This week is just not going well. I don’t want to spend too much time whining here, but the way things are going, I’m fully expecting to get kicked in the nuts by an old lady while helping her cross the street. It’s just the way this week is going.
And the timing is awful. Tomorrow afternoon, I have to go do a presentation in front of about 100 people. I’ve got to educate them, give them some statistics, and answer their questions in an expert role.
This is terrifying.
Luckily I’m speaking on a topic I know a little bit about: Blogging. So I’m not worried that someone in the audience is going to sharpshoot me with a question I don’t know the answer to. That part should be fine. The part I’m worried about is looking and sounding like an idiot.
I remember a job interview I went on a while back. I knew all the answers to the questions, but all of a sudden I got the fear. You know the feeling. Your face becomes red. You start feeling hot. Your mouth is dry, and the words coming out of your mouth are stuttered and rapid. You don’t know what you’re saying. Even though you have notes in front of you, you decide to skip over things in a rush to get to the end.
On a normal week, I would be looking forward to this. I would have a lot of confidence, and be able to calm myself down. But the way this week is going, I am absolutely convinced that I will suffer from the fear.
The question is: will I be able to turn it around?
Public speaking is one of those situations where what you’re seeing is either great or a complete trainwreck. I’ve seen them both many, many times. The presenter has about one minute to win over the audience. If they do, the rest of the talk is easy. If not, buckle in. It’s going to be a long, ugly ride.
So, any suggestions on how to get through this? Or even better: any suggestions on how to calm yourself down and recompose yourself in any situation where you’re feeling the eyes of the world on you?
3 responses so far ↓
1 KTina // Jan 10, 2007 at 12:07 pm
Xanax. Just kidding….sorta. Since I’ve recently broken through the “rather die than speak in public” wall, I have one piece of advice. Prepare well. That’s it. When you’re confident you have all your materials, and that you are the expert in the room, things sorta fall into step. However, if you do start to panic, I won’t be worried - you’ve helped me combat that more times than I can count.
2 jo // Jan 10, 2007 at 12:50 pm
I used to fear it greatly, but I learned a few things.
Be yourself, pretend your at a party and your in the center of the group telling a story, interject some of your own humour into it, make it more conversational than a standard ‘LECTURE’. Realise you are the one with the knowledge in the room and that they are here to hear it from you, even if they know 80% of what you are telling them, you can stil impress the hell out of them with the 10% that you know and they don’t.
Go light on the caffeine before, dress cool (i mean temperature cool, not hipstr cool) and read it outloud to an empty room several times before you do it.
Good luck!
3 Barry Freed // Jan 10, 2007 at 12:57 pm
Thanks for your suggestions. Exactly what I need to hear right now. I think the part that makes me most nervous is that this is a group of older people (50+), and they’re the same group that I’ve heard say things like “Why the hell would I ever let my attorneys waste time with something as stupid as a blog?” and “aren’t blogs just for kids? not professionals.” So they’re already coming in with a negative perception of blogging.
But now I’m seeing that as a huge advantage for me. I’m not trying to talk them into setting up blogs. I’m there to tell them what blogs are, how they’re being used, and why. And I am 100% sure that the majority of the people there don’t know what a blog is at all.
Thanks for the tips!
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