was noodling around on his guitar in soundcheck before a concert. Tyler’s ear and instinct recognized the potential of some of that noodling. Tyler heard and locked onto the memorable riff that anchors the song. Most of you reading this will have now recalled that riff and it’s earwormed it’s way into your head.

Speeches, Creativity and Connecting with the Human

I think most speakers should trust our instinct more often. At times speakers have a personal story they consider inserting, but back away because they feel it’s not good enough, or perhaps too revealing. However, audiences want to connect with the human presenting.

When using a personal story, we don’t need to reveal every detail, or embarrassing details. We can shape our stories. If you’re considering using such a story, you likely don’t even remember all the details accurately. Over time you have shaped the memory of the event as you’ve replayed the story in your mind over the years.

The purpose in telling a story during a speech, is to illustrate a lesson. It doesn’t need to be 100% accurate.  Trust your instinct. Experiment.

Even during business presentations, there is room for creativity and at times, some light emotional content. For example, if justifying an investment, it can be helpful to relate a story about the impact the business has had on a customer. A story about an interaction with a customer can appeal to emotion, and help support a rational decision.

 

Creativity, Inspiration and Instinct

Gary Numan trusted his instinct and wrote a great, memorable song. Steven Tyler and Aerosmith did as well.

Trust your instinct. Experiment with stories. The result might be more memorable speeches and presentations.

 

 

 

How To Prepare a Long Duration Speech

 

Recently I published a post about crafting a basic speech in just five minutes.  This is helpful if you need to make a presentation with little or no notice. It happens, especially if you are known for some level of expertise in your organization. You can read the post here https://gycz.blogspot.com/2022/10/how-to-prepare-speech-in-five-minutes.html

After publishing that post, I received some e-mails asking how to prepare for longer presentations. I do like receiving questions or seeing comments posted to the blog page.  I’ll share my approach for longer speeches.

A Series of Short Speeches

It can seem a daunting task to prepare a presentation that lasts twenty minutes, or forty minutes, or perhaps longer, however, a helpful way to plan for a longer presentation is to think of it as a series of smaller, well connected short speeches. My sweet spot is twenty to forty minutes so I tend to guide requests to this range, and this works for most meeting planners.

Planning with Bubbles

When I need to deliver a longer presentation, I begin planning by creating a bubble diagram, which is a creativity technique. Here’s an example of a bubble diagram https://bit.ly/3tjX5GD

I use a bubble diagram to visually capture all of my possible material on one page.  While I use the bubble technique, some people are more familiar with other creativity techniques, such as the fish bone technique. A key for any creativity tool is to capture ideas without judgement, to creatively generate ideas, or in this case to creatively capture possible content, or talk points. To be clear, when documenting these talk points, I avoid editing and judging with thoughts like ‘this doesn’t belong.’  Initially I want to quickly and non-judgementally document all possible content, and let the creative juices further inspire other ideas that might not be immediately obvious when staring at a blank page.

Creating a Bubble Diagram  

To begin generating ideas I place a circle, a bubble, in the center of the page with the core theme, for example “Speech Development.”  Then I start placing related ideas in surrounding bubbles, for example, “organization,”” use of notes,” “define purpose,” or “ relevant stories.”  Then I usually break some of the related bubbles into smaller components, for example referencing some specific stories. 

After a first version of the bubble diagram is complete, I put this away for at least 24 hours.  Later when I review it, I always have new ideas, and new content with a bubble or two to add.

Capture All Possible Talking Points  

My purpose in performing this exercise is to satisfy myself that I’ve captured all, or virtually all, of my knowledge and possible talking points on the page. That gives me confidence that I have lots of usable content for a longer speech.  I also use this approach when I coach people on speech development.

As I review the diagram, I consider each bubble and assess whether each point is substantial. My measure of substantial is that I could speak to each point for two minutes or more.  

Purpose Drives Content

The next step is the most important.  I ask myself ‘what is my purpose in speaking to this specific audience on this day?’  What exactly do I want the audience to understand, or to do differently. Purpose drives content.  This forces me to give consideration to the expertise level of the audience, and why they’ve invited me to speak.

What to Keep, What to Use on Another Day

Once I’ve defined my presentation purpose, I can choose the bubbles that support my purpose. At this point, I usually have to set aside some material I really would like to use, but that does not support the purpose of my speech. Once content is selected, then I can experiment with sequencing the ideas, and refining my speaking points.

Conclusion

This is a short introduction to my method of preparing longer presentations. There will always be discernment in defining purpose and selecting content.

Practice, Practice, Practice

If you wish to excel in public speaking, you will need to practice.  Public speaking is a skill, and skills require practice.  The best athletes in the world practice basic skills regularly.

My key practice venue is my Toastmasters club. I have been a member of Toastmasters since 1987 and I remain for many reasons. One is to regularly practice these skills including 2-minute impromptu speeches and 5–7-minute speeches.  Public speaking is a skill and skills require practice if you expect them to be sharp.

 

How To Prepare a Speech in Five Minutes

Have you ever been asked or told to make a presentation with little lead time? In my business career there were times when I was strongly requested to make a presentation in very short order.  I had a lot of experience at work and in Toastmasters so I developed a simple approach to these situations.  You might find the approach helpful.

Every speech should have structure, kind of a table of contents that helps you organize your ideas, and then for the audience to follow along. It’s my practice near the start of a speech to tell the audience the structure, and as the speech concludes to remind them of the structure. Even if your speech is almost entirely a story, you can apply a helpful structure such as lesson learned, story itself, how to apply the lesson in other situations.

Past-Present-Future

My starting point for most presentations is past-present-future. This is a simple routine for me.  If you struggle to even start preparation for a presentation, begin with past-present-future. Your product may evolve, but you’ll be off to a great start.  

With this structure, the time frame doesn’t matter. The time frame could be this morning, now, later today. It could be last quarter, this quarter, next steps. It could be 1967, current results, improving current results. It could be how we got here, current situation, options for progress.

Having a plan for impromptu or planned speeches provides speakers with confidence which will be apparent to audiences.  Such structure is helpful to audiences as well as they will hear and interpret the organization. We like organization.  People may disagree with your message, but they’ll feel the message was well delivered, because they heard structure.

Other Structures

There are many other structures available, but in my opinion, none are as simple and intuitive as past-present-future.

For your consideration, another structure is A-I-D-A, for Attention-Interest-Desire-Action. Another is O-B-A for Opening, Body, Conclusion, which I find is far too rudimentary. 

 

Practice, Practice, Practice

I have been a member of Toastmasters since 1987 and I remain for many reasons. One is to regularly practice these skills including 2-minute impromptu speeches and quickly prepared 5–7-minute speeches.  Public speaking is a skill and skills require practice if you expect them to be sharp.

 

Developing Youth Leaders

A few weeks ago, I delivered five hours of public speaking training to a group of high school students.  I don’t enjoy the anticipation of long training events as they require more preparation than most people realize, and the delivery of long training sessions is physically draining, particularly for the voice. As the day goes on, I begin to hear the tiredness in my voice.  It’s also difficult to keep the audience engaged for long periods, so I rely on my content, some video, and I work to engage the group in conversation. I much prefer 20-to-40 minute presentations, but will occasionally perform longer training events.  Once they’re complete, I enjoy considering the impact, but I usually feel some dread anticipating the event.

The event with the high school kids is now complete and there were many rewards. Part of this training was to prepare some of the group for speeches before a larger group later in the month. Feedback I received later was that three more of the kids stepped forward and decided to speak at the larger event. That delights me.  I had provided them with a simple, bulletproof structure that works anytime to build a simple, well-organized speech and, as a result, it seems their confidence grew. 

Also, a hallway conversation I had with one of the students was very rewarding. During the short lunch break I refilled my water bottle and was walking back to the class room. A shy young woman in the group smiled and thanked me for attending. I simply smiled and said it was my pleasure. But she continued, she wanted to share some more.  She said she used to be very confident, but she was bullied by a young jerk in class who always commented and mocked her after anything she’d say. She didn’t know how to manage that at the time, and it’s affected her. Something in the training event helped her.  I’m not sure what specifically helped, but I learned she was one of the students that later spoke to the larger assembly. 

We Can Have An Impact With Youth  

I wasn’t looking forward to delivering five hours of training. Now I’m glad I did.  I could have predicted that I would be pleased once the training was complete. I had no idea what the exact outcome would be, but I was confident some attendees would receive great value.

I didn’t do much more than offer the attendees some simple organizational techniques, some ideas about how to engage audiences, and some practice time before an audience of peers. I suppose I gave them the opportunity to experiment telling some of their stories and assessing and shaping the stories impact and value. I showed them some video of some great speeches including the well-known Steve Jobs commencement speech at Stanford University. In that speech Jobs tells three stories, makes sure the audience understands the point of the stories, and is done in 15 minutes.  It’s such a great speech for so many reasons. It's been viewed 40 million times at time of writing. You can see the speech here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UF8uR6Z6KLc&t=4s

We had a humorous moment when I introduced the Jobs video as content from “the late, great Steve Jobs,” and one of the students stopped me to say ‘wait, you said late.” The young man who was surprised with this news would have been around age 7 when Jobs died. Most of the class was aware Jobs had died 10 years ago and this was a humorous moment shared with the group.    

So, the end result for the students was increased confidence in their speech preparation and skills, a good discussion on what makes a speaker effective, and some experience sharing their personal stories and ideas.

There are times when I, and you, know we have value to share from our experience. Like me, you might not revel in the anticipation of presenting. But more often than not, the impact we have is a remarkable reward for our efforts.