21 Steps to Become an Awesome Public Speaker

Your 3-Week Pocketbook for Inspiration to Present Like a Pro

Jordana Borensztajn

• Publisher: Jordana Borensztajn
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN:
  9780648510758
• eBook ISBN:
  9780648510727
• Topic: Personal Development
• Subtopic: Communication & Public Speaking

If public speaking is on your bucket list, wish list, or even top fears list, this pocketbook - literally designed to slip into your back pocket before you get on stage - will provide you with doses of inspiration to build your public speaking toolkit. This bite-size book is made up of 21 easy-to-apply and entertaining steps you can implement over a 3-week period to grow and develop your presentation skills. Designed to help you kick-start your speaking journey, this fun and light-hearted pocketbook is filled with tips, techniques, and strategies to help you become an awesome public speaker. You'll learn how to overcome your stage fright, connect with your audience, and, importantly, replace fear with fun so you can communicate with confidence when you share your unique message with the world.

Smile. It’s contagious.

We have a 7-second window to make a positive first impression. That’s nothing! That’s from now, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, until now.

So, when you hit the stage, shine your pearly whites. Smiling is the universal symbol for happiness, and it has so many benefits. When you’re smiling, you radiate joy and warmth, and it adds to your stage power and presence.

I know this sounds simple, but so many speakers have serious face. You don’t have to stand on stage looking like The Joker but show your audience that you’re genuinely enjoying yourself up there. If you hit the stage smiling, your audience reflects that back to you and you’ll carry that positive energy through your whole presentation.

Here are a few fun facts about smiling:

• It’s more contagious than a cold.
• It’s easier to smile than it is to frown. Seriously. Try it.
• Smiling increases our body’s natural happy drugs and makes us feel good.
• And – major bonus – smiling makes us way more attractive!

When we smile, it instantly makes us feel better. Say the following sentence without smiling: ‘Thanks for having me. I’m so happy to be here today.’ OK, how did that feel? Pretty average?

Now, put a giant and genuine smile on your face and repeat the same sentence: ‘Thanks for having me. I’m so happy to be here today.’ How do you feel? More alive? And how do you look? Sexier than a minute before? Yeah, I’ll bet you do.

You can feel a massive difference when you’re smiling, and your audience feels it too. So, use your beautiful smile to spread happy chemicals through the room when you’re presenting.

Breathe through your nerves

If you’re feeling stage fright, do not picture your audience in their underwear. Trust me, it never works. On many levels.

When we get nervous before a presentation – whether we’re presenting to three people, our colleagues, or a room full of strangers – our physiology can take over. When our mind perceives a threat, our body prepares for danger, which is commonly known as the ‘fight, flight, freeze’ response.

Our body is going: What do we do, guys? Do we run, attack, or stand still? Most presenters either freeze or maybe run off stage if they’re really scared. I’ve never actually heard of a public speaker attacking the audience out of fear. Can you imagine?

It’s really common to feel butterflies in our stomach, to feel a tight chest, to get cold hands, sweaty palms, knocky knees, and tense muscles. These are normal physiological responses which, in the caveman era, served us well. Now, however, when we get scared or stressed, our body goes through exactly the same responses, but we’re not being chased by wild animals – unless you’re presenting with Sir David Attenborough, in which case, carry on...

When our physiology takes over, it can feel like we’re out of control. The best way to manage your stage nerves is through your breathing. If you can control your breath, you can control your body.

A fantastic technique I learnt through Feldenkrais, an exercise therapy and body movement approach, is to take a slow and deep breath in for 4 seconds, hold it for 2 seconds, and then let it out for 4 seconds.

Breathing has so many benefits. It calms you down, it gives you a central point of focus, and as a bonus, also keeps your organs functioning and your body alive. Plus, calm breathing helps distract you from worrisome thoughts like OMG the audience can totally see my sweat marks! Try using the 4–2–4 model or create your own breathing rhythm.

Don’t aim for perfect

Often when we’re presenting, we want to do the best job possible. We want to be perfect. Any perfectionists out there reading this right now? Hi…

We can get so preoccupied with aiming for perfect that it adds pressure, and heightens our anxiety and our nerves, which ends up working against us.

Well, I have a ground-breaking secret for you, dear readers. Are you ready?

Perfect doesn’t exist.

Seriously.

The truth is, perfect is the enemy of success. Why? Because, firstly, perfect is subjective. What you love, what I love, and what your boss loves might be completely different. And, secondly, when we present on stage, there are so many factors that are simply out of our control. If we aim for perfect we’re holding ourselves up to impossible standards, because there is no benchmark for ‘perfect’.

So, forget the old saying Practise makes perfect, and instead go with Practise makes better! Because that is actually true. Plus, your audience wants connection, engagement, honesty, and free food… not perfection.

So, don’t aim for perfect. It doesn’t exist.

Ex...

Table of contents

• Introduction
• The giant elephant in this tiny book
• Step 1: Smile. It’s contagious.
• Step 2: Breathe through your nerves
• Step 3: Don’t aim for perfect
• Step 4: Expect to be nervous
• Step 5: Know your audience
• Step 6: Outline your presentation goals – for you and your audience
• Step 7: Turn off your inner critic
• Step 8: Add humour to your presentation
• Step 9: Make eye contact
• Step 10: Don’t be scared of your audience
• Step 11: Cut the fat (from your script)
• Step 12: Bring your personality to life on stage
• Step 13: Have fun on stage
• Step 14: Practise as much as possible
• Step 15: Inflect your voice
• Step 16: Insert pauses… They. Are. Powerful.
• Step 17: Use your hands to express yourself
• Step 18: Embrace your mistakes
• Step 19: Inspire yourself with positive self-talk
• Step 20: Dress to impress
• Step 21: View your time on stage as an opportunity
• You: Now it’s your time to inspire
• Thank You
• About the Author
• Connect with Jordana
• Next Steps