Navigating nervousness - you can!

Prepare prepare prepare
Speaking is like playing a sport, learning an instrument or being in a play. It‘s a physical skill that takes repetition and practice till it comes right. And exactly as for sport and musical performance, being well prepared is the only way you’ll pull it off. If you are well practised, nerves may affect how you feel, but are less likely to affect what you do. Nervousness is an internal state. The audience doesn’t know your inner workings. If you could see yourself you’d probably find you look perfectly OK. They won’t even have noticed you were on edge.
I recommend that you rehearse your presentation many times. Then you should rehearse it and rehearse it a few more times.
TV chefs always have a backup dish, “something they prepared earlier”. Why? Because things can (I am tempted to say things WILL) go wrong which you did not anticipate, and you will handle them better if you are prepared.
You need to be familiar with your material and also with the venue. If you have planned how you’ll get up and down or on and off, if you have been able to check out the layout of the room, know where you’ll be seated and standing, what the sight lines are and how to work the AV equipment, you will feel much more confident – and that’s good! Be sure you have time to look at where you will be speaking on the day itself.
One you know your material REALLY well, some simple tips will help you stay calm. Choose whatever woks for you.
• Get some exercise, or a stretch or some yoga
• Arrrange some enjoyable diversions that will help you to feel good on the day. An iPod full of your favourite music, a meal or coffee break in a café you really like, a phone call with your best friend before you leave for the venue…give yourself a treat.
• Find somewhere quiet to focus. Stairwells, lobbies and stage wings are handy for this.
• Settle yourself with deep, regular breathing. Breathe in and …..wait. Breathe out s l o w l y and ……wait. Do this ten times (don’t hyperventilate please) and you will feel more in control.

Some symptoms of nervousness can be dealt with as you speak.
• Anxiety begins to drop after you start. Once you get through the introduction, you should find the rest of the way is easier for you.
• If you are a heavy sweater, dab (don’t wipe) your face with a folded handkerchief.
• Avoid holding a large sheet of paper in a shaky hand. If you can’t use a lectern, use small palm cards, or a kindle or ipad which is too solid and won’t wobble.
• Trembling hands should be loosely clasped in front of you or hidden behind a lectern.
• A sea of faces is less scary when you eyeball people one at a time. They feel the connection and it’s more conversational.

When something goes wrong
Symptoms of nerves may make you dry up, go blank, lose your train of thought, mess up your cues or your aids, stumble over your words or even lose the power of speech entirely. I have seen speakers faint, freeze, flee the stage to vomit, drop their notes, press the wrong button and plunge us into darkness, send the slides backwards not forwards …. to name just some of the more predictable problems.

If any of these things happens, look at the audience and smile. Smiling puts you on the same side. It makes you feel better, and in control. Audiences love a smiling speaker, and it tells them that despite the blip, you’re still in charge of things. Take a break, have a sip of water, fix the problem and restart when you’re ready. In every case I’ve seen, the audience was patient, concerned and tolerant of speakers who had to manage such a public ordeal.

Three secrets of speaking success

The fundamentals

About 2300 years ago, Aristotle wrote down the secrets to being a powerful speaker. These same secrets have formed the basis for nearly every public speaking book or training program written since then.
Aristotle identified the three keys as ethos, pathos, and logos. We know these now as ‘the rhetorical triangle’ or the ‘three pillars’ of public speaking.

• Ethos is the credibility (or character) of the speaker. You are plausible because of who you are, your position, background, or what you know.
• Pathos is the emotional connection to the audience. With their emotions engaged people are motivated to follow or agree with you.
• Logos is the logical argument – or content. This is where reason, facts, examples and evidence play their part in supporting what you have to say.
Together, they are the three essential qualities that will make your speech or presentation appeal to your audience and accept your message.

Three basic types

Public speaking is always to inform, persuade, or entertain. Usually it’s a combination of all three, and it’s the blend between these different approaches that you get to play with and use creatively. Different types of speeches have different types of content, but you will find that you need to have all three types mixed in there somewhere, if you are going to do well.

One thing you should decide early on, is which of the Aristotle’s three elements will dominate. If for example, you are an expert on something, when you speak on that subject you are basing your presentation on ethos. (note however that the presentation itself may be laden with logos – facts and information logically presented). Perhaps you belong to a certain group and by speaking in public you help raise money for this group. That’s ethos. When you tell your kids “Because I say so!” that’s ethos.

Motivational speakers, politicians and sales people depend heavily on pathos. When you leave a presentation feeling inspired, galvanised, changed, ready to act or to buy something, your emotions have been engaged. It’s the key to all successful ‘sales’, whether you’re selling an idea, a product , a policy or yourself.

Logos is going to dominate when the primary aim is to transfer information. Professional and business settings, teaching, lectures , conference papers and certain professional interchanges (pilot to cabin crew, surgeon to theatre nurse, client to broker, client to lawyer), require you to convey clear, well structured, logical information without much else.

Looked at a different way, you need to consider whether you want your speech to be primarily informative, persuasive or entertaining. The ‘ingredients’ in the ‘recipe’ will change accordingly.

Voice Care for Speakers

Look after your voice

A few simple steps which are good for your general health are also good for your voice. The voice is easily affected by fatigue and tension and other health issues, so if something in your life is stressing you your voice may show the effect.

Here are some simple dos and don’ts.

• Drink plenty of water. Hydration is invaluable for your voice
• Don’t smoke
• Get enough rest
• Keep tension to a minimum (learn relaxation, take up yoga, find ways to release your accumulated tension)
• Avoid shouting and yelling or straining your voice.
• Do a daily voice work out to warm it up and place it well

A daily vocal warm up improves the quality of the sounds you make and helps prevent vocal injury. It’s exactly the same principle as at the gym or playing sport. A daily voice work out will help your stay in good vocal condition. It’s essential before activities like public speaking, classroom teaching, or making sure you can be heard over the background noise at a party.

Warm Ups

The exercises below come from The American Academy of Otolaryngoogy

Warm Up #1

Breath Relaxation: Releases tension often associated in the breathing mechanism that can interfere with effective voice production. Ordinarily, if there is tension when breathing, that tension radiates to the voice box muscles. Take a normal breath and then exhale. Make sure your shoulders and chest are low and relaxed. Repeat many times making sure that your breaths are focused low in the abdomen and that there is not associated chest, neck, or shoulder tension while breathing. You can place one hand on your abdomen to remind you to keep the focus low and away from the chest and shoulders. Hold an “s” sound like in hiss when you exhale.

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Warm Up #2

Jaw Release: Reduces tension in the mouth and jaw area during speaking and singing. Place the heels of each hand directly below the cheek bone. Pushing in and down from the cheeks to the jaw, massage the facial muscles. Allow your jaw to passively open as you move the hands down the face. Repeat several times.

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Warm Up #3

Lip Trills: Release lip tension and connects breathing and speaking. Releases tension in the vocal folds. Place your lips loosely together release the air in a steady stream to create a trill or raspberry sound. First try it on an “h” sounds. Then repeat on a “b” sound. Hold the sound steady and keep the air moving past the lips. Next try to repeat the b-trill gliding gently up and down the scales. Don’t push beyond what it comfortable at the top or bottom of the scale.

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Warm Up #4

Tongue Trill: Relaxes the tongue and engages breathing and voice. Place your tongue behind your upper teeth. Exhale and trill your tongue with a “r” sound. Hold the sound steady and keep the breath connected. Now try to vary the pitch up and down the scale while trilling. Again, don’t push beyond what is comfortable at the top or bottom of your scale.

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Warm Up #5

Two Octave Scales: Provides maximum stretch on the vocal folds. Start in a low pitch and gently glide up the scale on a “me” sound. Don’t push the top or bottom of your range but do try to increase the range gently each time you do the scales. Now reverse and glide down the scale from the top to the bottom on an “e” sound. You can try this on the “oo” sound also.

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Warm Up #6

Sirens/Kazoo Buzz: Improves the resonant focus of the sound and continues work with maximal stretch on the vocal folds. The mouth postures are easily made by pretending you are sucking in spaghetti with an inhalation. On exhalation make the “woo” sound. It will be a buzz like sound. Hold the sound steady for 2-3 attempts. Now use the woo sound to go up and down the scales.

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Warm Up #7

Humming: Highlights anterior frontal vibrations in your lips, teeth and facial bones. Begin with lips gently closed with jaw released. Take an easy breath in and exhale while saying “hum”. Begin with the nasal sound /m/ and gently glide from a high to a low pitch as if you were sighing. Don’t forget your vocal cool down after extensive vocal use. Gently humming feeling the focus of the sound on the lips is an excellent way to cool down the voice. You should hum gentle glides on the sound “m” feeling a tickling vibration in the lip/nose are.
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Warm Up #8

Cool Down: Don’t forget your vocal cool down after extensive vocal use. Gently humming feeling the focus of the sound on the lips is an excellent way to cool down the voice. You should hum gentle glides on the sound “m” feeling a tickling vibration in the lip/nose are. Click here for an example of a cool-down.

Voice matters

Some years ago a friend asked why I was having singing lessons. I stared in disbelief at this normally intelligent person, who tried to explain the question. “Don’t you just open your mouth and out it comes?” I gaped. “Your singing voice is just there like your speaking voice right?” I replied that this was a bit like asking Roger Federer why he had a tennis coach. My point was sound, but comparing myself to the tennis legend was not, and it was me who wound up looking an idiot.

My friend’s ignorance is not so unusual. For those of us who are ‘voice aware’, the way people sound it is a matter of interest and importance. We understand that your voice exerts a huge influence on the impression you create, and on your ability to communicate. Voice is every bit as important as looks and dress sense, charm and intelligence. In fact it’s vital for certain professions. Those who succeed in sales, teaching, politics, religion, the defence forces, management and the law nearly always use their voices well. It’s one of the qualities that enables them to command attention. Voice a vital leadership tool.

Who do you like to listen to? I bet they are easy to understand. I bet their voice is melodious, resonant, pleasing to the ear. They have clear diction, their voice carries. They speak at a pace which is easy to follow, and if they speak at length, they do so with enough variety to be interesting.

The opposite is also true. Who do you dislike listening to? Do they mumble, or have a squeaky, strained voice or a light one that doesn’t cut through? Are they missing the instinct to raise their voices in a large space? Do they speak too softly to be heard? These poor people are literally wasting their breath. Whatever it is they want to communicate remains unknown to their listeners.

As my friend revealed, many people are not ‘voice aware’. My friend wasn’t trying to insult me, it was just something she’d never thought about. To speak well you need to make the most of your voice, and to make the most of your voice you need to know a bit about how it works.

Vocal Anatomy

In some ways my friend was correct. You are born with your voice. It’s part of your anatomy, and each voice is distinctive – like your body. Your voice has its own individual timbre (that’s colour and texture). If you happen to sound like Marilyn Monroe, or you can round up a paddock of cattle with a single shout, you have an advantage. Most of us have the vocal equivalent of the family sedan. A voice that’s not too remarkable, but can do the job.

You can’t grow a new voice or change it completely. But the way you sound depends on a range of things, some of which are within your control. The reason you recognize your mother on the phone, or your best friend calling you from behind, is that everyone develops a unique blend of timbre, tone, pitch, pronunciation, accent, and inflection which make us sound like us. This blend is partly a result of our physical vocal characteristics, and also of our personality and life experience – but it’s ours to develop and play with.

I often read things that say a good voice is deep voice. Tosh. It would be a grave mistake to think that because you speak somewhere north of basso profundo you are disadvantaged. I meet plenty of people with low voices who aren’t worth listening to.

It’s true that certain timbres are more penetrating, or sound better in a microphone. It’s also true that your voice can probably become sound more like one of those. A good voice is just one which, whatever its natural size and timbre, is produced well. And that’s where my singing lessons come in. We understand that daily exercise keeps your body looking good and moving well. Learning how to produce your voice properly will keep it sounding good and working well.



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Poise on the Podium: using your eyes, body and voice to best effect

Body Language
Stand in a relaxed position, without swaying (this is a common nervous habit) or hanging on to the lectern. Plant your feet, as if your legs were trees. You may want to put your body in an imaginary corset if you are the type whose nerves make you want to twist and bend and wriggle about. You might be a ‘Happy wanderer’ who keeps the legs in motion all the time. Draw an imaginary ‘circle of death’ on the floor, and stay inside it. You will look mire professional that way. A solid position conveys authority, and you will feel better and stronger and more in control.

An open stance is best. Arms loosely by sides, feet hip width apart. Drop your shoulders and stick your chest out. You may feel like folding your arms, lowering your head, or putting your hands in your pockets. Don’t. You may feel better but you’ll look much worse.

Don’t clench anything visible – teeth, shoulders, fists. You can screw your toes up inside your shoes if it helps.
Turn squarely to face a person and look them in the eye when you shake their hand or answer a question.
Smile. Smiling helps in two ways, relaxing your mind and your body.

Eye contact
Eye contact with the audience is essential whether you're in a small meeting or addressing a crowd of 1,000.

In the speaker-audience relationship, you are the leader. Ensure your eyes are travelling right through the audience and you are looking directly at different people while you speak.

When you are practising your speech, ask your audience members to raise their hand when you’ve made eye contact with them. You’ll soon see how well you do this.

Voice

Whatever your voice tone and your natural way of speaking, you have a great tool at your disposal. Your voice is like a paintbrush for words. You can use it to underline and emphasise, to show light and shade. You can vary the type of language you use, the pitch, volume, pace, and tone of your voice to engage your audience and get your message through better.

Is your voice light? Soft? Strong? Breathy? Clear? Do you speak fluently, or stop and start a lot? Do you mumble or mesh your words together? Or do you enunciate clearly? Are you a quick talker or a slow and deliberate one?

In the first few seconds you are speaking, any listener will unconsciously make a judgement about you based partly on the way you sound.

Language and tone must fit the occasion and should be adjusted according to the audience. Generally, in public speaking you need to be clear and direct, and a bit more ‘proper’ than in casual conversation. One trick is to imagine you are talking to an older person – someone you respect. That will put you in the right language mode. Slang and jargon are not a good idea. Swearing is right out.

Volume and pace. A speaker must be able to be heard to be understood. Your voice is your power. Use it. In a big space you’ll need a microphone, or to PROJECT. A voice bounces around and echoes in a big space like a hall, so speak s-l-o-w-l-y, or it will turn to mash because of the reverb. Pace involves the speed of the message. Experts say that 120 to 150 words a minute is an excellent pace – about the pace of reading out loud.

Practice filling a large space without shouting. Get a friend to stand outside the room and talk to him or her. See how much more distinctly and slowly you have to speak? You need to work your lips, teeth and tongue quite a bit harder than normally. For public speaking you will almost certainly need to speak slower than you do in private. It feels weird but sounds fine.

Pitch. If your voice is high, or soft, or hard to understand for some other reason (for example, braces can disturb your articulation, you may have an accent if English is not your first language) you need to know this. Generally, a natural strong, medium paced, medium to low pitched voice is what a listener likes to hear.

Inflection is the way the pitch of your voice rises and falls. It’s the best tool for engendering interest, Monotonous speech has little inflection – it’s flat. Listeners will tune out. Animated speech usually is more interesting to listen to as it has variation in the pitch. Young Australian women should be especially careful of the HRT or High Rise Terminus –a habit where every sentence ends with an upswing in pitch.

In a leadership role you might want to consider that deep voices usually have authority. High voices can sound silly, or anxious or hysterical. Rightly or wrongly we take a high voice less seriously than a low one. However the real key is that it’s YOUR voice. Just be yourself, confidently.

Teleconference tips

Can they hear you?
To make teleconference meetings run as effectively as possible, here are a few tips to ensure that you are heard, and that you can hear.
Ensure that you are in a quiet room. If you are in a busy area, close your door or find a quiet area where you can access a landline
• Turn your mobile phone off or silent mode. Vibrate mode can be distracting
• Announce your name every time before you speak so that everyone knows who is contributing
• Put your phone on “mute” when not speaking or during a presentation

Background Sound and noise
Be aware of how others will be hearing you and that all sounds are easily picked up by telephone microphones, especially using hands-free for mobile and speakerphones.

For people at the other end these noises have the potential to impinge greatly on meeting discussions - whole sentences can be missed depending on the noise levels in the room. Examples impacting call clarity are:
• Whispering in the background and side conversations at remote sites -these seem to spring up more readily than they would if everyone were in the same actual room
• Rustling papers or sweet wrappers near the microphone
• Persistent coughing
• Water pouring from a jug
On many phones you can use 'mute, which helps reduce noise on your end whilst a presentation is in progress.
Hands-free
Pick up and use the telephone hand-set where possible, it's preferable to the hands-free option. When hands-free is used, the line is often very hard to hear and / or cuts out frequently.
Mobile phones
Use a landline in preference to a mobile phone where possible. Connection quality is unreliable.

Poise on the Podium: Keys to looking good and presenting well

Your wardrobe and Appearance
Your appearance has a great impact on the audience and on your effectiveness as a communicator. Dressing well for the occasion is part of the performance.

Choosing your wardrobe means taking account of three things. One is that you need to feel comfortable, the second is your appearance should enhance your presentation. The third is you must look right for the event.
Naturally you have to combine all three into the one outfit.

Some simple rules will guide you.
Your clothing is a major rapport builder. Your clothing expresses your authority and your credibility. What is appropriate for the occasion and the audience? What time of day is it? Where is being held? What role do you occupy in relation to your audience? Who is watching you and how will they be dressed?
In general, being just a bit better dressed than the audience works well. If they are ‘smart casual’ you’ll be OK in a suit. If they are in jeans and T shirts, you can wear ‘smart casual’. The exception of course is if you decide that dressing exactly like your audience is the way to build rapport. But always make sure you feel comfortable.
Wear something that will feel professional. Even if it’s a social occasion you have a role as a speaker and you have to dress the part.

Think ‘neat’. Ensure your clothing and hair are clean and tidy. DON’T fiddle with it while you are speaking. You don’t want to be distracted by ties undone and shirts untucked, or having to wipe your hair out of your eyes.
Remember if you’re on stage your audience is often below you. They are quite likely to have your shoes, ankles, and knees at eye level . Make sure they’re impeccable. No runs in your hose, and polish your shoes!

Show your personality and dress fashionably and with flair by all means, but consider how you look from a distance. The bigger the space, the simpler and stronger your silhouette should be. Choose colours that read well from a distance. Patterns usually don’t, so be careful with florals, spots, stripes or tartans. In general, in a big space people look better in clean lines and good tailoring. Women should avoid soft fabrics, frills and flounces, and loose cut styles. Men - make sure your suit fits your frame and is not too big in the shoulders or long in the arms.

Too much flesh is a definite no no. Skirts should hit at the knee or lower. Even in formal attire at a special occasion like a wedding where you may be in an evening gown or cocktail wear, women should be cautious with a low-cut neckline or a strapless top. Ask yourself if it’s right for this occasion. Ask yourself whether you are going to be able to leave it unattended while the eyes of a crowd are upon you. You need to be sure your appearance does not distract you – or them, from your words.

High heels look smart but if they’re too high it’s hard to take you seriously. Wear what suits your outfit, so long as you can walk up to the microphone with comfort and confidence.

If you have a hairstyle that can be tied back, that’s a good choice. Show your face and you will look much better on stage. A downward light on a fringe or glasses can cast a shadow on your face – so keep ‘facewear’ to a minimum. Dangly earrings and beads are only for the tall. Bracelets and sparkles create clutter. Keep it simple.

If you need reading glasses for your notes you should decide whether they are on or off for the whole speech – best not to move them about too much while your speech s in progress.