Have a good listen to yourself next time you go to do a presentation or make a speech. The more “investigatory” you can be – then the better you’ll understand the outcome. If you find that most of your thoughts (and thus, your self-talk) is negative – then it’s likely you won’t enjoy the speech you are making, you be too judgmental (subjective) about the outcomes and probably judge the value of the speech/presentation on how YOU thought it went (subjective).

One of the really nice things to achieve in life is to become more and more objective about yourself. The secret here is practise. Yep, once again, it’s an achievable state (like so many others) but you actually have to do the work. Start by continually “putting yourself other people’s shoes. Eg. “How would I have responded to that speech, if I was a member of the audience?”. Then, “What would I change for next time, if I was to be a member of the audience”. You see, the audience is continually bubbling away in their mind with “What’s in this for me? What’s in this for me?”. When you can begin to continually think “How can I offer a benefit and keep on enhancing that benefit?”, then that’s when you’ll be answering the question: “What’s in this for me?”.

Seriously, it takes practise. So, it will need 3 or 4 occasions before you’ll generally feel that you are looking at the task from the audience’s end and judging it that way (and no longer from your own pov). It’s the start of feeling comfortable – and motivating the audience to do what you want them to do as a result of the presentation.

And, after all, isn’t that what you want?

Well, do you? What’s the point of standing up to make any speech/presentation at all, if you don’t want people to think and act the way you want them to?

Paul Griffith
www.reasontospeak.com