How to Give a Great Speech by Nick Morgan

Author:Nick Morgan [Nick Morgan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781936529506
Publisher: New Word City, LLC
Published: 2014-02-04T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 6

STEP SIX: INHALE...

Before the speech itself, breathe, and focus.

The moment has arrived — almost. You’re nervous as hell, sitting at the front table, and you’re being introduced in terms that are flattering but faintly embarrassing. You can barely hear the words because of the internal dialogue you’re having with the Devil. It’s going something like this: Oh no. Where’s my clicker? What if the slides don’t work? What if the laptop goes dead? What if the audience hates me?

The only way to banish the Devil is to start another dialogue with yourself. You need to talk to yourself about what a great opportunity this is, and how you know the speech well, and how you’ve rehearsed it several times and how excited you are to get to talk about this important subject with this audience. Great things could happen as a result of this speech! The promotion! That new client!

That’s how you focus before the speech. Think about success. Think about the emotions in the speech. Think about your excitement at being there. If you work hard at those thoughts, you’ll crowd out that other dialogue.

You also need to deal with the physical symptoms caused by adrenaline. You know them: the racing heart, the dry mouth, the clammy palms, the unsettled stomach. Here’s what to do: Take a long, slow deep breath, one that expands your midsection, and then tighten up the stomach muscles as you reach capacity and begin to (slowly) let the air out. Repeat as often as necessary to calm yourself down. If you tighten those stomach muscles, you will find that many of the other symptoms will ease or go away entirely.

That said, you need the adrenaline. It will give you the energy to do a good job, to think fast (literally) on your feet, and to stand a little taller and look a little smarter than you normally do.

Now, for roughly 10 percent of the population, deep breathing is not enough. You are the true speech phobics, and for you more work is needed. Either get someone else to do the talk, or give yourself a lot more time to practice, perhaps beginning with speeches to family members or small groups of colleagues — whatever audience size you can handle to begin with. Then gradually increase the size of your audience and the scope of your presentations.

But for most people, the worst symptoms of adrenaline come in the hours or moments before the speech, and they disappear rapidly a few minutes in. So the self-talk and deep breathing don’t have to go on for long. It’s just a matter of heading off the Devil and getting through the jitters.

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