For Advance Speakers Only:
Ok, let’s say that you’ve been speaking in front of people for some time now. Maybe a year or so. You’ve given some presentations. You’ve been selected to be a guest speaker for an event. You’re gaining experience. You’re accustomed to the whole process of dealing with your nerves. You recognize the value of practice. You’ve felt some success. You’re officially in the game, congratulations. Public speaking is something serious and deserving your commitment.
Now imagine you receive a phone call to speak at an event that will be your biggest one to date. This will be the largest crowd you’ve ever addressed. They will be listening closely to every single word you say. You enthusiastically accept the invitation. But after you hang up, your excitement transforms to doubt. You start questioning your ability. Sure, you’ve been speaking for a while now but are you ready for something like this? What if you mess up? What if you embarrassed yourself. Can you really do this?
Of course you can.
You’ve made it this far and you will only continue to progress further.
Here are three tips to give you the edge for preparing for the big talk.
1. Cultivate a killer instinct. This will get you through so much. It will give you the courage to face down all of your doubts and nerves. There’s a sense of finality with this mindset. It’s perceiving the world through a lens of absolute. You’re going to do it and you’re going to do it well. It’s just that simple. There is nothing on this planet that will stop you from accomplishing this goal. Your doubt may surface at some point before your talk. It may do its best to persuade you to begin to second guess your ability to perform. That’s fine. That’s what it’s meant to do. But you know better. You understand on a deep level that you posses the talent, determination, and drive to overcome any doubt possible. Your self doubt is your personal opponent and you know that you’re always a little faster, quicker, and stronger than your doubt. It’s tapping into the essence of who you are. It’s maintaining such a strong belief in your abilities that it anchors you in an unshakeable certainty that you will deliver. It’s a willingness to push yourself to the absolute limit. This mentality is important to have when going into the biggest talk of your career (up to this point).
2. Being open to entering a peak performance zone. This is tricky because you can’t force it. It’s elusive like that. If you search for the zone you’ll never discover it. But if you set the conditions for the zone to appear, there’s more of a likeliness for it to arrive. To create the conditions, there must be a strict discipline in your preparation. You must be ready and willing to go the extra mile in your practice. During your rehearsals, try to stretch and go as deep as you can when you’re delivering your talk. Speak from the innermost parts of your heart. Pull from deep within. Consolidate your speech topic to a few key points such as:
Thesis
First Point
Second Point
Third Point
Conclusion
Tell it to as many as people as you can. This is how you’ll get more familiar with the most important parts of your talk because you’re breaking it down to something that could be summarized in less than 5 minutes. Not only are you synthesizing the talk to strictly the essence of the message, it also provides you with additional practice from a different approach. Try this with you’re family, friends, co-workers and even strangers. This will help you hone and refine your message. All of this practice will have you so intimately connected with your talk that when it’s show time, you’ll know it inside and out and thus setting the stage for the zone.
3. Remember to trust yourself. You’ve gone this far. You’ve put in the time and effort. You believe in yourself. You’ve done this before. You know that you’ll feel nervous. It’ll be uncomfortable. It might be scary. You understand and accept that. And even if your doubt arises, allow it to serve more so as a reminder to you to trust yourself rather than an uncertain burden to bear. When your killer instinct is combined with you creating the conditions conducive to entering the zone, all that remains is trust. You’ll be back stage waiting for your name to be announced, and you’ll just feel it. You know what you’re about to do and you trust that you’ll do it. This is such a reassuring feeling when going into one of the biggest talks of your life. There will be so much pressure weighing on your shoulders and it would only be natural to stress and worry about your performance. However, if you can find the inner fortitude to simply trust yourself in this moment–despite the little voice in your mind freaking out, attempting to convince you otherwise– you are well on your way in becoming a legend.
I’ll be teaching a public speaking class this Thursday (August 11th) at the Beacon Hill Library from 5:30-7:30pm. Come through if you can.