I originally posted this on LinkedIn over the weekend, and the post had lots of comments, so I thought it was worth its own place in this repository of mine.
If you're a new or prospective public speaker, read on: you might find some of this helpful to give you the confidence to go on stage and deliver to your full potential.
Have you ever bombed a talk? 👀
I have!
Or, I thought I did, at the very least.
I had prepared SO much for one of my masterclasses, making it a full-on gaming experience - but midway through it, my computer failed me. Then my nerves kicked in and I lost the flow, and I even had a little cry in the speakers' lounge afterwards.
And yet, this was the feedback I got after my talk...
So it didn't go as bad as I thought it did.
However, the fear of failing a talk is something that a lot of new (and even more seasoned) speakers share.
I have just started mentoring my fourth cohort of BrightonSEO new speakers and there are three most common worries I noticed coming up during our discussions, so I thought it might be helpful to share - if you're a new speaker yourself, some of this might resonate.
1. "I'm worried that people won't find it useful"
This one usually comes from the perception that we are going to speak to an audience who knows everything about our topic of choice. And it's NEVER the case.
Even when someone in the audience might be an expert in the same topic you're presenting, your own experience and perspective are what makes your content unique and useful - and that is why you were chosen to speak about it.
Also, people literally pick what sessions to attend among so many available, so if they're in the room, it's because they want to learn from you!
2. "I'm scared I'll forget what to say on stage"
Been there, done that. The truth is, no one knows what you were meant to say in your script or in the thousand dry runs you've done. So they won't notice if you miss out on a detail (and you won't forget about the important things, since they're likely going to be on the slides that support your flow).
But we are indeed our harshest judges and I am the first person who tends to overanalyse their own delivery. One way I found helps me overcome the fear of forgetting something (or the tendency to ruminate over having missed a detail afterwards) is writing an article based on my talk that I can share after I speak. That way, even the details that I wanted to cram in and didn't get to be shared on the live talk have their own space and are not lost in the ether.
3. "What if something goes wrong on the day?"
If it's something you can control (your preparation, your delivery, your rest), then prepare for it in advance. But there is no use wasting energy worrying about the things that are outside your control.
I once gave a presentation while the comfort monitor was displaying someone else's slides and my draft deck instead of the final one on the main screen; another time my mic didn't work, so we had to replace it after I started; in two occasions my clicker didn't change slides - and so on.
But the best example is when I watched one of my mentees doing the talk of a lifetime on the main stage at BrightonSEO - the mic failed her halfway through and she had to change it, but she carried on like it was nothing. Did that affect her presentation? Absolutely not! Did someone mention it afterwards? Of course not, no one really noticed that.
So why do I remember it? Because the mic failing was literally the ONE thing she was worried about when we spoke about her talk a few weeks before the event, and I assured her that of course it was not going to happen! We had a good laugh about it afterwards.
So there it is.
Don't let the fear of failure hold you back: one missed detail won't affect your talk, and your personal experience, perspective and takeaways are what matters to the crowd.
Here is some additional advice from great speakers in my network who replied to the post:
My “secret” for winning nerves (...) is talking informally about the topic of my talk with people I know in the conference’s day before it’s my turn to speak. I do not reaharse it (I feel dumb), but those informal chats really help me feel natural when I give the talk. Then, I must admit that all the year of theatre when I was an university student help me a lot, especially the Stransberg’s technique of the widening or restricting the focus of people I direct my “acting”; for this reason I always ask to 1 or 2 people I know and attend the conference to sit in a place where I can see them, if needed.
Gianluca Fiorelli, Strategic and International SEO Consultant at ILoveSEO.net
Worrying about whether the audience will find my insights useful is actually getting “worse” not better for me, as I get more seasoned… not sure why is that but I try to look at it from the perspective that even if just one person walks away with something that can help them, it was worth it!
Vanda Pókecz, Head of SEO at Atolls
I find that nothing is really that 'controlled', as part from knowing what we're going to say, preparing beforehand and not drinking too much coffee nor tea before!
Montserrat Cano, International SEO and Digital Marketing Consultant at Montserrat-Cano.com
How about you? Would you like to get started with public speaking, or do you have something lined up already and would like someone to bounce ideas with?
I have mentored more than 30 speakers at present, and I can help you too - just book a free discovery call to discuss!
コメント