The mission of Eastfield College is to provide excellence in teaching and learning.
“Confidence is so sexy.” –Former Western star, Jack Palance
Memorized or Extemporaneous:
Maintain a conversational tone with your audience to keep their interest and yours by either memorizing your information or speaking from only 1-3 note cards (key words and phrases).
Talk “with” people, not “at” them.
Organization:
Prepare an “attention getter” to capture the audience’s attention with something that causes them to either question, laugh, be shocked or surprised.
Research suggests that people usually remember 3 things from any given talk. So, give your audience 3 main points repeated in the Introduction, Body and Conclusion for speeches as the Demonstration, Informative, Persuasive and Group presentations.
Make your audience feel an emotion after you deliver your opening line.
Do this again with your closing statement. You should be remembered favorably with the last line that is spoken.
Posture:
Create instant confidence by standing like a cowboy with your feet shoulder-width apart, shoulders back and hands relaxed at sides. Once you begin speaking, you may add your natural gestures. Otherwise, remain in “boots and spurs” cowboy style.
Movement and Voice:
Develop planned movements to approximately 3 different places in the room, in order to avoid making awkward gestures, facial expressions and body movements. Your body wants to move to comfort itself and alleviate the anxiety. Give your body a plan.
Always move physically closer to the audience to open and/or close your presentation to “hook ‘em” and then “sink ‘em”.
Use a conversational tone and natural gestures to maintain audience’s interest and to not become a “talking head”.
Think of yourself as sharing in a dialogue with a group of friends.
10-Second Rule:
Wait 10-seconds before you speak to allow yourself time enough to adjust from sitting and listening to becoming the speaker.
Public speaking is a physical act. And you must re-train how your body reacts to public speaking with your mind.
The 10-seconds gives the speaker an opportunity to look out at the audience, check over note cards, think about their funny word or simply escape to their “happy place”.
Once you have slowly counted to 10 in your head, you are now focused and ready to deliver an excellent presentation.