Art Of Great Speaking

<br>A successful presentation starts with the presenter owning the room. When you know and own the room, you will be a more powerful and confident presenter. That leads to more successful presentations for you.
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<br>Consider this
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<br>While strolling in your neighborhood you will feel more comfortable and confident than in a strange town. A sports team usually feels stronger when playing at home. Delivering a presentation is certainly a competitive sport. Why not do it on your home turf?
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<br>As a presenter, how do you own the room? “Owning the room” is a feeling that you can generate within yourself by knowing the room. How do you know the room?
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<br>Know the room
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<br>Knowing the room for your presentation might mean arriving the day before your presentation. At the very least, arrive one hour before your presentation. Don’t breeze in 10 minutes before you speak and expect to “own the room”.
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<br>Get into the room before your presentation – preferably when no one else is there. This will allow you to make the following preparations.
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<br>You can see the room and start visualizing how you will present and how your audience will look. Visualizing yourself presenting in the room is an effective way to prepare for your presentation. You will feel more comfortable and more powerful if you’ve been in the room before your presentation.
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<br>If the room is not the right size for the audience expected you can plan what to do to alter the room to make it appear to be smaller or arrange for another room.
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<br>You can check the setup of the room. Become familiar with the layout of the seating, tables, doors, curtains and other characteristics of the room. Walk around the room and sit in different seats so you understand better how the audience might or might not see you and your visuals during your presentation. Look for blind spots.
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<br>Arrange for the seating to be changed to your preferred arrangement. Sometimes this might mean making those changes yourself. (I’ve done this the night before an important presentation.)
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<br>Play with the switches. Test all the lights, AV and climate control switches. Tape the ones that should not be changed. Discover the ones that give you the settings you want so you can set it quickly or explain to an assistant how to do it.
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<br>Check all the doors to learn which ones are noisy – so you can tape the latches with duct tape. Which are the outer halls that need a “Do Not Enter” sign taped on the outside? Where are the washrooms so you can direct people? hich are the emergency exits in case they are needed?
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<br>Rehearse walking on and off the stage so you don’t trip. I’ve done it and seen it happen. It’s surprising how simple things like walking on stage can be nerve wracking when you are giving a presentation.
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<br>Stand on the stage and deliver parts of your presentation. Move about the stage to feel comfortable and find the cracks or creaky boards that you will need to avoid. Check the position of the speakers while speaking on the microphone to avoid feedback. Test the microphone when the AV people are there. Often they test the microphone with one of their staff then they disappear.
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<br>One More Presentation Tip
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<br>Change or move something to make the room yours. Close the curtains, move some chairs, put a small table on stage… It might not be much but any small change that you make can help you feel better when you take the stage.
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<br>I’ve delivered over 1,000 presentations and I’ve noticed that a good room setup can influence the energy of the audience and success of your presentation.
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<br>Know the room and you will own the room. Your audience will marvel at your confidence and presentation power.
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© George Torok helps business leaders, managers & sales professionals deliver million-dollar presentations. He offers <a href=”http://www.torok.com/presentation/coaching.html”>presentation skills coaching</a> and presentation skills training. For more free presentation tips visit<a href=”http://www.presentation-skills-success.com/”>http://www.Presentation-Skills-Success.com</a>  To arrange a media interviews call 905-335-1997<br>
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Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Rich_Walker

<strong>Author: <a title=”Nancy Daniels” href=”authors/nancy-daniels/50874″>Nancy Daniels</a></strong><br />

<p>I once met a man who told me that his soft-spoken voice made others become quiet and pay attention to him. It took everything in my power not to laugh in his face. In today’s loud, fast-paced, hectic world, being soft-spoken is definitely not a strength, especially in America. To be constantly asked to repeat yourself is one of the reasons others take over the conversation.</p>
<p>Imagine watching a movie and the volume is not quite loud enough to be able to understand the actors’ words. That is exactly what is happening when you speak and others cannot hear you. To solve the problem with the movie, you simply turn up the volume. Unfortunately, it is not quite that simple with the speaking voice because your inner ear has spent a lifetime being most comfortable with your softer volume level.</p>
<p>Your inner ear is the way you perceive your voice – its timbre, volume, and other qualities. Unfortunately, your inner ear is a poor judge of how you actually sound to everyone else. When you speak, the voice you hear in your head is sound vibrating in the solid and liquid of the brain – distorted sound.</p>
<p>What you hear on your answering machine, voicemail, or other form of recording equipment, however, is sound traveling through the air. And, you do not recognize that voice because it is foreign to you. It is not how your inner ear perceives your voice.</p>
<p>The answer is to train yourself to accept a larger volume of sound. Admittedly, your inner ear will revolt in the beginning because you will think that you are shouting or that you are speaking too loudly. This is why recording yourself is the 1st step in re-training your inner ear to appreciate that increase.</p>
<p>I suggest you record a TV broadcaster’s voice and then record yourself directly following the professional. When you make the recording, be sure that the volume for the broadcaster is at a comfortable listening level. Then when you record yourself, place the microphone the same distance from yourself as it was from your speakers.</p>
<p>Play it back and adjust the volume output according to the professional’s voice. Then listen to your volume. Were you softer than the other voice? If so, can you appreciate the need to speak in a ‘normal’ volume level if you expect to be heard? Notice that I said normal, not loud.</p>
<p>I do not want anyone speaking loudly. Loud hurts your listeners’ ears. Your goal is not to speak loudly but to speak with a normal amount of volume. If you expect your message to be heard, it will not happen until you are ready to accept that increase.</p>

<p>Article Source: <a href=”http://www.articlesbase.com/public-speaking-articles/if-you-are-softspoken-your-message-is-not-being-heard-2220097.html” title=”If You Are Soft-Spoken, Your Message Is Not Being Heard”>http://www.articlesbase.com/public-speaking-articles/if-you-are-softspoken-your-message-is-not-being-heard-2220097.html</a></p>

<strong>About the Author</strong><br />
<p>The Voice Lady <strong>Nancy Daniels</strong> offers private, corporate and group workshops in voice and presentation skills as well as <strong>Voicing It!</strong>, the only video training program on voice improvement. Visit <a href=”http://www.voicedynamic.com/specialaccessvolume.htm”>Voice Dynamic</a> and watch Nancy as she describes <strong>Your Volume Control.</strong></p></body>
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Summary: You can find many ways to overcome public speaking anxiety
. This article will discuss two methods, which are discovering what your fears actually are and visualizing yourself giving a public speech. You may be afraid and not know why. The importance of public speaking is immense. There is no reason to let your fear of public speaking keep you from progressing in life.

Method 1: Discover What Your Fears Are

Draw a line down the middle of a sheet of paper. On the left side list all the worst things you think could happen to you. For example you could be afraid of being criticized, so you would write “be criticized”, maybe you are afraid of looking foolish, or maybe it is stumbling over your words, you might be afraid of your mind going blank.

On the same left side next to your emotion articulate what your feelings are about that emotion. Let’s use “be criticized” as an example. If you are criticized write down how you think being criticized will affect you. In this example let’s assume you will feel stupid if you are criticized. You will write “feel stupid,” next to be criticized.

Understand that in most cases your worst fears will most likely not happen. Your deepest most ingrained fears are probably because of past experiences in a performance condition. Maybe you were involved in a performance condition and you were criticized on your performance and it made you feel horrible and stupid.

Time may have passed, but the experience is etched into your subconscious. It could be holding you back and you don’t know it. By bringing this experience to your remembrance you can analyze it in depth. Often by analyzing your past experiences you are able to shoot holes in your faulty assumptions or beliefs. You can better see things as they really were and thus be able to move forward.

Writing a journal is a method to analyze your past. Say it all and be specific. This will help unshackle the chains your public speaking anxiety and fear has on you. When you are given an assignment to speak in public, write in your journal about your feelings and emotions up until you give the speech. Assess your level of anxiety by ranking it on a 1 to 10 anxiety scale.

Ranking your anxiety will help you focus on what you need to work on first. Work on the higher numbers first. After analyzing your experience you may realize that your anxiety is unfounded. Your belief about your anxiety has now changed and your new beliefs have erased out your prior anxiety. Your feelings are based on your beliefs. Change your beliefs and your feelings will change.

If analyzing your experience still doesn’t do the trick, study it in depth. Read books and articles about it, or talk to someone who knows more than you do about that condition. Being able to come to terms with your past is important so you can be in the present. When you are giving a public speech you don’t want anything to hold you back even if it is subconscious.

On the right side of the paper on the top write down what you want to happen. Focus on what you can control. If you are interviewing for a job, you can’t control if you will get the job. So don’t write be hired because being hired is out of your control. You can control if you are confident, calm and poised in the interview which will make it more likely you will get the job.

Method 2: Visualize Giving Your Public Speech In Your Mind

Everything is created spiritually or mentally first before it is created physically. Dreams that come true happen because they were first a dream. Find a quiet place to meditate. Picture yourself in your mind’s eye giving your public speech. Visualize giving your speech in as much detail as possible.

Conclusion: Anxiety and public speaking can be overcome through analyzing your fears and visualizing yourself giving a speech. Research has proven that performance is improved when visualizing in your minds eye your performance first.

Article Source: http://www.articlesnatch.com

Learn more about public speaking and the author Bret Bradshaw by visiting MindBodyAndMoney.com.