Tip: Do you dread public speaking? Think cabbages
Susan Cain wrote Quiet, which we think is the best book on being an introvert and celebrating it. In her recent Kindred Letters newsletter Susan shared her best tips for people who dread public speaking. And you don’t have to be an introvert to feel that way!
1. If it’s an important speech, videotape yourself first.
2. Think about what your particular audience wants to hear.
3. If you haven’t spoken publicly in a while and feel rusty, watch videos of speakers that have shots taken from the speaker’s vantage point, where you can see what it’s like to face the audience.
4. Similarly, if you can, visit the room where you’ll be speaking.
5. When you listen to a great speaker or hear someone mention one, get a transcript of the speech.
6. Know your strengths and weaknesses as a speaker, and accentuate the positive.
7. At the same time, public speaking is a performance, and that’s a good thing, even if you’re not a natural actor.
8. Smile at your audience as they enter the room, and when you begin speaking.
Susan also has an online course, Public Speaking for Quiet Speakers.
Now about those cabbages:
“..you want to have SOMETHING that will reliably make you laugh, right before you head onstage and you’re beset with butterflies.”
“My eighth-grade teacher told us all to pretend the people [in the audience] are heads of cabbages. I never quite got that one as making much sense, but to this day (40 years later) I still say that line to myself before I speak. And I laugh.” – from a reader of Gretchen Rubin’s Happiness Project
SHEPA LEARNING COMPANY WEEKLY POSITIVE
NETWORKING® TIP
No. 1029, September
27, 2023
By Gayle Hallgren and
Judy Thomson