Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Presentation Skills

8:33 PM | Posted by Peter | Edit Post

I have been fortunate to teach for almost 20 years. It started as a natural sideline as I was running ad agencies and we needed to train the folks coming into the shop.

As a professional speaker, I am always happy to see folks get over their fear of presenting. And it is a skill that I have honed over time and seems right that I pass this along.


In developing the system over many, many years I have seen some amazing results. Folks who have taken the course have stopped me on the street and told me how it changed their lives. One woman I remember in particular came up to me when i was getting on an elevator and said that the course helped her get a new VP job and that the confidence she got out of the course was the main reason.


One thing I always tell folks - we are all horrible at this thing called presenting. And we are all great at it. It is a matter of personal perception. 

Sure we all get nervous  It is called Glossophobia
 
When people were surveyed about their greatest fears, there was one that surpassed death, spiders, snakes and losing a job. The dreaded fear was speaking in public or 'glossophobia'.
 
Seventy-five per cent of respondents had glossophobia.
 
So, guess what? You are not alone at being nervous. I will let you in on a little secret, it is considered a normal reaction we humans all have. This is especially true when someone asks that you speak to a group of people, and even more so when you do not know any of them. We all have that tendency to become nervous. I do not care who you are, some just more nervous than others. And we’ll see that today.
 
We all have developed various degrees of "stage fright," at some point even the most experienced speakers. Nevertheless, once you recognize that being, a little "nervous" when asked to speak is a normal reaction, then you can also learn to use that nervousness to your advantage. Learning to turn that nervous energy inward to focus yourself on presenting a powerful dynamic presentation, once you learn how, you will never be the same person again. When asked to speak or gave a presentation before a group of people, your presentation skill will flow naturally and comfortably.





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