Public Speaking Tips: When You Freeze




Imagine this:  You’re on stage about to start your speech and suddenly, your mind just became a void of emptiness.  You can’t for the life of you remember what you were going to say or for that matter, what your speech is about.

Sounds familiar?

Don’t worry, it happens to the best of us, even seasoned professional.  We’re all human, after all.  The nerves, stage fright and the pressure to perform well are the biggest contributors to speakers getting thrown off track all of a sudden.

But fear not, we’re here to help =)

Here are some things that you can do to prevent that brain freeze.

1) Organize Your Speech in Point Form

When you flesh out your speech, get your points together first.  What are the things that you want to convey to your audience?  Then pick out the most important ones depending on the length of your speech.  Looking at your speech as points instead of a collection of about a thousand words will make it easier for you to remember.

2) Learn your Speech in Blocks

You are not performing an epic production of Hamlet.  You don’t have to memorize your speech word for word.  It will be easier for you to learn your speech in blocks then putting them together.  Start from the point form above and then expanding on the points.  It is also easier for your brain to retain smaller chunks rather than an entire speech and less intimidating as well.

3) The Ever Handy Cue Cards

Notes written on these little inconspicuous cards will come in handy for your reference.  Just make sure you have them arranged in order so that you don’t end up with a jumble.  If all else fails, there’s always your palm =)

4) Master the Art of Free Styling

Again, we have to emphasize that you are not doing a Shakespeare production.  There is absolutely no need to memorize everything word for word.  If you happen to make a mistake, free style it and try to go back to your original structure.  Nobody will know.

Most important of all, relax.  You will find that your brain is more efficient at retrieving your memories when you’re relaxed than when you’re tense.

If you would like to learn effective communication skills as well as learn leadership skills that you can put in practice immediately, join us for our bi-monthly meetings on every 1st and 3rd Wednesdays of the month.  Please refer to our Next Meeting page for information on our next meeting or contact us directly to see how we can help you achieve your goals.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Public Speaking Tip: Types of Speeches

Image
There are many different types of speeches and depending on the audience and/or topic, a good public speaker will be able to tailor his/her speech in the right format, delivery and style accordingly in order to have the most impact. Here are the most common types of speeches and our take on how/when to use them. 1. The Narrative The narrative speech is most suitable for when you are telling a story.  This is the easiest speech but yet so many people fall flat when attempting it.  Everyone thinks that telling a story is a piece of cake, but it is an art that takes some finesse. The most important ingredient in a narrative speech is being as descriptive as possible but keeping your language plain and easy to understand.  Remember, this is your story and you want your audience to be interested in it.  The only way they can follow the story is through your words.  You need to be able to paint a visual picture so that they can see in their imagination how ...
Read more

Leadership Series: Four Crucial Leadership Characteristics

Image
If you study any great leader, you will find they have many characteristics that contribute to their success.  Below are four that are the most fundamental.  Start with these first and build upon them. Leadership Characteristic #1: Compelling Desire When you take on a leadership role in any project or organization, you must have a goal, a vision of the end game that you want to achieve.  That goal must be driven by a compelling desire for it to happen.  Why do you want to achieve this?  For everyone, it’s the pain/pleasure factor – to get away from a pain or to gain pleasure.  Simple as that.  What is yours? For example, you take on a leadership role in your Toastmasters club because you want to see the club membership grow.  Why?  So that it will be easier to fill roles?  So that your club can achieve the DCP goals? Ask yourself the reason until it becomes so compelling that nothing will stop you from achieving it. Leadersh...
Read more

What's In Your Bucket List

Image
"Nothing is certain in life except death and taxes," so says the quote. So what can you do to make sure you live your life in a way you would be proud of so that in the end, you can say you've really lived and not existed? One of the ways is a bucket list, a list of things that you want to do like travel to far off and exotic places, a skill that you've always wanted to learn or doing something so big that it seemed like an impossible feat to accomplish. Here are some of the things that are in our attendees' bucket list: Go to Disneyland Travel around the world Move to New York Go on an adventure once a year Go to a third world country to do charity work Own their first home These are all worthwhile dreams to aspire to and we really hope you guys achieve them. We had two speakers for the night. Speaker #1: Preezzilla Tan Finally, this very successful real estate agent did her speech on something that she is very passionate about - investin...
Read more