Article: Pretty much everyone gets a little anxious before they have to get up in front of people and talk. Hopefully, you're already prepared with your speech and you know how to give it. Fortunately there are some ways to make those jitters more manageable. Rid yourself of adrenaline by doing a few jumping jacks, lifting your hands above your head, or clenching and unclenching your hands several times. Take 3 deep, slow breaths. This will clear your system and get you ready to breathe properly during the speech. Stand confidently in a relaxed and upright posture, with your feet shoulder-width apart. This will trick your brain into thinking that you're confident and make it easier to give the speech. Smile at them as they come into the room (if you're out there) or smile when you get up in front of them. This will make it seem like you're confident and ease the atmosphere both for you and for them. Smile even if you feel like hurling (especially if you feeling like hurling). This will help trick your brain into feeling confident and at ease. Speaking in public, of any kind, is all about performance. You can make your speech interesting or boring depending on the performance you give. You need to have an onstage persona that you use while you're speaking. However, you should be authentic and avoid over-acting. Tell a story. Part of your performance is giving the speech or speaking like you're telling a story. People love stories and it will make it easier for them to connect with you, even if you're talking about something factually based. use your overarching theme or subject as the basis of the story. Why should the audience care about your topic? What's the point? Try to have a balance between your rehearsed speech and some spontaneity. People don't want to sit there and watch you mumble through your note cards. It's a good idea to give yourself space to expand on your subject free of the note cards and to add a few side stories to give interest. Use your hands to help you make points. You don't want to be flailing about onstage, but neither do you want to be standing stock still while you talk. It's good to use controlled gestures to make points as you speak. Vary your voice while you're speaking. Your audience will be asleep in 10 seconds flat if you only speak in one long monotone. Get excited about your subject and show that in your inflections. You want to make sure your audience is in your power, which means engaging them in the material no matter what it happens to be. This comes down to being an interesting speaker more than it comes down to an interesting topic. Look at your audience. Mentally split your room up into sections and make eye contact with one person in each section on a rotational basis. If you have time, ask your audience questions during your speech. You could open up each different section of your speech with questions that people can answer before you show them your information. It will make them feel as if they are part of your speech. Keep in mind that this could be distracting, though, so you may want to stick with rhetorical questions. One of the things people fail most frequently in while trying to speak in public is by talking too fast. Your normal conversational speed is a lot faster than the speed that you'll be using for your speech. If you feel you're going too slow, you're probably going just right. Take a drink of water if you find yourself whipping through your speech. It will help give your audience a second to catch up and it will let you take a moment to slow down. If you do have a friend or family member in the audience, arrange a signal with them so they can let you know if you're going too fast. Glance their way occasionally throughout your speech so that you know you're on track. People remember the beginning and the ending of a speech, they rarely remember the middle bits. Because of this you want to make sure that you have an ending that they will remember. Make sure that your audience knows why this subject is important and why they should have this information. If you can, end with a call to action. For example: if you're giving a speech about the importance of art classes in schools, end by giving your audience something that they can do about the fact that art electives are being cut. End with a story that illustrates your main point. Again, people like stories. Give a story of a way this information benefited someone, or the dangers of not having this information, or how it specifically relates to your audience (people are more interested when things are about them).
What is a summary of what this article is about?
Deal with your anxiety. Smile at the audience. Give a performance. Engage the audience. Talk more slowly. Have a good closing.