How to Give a Speech or Presentation: Overcoming Anxiety

Hi there, and welcome back to EngVid. With me, Benjamin. In today's lesson, I

will be showing you how to prepare for the actual moment where you make a

speech in front of 200 people: what to do on stage, and how to get ready for it

in the moments building up to it. If you're someone that suffers from stage

fright, if you find that your voice suddenly goes, that you start shaking

uncontrollably, this is a video for you. I hope it helps.

So some basic sort of guidelines, suggestions, sort of before the event

are to make sure that you feel comfortable in your clothes, that you're

not worrying about them when you're actually giving the presentation. Maybe

the same could be said for your hair. Sometimes my hair annoys me, it always

goes in the wrong place. So make sure you feel good. Yep. You're not too sort

of bloated or anything like that. Looking good. Feeling good. It's not

about being sort of over-manicured, or... you want to feel natural, like

you're not sort of on display.

You shouldn't be relying too much on microphones. Yep. So microphones amplify

what your voice is already doing. So if you mumble and don't really kind of

project out, then that's what the microphone will amplify. So yeah, just

think of it there as something hidden. You've got to reach those people. If

your energy is too sort of inward like this, they're not going to get the

message. So you're going to need to look out to them. And you're going to need to

send your voice back to the last person in the last row or the auditorium.

They've come to see you, they've come to hear what you have to say. So don't hide

behind a PowerPoint. Don't just go "Oh, yeah, I've got this amazing PowerPoint."

So just going to show them that, like, no, you know, let the technology help

you make your point. Okay, you're not a tool to the technology -- that is to

help you, you're in control of that, you're going to use it to communicate

with these people. Okay.

So, let's suggest that you go to the venue a little bit beforehand. You work

out where you're doing your speech, you see where the audience are, okay, we're

out the space, what do we do? We stand and breathe. Right? I'm doing a speech

here. Okay, how does that feel? I'm reassuring myself that I'm going to take

my time here when I'm doing my speech. I often think of students that I've

taught, who have maybe got a little bit nervous when they've had to do a speech

in public. And just, you know, if you're one of those people that really worries

about speaking in public, then you've got to prepare in advance for it by

doing things like this.

Okay, so we're going to practice walking on. So maybe we're introduced, that's

what's going to happen. You're gonna have to walk on, that's where I'm doing

my speech. So it's not a surprise when this happens for real. Yeah, you can do

it, you're not... your nerves aren't going to suddenly freeze up. So how am I

gonna walk up? Am I gonna be sort of all like this? How do I kind of walk on and

be present? Like, I've only got this tiny, little space, it's quite difficult

for me to demonstrate this. But be present, be aware of people, don't be

kind of intimidated by it. Yeah. They've just come to hear what you have to say.

And you've got something worthwhile to say to them. I get here. I breathe it

in. What's my body language? Okay, relax, relax your shoulders. Try to drop

them down? Okay, what are you gonna do with your legs? Don't sort of go like

that. Don't don't have your legs all rigid, you know, have you know... be

free to move. Don't like start doing sort of disco moves here. But you know,

it's good to be sort of in your body.

Okay. Now this -- some kind of lectern, we call it, -- is great, because it's

something to do with your hands. What do I do with my hands? Why you can you can

just put them here? Yep, you can hold the speech that you're going to be

communicating.

Again, I'm breathing. Right? Often speeches go wrong because the technology

doesn't work. So if you're going to be using some sort of visual aid, make sure

it works. If you have a dress rehearsal, how do you get it to work? What do you

press? Where, where, what, what direction? Does the remote control need

to point in? How do you get to the next page? Okay, everything's working. I'm

happy in the venue. I know where I stand beforehand, I've got my speech. I know

I'm going to put it here. The technology works. I've got a little bit of time,

I've come early.

So you're going to warm up your voice. Now luckily for you, I've already

actually made a video on how to do a total body and vocal warmup. Okay, so

I'm going to point in the direction of that now. And I suggest that you do

something very similar. And ideally, if you can do that in the actual space that

you're going to be delivering your speech, and that will give you some

energy and some confidence. Okay? So do check out how to give yourself a body

and vocal warm up after watching the rest of this video.

Okay, so, voice warmup done. We're now going to pretend that it's, you're just

a few moments away from doing your speech. And maybe you're kind of just

out the side of the building of the venue. What do we do? Okay, so the big

moment has arrived. Yeah, people are starting to fill the auditorium up. And

you're starting to feel a little bit nervous. So you need to return to your

breathing. Yeah, breathing right down here in your tummy. Yep, feel your

stomach moving. When you breathe out, it should push in. expanding out. And in,

okay, we're just practicing our breathing because that will help us to

to stay present. The times where I've seen people sort of seizing up when

they're doing like a public speech, it's because they stop being present. And

they just get worried all up in their head and they can't cope. Okay, so it's

really important that we stay right here. We see things: I see the picture

over there. You can't see the picture. I can see a picture. I see things over

there. There's an aeroplane. Yeah, just remind yourself. Look, what can we see?

Okay, panic. Push a wall. What is Benjamin talking about now? Well, here

we've got our wall. It's actually an imaginary wall. Okay, but I'm going to

pretend it's a wall. Now, if this action of pushing helps you to stay in your

body. Yeah. So you're not going to fall over. I'm going to die. I'm going to do

speech. No. You're going to push a wall. That's what you're gonna do. You push

the wall. So, you know, just push it. Yeah, because I'm using my core muscles

here and using my arms. My legs are nice and wide. So they're kind of grounded.

Pushing. Okay, and it gives you something to do. What are you doing? I'm

pushing a wall. Right? Moment's come? Yeah, I'm ready. I've pushed a wall.

Okay, so what do we do? Well, we need to walk on. Now, I haven't got a huge

amount of space to demonstrate this. But here's the moment the audience here.

They've come to listen to you. You're with them. See them, see individual

people. You're going to you know you're sharing your note what you've written

with these people. Remember, you can hold on to this. Hold on to it. Okay,

don't rush, don't think because you're here, I've just got to suddenly start.

Actually, time for... If you have a few moments here, to you, it will seem like

an eternity but to the people out there, it will be actually quite nice because

it means that people are settling down, and they're getting ready to listen to

you. And you're getting ready to speak to them.

You've got your notes here. You start talking. Yeah, you start sharing your

speech. The speech has got to go out there. The words can't be sort of lost

here. They have to go out. People have to hear you. Yeah. If you start noticing

your voice going funny, then imagining, just imagine yawning. Make sure your

vocal muscles feel nice and open. You've done your warm up, you're going to watch

my video in a moment of how to do your warm up. Okay, we need to stay present.

See them. Yep, read a little bit, look up, read the next bit, look up, okay,

find find the rhythm of this, okay? You don't want to be too slow, but don't be

too fast either. It's probably better at the beginning to be slow, so that you

kind of warm up into your speech.

Okay, I hope you've gained something from this video, I really hope that you

go out there and do some public speaking. Now you don't have to do

public speaking at work, to be able to do it. There are some public speaking

kind of competitions and clubs. So if you want to challenge yourself and do

something new, then why not join one? Now, hope you're a subscriber to my

channel. Sometimes it's about vocal stuff. Sometimes it's business English,

sometimes it's vocab, idioms, phrases, everything English related. So do

subscribe. And if you want any extra help from me, then I have a website.

honeyourEnglish or "Honey, our English!" Yeah, that's me. I can help if you need

it. See you in the next video.