You’re giving a presentation to a high stakes client.
You’ve delivered this presentation at least 10 times before and you’re brain is going, ‘Sigh… here we go AGAIN… ’.
If you’re one of those people that sometimes gets bored or feels flat when you’ve given a presentation or pitch multiple times before, then read on…
Oddly enough, most people need to calm down and relax in public speaking situations. But you’re one of those speakers that needs to do the opposite.
You need to psyche yourself up and get connected in a way that brings your energy UP and connects you in the moment in an inspiring and passionate way.
Here’s the thing: You have a job to do, which is to deliver your content and message with as much aplomb, energy, and moxie as you can muster.
So I’ve put together my top 5 public speaking tools to help you rev up, get in the zone, and boost your energy so you can be present in the moment and make your delivery feel like it’s the first time you’ve given your presentation (even when it’s not!).
- Breathe, Breathe Breathe For Great Public Speaking!
Surprise, surprise. Most of the time I’m suggesting breathing as a public speaking tool because you need to calm down and slow down.
But you’re going to use breathing in a different way; you’re going to breath in such a way that revs your engine up and gets you going, much like a drag race when the driver has one foot on the break and one foot revving the accelerator. Once you release that break, you’re engine is primed and ready to peel out and you take off with energy and impact right off the bat.
So here’s the technique: Stand in your grounded stance and take in a deep, intentional breath while raising your arms up in a circle to the side with fingertips extended, until your arms and hands are over your head. Picture a clear bubble around you and your fingertips brushing the edges of that bubble as you extend them out to the side and up to breathe in.
Then, extend your arms and circle them out and down as you exhale and release the breath.
When you release the breath out, I want you to release it on an ‘F’ sound, bringing the breath forward onto your lips with intention.
Each time make sure there is clear intention in your arms and fingertips as you bring them up in a circle and out to the side as you breathe in and release the breath out.
Repeat three times. Breathing in as you extend the arms out and up, and then breathing out as you extend the arms out and down.
- Creating Friction and Energy In Your Hands When Public Speaking
Your hands are great sources of connection and energy when it comes to public speaking. Whether you’re delivering a presentation, pitch, or speaking at a meeting, creating friction and heat in your hands in turn creates intention and focus in the body and mind.
Stand or sit in a grounded position. Clap both hands together and start to rub them vigorously together. Keep this friction going for 30 seconds.
You’ll feel a tingling and buzzing in your hands after you do this. What this exercise does is focus the mind and bumps up the vibrations in your body. I’m not talking woo-woo vibrations here. I’m talking tangible, physical vibrations and energy in the body that you can actually feel.
Sometimes you need to physically rev yourself up and create energy in the body in order to focus the mind. Creating friction with the hands in a clear and intentional way focuses your thought and bumps up the energy in your body at the same time.
- Activating the Face and Articulation Muscles When Public Speaking
Have you ever watched someone public speaking or presenting and there’s about as much energy and connection going on in their face as there is in a piece of wood?
It happens all the time and as a result, the audience feels no connection, engagement, or care coming from that person. The audience will shut off, not listen, and completely disengage from what’s being said.
Having a bored, flat, lifeless face is death to any presentation or pitch. If you as a presenter are not connected or open in your face, you’ll come across to your audience as disinterested, flat, and worse, bored. How you are or look like is what we get down in the audience.
Here are three little warm ups you can do to wake up the muscles in your face and energize your face and articulation muscles:
- Move the skin around on your face, stretch it wide open like a horror scream and then squinch it down like your sucking a lemon. Do this three times and feel the stretch in the facial muscles.
- Blow through your lips, like a horse, to loosen the muscles there and create vibration and energy. Do this three times.
- Kiss and grin. Purse your lips like your kissing and then grin widely like a Cheshire cat. Do this three times.
It’s up to you to turn on the lights. Once you activate your facial muscles, you will bring life and energy into your facial and articulation muscles and turn the light on in your face.
It’s your responsibility to create the energy. If you don’t look connected, your audience won’t connect either. So use these very simple exercises to wake up the face, wake up your articulation muscles, and bring energy and focus to your delivery.
4. Short Sharp Sniffs Wake Up Your Public Speaking Brain
If you’re feeling bored or low on energy, you can get a quick shot of oxygen to your brain to wake yourself up and rev up that energy by short, sharp sniffs of breath up through the nasal cavities.
Here’s the exercise: Take one finger and close off your left nostril. Then, take 4 sharp sniffs up your right nostril. Change over and close off your right nostril and exhale through your left nostril.
Now, take 4 short, sharp sniffs up your left nostril, change fingers over, and exhale through your right nostril.
Repeat this cycle 2 more times.
5. It’s Not About You…. It’s About the Audience When Public Speaking
One of the most powerful tools I can give you to get yourself revved up and connected to your highest public speaking mojo is this: Remember that it’s not about you.
When you are communicating and speaking to others, it’s never about you and ALWAYS about your audience and what they’re going to get from what you have to say.
Your job as a speaker and communicator is to give everything and anything you can to benefit your audience. It’s not about you being entertaining, liked, or having your ego massaged. It’s about what you can give in that moment… not what you can get.
If you’re feeling bored or jaded or rolling your eyes because you’re delivering the same presentation for the umpteenth time and you’d rather watch paint dry…. well, tough.
You have a job to do as a speaker. That job is to connect to your story and content with clarity, joy, and intention. If you don’t connect to your presentation and content with high energy and commitment, then your audience won’t either.
And it’s all about the audience. If you make it about yourself, the audience will feel it and turn off completely. Audiences are lazy and selfish; they don’t want to do any work. So when you show up as joyful, engaged, and ready to go, your audience will feel, hear, and see your energy and be inspired to listen.
It’s monkey see, monkey do. If you look and sound like you care, then your audience will, too.
Put In the Effort, Take Away the Gold
By implementing any one of these few simple tools, you can reclaim your joy, motivation, and clarity as a public speaker and get buy in from your audience.
The work works, you just have to work it. Start creating new habits and ways of getting yourself in the zone and you’ll be knocking it out of the park before you know it.
See you on the inside!
