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One of the common conversation topics on presentation that I encounter is that employees feel that they are not having enough confident to present. Especially in a meeting where there are bosses and top management staff sitting in.
I would then ask them, "Did you rehearse your presentations?" The answer is common: No or not much. You see, whether in SEA Games, Asian Games or Olympic Games, when race starts, the 100-metre athletes take their stride, race with confidence and win that elusive medal; much to their joy. Similarly for actors doing live performances, the moment the curtains open, they put up convincing performances that delight the audience; and sometimes receiving standing ovations. So what makes them be good at their crafts? The answer is, practice. Athletes will train every day building up their muscle and in the process, build up their confidence to face other athletes in the competition. Of course, some may win, others may not, but for sure, they are so much better than when they first started training. For actors, rehearsals started 4-5 months in advance prior to their first matinee or premiere. In the process, the actors gain confidence to play the characters convincingly. Similarly, there is a need to rehearse your presentation; even if it is a mere 5-minutes! Constant rehearsals will help to make your delivery "second nature", thus making you look good presenting. Never underestimate the power of rehearsals. So how to rehearse? I would suggest 3 parts to this: Part One: Once you have your scripts or slides done, go stand up and rehearse. Don't just stand, move. Use gestures where appropriate. Do this a few times until you feel "second nature". Part Two: Gather a few of your close friends and make them your audience. Let them watch your presentation. Appoint some of them to be the devil's advocate, asking you tough questions, so that you can be prepared for such situations at the actual presentation site. Part Three: Just moments before the actual presentation, do a visualisation exercise. This is a powerful way to gain confidence. Find a corner or place, close your eyes and recall the rehearsals that you have done - mentally. Once done, take a deep breath, smile, and walk your way into the meeting room (or your presentation venue). When is your next presentation? Have you rehearsed? Towards your speaking success! Yours sincerely, Hazriq Idrus Speaking & Creativity Strategist Founder, The Speaking Factory Pte Ltd Author, The Stage Fright Antidote!
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During my coaching sessions or conversations with other people, three concerns about public speaking came up:
1) I'm not trained to be a public speaker. 2) Look above the eyes or at the forehead of the audience. 3) Stand in one place on stage However, these three things are just myths. Let's address each of those: 1. I'm not trained to be a public speaker In actual fact: We all speak in public - IT could be speaking one-on-one with another person, speaking in a meeting, or on stage in front of a large group of people. We are contantly speaking and we present all the time. The only dofference is, we contextualise our delivery to suit the setting; You don't use the mic when speaking to one person, as compared to a large of people, do you? 2. Look above the eyes or at the forehead of the audience In actual fact: We need to look directly at the audience; at least to key individuals. We connect with each other through our eyes because it shows sincerity. By being sincere, it creates a relationship between you as a speaker and the audiende. It will less scary. 3. Stand in one place on stage In actual fact: You do not need to stand in one place during your presentation. You are free to move, roam and be dynamic. In public speaking, we call this "movement with a purpose' or purposeful movement. Purposeful movement can be dynamic and increase energy in the audience; which translate you engaging presentation. Towards your speaking success, Hazriq Idrus Speaking & Creativity Strategist Founder, The Speaking Factory Pte Ltd Author, The Stage Fright Antidote! Occasionally, there will be somebody in the audience who seems to know more than you do - or rather they think they do. This are what I called the "self-proclaimed experts". What can we do to manage these people?
I had my fair share of "self-proclaimed experts" in my workshops. Once in one of my creative problem solving workshops, as soon as I opened the door for the participants to enter, an 50plus year-old man came in. He was one of the first to enter. He went straight to an empty chair and sat down. He looked around the room and started asking me questions. He sounded like an interrogator at first; asking me on my work experiences, how long I have been conducting training and various other kinds of questions. Some tough ones. I chatted with him while providing the answers he asked for. It turned out that he had been in the company for years and would be retiring in a few years' time. That was my cue "win" him over. So here are some tips that you can do if you face audience who are "self-proclaimed experts: 1) Chat and engage small talks with him/ her 2) Find out what are their strengths/ likes etc. 3) Acknowledge and lavishly (and sincerely) praise them on those areas 4) Get them to be on your side 5) Keep the conversations positive and professional throughout More often than not, these steps helped me in managing these situations. And back to the 50plus year-old participant I mentioned earlier, we turned out to be best of buddies during the session. He was very supportive of my presentation, willingly shared his experiences in the company to value-add my points which I shared and willingly offered to volunteer when I needed assistance to do some demonstrations. How about you? Do you face something familiar? Would like to hear from you too. Towards your speaking success, Hazriq Idrus Author, The Stage Fright Antidote! Founder, The Speaking Factory Pte Ltds While I take up speaking engagements, hosting events and do acting, I am still an introverted person. Because of this, I regularly receive queries on how I, as an introvert, could do hosting, acting and speaking.
My take would be these: 1) Overprepare I will prepare more contents that I would need to present. If I were given 30 minutes to present, I would prepare contents that would cover 45-60 minutes of my speech. In this way, if I were to end my speech way early (especially in my earlier years of speaking, due to nervousness, I would end session way too early!), I can value add slightly more information for the audience. 2) Research the audience Before I go out and speak, I would do background research of the audience. Find out their demographics, and if there are "common languages" they use among the audience, I would use it as part of my delivery. More often, the audience would laugh when they hear their "common languages" being used in keynotes or training presentations, and that would make the energy in the room positive. 3) Wear different hats and assume different roles Everyone wears different hats at different points of life. You could be a colleague at work, but a father at home. And we with different roles, we assume different responsibilities. For me, when I am hosting an event, I assume the role of a host; making sure (responsibility) that the flow of the programme is smooth. When I am speaking, my responsibility is to spread messages that could inspire and change people's lives. So because of this, I am able to minimise those fears and assume my role accordingly. To conclude, this is my philosophy when it comes to speaking: "Speaking opportunities are opportunities for business and career growth". When you embed this philosophy in your head, you'll do anything to overcome any challenges so you can speak and grow. Towards business and career success, Hazriq Idrus Author, The Stage Fright Antidote! Founder, The Speaking Factory Pte Ltd In any presentation, these 3 elements must exist.:
1) People The presence of people (audience) is an important factor before you go up and give your presentations. If there is no audience, there is no need to even put up a presentation! Having said that, it is important to know who your target audience are. You can use this checklist to help you determine your audience. a) Who are they? eg Working adults/ School kids/ Youths? b) What's in it for them listening to your speech? eg increase wellness, reduce debts c) What is the Call to Action for them after your speech? eg buy your books, enrol in your classes, join your emailing list By knowing who your audience are, it will help you prepare your content. 2) Presenter Once you know who are your target audience, you can then prepare your yourself as a presenter. You will have to decide two main factors - your message & the medium of delivery. You can use this checklist below to help you determine your message and medium: Message: a) Is your message going to inform/ educate/ persuade/ inspire the audience? Medium of delivery: b) Are you using slides/videos/ music/ or just you speaking on stage? 3) Place It is important to to know the location and type of room you are going to present. Knowing the place beforehand helps you to prepare your mind and energy. A big space requires you to exude more energy as compared to a smaller venue. You can use this checklist below to help you determine your presentation venue: - Is the presentation going to take place at the expo/workshop room/ seminar room/ on stage/ lecture hall Prior your next speaking engagements, ensure you have these primary information first. Hope these tips help. Towards a successful communications and creative confidence, Hazriq Idrus Author, The Stage Fright Antidote! Founder, The Speaking Factory Pte Ltd  I have been asked by my friends on how did I get my book, The Stage Fright Antidote published. I thought, ya, why not I share this info for the benefit of others, who would probably like to know how or wanted to get their books published too.
One of the important things to note that writing and publishing are two different things. While writing is about having a flair and putting down your thoughts into words (I call this the Art of Writing a Book), publishing itself is the business aspect of it. For this case, I planned for my book to be published under my company's brand - The Speaking Factory Pte Ltd. Here I'll share the nuggets of activities which I summarised into "A 7-Step Process on How I Published The Stage Fright Antidote!" Step 1: Write the book! Of course, the first step to publish the book is to first write it. For my case, The Stage Fright Antidote was a result of my 1-hour talk I shared at SIM back in 2013. During the session, I shared the 7 ways on how to manage stage frights using theatre techniques. I already had the script for the session, so I expanded the content into the book. This saved me some time. (In a different post, I'll share other ways on how to create and write content for a book). Step 2: Edit the content! This is one of the most important parts in the publishing process. After you have written the drafts, get someone (who is good in editing) or engage a professional editor to work on the grammatical and typo errors. You need a second person to ensure the quality of the work. For me, I worked with a professional editor. Step 3: Designing of the book cover, caricatures for each book chapter & apply for ISBN. For the book cover design, I engaged a professional artist and designer. I am a big fan of his works and worked with him for this project. After a few consultation sessions, he shared with me a two different drafts of the book cover. I was wooed by his second draft. In The Stage Fright Antidote, if you noticed, every chapter of the book has a different caricature to represent the different topic/ area. For this, I engaged a another designer who specialised in caricatures. At this juncture, I also applied the ISBN (& CIP) from the National Library, which manages ISBN in Singapore. Once I have received the ISBN number, I informed my (book cover) designer who would design/ churn out the ISBN barcode to be included at the back cover of the book. Step 4: Send for typsetting Once I have done my step 2, I sent the edited texts and caricatures to a typesetter. It is important for the typesetting to match with the overall printing mechanics. The typesetter designers proposed to me the different typesetting layout for me to choose. Step 5: Printing This is where I put everything together. With the typesetting and book cover done, the printer would print a sample printout of the book. For mass printing, it is advisable to use an offset printing (vs digital print; useful for small scale volume) because the book will last longer (from some I resources I read, it could last for more than a hundred years! The book will be your legacy!) Step 6: Distribution To get the book out in the bookstores and for other people to purchase, it is important to plan how your book movements will be like. I worked with a local book distributor to get the book to be made available in leading book stores like MPH, Kinokuniya, Times, Popular. The Stage Fright Antidote also landed in Kinokuniya bookstore in KL. Step 7: Launch of The Stage Fright Antidote! This is the moment of celebration. I always believe in celebration once I have reached a certain milestone. The Stage Fright Antidote was launched at Bishan Public Library on 8 June 2013 - just a few weeks shy of my birthday. To purchase The Stage Fright Antidote, click here. Hazriq Idrus Founder, The Speaking Factory Pte Ltd Author, The Stage Fright Antidote!  Are you familiar with these?
- 3 Blind Mice - Goldilocks and the 3 Bears - 3 Little Pigs - Charlie's Angels - Bujang Lapok (if you grew up in the 1950s) If you are familiar with them, which I believe most of you are, when was the first time you heard of them? It could be many years down the road! But yet, you can still remember them. Why is this so? If you notice, all of them I mentioned above have a common number - 3! Charlie had 3 Angels; Bujang Lapok (the local version of the Three Stooges) had three characters in the movie; and Goldilocks met with 3 Bears in her journey. Our brains are hardwired to remember the number 3 (or any odd numbers) better, that's why. Since this is a very good method to remember, why not apply it in your presentation? In public speaking, we call it The Power of 3! Plan your presentation in pointers of threes; eg first point, second point and third point. Or Firstly, Secondly, and Lastly. After the presentation, recap with the audience what are the three pointers which you have shared and, better still, engage the audience by asking them what are the three points which you have just shared. Hope you have found the article useful. Do join our email list, if you havent done so, for latest updates and tips on public speaking and creativity. Till then, live fully, love entirely and make a difference in others today. Regards, Hazriq Idrus Author, The Stage Fright Antidote! Founder, The Speaking Factory Pte Ltd
 To get that confidence to speak, I would recommend three ways. These three ways you need to do consistently:
1) You need to be on top of your materials - Whatever topics our are presenting on, you need to know your stuff. The more content you know, the fluent you'll be in your delivery. Let's take for an example, if I were to ask you to share with me some highlights that you experienced the last 24-hours (by the way, this is one of the theatre-based games we use in my workshop!), chances are you can share it convincingly. Why, because you experienced it yourself. You are on top of the material. 2) Rehearsals - Nothing can go without rehearsals and practice. Even world athletes who won Olympic Golds practise daily; so there is no reason for us not to practise and rehearse on our presentations. The more we rehearse on our topics, the fluent we will be. 3) Do more of it. Beat your own benchmark & personal record! - An world-class athlete would not be a world-class athlete in just one race. A world-class chef would not be a world-class chef in just one cooking session. To be confident and be good, we need to do more of it. And along the way, break your own benchmark. For example, in one presentation, you would have 20 time fillers (aahhs, eermms, eerrs). In the next presentation, beat the record, go for just 10 time fillers. In the next one, beat it again. Go for 5. In a matter of time, your time fillers will be gone and you will be more confident of yourself. Yours, Hazriq Idrus Author, The Stage Fright Antidote! Founder, The Speaking Factory Pte Ltd.
Yours, Hazriq Idrus Author, The Stage Fright Antidote! Founder, The Speaking Factory Pte Ltd |
