One of my most terrible nightmares has been all the time, speaking in public. Even when I try to keep my mind "in peace" something happen exactly at the time of going to the podium and try to give the speech.
I don’t like the use of support material (which is basically a handout) beca
Well, this happened to me around 2 weeks ago.
This is the background: I took my IT project management course at LEF Canada last year, where I made some friends; one of those friends is actually the program coordinator and he was the one who invited me to speak as a “guest speaker” during the last graduation ceremony. So I decided to take the challenge knowing that this is one of my weaknesses; I prepared the material (about my experience in the first months in Canada), and I was pretty sure about what I was going to talk about, but, once in the podium with an audience of more than 30 persons, suddenly I forgot almost everything and started to improvise, well, I have to say that I expressed my idea but not as I wanted originally.
Anyway, I have decided to overcome this weakness by practicing some techniques besides the preparation of the material:
Don't expect perfection in the speech, there will always be errors, but I am the expert on the topic.
The audience will notice if you are an actor, so be yourself.
Capture audience’s attention with creative ideas.
Think and speak in outline terms. Avoid reading every word.
Be confident in presentation.....yes, is easy to say....
Well, we’ll see how it goes in the next toastmasters meeting!!!
