Speak like a Pro – Boot Camp Lessons from MethodSpeaking

Public speaking and fear have something in common. For many, one thought of having to go up on stage and speak in front of a crowd of people is enough to bring out the critters of fear – butterflies in the stomach, faster heart rate, unwelcome physiological changes etc.. We have this scary picture inside our head of standing in front of a crowd of strangers, frozen. What we fail to realise is that public speaking is really a one to one communication. Just like when you speak with your friend or family member. The only exception is that you have more ears & eyes to connect with.

In June, I attended a day long MethodSpeaking Boot Camp organised by Peter Khoury from Ovson Communications. This 1 day Boot Camp focused on teaching the techniques on speaking with clarity, full engagement and on projecting confidence in front of any size group. I had am awesome time! It was a small group of 10 people with 3 trainers and we got a chance to learn from the best, practice the techniques in front of the group and polish up our skills. I highly recommend it for everyone since communication is such a key part of social interaction.

If you want to begin light I recommend the free fortnightly public speaking meetup Peter and his team run in San Francisco and Bay Area. I blogged about this in a prior blog post here.

Looking people in the eye

Ok so what does it take to be an effective speaker and destroy all those negative fears?

Being yourself is no doubt important but learning to look people into the eye(s) is key. Too many speakers “scan” the crowd or look into the distance. Hey I was one of those. It’s as if they are talking to blank walls not people. You need to connect with people in the crowd. They are there to listen to you. Your eyes are your connection channel. This is where regular attendance at public speaking meet-ups really help you excel and eliminate those negative fears of facing strangers eye to eye when you speak.

Once you have learnt to look people in the eye(s) you will have attained one of the most powerful ways to connect. It’s true what they say; the eyes are the doorway to our soul. When you have connected with a person in the crowd you will notice their facial expressions and indicators of their acknowledgement eg. head nod, swallowing, eye blinking. When you see this, you know you have connected on a “one to one” with this individual and you are ready to move to the next person to continue your one to one communication.

Techniques to use during your speaking event

There are a number of great techniques which you can use to make your speech appealing, easy to understand and connected with your audience. Most of these techniques originate from NLP and body language techniques. But the most powerful of them all is just to be yourself, relax on stage and have fun!

In or out of the picture

• Typically when nervous we disconnect with our self and pictures. We move into 3^rd person pictures. Try to avoid this by listening to how you speak and correct your projection.
• Go inside the picture (the scene) and start the story from there to act it out. Once you pulled your audience inside they are there to stay with you engaged throughout your presentation.
• Showing models of a set is “out of the picture” while talking about the building is “in the picture”.
• Being inside the picture allows you and your audience to enter “your world”. This brings about a level of connection with your audience.
• Being outside the picture allows you and your audience to analyse the situation without getting too entangled inside it.

Anchor objects associated to your story

• This is an NLP technique called “anchoring” where you refer to a table or object by pointing to a visible or invisible space somewhere in front. People will always remember the object you referred to being in a particular place on the stage and you can always come back to it. Very powerful technique.
• When you mention a person in your story, physically point to the location where they were to anchor a memory into your audience. This way they will always associate that place to the individual and you can always easily come back to this place with your audience.
• But be careful not to anchor something negative to something you want to sell. For example; an opportunity (book you are holding) to a common fear and then say this is your solution pointing to the book.

Raise your hand up to engage the crowd

• Ask the crowd a question which requires them to either raise their hand in acceptance or say Yes. This engages your audience to bring a level of participation and can even wake up some of those that may be tuning out. This is always a great starter for a presentation.
• If you change to an opposite topic which also requires an arm raised, use the other arm. Remember anchoring above.
• Motivation speakers use this technique a lot. See how Anthony Robbins always follows with a “Say Yes” and then the crowd follows. Brian Tracy also uses this technique.

Recovering from a bad set

• Step out of the picture by dissociative action i.e. Jump out of that spot (body) and question it e.g. “wow, what was that”.
• This is a good technique used in recovering from a bad set in your speech and disassociate you from what was said since the person that said it was left behind in that invisible spot.

Keep people wanting more

• Pause (silence) is very powerful. Learn to feel silence and use it to have people hanging on the edge to hear more. While you pause look around at people and take a deep breath. Eben Pagan is amazing at doing this.
• Some speakers use “nested loops” whether they start multiple stories and don’t finish 1 or 2 of them at the end. This has people hanging for more, to know what it was all about. Lost (the TV series) is a great example of using this technique in its story telling.

Other techniques to use

• Change your voice to mimic the tone of the individual you are referring to in your speech to give it more drama and separate it from you. This is another form of anchoring and is used by many comedians to give that character and depth to the story.
• When asked to speak and you are sitting, get up with energy from your seat. 1^st impressions always count and people will notice you and your energy and will be waiting for you to start speaking with a smile on their face.
• If a crowd member you are trying to connect to have their arms crossed, do the same while speaking to them. And after a while you can control their posture by changing (relaxing) your body posture. This is called “mirroring” (a NLP technique) and is used by many business professionals to build rapport in business meetings.
• Extend to people out into the crowd by showing an open palm or the ok sign (like Steve Jobs) to connect & gain participation. Never point to a person since this creates a negative response – no one likes to be pointed at especially when memories of being in trouble are associated with it.
• Move around on stage to move your energy. This also helps you relax (human psychology technique) and gives off an amazing presence to your audience.
• Time always goes really fast when you are having fun during a great speech. So have fun!

Sounds like fun, right!

This may be a lot to take in 1st go, but after a while, with some practice this becomes a part of what you just do on stage. An automatic behaviour. A learnt habit. If you are interested in eliminating the fear of public speaking you really need to join a public speaking group and practice practice and practice more. Books are not enough. Books educate your mind but practice teaches your body how to react (behave), experience and just be on stage.

Public Speaking Groups to consider are: Toastmasters.org (world-wide), Method Speaking – San Francisco or Bay Area.

The key in choosing a good group to join is that it offers a safe place to conquer your fears. You should only ever hear positive and constructive feedback at a meetup like this. This helps with overwriting your old programming (habits) with new better & stronger programing.

If you have other techniques that would be of value please share them in the comments below to help out those starting off in the public speaking space.

Happy Speaking!

Ernest

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